There were two appointments marked on the calendar: Castile and León and Andalusia, but everything accelerated in Extremadura, where the elections will take place on December 21, and in Aragon, where there are only a few of Jorge Azcón’s margarita left. … leaves to activate the decision of the electoral advance. While waiting for the official call, the government is already preparing to go to the polls in February, even though it has done everything possible to prevent this from happening. “It is not in our power, it is the power of the President of Aragon,” they emphasize in Pilar Alegría’s entourage.
The PSOE candidate, who combines this condition with that of government spokesperson and Minister of Education and Sports, left the scenario of traditional confrontation a few days ago to address the PP to approve the region’s budgets. Alegría’s movement means, at best, avoiding elections, in case Azcón accepts the support of the socialists to approve the public accounts. And in the worst case scenario, with the elections on the horizon, discover that the budget letter was just an alibi to give effect to the real desire of the PP to advance the elections. “If he proposes a misleading dialogue, it is he who will have to explain it,” they emphasize in the entourage of the minister, who met Azcón yesterday during a series of contacts to test the level of support for the accounts.
In Sánchez’s Cabinet, we are already working with the anticipation that They will have to open the year with a government overhaul. The fact that the candidate has a seat in the Council of Ministers incurs the regime of incompatibilities, which places its horizon at Moncloa, in the presentation of the lists before the court. Until then, a procedure which takes place 22 days after the electoral summonsAlegría will have to abandon her government responsibilities, where she is the voice of the Executive every Tuesday after the weekly Cabinet meeting.
As Sánchez himself confirms, it is not in his plans to take advantage of this first departure of a minister-candidate to carry out a major overhaul of government and also address the great relief that will be that of María Jesús Montero. In the midst of the preparation of the General State Budgets, today the path to stability in Congress and contacts with the groups will fail again. The president prefers to opt for “surgical” changes and replace the parts that must leave his team ministerial one by one. This is the trend that has been achieved in recent times. During his mandate there has only been one major remodeling, with the current mandate, and it is that of 2021 in which heavyweights like José Luis Ábalos, Carmen Calvo or Iván Redondo emerged from his bodyguard.
Since then, Sánchez has chosen to make minimal adjustments without any major impact other than filling vacancies or, at most, redistributing the workload, changing the responsibilities of certain portfolios. Sources around him indicate that “he is satisfied with all the ministers” and does not plan to provide any component likely to slow down already well-oiled machinery. They explain it from their team, emphasizing that any entry requires work of explanation and updating for newcomers, which generates certain distortions in daily work.
From the president’s entourage, we assure that “he is satisfied” with his ministers
In this way, the president reserves for the future the succession of Montero, which offers the greatest destabilizing potential, since he not only holds the first vice-presidency of the government, but also a portfolio with specific political weight, that of the Ministry of Finance. Montero’s entourage has already confirmed several times his intention to remain in his post until his departure is strictly necessary. “I am more useful from Moncloa,” he says privately, in response to the voices of his party who ask him to land in the territory as quickly as possible to take the reins of the alternative to Juanma Moreno.
The impact of the Salazar affair
With investigations in hand which are very favorable to him and which, in the best case scenario, would allow him not to depend on Vox for a future government, the “Salazar case” represents one more incentive to encourage the president of Aragon to call the polls earlier. Alegría’s obvious personal connection with the socialist councilor also adds to that of a candidate still in Madrid.
The photo that showed them eating after she left her position in the party and in the government because of the publication of the harassment of her colleagues, was the detonator that ignited the victims and encouraged them to denounce their content and the inaction of their party to the media. Alegría has made no secret of the fact that she has a close relationship with Salazar, but she has tried to loosen her ties with him in recent hours, acknowledging in a tone of regret that this meeting “was a mistake” and that “it should not have happened.”
It is late, the PP plans to exploit this problem. For example, the tweet that Azcón himself published yesterday on his social network with a photo of the aforementioned meal, in which he sought to warm up the meeting that they would hold hours later. “I am informed that this afternoon (yesterday) Pilar Alegría will come to the negotiation of the budget project. It will be a pleasure to tell you that the fight against gender-based violence is a priority for my Government, with the aim that cases like that of his friend Francisco Salazar do not go unpunished. Not even those of Koldo, Ábalos, Antonio Navarro, José Tomé, Tito Berni…”, he writes.
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