María Guardiola dressed up as Isabel La Católica last Saturday at the Badajoz carnivals. “I am going with my conquerors to discover new worlds,” he said. 48 hours later, he gave an interview with some very strong headlines:
—The feminism that I defend is the feminism that Vox defends.
What’s more, he confirms that he wants Vox within the regional Executive and with one of the demands of Santiago Abascal’s formation fully assumed. The interview also comes six days after he attended the media at the Extremadura Assembly in Mérida.
“What cannot be,” he observed then, “is that the Popular Party, which has won the elections with 43% of the votes, has to disguise itself as Vox, we cannot do it.” The general secretary of the ultra formation, Ignacio Garriga, came out immediately: “You don’t have to dress up as Vox, we are already used to dressing up as PSOE. You have to respect Vox voters.”
This Monday, even, Guardiola no longer speaks of “extreme right” to refer to Abascal’s formation.
-Do you consider that Vox is an extreme right-wing party?
―The extreme right party that we have in our country is the Catalan separatism that despises and hates the Spanish.
-Therefore, don’t you interpret that agreeing with Vox is whitewashing the extreme right as the left says?
-Not at all.
Guardiola’s interview also comes four days after he published that senior PP officials in the region privately assume an electoral repetition in response to Vox’s demands. Vox, according to PP sources, with four ministries: Economy, Agriculture, Interior and Industry, the first vice presidency and compliance with its entire electoral program.
The popular ones consider this to be unaffordable. What’s more, the tension between both formations – with harsh reproaches on social networks between PP deputies and even the general secretary of the Popular Party in the region, Abel Bautista, and the leader of Vox in Extremadura, Óscar Fernández Calle – had been very high, especially in the last week. “Let’s see if we understand. We are not going to take a single step back,” Calle wrote on February 9 in X. “Stop fooling people,” Bautista also responded on that social network.
This Monday, Guardiola tries to calm the waters. Demand a new agreement with the ultra formation without premises. “In no case am I ashamed of agreeing with Vox; what I want is to be able to work hand in hand with them.” […] Hours on the clock are fully dedicated to making this deal possible, and the sooner the better. “Extremadura cannot wait.”
And all, despite the fact that she herself asked the PSOE to abstain last week to achieve the presidency, but this Monday she already ruled out that route. “In no case am I going to go back nor am I going to apply the Sanchista policies that have done so much damage to Extremadura.”
A phrase copied from what Vox asked for last week. “Mrs. Guardiola,” said Abascal’s Congress spokesperson, Pepa Millán, “is not understanding what the Extremadurans have demanded. The Extremadurans have not only demanded to bypass the Socialist Party: they have asked for a real alternative.”
The reality is that the electoral calendar does not include negotiations. For this day, an abstention from the Abascal party would be enough, which has 11 deputies, six more than in 2023. However, there are already popular positions that also point to a second refusal in the second session based on the latest messages and meetings.
It’s not true. Absolutely not.
To filter this, which does not correspond to reality, we would publish the complete documents, taking into account that last week you publicly authorized us to show them. Even so, we have not done it, because we understand that it does not contribute to…
— María Guardiola (@MGuardiolaM)
If this refusal is confirmed, a period of two months would then open, until May 3, where different investiture plenary sessions can be held, without limit. Negotiations are stalled right now. Since December 22 until now, three meetings have been held between both groups. Guardiola made a call last Friday to Fernández Calle to resume contact, but no further news has emerged. “We are in the process of setting the date for the next meeting to bring positions closer together,” he said this Monday. “I want to know what the pitfalls of this possible agreement are to save them.” For now, Guardiola has already assumed the harshest postulates of Vox.
In the 200-page document sent by Abascal’s party and which led to the electoral advance on December 21 after failing to reach an agreement, Vox demands the repeal of the LGTBI law of Extremadura, which was approved with the Government of José Antonio Monago (PP) in 2015, and eliminate subsidies for gender policies.
These script twists by Guardiola with the formation of Abascal are very similar to the negotiations experienced during the 2023 Government agreement. It seems that a century has passed, but it was on June 20 three years ago when, not at all nervous, the popular president looked out of the corner of her eye at the nine-minute speech that she had placed on the lectern in the stone press room of the Assembly of Extremadura:
—I only have my word and my work.
And he continued. “I’m not going to give away advice. […] We will go to elections, if we have to go. […] I cannot let into my Government those who deny sexist violence, those who use the broad stroke, those who are dehumanizing immigrants and those who unfold a tarp and throw the LGTBI flag into a trash can. […] I have done everything in my power. My promise and my land are not a currency for anything. Thank you so much”.
No member of the PP, neither regional nor national, had shown himself so fiercely against Vox. Guardiola was convinced. Firm to his word, he dismissed the question time like this:
-In no case would Vox enter a María Guardiola Government?
-No. Institutions cannot be used to ideologize.
Seven days later, however, together with his faithful squire and number two of the party in the region, Abel Bautista, and the then leader of Vox in Extremadura, Ángel Pelayo Gordillo. They all signed a 60-point agreement that materialized with the support of the five deputies that Santiago Abascal obtained at the time and which marked the proclamation of Guardiola as the first female president of Extremadura.
