Vox clashes with PP in Congress over national priority on the same day it invests Guardiola in Extremadura

MadridThe discursive cession to Vox in Extremadura, with the acceptance of the "principle of national priority", has borne the expected fruit for the PP. After a first attempt frustrated a month and a half ago, the popular candidate, María Guardiola, has been invested as president this Wednesday with the votes of the popular party and the far-right, which doubled its results in the regional elections of December 21. "As what the polls say does matter to me, I know that this project is only possible with Vox [...] That is why I will not apologize for governing with those who represent an important part of Extremadura," the president of Extremadura emphasized, who revalidates the position she has held since 2023. However, at the same time, in Congress, the popular party has rejected a motion from Vox defending the principle of "national priority" for access to public policies, understood as the differentiation between national and non-national when receiving aid, an interpretation that the PP rejects.

The PP's rejection in Congress comes after criticism for having included this concept in the text agreed with Santiago Abascal's party, even from other barons of the PP. During the debate, PP deputy Carmen Navarro said that they defend the "principle of rootedness" and, for this reason, they had proposed an amendment that reduced the content of the far-right's motion that Vox did not want to incorporate. "Spaniards must be first," defended ultra-deputy Ignacio Hoces, asserting that his objective is for "Spain to stop being the hospital of Africa."

All of this has occurred while in the Extremaduran parliament, Guardiola stressed that the agreement reached with Santiago Abascal's party "is not fascism." "It is called democracy and parliamentary majority. It is moving from deadlock to agreement." The president of Extremadura did not go into detail about the scope of the "national priority" slogan and left it to the PP's spokesperson in the regional Assembly, José Ángel Sánchez Juliá, to express the narrative that the popular party has been using for days. The regional deputy insisted that the pact with Vox "does not exclude and does not even speak of nationalities or foreigners," but rather establishes that "verifiable rootedness" in the territory will be taken into account.

However, both Abascal in an interview with Antena 3 and the spokesperson for Vox in the Extremaduran chamber, Óscar Fernández, during the debate, have corrected him. "The linking of aid to residency is to guarantee that no one from outside gets ahead of any Spaniard," said Fernández, who defended that this "is not racism or selfishness" but rather "common sense and realism".

The public interpretation that the PP and Vox have made of the practical application that "national priority" can have is not coincident, although from the far-right party they attribute it to the fact that the state leadership of the popular party constantly wants to put "spokes in the wheels". Instead, Vox has expressed "loyalty" to Guardiola and confidence that she will fulfill what she has committed to.

"Nazi-onalist priority"

Aside from the PSOE and the left-wing coalition led by Podemos in the Assembly of Extremadura, this point of the PP and Vox pact has also been criticized from Congress and has had prominence. During the control session, the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, warned that the pact "kicks the Constitution," and the Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, called it "discriminatory and inhumane" and stated that, if necessary, they will fight in the courts. Faced with attacks from the left, Guardiola counterattacked by criticizing Sánchez's pacts with separatism. According to the popular president, the socialist leader applies "nationalist priority." "Nazi-onalist," she added, rejecting "lessons" from someone who "has made pacts with coup plotters and heirs of ETA."

Imminent agreement in Aragon

Once the objective of investing Guardiola has been achieved, the next step for the PP is to achieve the same in Aragon with the popular candidate Jorge Azcón. Both the PP and Vox describe the pact as "imminent". Abascal has expressed confidence that it can be announced "in the coming hours" or, at most, "days". "It is very advanced," he said in the interview this Wednesday morning, although sources from Vox had pointed to a strained atmosphere in the negotiation due to Genoa's discourse in recent days.