Maria Guardiola's stomach
BarcelonaHowever much he now wrinkles his nose when asked about a possible renewal of the pact with Vox, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco was the first baron popular to embrace the far rightThe year was 2022, Alberto Núñez Feijóo had just become president of the PP, and the party was still trying to portray Vox as a party that couldn't be entrusted with governing duties. Feijóo pressured internally against the pact in Castile and León, thinking it was in his best interest to remain independent of the far right when the general elections came around. Soon, his absolute dependence on Vox forced him to change his strategy.
A year later, it was even easier for Carlos Mazón to position a bullfighter who glorified Francoism As vice president of the Valencian Community. And, despite being absent from the official photo, in Aragon Jorge Azcón reached an understanding with Alejandro Nolasco without much resistance, as he will have to do again in the coming weeks. In Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso governs with an absolute majority, but she has shown that, if she were to lose it, she wouldn't hesitate to make a pact with Vox. The same is true for Alejandro Fernández in Catalonia, although it's unlikely he'll ever take the reins of the Generalitat. What distinguishes all of them from María Guardiola?
As in all major parties, the People's Party (PP) encompasses ideological nuances and different political styles. The president of Extremadura, like Feijóo in Galicia, represents the party's moderate wing, the one that still feels uneasy when it has to negotiate with the far right (Feijóo has long since overcome this). That's why, for the moment, negotiations in Extremadura are stalled. Vox has long been proposing a solution: a change of candidate. But this level of subservience is currently unacceptable to the PP, which is confident that negotiations will eventually be unblocked, as happened in 2023 when Guardiola conceded. in extremis, incorporating into his government those whom he had pledged to leave out ten days earlier.
The moderates
Guardiola's style can be likened, for example, to that of the Balearic president, Marga Prohens, one of the few who has so far gotten her way: Vox has never entered the Balearic government, although it is influencing policies as an essential partner in the Parliament. It is also similar to the governing style of Juanma Moreno Bonilla, whose absolute majority in Andalusia over the last four years has allowed him to avoid carrying the heavy burden of the far right, but who already experienced having it as a parliamentary crutch during his first term. Vox has decided it wants to enter all regional governments and knows who will be easier to negotiate with and who will cause the most problems. And it will take advantage of this: by offering similar proposals against immigration, taxes, or feminism, it will highlight the internal disputes within the People's Party (PP).
In recent days, the Popular Party leadership has been caught in a dilemma over whether it prefers an abstention by the PSOE or continuing to negotiate a government with Vox, given the high demands of the other side. Will the Popular Party dare to call for new elections to avoid what some consider blackmail by Santiago Abascal's party? It's unlikely Feijóo will take that level of risk, especially since recent elections have demonstrated that the PP is not only failing to capitalize on the PSOE's decline, but is also seeing the far right's grip tighten. Guardiola might want to start preparing large doses of bicarbonate of soda to ease his stomach's discomfort.