This has come from the national party, the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, being in no rush to conclude negotiations and having given orders that Vox must be in the government and have ministries.
To give a reminder, the PP can call on 26 seats in the Balearic parliament, four short of a majority but one more than the combined total of parties on the left. They need Vox support in some form or another, as there won't be support from any other party. Abascal is making clear that there will be no such thing as a "free abstention", the differences between the PP and Vox being glaringly obvious when it comes to a number of contentious issues.
As is so often case in Balearic politics, language is at the heart of these differences. Vox want a repeal of the 1986 law of linguistic normalisation. This was introduced by the first Balearic government following regional autonomy in 1983. The president was Gabriel Cañellas, then of the Alianza Popular and later of the PP after the party was reformed in 1989. This law established that Catalan was a co-official language alongside Castellano (Spanish).
As such, it underpins policies for specific sectors, the two biggest battlegrounds having been education and the health service. In October last year, Vox presented a motion to parliament for the repeal of linguistic regulations which made it, in the words of party leader Jorge Campos, "impossible to choose Spanish as the language of instruction". "In the Balearics, the system of Catalan immersion is being imposed in schools." The PP's view then was that the left-wing government had "perverted" the law, but the party was not in favour of repealing something that had, in its opinion, worked well until decrees issued by the left had affected it.
This remains the PP position, the party also being mindful of the experience of the 2011 to 2015 government of José Ramón Bauzá when Catalan became a political hot potato and was a contributory factor to a disastrous performance at the 2015 election.
Other Vox demands include repeal of the law on graves and democratic memory, one that has led to the exhumation of remains of Republicans murdered during the Civil War. The party wants LGTBI law to be repealed and bodies such as the Institute for Women to be scrapped.
Vox would close the IB3 regional broadcaster and would amend energy transition policies, e.g. fields full of solar panels. The party questions climate change. Vox want the tourist tax to be scrapped and they also want policies to return powers from the region to Madrid. This is its stance for the whole of Spain. Essentially, Vox don't believe in regional governments.
Prime Minister Sánchez having brought forward the general election to July 23 would seem to have influenced Abascal's thinking; hence he is in no rush for regional agreements to be struck.
If all fails, and there is no new president sixty days after the first session of the new parliament, there would have to be another election.
3 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
I’ve always found Andrew Ede’s pieces to be factual and accurate. There is, of course, an element of subjectiveness but nothing like as insidious as claimed by Adam. Also, there’s no mention of annulment other than by rubbish politicos who don’t even deserve the paro. Very Trumpian views are becoming more common and look where it’s getting Trump, and Boris. The bigger danger by far for all is that we are being more coerced by liars and believers of liars!
And there I always thought the Bulletin ,was a little right wing influenced. So it looks like it is balanced. :-)
Why is it that your Newspaper is so Left and it is obvious that you just hate seeing the PP & Vox in Power and you take every opportunity to spread negative info and rumors about the chances of the election being annulled and the results of the election being scraped , everyone knows your game .