Valladolid / Palencia (EFE) It has ignited the opposition, which has asked that they at least apologize for this gesture, which the PSOE has denounced as being directed at the socialist attorney who was speaking at the time.
After disseminating the images, a photograph from the EFE Agency and a video from TVE, Mañueco has assured that it was an “involuntary gesture” and has suggested to the journalists who asked him at an institutional act in Palencia: “look closely”.
“Whoever carefully analyzes the images realizes that it is an involuntary gesture, that I am also turning my back on those who have felt offended (the PSOE) and of course those who know me well know that it is not my style,” he argued. Manueco, who, when cross-examined, replied: “Really, honestly, I have nothing more to say.”
The controversy of the comb
During the plenary session this past Wednesday, the socialist attorney Rosa Rubio took the stand of the regional Parliament to defend an initiative to enable aid for people with celiac disease due to the high cost of gluten-free foods they need and which was rejected by the PP and Vox in the vote.
Rubio, at the beginning of her speech, reproached the president for, while she was speaking, he was outside his seat chatting with the Board’s Agriculture Minister, Gerardo Dueñas (Vox), which the socialist representative interpreted as a lack of Respect for people who suffer from this disease.
At that moment, the president decided to leave the chamber and on his way to the exit and with his back to the socialist attorney, made this gesture captured by the EFE Agency.
In today’s press conference after the Governing Council, asked about this controversy, the spokesman for the Junta and fellow party of Mañueco, Carlos Fernández Carriedo, has asked the PSOE “not to look for any intention where there is none”, although he has acknowledged that he had not seen the video at the time he was answering those questions.
“I have not seen him, but I know him personally, he is a person of agreement, dialogue, close to people’s problems, I know that in his case there is no intention,” he added.
Asked about the vision that citizens may have when attending these situations in the Courts of Castilla y León, Carriedo replied that “he understands the disgust that people have with the socialists in Spain and in Castilla y León, and that the surveys reflect it ”.
Mañueco’s government partners have preferred not to make statements about this situation and when consulted by EFE Vox has responded through a spokesman: “Nothing to comment.”
Reactions in the opposition
The general secretary of the Socialists of Castilla y León, Luis Tudanca, has asked the president of the Junta to “at least apologize” for “the comb” that he did in the Chamber of Parliament, which he has framed in “the political deterioration ” in which the Community has been immersed since Mañueco became President of the regional Executive in the previous legislature.
“I want to frame this gesture in a situation of institutional deterioration since Mañueco was elected president and that has to do with coming to power at any price and with contempt for citizens,” Tudanca assured, to point out that the president “does a disservice to Castilla y León” with these attitudes.
“I would ask him to at least apologize, I don’t expect anything more from him, or to change his behavior because he is still the same and is getting worse,” lamented the PSOE parliamentary spokesman, who has acknowledged feeling “sad and frustrated.” due to the controversy generated.
Asked if they are going to request any rectification or action through the Parliamentary Table, the governing body of the Chamber, Tudanca asked “what for” if the president of this institution, Carlos Pollán (Vox), is there because Manueco has wanted it that way and applies the Regulations as he wants.
For his part, the spokesman for Unidas Podemos, Pablo Fernández, has described the gesture as “contemptible”, “infamous” and “shame” for the Community, while the former vice president of the Board and current attorney for Cs, Francisco Igea, has ironized with the “elegance” of Mañueco’s gesture and has asked himself: “Who are they going to believe in their eyes or in Mañueco?”.
Igea has requested through social networks that the national president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the new spokesman for the same party, Borja Semper, speak about it.