Fumata Blanca in the Courts of to unlock the reform of the Statute of Autonomy and increase the maximum number of deputies, which is now 33. PP and PSOE have agreed a fork between 25 and a maximum of 55 in the Courts, one of the less loose cameras in the country. The agreement allows the processing of a paralyzed text to be unleashed since last October, when the popular ones took off from an initial proposal agreed with the Socialists to place that fork between 25 and 59 seats. The PP of Castilla-La Mancha presented a solo amendment so that this stop did not exceed 35 deputies, which led the Socialists to break the negotiations accusing the popular and their leader, Paco Núñez, to fail to comply with their word and submit to the guidelines of the National Directorate of the PP.
The text, which must now go through those before being sent to the Congress of Deputies for approval, thus save its most important obstacle after the support of the PP to a transactional amendment of the Socialists who agrees to lower the maximum fork to the 55 deputies and that suspends its application until after December 31, 2027, so it will not affect the next autonomous elections. The amendment also establishes that any change in the electoral law to retouch the number of deputies will require a reinforced majority of three fifths of the Chamber. It cannot be addressed, therefore, without the contest of the two majority groups. The 2023 elections threw 17 deputies for the PSOE, 12 for the PP and 4 for Vox.
The agreement satisfies both formations. The socialists renounce the 59 deputies to facilitate the processing of the text and the popular manage to reduce that stop, even if by the minimum, in four seats. “Whoever wins with the statute agreement is not the PP or the PSOE, but Castilla-La Mancha and the Castilian-La Mancha,” said PP spokeswoman in the Regional Chamber, Alejandra Hernández. The PP yes to the new text, endorsed Monday by the Executive Committee of the Regional PP-with the presence of the General Secretary of the Popular, Cuca Gamarra-does not imply that this maximum is reached, as has already been in charge of clarifying Paco Núñez, leader of the formation in Castilla-La Mancha. “55 deputies still seem a barbarity,” he said a few days ago in an interview at COPE.
With 33 deputies today, that of Castilla-La Mancha is, together with La Rioja, one of the smallest regional parliaments in the country. Communities with a population similar to Castilian-Manchega, such as Castilla y León or Euskadi, have many more seats. The Executive of Emiliano García-Page marked from the beginning to increase that fork to correct the infrarepresentation of his almost 1.6 million voters and correct what he considers a “cacicada” of María Dolores de Cospedal, which in his four years as president of the region, between 2011 and 2015, took advantage of its absolute majority to modify the electoral law and reduce 49 to 33 the number of seats in the toledo convent of San Gil, headquarters of the Autonomous Chamber. A measure that Cospedal defended to “dignify politics” and give “example of austerity.”
The current Electoral Law, which granted more deputies to the provinces in which the PP usually reaps more support, made García-Page about to lose the presidency of the community in 2023, which he managed to retain for a handful of votes. In the PSOE they celebrate that the PP lifts its veto to the text and strive to explain the importance of statutory reform in a debate, that of the increase of deputies, which is not always understood among citizens. The Castilian-Manche Statute was approved in 1982 and has suffered four modifications. The last attempt to reform, with the socialist José María Barreda in 2010, shipwrecked in Congress for the refusal of the PP to support a water reserve that, in practice, meant the repeal of the
PSOE and PP coincide with the need to adapt the statute to social changes and the powers that the autonomous communities have assumed at this time. The new articulated one will shield public services and incorporate the strategy of, but will also limit the afforalities of regional deputies and the Governing Council and introduce the figure of the decree-law. It is, according to the regional PSOE Secretary, Sergio Gutiérrez, a “regionalist” statute that “identifies a lot” with the PSOE of Castilla-La Mancha. “A regionalism to create equality, promote new rights and strengthen social services,” says Gutiérrez, who is confident that “there are no more scares at the last moment” by the PP.
