The 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.

So 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.

Vox closes the door to investing María Guardiola in the first investiture vote in Extremadura. This was confirmed by the leader of the far-right party, Óscar Fernández, during his speech in the plenary session. Santiago Abascal's party continues to demand "certainties and guarantees" that the Popular Party will fulfill what is agreed upon. "There is much to be finalized," he warned. After Guardiolaimplored Vox for their support –"we are not incompatible, there is no wall between us," he said during his speech–, Óscar Fernández has asked her for "fewer nice words and more guarantees." "She kicked the ball forward, she remained in the form without getting to the heart of the matter," he reproached her. Vox reiterates that it wants to agree "measure by measure" in a negotiation that "is not broadcast live" and throws a poisoned dart at the PP's state leadership: "If an agreement has not been reached today, it is fundamentally because someone in Génova still does not want to." "We continue to believe that if you want and they let you, it is possible," he added.

Vox has derailed María Guardiola's first attempt at becoming president of the Extremadura regional government. More than two months after the elections, the People's Party (PP) and the far-right party have been unable to reach an agreement and remain deadlocked. During his speech in the plenary session, the regional leader of the far-right party, Óscar Fernández, reiterated his demand for "certainty and guarantees" that the PP will honor the agreements. "Much remains to be clarified," he warned. After Guardiola He will implore Vox for their support “We are not incompatible, there is no wall between us,” she said yesterday during her speech. Fernández asked her for “less talk and more guarantees.” “She kicked the can down the road, focusing on the form without getting to the heart of the matter,” he reproached her. The Vox deputy made it clear that his duty was to “prevent” the Popular Party candidate from “deceiving and breaking her word,” and launched a poisoned dart at the PP's national leadership: “Her enemies are within her own ranks. If an agreement wasn't reached today, it's fundamentally because someone in Genoa still doesn't want it.” With the vote, which resulted in 29 PP votes in favor of Guardiola and 36 against from the PSOE, Vox, and Unidas por Extremadura, the countdown to the repeat elections begins. There will be a second attempt this Friday afternoon, and if the investiture is also unsuccessful, the PP and Vox will have until May 4th to reach an agreement. If they fail to reach an agreement, Extremadura will hold repeat elections on June 28.

The 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.

María Guardiola is no longer what she used to be: while in 2023 she distinguished herself as one of the most moderate figures in the People's Party (PP), distancing herself from the far right—although she ultimately formed a coalition with them—and until a few weeks ago resisted yielding to Vox's demands, now she's surrendering to Santiago Abascal's party. "The feminism I defend is the feminism that Vox defends," she said this morning in an interview with Ok Diario, words that have not gone down well with the PP at the national level and which Guardiola herself has since been forced to clarify. The PP leadership in Madrid has disavowed her: "There's too much noise and not enough serious work," said the party's deputy secretary, Carmen Fúnez, when asked about the Extremadura president's remarks.

However 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.

The Extremadura PP is now pinning all its hopes on Vox. After Wednesday's back-and-forth regarding whether they would be more comfortable with an abstention from the PSOE or Vox than with a coalition government with the far right, María Guardiola (PP), who aspires to re-election as president of the Extremadura Regional Government, now sees an agreement as the only possible path. "My only intention is to reach an agreement [with Vox]," Guardiola stated in a press conference Thursday morning. The PP member, who requested discretion, asserted that there are "more things" that "unite" them than "divide" them with Vox, even though it was the disagreement with the far right over the regional budget that led to the snap elections last December. Guardiola explained that she made a final call to Vox Tuesday night and is now awaiting their response. "There is every intention" to reach an agreement, she insisted. But a month and a half after the elections, in whichMaría Guardiola won againAnd with Vox doubling its seats, negotiations are more deadlocked than ever, raising the specter of a repeat election.

The People's Party continues to pull every string to retain the presidency of the Regional Government of Extremadura. A month and a half after the elections, in which María Guardiola won again And with Vox doubling its number of seats, negotiations are more deadlocked than ever. After Santiago Abascal's party announced yesterday one No After a resounding rejection of María Guardiola and the Extremadura candidate's call for "responsibility" from the PSOE to unblock the situation, the PP's national leadership has adopted the roadmap of the baroness The PP, which is focused on regional affairs, admits it prefers a single-party government through abstentions from either the PSOE or Vox to a coalition with the far right. Despite having negotiated a joint government with Santiago Abascal's party for over a month, the deadlock in talks has forced the PP to look to the PSOE. Sources close to Alberto Núñez Feijóo blame the Socialists for their agreement with the far right and justify their abstention by arguing that if the Socialists campaigned as a "deal to stop the far right," it is now "consistent" for them to abstain to prevent Vox from entering the regional government. These same sources make it clear that they would prefer "not to hand over any portfolios" and acknowledge that if Abascal's party doesn't lower its demands—they want ministries with budgets—"the situation becomes more complicated." "Postponing the negotiations is bad news," they add. What they do rule out, despite the impasse, is a repeat election. "What will be different?" they ask at the People's Party headquarters. They also don't foresee María Guardiola having to step aside due to disagreements with the far right, whom they criticize for wanting to "replace" her despite having obtained 26 percentage points less at the polls. Later, Feijóo's team clarified that it wasn't a change of position, but rather that "in a completely general sense," they prefer single-party governments to "handing power over to other parties." However, they also acknowledged that "since neither Vox nor the PSOE intends to abstain in exchange for anything, we are left with no option but to explore securing support in exchange for something, which could be seats in the cabinet," the same sources concluded.

The map of Spain's autonomous communities was practically painted blue in the 2023 regional elections. Extremadura was a narrow exception—the PSOE still held onto its first-place position—but Guillermo Fernández Vara was ousted by the PP-Vox pact. Although María Guardiola had promised not to ally with the far right, the party leadership in Madrid (Génova) didn't want to miss the opportunity to seize power in this region for only the second time since the beginning of democracy. This Sunday, Extremadura, a traditional socialist stronghold, consolidated its shift to the right. This phenomenon already occurred in Andalusia with Juanma Moreno's rise to power—he, unlike Guardiola, does have an absolute majority.

The president of Extremadura, María Guardiola, decided to call early regional elections in response to the blockade imposed by Vox. It was a risky gamble, a coin toss, and it backfired. The PP only managed to gain one more seat, bringing their total to 28, far short of the five needed for an absolute majority. This occurred against a backdrop of total collapse for the PSOE, which lost 10 seats, dropping from 28 to 18. Meanwhile, the far right emerged strongest from these elections, gaining 6 seats and increasing its representation from 5 to 11. The left-wing coalition, Unidas por Extremadura, also saw significant gains.

The first round of the new electoral cycle leaves Alberto Núñez Feijóo still tied to Vox, Pedro Sánchez weakened, and Santiago Abascal catapulted to power. The people of Extremadura went to the polls after eighteen months without national elections and sent a message that could have echo in Spanish politics and repercussions in the upcoming elections – in the coming months there will be elections in AragonCastile and León and Andalusia—. Although they were regional elections, the PSOE was taking a gamble after the latest cases of alleged corruption and the cascade of sexual harassment allegationsHe pinned all his hopes on Miguel Ángel Gallardo, a candidate who will go to trial alongside the Spanish president's brother, and the defeat has been resounding. An "unmitigated" defeat and "very adverse" results, as he himself acknowledged. However, the PP's victory—its second triumph in Extremadura elections in 43 years—is bittersweet: María Guardiola is nearing an absolute majority, but gains only one seat after the early election The victory was triggered by Vox's rejection of the budget and continues to depend on the far right, which doubled its vote share. However, the party leadership in Madrid is presenting the victory as a "landrending victory for the ages."

Four parties have a chance of gaining parliamentary representation in the Assembly of Extremadura. In descending order of support, according to the polls, they are the PP, PSOE, Vox, and Unidas por Extremadura. We review their candidates for regional president.

On the eve of the Extremadura elections, ARA spent three days exploring a "forgotten" region that is now in the spotlight as it kicks off the new electoral cycle. All polls predict that the PSOE, the party that has historically dominated Extremadura, will lose its top spot to the PP for the second time in 40 years, with Vox on the rise. In addition to explaining the candidates' profiles and providing the latest information, we analyze the socioeconomic characteristics of a region marked by depopulation and the export of raw materials.

The president of the Extremadura regional government and PP candidate for re-election, María Guardiola, is reiterating her theory of electoral fraud following the theft of a safe from the Fuente de Cantos post office (Badajoz), which contained 124 ballots from Sunday's regional elections. Although the Civil Guard has classified the incident as a case of "common crime"—the safe also contained €14,000, and the ballots were found scattered around it—Guardiola insisted this Friday that democracy is "in danger" when votes are stolen. When questioned by the media about why she is making these statements without waiting for the police investigation, she went so far as to say that "it doesn't matter what" the Civil Guard's conclusions are. Guardiola, who has found support from Alberto Núñez Feijóo in her theory of electoral fraud, lamented that the other political parties did not publicly denounce the situation on Thursday. Of the other parties, only Vox endorsed the existence of a "corrupt mafia capable of anything, even altering electoral processes," in the words of the far-right leader, Santiago Abascal. "I don't know what a thief's objective is, what I do know is that someone is stealing the right to vote of the people of Extremadura from the post office, three days before an election," Guardiola insisted this Friday. Despite these statements, the PP candidate admitted that she doesn't believe the incident will affect the election results. She did criticize, however, that in the final stretch of the campaign there is "a lot of nervousness" and "few values, little ethics, and a lot of dirty tricks." And she took the opportunity to add, now in electoral terms, that what she wants is "to continue building a project for the future of Extremadura."

A "common robbery," according to the Civil Guard; an attempt to "steal democracy," according to the People's Party (PP). The penultimate day of the election campaign in Extremadura was marked by a robbery at a post office in Fuente de Cantos, a town of 4,500 inhabitants in the province of Badajoz. Among the loot from the safe were 124 ballots intended for Sunday's elections. The PP candidate and current regional president, María Guardiola, released a video on social media in which she denounced that "they are stealing our democracy before our very eyes." "There are only three days left until these crucial elections, and someone wants to prevent the people of Extremadura from having the right to decide," she concluded. She also added that "many citizens who requested postal votes did not receive the PP ballot." For Guardiola, there is a strategy to "undermine the foundations of our freedom": "They want to silence us and choose for us. I will not remain silent, I will not allow it." The leader of the national PP party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has also weighed in: he has asked Pedro Sánchez's government to explain how this could have happened and has accused it of trying to "cover up" the facts. The Civil Guard, however, does not subscribe to the conspiracy theory. According to sources consulted by Europa Press, the force is investigating the case, which is not limited to Fuente de Cantos: there were also robberies at the post offices in Santa Amalia and Torremejía. They indicate that in the Fuente de Cantos case, the thieves took the entire safe, which contained the 124 lost votes as well as 14,000 euros. Hours later, the safe was found "completely burned" with the ballots scattered around the area. There was no trace of the money. At the other polling stations, the safe was not taken, and office and sales supplies were missing. Since October, EFE reports, up to nine similar thefts have been carried out, most recently in Talavera la Real and Villafranco del Guadiana. In the final stretch of the campaign, the People's Party (PP) has seized upon these thefts as an opportunity to raise the issue of electoral fraud. This is not the first time the PP has questioned the integrity of the elections. In the last general election, Feijóo denounced a supposed intention on the part of the postal service to prevent citizens from exercising their right to vote, following the line taken by Donald Trump in the United States when he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.

A few hours before to announce the early elections in ExtremaduraMaría Guardiola took a photo in Madrid with Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Isabel Díaz Ayuso. She was at the Association of Self-Employed Workers (ATA) awards ceremony this Monday morning. The PP leader presented an award to the president of Extremadura for a program to stimulate and consolidate self-employment in the autonomous community. After applauding her on stage, Feijóo returned figuratively at dusk in a message to X for the "responsibility" and "courage" shown by Guardiola in the face of the "blockade" by the PSOE and Vox of her regional budgets for next year. The leader of the PP in Extremadura also received the approval of the Madrid president.

Extremadura will be the first PP region to be subjected to the test of the ballot box. The PP leader, María Guardiola, has decided to call early elections and call them for December 21st, in the face of Vox and the PSOE's refusal to approve next year's budget. In an appearance on Monday night, Guardiola justified the move to avoid "blockage." "Extremadura deserves to continue moving forward," she asserted. The move was immediately applauded by the PP's national leadership. "It shows responsibility and courage by putting the people of Extremadura first," Alberto Núñez Feijóo stated in a message to X.