PP and Vox reached an agreement to approve the Seville budget for 2026, after the ultra formation demanded that the Popular Party, which governs in minority, postpone until this Tuesday the plenary session for approval of the municipal accounts, scheduled for last Friday, while awaiting the results of the elections in Extremadura. Abascal’s party had imposed as a condition for their approval the removal of the low-emission zone of La Cartuja and the strengthening of registration in the municipal register to prevent access to illegal immigration. Two red lines that follow the ideological manual of the far right: tackling the 2030 Agenda and tackling immigration. Without knowing the details of the agreement, which will be presented this Tuesday by the popular mayor, José Luis Sanz, and the local spokesperson for Vox, Cristina Peláez, before the budget debate, PP sources affirm that the text of the agreement “does not violate any red lines.”
“In every budget negotiation there are political agreements parallel to the approval of the budget,” Peláez said last Tuesday while presenting his conditions to support the accounts. Then, the hard core of the mayor of Seville assured that it was impossible to accept them because they were measures over which the City Council had no power. In the case of the low emissions zone, because it is a measure regulated by European regulations that would also compromise the arrival of European funds for other projects, and with regard to the register, because they cannot prevent anyone who has their papers in order and proves that they reside in the Andalusian capital from registering there.
In the PP they argued that these were two proposals that Vox had put forward to leave the door open for a possible “no” to the agreement from the national leadership, but when asked about this, the sources of the conservative party do not deny that they have now given in on aspects related to both. In the case of the low emissions zone, Peláez demanded that La Cartuja’s surveillance cameras stop working until emissions levels exceed the thresholds defined by the European Union, which de facto This implies that there are no fines in this area which “punish the working classes who cannot buy an electric or high-end car”, declared last Thursday the spokesperson for Vox during the ordinary municipal plenary session. Concerning the register, the ultra leader assured that it had become a gateway for irregular migrants, even if she did not provide data to support her assertions.
Until this Monday, when the agreement was confirmed, the PP considered that 90% of the amendments to the budget that it had approved in Vox at the cost of reducing positions intended for the Women’s Service, equality and development cooperation provide for increasing maternity aid, providing a budget for the baby check, encouraging young people who dedicate themselves to sacred art, increasing activities on the days of the Immaculate Conception and San Fernando – patron saint of Seville -, to strengthen the anti-abortion office or to create three new museums – of Holy Week, flamenco and the history of Seville – (in this case by withdrawing funds intended for the International Film Festival) were enough to obtain the support of Vox. The mayor defended last week that these transfers “were not ideological,” the same argument he used last year when he also gave in to Vox’s demands to close the budget. Then aid to anti-abortion groups was also increased or the creation of the Maternity Care Office – which directs and controls the far-right formation – was also increased, at the cost of withdrawing money from the same seats that were once again diminished with the new agreement.
The budgets present an investment of 1,096,267,338.71 euros, or 2.52% more than last year. Among the most reinforced areas are the cleaning of streets, schools and the Real Alcázar.
Unlike last year, Sanz did not need Vox to approve the accounts, since he was able to once again use the tool of the vote of confidence linked to the budgets, to move them forward. It is a mechanism that was already used two years ago and the law allows it to be used twice during the same mandate, provided that it is not the last year. When he hired him in 2024, Sanz boasted that he had saved his legislature because he could have budgets until new municipal elections.
The regional PP, very attentive to the agreement with the ultras last year, did not strengthen its surveillance on this occasion. Sources close to the leadership of the formation and the Council maintain that a pact with Vox in Seville on the eve of the Andalusian elections cannot have harmful consequences for Juan Manuel Moreno, because it did not do so four years ago, when Abascal’s formation was part of the autonomous governments.
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