María Guardiola begs Vox for support: "There is no wall between us"

MadridThe People's Party (PP) and Vox had two meetings on Tuesday to test their cooperation in the autonomous communities. And it became clear that reaching an understanding will not be easy. In the morning, the two parties failed to reach an agreement on the election of the president of the Aragonese Parliament, a position the PP secured on its own. "We cannot give away positions without any guarantees from Vox," sources in Madrid explained—despite having granted them a seat at the table in Extremadura "in exchange for nothing." This staged event demonstrates that Jorge Azcón is still far from reaching an agreement with Santiago Abascal's party to remain as president of Aragon. In the afternoon, María Guardiola kicked off the investiture debate in the Extremadura Assembly without having yet obtained Vox's endorsement, appealing to the far-right party's "responsibility" to "not obstruct" the formation of a new government. "We are not incompatible, there is no wall between us," she declared.

For now, Vox remains silent. Early this morning, from Madrid, Vox's spokesperson in Congress, Pepa Millán, stated that their decision was entirely contingent on Guardiola's speech: "It's not that it depends on him in some way, it depends on him completely. The ability to form a government or not will be in his hands," she argued. But in Mérida, the far-right party avoided making any assessment and, unlike the other parties, opted not to appear in the press room. All eyes will be on his speech during the second session of the debate.

María Guardiola dedicated the first few minutes of her speech to calling for agreement: "I will not dwell on the differences, but rather focus on what unites us. There are many things on which we agree," she stated, addressing Vox directly and highlighting the measures they jointly promoted in the previous legislature. Before the speech, Vox sources familiar with the negotiations admitted to el ARA that there had been a shift in recent days, but warned that they could still "get stuck" because there are loose ends to tie up: now "progress is being made," but the pace is still "too slow." They believe that the Popular Party "has accelerated" the talks because they are "very scared." For their part, Sources within the PP leadership State officials reiterated that they still have time to reach an agreement with Abascal before Friday, when the second vote will take place, in which the far-right's abstention would be sufficient: "A good agreement is better than a quick one, but we believe both are possible." During her speech, María Guardiola also invited the PSOE to "recognize the mandate of the ballot box" and allow her government to continue "without being permanently blocked" by facilitating her investiture with an abstention: "I ask that they respect each other and not use the chamber as a refuge for partisan frustrations." Previously, she had made a general plea for understanding between the different parties: "This house cannot be a house of denial or obstruction; it is a house of proposals, agreements, and solutions. We are tired of walls, excuses, and wasting time." Is an agreement with Vox close? The leader of the far-right party, Santiago Abascal, is urging people "not to rush into agreements" and downplaying the imminence of an alliance. "It's difficult to reach an agreement at the last minute when it has been torpedoed for weeks," he told the media on Monday from Castile and León. "It's not so much about reaching a specific deadline as it is about having a willingness to reach agreements without the media noise of recent days," he said. On Tuesday, he maintained his caution: "We have to negotiate very carefully because the PP (People's Party) is prone to trickery and double standards." He insisted that they don't want to talk about whether or not to join governments, but about concrete measures and "guarantees of compliance."

For a vote in Aragon

In Aragon, the vote was a nail-biter. María Navarro of the People's Party (PP), with 26 votes, edged out the Socialist Party (PSOE) candidate, Fernando Sabés, by a single ballot. Sabés received the support of the Aragonese Union (Chunta Aragonesista) and Sumar-Esquerra Unida. The fourteen Vox deputies and the two from Teruel Existe—who could have tipped the balance—cast blank ballots. A few minutes later, sources within the PP's national leadership asserted that the party was "open" to Vox having a seat on the board of the regional parliament and explained that the "pace of the negotiations" for the investiture had prevented reaching a "concrete" agreement to "provide stability" to a future government. Regarding this issue, on the eve of the constitution of the Aragonese Parliament, Jorge Azcón had reiterated his willingness to facilitate a "comprehensive" agreement guaranteeing a four-year term. "We want to do it quietly and with the same calm we've been maintaining," he stated on Monday in response to journalists' questions. "Stability is an essential element," he emphasized.