Oscar R. Window | Valladolid (EFE).- Nine months have just passed since PP and Vox began their first autonomous coalition government in Spain, in a community like Castilla y León that has lived in political shock since a week ago, when the vice president of the Junta, Juan García-Gallardo (Vox), announced the measures to prevent abortions, still on the air after being corrected by the president, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP).
Since Mañueco was inaugurated as president on April 11, 2022 after a long and hasty negotiation with Vox until the last minute, there have been several moments of tension within the regional Executive, although its culmination has come this week, with the nine months of coalition just completed. These nine points summarize some of the key moments of this time:
1.- FIRST AGREEMENT. The coalition started strong and at its first government meeting -April 21- it approved what it called the Anti-Crisis Plan, endowed with 470 million euros. The ‘paternity’ of the measures was clear, from the PP, since according to the president himself, they had been worked on during the period of the acting government, but Vox assumed their content “naturally and cordially”.
2.- ABORTION LAW. The first express reference from the coalition partners to the voluntary interruption of pregnancy – now a reason for conflict – came on May 19, on the occasion of the preliminary draft of the Abortion Law presented by the central government. “Smoke screen” for the PP and reason to “confront” it in the case of García-Gallardo (Vox).
3.- MATERNITY. Days later, in an appearance to present his legislature plans -May 23-, García-Gallardo defended that Castilla y León should be “more than ever, a maternal region”, with birth policies inspired by Hungary and Poland and contrary to «the culture of death, with laws of euthanasia and free abortion», which he observes in Spain. “I claim the figure of women, carriers and givers of life,” he said then.
4.- DISABILITY AND ABORTIONS. The following day -May 24-, before the Plenary of the Castilla y León Parliament, the vice president once again made headlines by addressing a socialist attorney who has a physical disability “as if she were a person like all the others” and, At the same time, criticize the Abortion Law for allowing “crushing children with disabilities.” Asked about these words, Mañueco (PP) said that he only supported “the Government of Castilla y León”, and the spokesman for the Board asked for “apologies”.
5.- HISTORICAL MEMORY. With the arrival of summer, just before the end of the political year, PP and Vox saved in extremis one of their legislature commitments, in this case in terms of historical memory, the one that said that “before June 30” both parties would start the processing of “a regulation on matters of concord” that would serve to repeal the current regional Decree on Historical and Democratic Memory. The fact is that this new regulation has not yet seen the light of day and the differences between the PP and Vox persist on how to approach this matter.
6.- SEXIST VIOLENCE. Another of the battle horses between PP and Vox throughout these nine months has been their different perspective on sexist violence, which they tried to channel in the legislature agreement through the concept of “domestic violence”, with a draft of a law on this matter in the public consultation phase.
At this point, PP and Vox have applied the formula that they are two different parties with different sensibilities, but they have even had to deal with institutional minutes of silence in which these differences were evident, materialized in that García-Gallardo’s party denies the very existence of sexist violence.
7.- INSULTS. With the return in September and the plenary sessions in the Cortes of Castilla y León, the coalition faced another of the fires with national significance as a result of the insult pronounced by García-Gallardo against his predecessor in the position of vice president, Francisco Igea ( Cs). “Imbecile,” he snapped at her from his seat. After this, exchange of reproaches for the insults in the parliamentary headquarters.
8.- BUDGETS WITH START. The presentation of the Budget bill for 2023 was a boost for confidence in the future of the coalition, given that PP and Vox reached a quick agreement, with hardly any public tensions and with a joint appearance by Mañueco and Garía-Gallardo in the one that exhibited the “unity” of their Government, with economic measures that they share, such as lowering taxes and taking advantage of European funds to draw the highest accounts in history.
The joy of PP and Vox for approving these Accounts for 2023 in the last plenary session of the year was marred, however, because an error in the vote led them to accept the PSOE amendments to the Law of Measures that accompanies the budgets and, in In the midst of a great anger in the Cortes, they had to vote against that norm and elaborate a new one -still in process- with which to amend their ruling.
9.- NINTH MONTH. It was just when the nine months were up when the current ‘storm’ broke out, with the announcement by García-Gallardo of some measures to prevent abortions that have raised a storm of reactions and that has not yet materialized in the announced order of the Ministry of Health on how to care for pregnant women in the Community.
The obligation or not for doctors to offer psychological assistance to pregnant women, the implementation of a “fetal heartbeat” protocol between the sixth and ninth weeks of pregnancy and a 4D ultrasound have marked the last week in Castilla y León and in Spain, with a correction included from Mañueco, his vice president: “Doctors will not be forced to do anything, women will not be forced to do anything.”
After these nine long months, the debate now turns to the future and the viability of this coalition government, which was born on April 11, 2021 with the inauguration of Mañueco, precisely the person on whom a hypothetical electoral advance depends, as already It was done at the end of 2020, in this case with the incentive of joining them with the municipal ones and the rest of the regional ones scheduled for May 28. EFE