Moreno Bonilla is not Carlos Mazón

Barcelona"Now is not the time for controversy." These words, spoken this Thursday by the PP spokesperson in the Andalusian Parliament, Toni Marín, exemplify the communication strategy employed by Juanma Moreno Bonilla's government regarding the Adamuz tragedy. All levels of government, including the Spanish government, "have risen to the occasion," Marín emphasized during his turn to speak, expressing his gratitude for the suspension of the plenary session initially scheduled for yesterday. Hours later, the Andalusian president himself chose not to engage with Isabel Díaz Ayuso's criticism of Pedro Sánchez's administration: "We recovered two bodies three hours ago. I'm not one for controversy; there will be time for an investigation later." The Andalusian PP's strategy serves to clearly differentiate itself from the national PP and, above all, from the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who has stated that a "code of silence" has been imposed following the accident to cover up the Zapatero issue and has even suggested that the Andalusian and Spanish governments agreed to arrange the victims' funerals in Madrid.

The initial reaction of the Andalusian government is similar to that of Valencian president Carlos Mazón in the days immediately following the storm, when he personally thanked Pedro Sánchez for his "speed" and "compassion" towards the victims. fair playHowever, it immediately broke down when Mazón realized that he was putting the noose around his own neck, since the responsibility for managing the emergency lay with the Generalitat.

In the case of Andalusia, several factors explain its good relationship with the Spanish government. First, they know that the regional government bears no responsibility for the disaster, which lies exclusively with the railway operators and Adif, that is, the Ministry of Transport. Second, unlike Mazón or Ayuso, Moreno Bonilla has the support of the Socialist Party, so he must tread carefully to avoid overstepping the mark (in fact, it is this moderate center-left vote that allows him to have an absolute majority and not depend on Vox).

Diffuse Andalusianism

The third factor is that the Andalusian president doesn't engage with the Spanish government so much in terms of ideological confrontation as with a cooperative approach aimed at reaping benefits, which brings him closer to what would be a fashionable nationalist leader, a Pujol, for example. In November 2023, Moreno Bonilla, for instance, didn't hesitate to pose for a photo with the then Vice President Teresa Ribera, demonized by the rest of the PP, to stage an agreement on Doñana that would bring him 1.7 billion euros. Moreno Bonilla plays the Andalusian identity card in a very different way than Ayuso or Mazón. He represents a diffuse Andalusianism that doesn't want to be explicitly right-wing or left-wing, and asks for votes because he is the one who best defends the interests of Andalusia.