Juanma Moreno, the quiet liberal who dreamed of Pedro Sánchez
The Andalusian president faces the challenge of retaining a majority without Vox after the breast cancer screening scandal
BarcelonaThe president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, can boast of having won back for the People's Party (PP) one of the Socialist Party's (PSOE) historical strongholds since the restoration of democracy. He did so in 2018, when he became president through a governing pact with Citizens (Cs) and the external support of Vox, despite not winning the election. In fact, the PP's results, in an election where three right-wing parties were running, were far from their best. Three years later, he was re-elected with an absolute majority that allowed him to shed the burden of his investiture partners, a result so exceptional that he has it tattooed on his wrist. Moreno, who describes himself as a "liberal in the broadest sense," They will face off on May 17th to the third round to remain at the head of the Board, with all the polls in his favor despite the burden of having had to weather the breast cancer screening scandal in the community.
He baron The Popular Party has made tax cuts its flagship policy for reviving the Andalusian economy, and despite its similarities to Isabel Díaz-Ayuso's approach, Moreno Bonilla's profile within the PP is precisely one of the furthest removed from that of the Madrid president. Shunning the party's hardline wing, in 2018 he supported Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría's losing candidacy, a fact that some still occasionally bring up to point to a certain ideological ambiguity.
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 Málaga. He has no known experience in the private sector. His CV, which states that he has a degree in protocol and event organization, raised some suspicions when his studies in Business Administration disappeared. after the controversy over the fact that PP officials They would have falsified theirs. He left them unfinished, as he also did with those for teaching and psychology.
Moreno took up his first political post at the age of 25, as a city councilor in Málaga. At that age, he also became the leader of the New Generations—the youth wing of the People's Party (PP)—nationwide. It was in this youth organization that he met his wife, with whom he has three children. As a young man, he also dabbled in music, skills he later put to use behind the soundboard at rallies for his political mentor, Javier Arenas.
To the 'undergovernment'Rajoy's
Moreno would alternate his political career in Andalusia with a full decade in Congress. It was until 2011 that he made the leap to undergovernment from Mariano Rajoy's government. In the lower house, he served alongside the current Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez. At that time, the current Spanish president was not yet the arch-enemy of the People's Party, and that probably helped them maintain a cordial relationship: regulars on a late-night talk show on RNE (Spanish National Radio), they had dinner together every week. "Sánchez was the typical young man with political aspirations. Ambitious. [...] The one now is sullen, a bit shady, he doesn't tell the truth," he recalled about their relationship. in an interview The Spanish. Moreno still managed to counterattack Sánchez with one last wink. His memoirs are titled Code of Conduct, in contrast to those of the Spanish president, Resistance manualAt the book launch in Barcelona, he revealed the advice Rajoy gave him when he had to take the reins of an Andalusian PP then divided into factions and in constant dispute: "What you have to do is not read so many newspapers. Read sports, it's more enjoyable," the former Spanish president, a lover of Marca, told him. from football chronicles.
In that presentation, he even praised Salvador Illa for having "restored" the relationship between Catalonia and Andalusia since becoming president, following the end of the Catalan independence movement. In fact, Moreno has also sought to strengthen the presence of Andalusian institutions in Catalonia with a newly created delegation. which is now captained by the popular Catalan Concepción Veray –he also brought back Enric Millo as Secretary General for Foreign Action in the Board.
The mantra of good management
Moreno's record includes improving unemployment figures in Andalusia and increasing business creation, results he has repeatedly used to chant the mantra of "good management." This supposed good management has been called into question by errors in the breast cancer early detection program, which the Public Prosecutor's Office is already investigating. Moreno wanted to end the crisis with the dismissal of the health ministerBut this has become the biggest stain on his record.
In keeping with the measured style that Moreno has sought to cultivate, his approach to the Moncloa Palace has also differed from that of his counterparts. He has not displayed complicity with Sánchez, but he has avoided the head-on clash over the handling of the rail crisis following the Adamuz train accident, a confrontation that former Valencian president Carlos Mazón sought in the case of the DANA storm.
