Andalusian shift begins

The Ciu­dadanos party yes­ter­day made a deal with the Par­tido Pop­u­lar (PP) and the ex­treme-right Vox party, to take the pres­i­dency of the An­dalu­sian Par­lia­ment, and take con­trol of the Speaker’s Com­mit­tee. This ends 36 years of so­cial­ist rule in the South­ern au­tonomous com­mu­nity. Marta Bosquet beat In­mac­u­lada Nieto of Ade­lante An­dalucía (the IU-Podemos coali­tion), to be­come Pres­i­dent of the Par­lia­ment. The Podemos coali­tion was left with­out a seat in the com­mit­tee, and Vox got their first, in the form of lawyer Man­ual Gavira.

Bosquet will now lead talks with the var­i­ous par­lia­men­tary groups and put for­ward Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, the PP can­di­date, as the new pres­i­dent of the Junta (the An­dalu­sian gov­ern­ment), re­plac­ing Su­sana Díaz, early next year.

The in­au­gu­ra­tion of the new An­dalu­sian right-wing coali­tion gov­ern­ment could take place on Jan­u­ary 16th. On the ne­go­ti­a­tions to form this gov­ern­ment, Vox yes­ter­day ex­pressed its will­ing­ness to par­tic­i­pate. The talks with PP and Cs “begin today,” said Sec­re­tary Gen­eral of the ex­treme-right party, Javier Or­tega Smith, who pledged to ne­go­ti­ate is­sues “point by point” with the coali­tion par­ties. “We don’t feel re­spon­si­ble or ob­lig­ated by pre­vi­ous agree­ments to fol­low through with an ac­cord with these two po­lit­i­cal par­ties; the ne­go­ti­a­tions will be clear, trans­par­ent and loyal to Spain, and also dif­fi­cult be­cause we will press them on many is­sues.” The So­cial­ists (PSOE), called it “pact of shame”. Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Works, José Luis Ábalos, said the PP and Ciu­dadanos will go down in his­tory for hav­ing “opened the door to the ex­treme right”.