Vox deals another blow to the PP and prevents Guardiola's investiture in the second vote

MadridSo far, it hasn't helped at all. the PP leadership has become involved in the negotiations in Extremadura. As expected, Vox voted 'no' to the investiture of María Guardiola in the second vote, held this Friday afternoon. The rejection means that Guardiola has once again lost her attempt to be invested by the Assembly of Extremadura, as It already happened two days ago in the first voteThe far-right party has fulfilled what it had conveyed to the People's Party this Thursday morning: a No The PP sources attributed the resounding defeat to "external factors" in the negotiations. However, despite this new setback, the baroness The Popular Party has avoided a clash with Santiago Abascal's party, ruled out stepping aside, and asserted that it will not throw in the towel.

The PP and Vox will still have time to reach an understanding until May 4th. If they fail to do so, Extremadura will hold repeat elections on June 28th. Guardiola has asked the far-right party to "set aside recriminations and blame." "I will ask the same of my party," stated the acting president of Extremadura, who is now being overseen by the party's national headquarters in Madrid in the negotiations and has prescribed "more work and meetings." While Vox had initially placed the baroness While previously seen as the main obstacle to reaching an agreement by the People's Party (PP), Abascal has now pointed to the PP leadership as the impediment, while acknowledging Guardiola's "effort." The leader of the far-right party lamented that the PP headquarters in Madrid "still hasn't understood that Vox doesn't negotiate under pressure, coercion, blackmail, dirty tricks, or in a rushed manner." According to Abascal, Feijóo's team is more focused on "constructing a political narrative that blames Vox for the lack of agreement" than on "making an effort to engage in honest dialogue." This negotiating deadlock coincides with the election campaign in Castile and León. which started just a week ago and will culminate with the election on March 15. The PP's general secretary, Miguel Tellado, responded by blaming Vox for the situation because "they haven't wanted to sit down to negotiate for seven days." "After voting with the PSOE and Podemos against Guardiola's investiture, now Abascal will go to Castile and León to block this region as well," Tellado criticized on X. If the same scenario of a minority PP victory linked to Vox is repeated in this other region, the PP will then have three open negotiation tables with the far right, along with Aragon.

So what now? Abascal has shown himself open to continuing negotiations, although he has demanded that the agreement consist of "concrete measures." "There's time," he said. The Vox spokesperson in Extremadura, Óscar Fernández, also stated that there is a willingness to negotiate "measure by measure and proposal by proposal." After the plenary session, Guardiola announced that he will contact the far-right party to schedule a meeting as soon as possible. However, the negotiations are unlikely to come to fruition during the election campaign in Castile and León, which has led the parties to unleash their full political firepower. "[Vox] is very focused on the internal purges of its own party," Tellado criticized in the same message on X to explain the lack of meetings, thus hitting the nail on the head.