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.

The People's Party (PP) is using every lever of power at its disposal to weaken the Spanish government. The Senate, which has traditionally acted as a chamber of second review, has become a true counterweight to the Congress, where the PP's absolute majority is using its resources to put the Socialist Party (PSOE) ministers on the ropes. There is a strong representation of leaders from the PP's hardline wing, including, for example, Alfonso Serrano, Isabel Díaz Ayuso's right-hand man. Alberto Núñez Feijóo intended to do the same with the autonomous communities: to leverage his control of 11 of the 17 regions to strengthen his national strategy and demand that Pedro Sánchez resign and call elections, given his inability to pass budgets and secure a solid parliamentary majority. For this reason, both María Guardiola in Extremadura and Jorge Azcón in Aragon called early elections, faced with the impossibility of passing budgets with the support of Vox. Feijóo's scheme was theoretically simple: to string together regional elections from Extremadura to Andalusia, passing through Aragon and Castile and León, to unleash a kind of democratic tsunami against the PSOE and force Pedro Sánchez to abandon his bid to lead the Spanish government. Now, at the midpoint of this strategy—with the Extremadura and Aragon elections completed—it can be said that Feijóo's plan has failed. He has succeeded in highlighting the PSOE's poor standing in the region and the lack of electoral support the Socialists currently enjoy in the autonomous communities, but he has also revealed the PP's weakness in the face of an increasingly powerful Vox. Both Guardiola and Azcón wanted to get rid of the far right and envision a PP government on its own, but the reality of the results makes this impossible: both will have to to meet Santiago Abascal's conditions to be able to be invested as nine presidents. And what's worse: it's not Feijóo who controls the pace of these negotiations, but Vox—as is being demonstrated by the deadlock in Extremadura since the December elections—and they can use it to their advantage for the March 15 elections in Castile and León and later in Andalusia. In fact, following the election results, the debate within the PP has reopened regarding the best strategy to counter the far right. Hardening their rhetoric—Azcón closed the campaign with the ultra-right-wing agitator Vito Quiles—doesn't seem to be working for them.

The week begins under the shadow of two pieces of news, one good and one bad. The bad one? Train drivers' strikeThe good news? The AP-7 motorway reopened this morning after being closed for three weeks. All three lanes between Martorell and Gelida are now open in the direction of Tarragona.

The president of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, called early elections because he failed to reach an agreement with Vox to pass the budget. "We must listen to the voice of the people of Aragon," he said in December when he announced the elections. However, the move backfired: although his party won the election, it lost two seats (from 28 to 26), and the far-right Vox party surged from 7 to 14 seats, doubling its results. Thus, far from reducing his dependence on the far-right, Azcón is now at their mercy: if he wants to be invested as president, he will have to reach an agreement with Santiago Abascal's party, which has thrown itself into this election campaign, as it already did in Extremadura. In his assessment on election night, Azcón tried to sidestep the negotiations that await him if he wants to retain the presidency: "The truth tonight is that we have won [...]. It is true that we have lost two seats, but no other party has had the results of the PP." "Only we can form a government for the next four years," he added.

Aragon goes to the polls this Sunday for the first time in early elections, not coinciding with other elections, but there is very little doubt about the outcome. The conservative majority (PP+Vox+PAR), which currently holds 36 of the 67 seats, is expected to rise above 40, in line with the conservative wave sweeping Spain, but which, as was already evident in Extremadura, primarily benefits the far right. There is also no doubt that the PP will be the leading party and that, therefore, Jorge Azcón is the most likely candidate to be re-elected president. However, in the final days of the campaign, Azcón has appeared tense and agitated, particularly raising his voice against Vox. Why? Because, like María Guardiola before him, he called early elections to overcome Vox's obstruction of the budget, and now everything suggests that he will be even more hamstrung by Santiago Abascal's party. In short, a move designed to strengthen the PP may end up strengthening Vox and complicating life for the Aragonese president.

Most of the New Year's Eve speeches by regional presidents have had two main common denominators: housing and financing. In the first case, they have boasted about the measures they have implemented to address the primary concern of Spaniards. And in the second, they have criticized the proposed future model of regional financing. ERC and the PSOE are finalizingOne of the most significant voices has been that of Emiliano García-Page, the baron The socialist most critical of Pedro Sánchez. He has not uttered the words financing neither CataloniaBut everything was understood when he warned that he would stand up to it: "We will fight any kind of attempt at privileges that harm us."

Aragon will hold early elections. This decision was made by the regional president, Jorge Azcón of the People's Party, following the failure of negotiations with Vox to approve the budget, and as he has indicated The CountryThe elections will take place on February 8. "It was not possible to reach any agreement," confirmed the Aragonese Minister of Finance, Roberto Bermúdez de Castro, at a press conference after a final meeting with Santiago Abascal's party. "The measures they are proposing are not legal or are not within the jurisdiction of the Aragonese government," he argued. Azcón announced on Saturday that he was giving himself "a week" to assess whether he had enough support to pass the budget with the far-right, but on Tuesday the Minister of Finance himself had already He stated that the demands of the far right were "absolutely unacceptable." and has already labeled them "illegal." Vox demanded the rejection of the European Green Deal, but also the disregard for environmental regulations on river cleanup. The Aragonese Finance Minister has also made it clear that withdrawing aid to any entity that assists migrants, as requested by Santiago Abascal's party, is unreasonable.