They did not make it public, but the leader of the PP and the three regional presidents pending unblocking their governments – María Guardiola, Jorge Azcón and Alfonso Fernández Mañueco – met privately after the National Board of Directors at lunch time. They did it in … a restaurant near the Génova headquarters and the general secretary, Miguel Tellado, also attended the meeting; and Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s chief of staff, Marta Varela. The two appointed by the national leadership to negotiate with Vox.
The three regional barons maintain the uncertainty about Santiago Abascal’s plans in his executives. What Vox has been repeating these days – its leader did it again yesterday – is that the first thing is the measures, the program, the legislature’s roadmap with budgetary guarantees and specific deadlines for compliance. Only after that will they talk about forming coalitions or not. Yesterday the regional presidents of the PP received the notice, almost live, that Abascal was ensuring that he would enter the three governments. Then they received the nuances of the speech: again, the Vox leader said, they will talk about governments “if there is agreement” on the measures.
The feeling among the three regional presidents is one of many doubts. They are not clear if Vox really aspires to occupy council positions in governments, if they have already decided and if they will make the same decision for the three territories. In Genoa they find it difficult to follow the asymmetry strategy of Vox and find it very difficult to defend the entry of some executives and not others. “They should make the decision now and know what they want,” say popular sources.
For their part, Guardiola, Azcón and Mañueco have decided to leave that determination in the hands of Vox. That is to say, the barons of the PP are not opposed to returning to government, also aware that the management could wear them down. But, above all, they will not bear the cost of closing that door. They will leave it open and is in the hands of Abascal decide whether to cross it or not. The popular barons recognize that after having gone through failed coalitions and having had governments alone, the second option would be the most executive and beneficial for the management. But, at the same time, the parties have started a kind of competition for responsibility in which the PP does not want to exonerate Vox; and he is a prisoner of his own words.
As ABC published, ‘heavyweights’ close to Abascal are in favor of staying out of governments without giving up means of control. In the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, they repeat, it is the model that has worked. And in both cases there are no Vox advisors, without this diminishing their ability to influence PP policies.
What is foreseeable, according to popular sources, is that Guardiola’s agreement will come first and the idea is that it will happen before the Easter break. Azcón, for his part, directly pilots the agreement. And Mañueco must now start negotiations. Everyone waiting for Vox’s decision.
