Juanma Moreno, the calm liberal who dreamed of Pedro Sánchez

BarcelonaThe president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, can boast of having conquered for the PP one of the historical strongholds of the PSOE since the re-establishment of democracy. He did so in 2018, when he came to the presidency with a government pact with Cs and the external support of Vox, despite not having won the elections. In fact, the PP's results, in an election where three right-wing parties were running, were far from the best. Three years later, he revalidated his position with an absolute majority that allowed him to get rid of the burden of his investiture partners with a result that, so exceptional, he wears tattooed on his wrist. Moreno, who describes himself as a "liberal in the broad sense", will face on May 17th in the third round to remain at the head of the Junta, with all the polls in his favor despite the burden of having had to weather the scandal of breast cancer screenings in the community.

The popular baron has made tax reduction policies his flag to reactivate the Andalusian economy and, despite closely resembling Isabel Díaz-Ayuso's recipe, Moreno Bonilla's is precisely one of the profiles within the PP furthest from that of the Madrid president. Fleeing the hard wing of the party, in 2018 he supported the losing candidacy of Soraya Saénz de Santamaría, a fact that still today some people remind him of from time to time to point out a certain ideological indecision.

But who is Juanma Moreno Bonilla? Born in 1970 in Barcelona to Andalusian parents, Moreno spent the first years of his life in the Catalan capital before returning to Malaga. He has no known experience in the private sector. His resume, which states that he is a graduate in protocol and event organization, raised some suspicion when some ADE studies disappeared from it, precisely after the controversy over the fact that PP officials had falsified theirs. He left them unfinished, as he also did with those in teaching and psychology.

Moreno accessed his first political office at the age of 25, as a councilor in Malaga. At that age, he also became the leader of Nuevas Generaciones – the PP's youth wing – throughout Spain. In the youth organization, he would meet his wife, with whom he has three children. Also at a young age, he dabbled in the world of music, knowledge that he used to operate the soundboard at the rallies of his political godfather, Javier Arenas.

In Rajoy's 'sottogoverno'of Rajoy

Moreno alternated his political career in Andalusia with a whole decade in Congress. It was until 2011, when he made the leap to the under-government of Mariano Rajoy's executive. In the lower house, he coincided with the current Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez. At that time, the current Spanish president was not yet the arch-enemy of the popular party, and that probably helped them both maintain a cordial relationship: regulars on a nightly talk show on RNE, they dined together every week. "Sánchez was the typical young man with political concerns. With ambition. [...] The one now is surly, a bit dark, he doesn't tell the truth," he recalled about their relationship in an interview with an interview with El Español. Moreno still countered Sánchez with a final wink. His memoirs are titled Manual de convivencia, in contrast to those of the Spanish president, Manual de resistencia. At the book presentation in Barcelona, he confessed the advice Rajoy gave him when he had to take the reins of an Andalusian PP then divided between factions and in constant bickering: "What you should do is not read so many newspapers. Read sports things, it's more pleasant", the former Spanish president told him, a lover of Marca and football chronicles.football chronicles.

At that presentation, he even praised Salvador Illa for having "recovered" the relationship between Catalonia and Andalusia since he became president, with the end of the Procés. In fact, Moreno has also wanted to reinforce the presence of Andalusian institutions in Catalonia with a newly created delegation which is now led by the Catalan popular Concepció Veray –he also brought back Enric Millo as general secretary of External Action in the Junta.

The mantra of good management

In Moreno's track record, there is the improvement of unemployment figures in Andalusia and business creation, results that the popular leader has used to repeatedly chant the mantra of "good management." A supposed good management that has been called into question by errors in the early detection program for breast cancer, which the Prosecutor's Office is already investigating. Moreno wanted to end the crisis with the dismissal of the Minister of Health, but this has become the biggest stain on his record.

In line with the serene style that Moreno has wanted to champion, his attitude towards Moncloa has also been different from that of his counterparts. He has not shown complicity with Sánchez, but he has avoided a frontal clash with the management of the railway crisis due to the Adamuz accident, which the former Valencian president Carlos Mazón did seek in the case of the dana.