Although this is an insufficient answer for the Canary Islands, the decision of the autonomous communities of the PP to accept the voluntary distribution of the 209 minor migrants have pushed the relationship with their Vox partners to the limit. This Wednesday, at the Sectoral Conference on Childhood and Adolescence in Tenerife, the advisers of the PP autonomies confirmed one by one their support for the reception within the framework of a voluntary distribution that has been carried out since 2022 and which provides for 347 transfers, of which 209 would be destined for areas governed by the popular areas, including the five where Vox co-governs. Santiago Abascal's party responded during the night with a harsh statement in which it accused Feijóo of “having broken the PP-Vox governments” and announced that its National Executive Committee will decide “the next steps” during an urgent and extraordinary meeting scheduled for next Thursday.
Although there are voices within the PP that defend that the departure of the far right would be a relief for their barons (they have all already approved their budgets for 2024 and in many cases could remove the burden that this means for them), the popular countries have defended the importance of the stability of its leadership. Sources of several PP governments admit that there is a real risk of a rupture of the agreements, despite the disbelief with which the PP had treated the threat of Vox in recent days. “They are leaving, 75%”, they say in one of their governments.
It is significant that in the statement made public by Vox this Wednesday night, the party of Satiago Abascal absolves the territorial barons of the PP of having violated their governing agreements, and transfers all responsibility to Feijóo, whom it accuses of “breaking the regional government pacts by forcing the regional presidents to vote yes to the distribution of 400 menas”, an acronym for unaccompanied foreign minors. It is the opposite of what Abascal has been doing in recent days, who had stressed that he had no agreement with Feijóo, but with the regional presidents of the PP, whom he urged to do everything “in their power” to prevent this distribution. threaten to break up the coalition governments.
By transferring all responsibility to the national leadership, Abascal leaves the door open to maintain the regional pacts and break only with the PP national leadership. However, the statement includes a rebuke to the “PP councillors who voted yes because Feijóo ordered them, in their weakness and eagerness, to kneel before Sánchez”, despite the fact that “until yesterday the regional presidents [del PP] “They had promised Vox to reject the distribution.” The text concludes by underlining that the ultra party “keeps its word and its commitment to the Spanish people”, while “the regional presidents of the PP have unilaterally carried out the orders of Feijóo, without taking into account their government partner, and have not even complied with their own manifest and committed will in the internal discussions of recent weeks […] the arbitrary and interested severance of a relationship of loyalty and cooperation that has led to important achievements for citizens.” According to the ultra party, Feijóo has called his regional presidents “one by one” this Wednesday to impose his position on them. “Vox will not be an accomplice to rapes, robberies and machetes,” he proclaims, referring to the crimes to which he links unaccompanied foreign minors. In any case, the last word will be Abascal himself, who has so far tried to maintain the agreements with the PP, although he does not hide his irritation with Feijóo himself.
“Feijóo became president of the PP by reaching out to Sánchez, and since then he has not stopped doing so. They have agreed on courts, they have reached agreements in Brussels and in the CCAA, and today they have blown up the government agreements, voluntarily taking 400 menas. To deceive, plunder and endanger the Spanish, do not count on us”, emphasizes the ultra-leader on the social network X.
Some PP autonomists do not disdain the real risk of a rupture, because they believe that Vox has taken its threat too far and is now being seized by it. According to popular sources, the governments of Castilla y León and Extremadura are particularly at risk. The first because the relationship between the PP and Vox has been marked by tensions from the beginning, following the departure of the ultra-vice president Juan García-Gallardo. In addition, its term of office began a year earlier than the rest, in 2022, and therefore the appointment of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco is closer in the polls. In the case of Extremadura, because Vox would find it more cheap the breakup, because it has only one council, although Abascal's party also holds many public functions. In any case, heThe ultras would struggle to explain why they only break into one or two territories not in the other countries where they govern together with the PP, since they have all, without exception, accepted the voluntary distribution of migrants.
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The PP’s strategy, coordinated between Genoa and its barons, was to accept only the reception of the 209 minors agreed in 2022, and not a new distribution, in order to try to make it difficult for Vox to make good on its threat. “I am not afraid for the stability of my government. It would be a big surprise for me,” said the president of the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, early in a forum The reason. The popular baron, one of the five who govern with Vox, argued that it was only a matter of ratifying an agreement from two years ago. “It is wrong that the 6,000 minors are being distributed today. We are going to discuss an agreement that I will ratify from year 22, which will give us 23 minors,” he explained.
The popular parties have worked hard to convince their partners not to split the joint governments. “There is nothing more patriotic,” argued the president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, “that some communities can help each other, than solidarity between all the autonomous communities.”
Fsources of popular leadership They insist on valuing the decision on the voluntary distribution of minors as a move of “determination” by Feijóo against the far right, after the PP saw its electoral options in the 23-J general elections hampered a year ago by the agreements of their regional presidents with Vox in five communities. At the moment, only the ultra-vice-president of Castilla y León, Juan García Gallardo, has publicly suggested that he is prepared to leave office. “We have an infinitely greater love for our principles than for our current position in government.” [de Castilla y León] and if they give us a choice between honor and ships, we will choose honor,' Gallardo said that morning. Asked if he was prepared to resign as vice president, he replied: “I have no hesitation.” At the same time, however, the Vox leader postponed the decision because “a decision of such significance and seriousness cannot be taken in two afternoons.”