María Guardiola decided to bring forward the regional elections to this Sunday with the argument of the budgetary blockade of the PSOE and Vox, but this was not an obstacle to the rain of millions that fell this Tuesday from the last government council before the votes in Extremadura: no less than 41 measures approved and more than 165 million euros in aid and investments.
For the moment, no poll gives an absolute majority to the PP, which will once again depend on Vox if it wants to form a government. In fact, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has already lowered the electoral ambition of his party and sets the PP’s objective of obtaining more votes than the left, which is why this electoral “bonus” makes sense, translating into broad-spectrum measures that range from self-employed workers and public employees to small municipalities, large socialist strongholds and public health users.
Among them, the regional government has given the green light to a salary increase of 2.5% in 2025, with retroactive effect from January 1, and of 1.5% for 2026, for civil servants of the Extremadura government. The estimated cost is 110 million euros. The spokesperson for the Executive, Elena Manzano, said that this year’s increase would not be done now, but “as quickly as possible”, and that in 2026 it would be reflected in the January payroll.
Also for the last pre-electoral government council, the PP candidate and president of the Council awaited the approval of a new decree promoting self-employment with direct aid of between 960 and 3,000 euros. In addition, the call for three of its grant lines was also authorized for an amount of 6.5 million euros and is expected to benefit more than 3,000 companies.
The first of these is aimed at self-employed people who maintain their activity for three years and commit to doing so for another year; The second is aimed at incomes below the SMI, who will receive 960 euros and, finally, it is intended to support self-employed people over 65 who benefit from an active retirement with 2,000 euros.
Also for the business sector, the Council gave the green light to two million euros for modernization investments by self-employed workers and micro-SMEs with a maximum of 25,000 euros per beneficiary.
The regional government spokesperson presented other million-dollar measures on the eve of the elections, such as six million euros in aid for municipalities to improve municipal housing and for the provision of local services. It is also worth noting the completion, for almost a million euros, of works in schools in eight municipalities of Cáceres in order to improve their energy and thermal efficiency.
In health, 11.6 million were approved for the provision of continuous interstitial glucose monitoring systems for people with diabetes, which include their electronic integration with the Jara health application, that is, real-time updating of the patient’s clinical history data. The tender for air medical transport was also authorized for an amount of 13.8 million euros for the period 2026-2029, after the tender was canceled last year.
Controversy over an “election announcement” in Mérida
Another of the measures announced after the government council sparked controversy: the construction of a new headquarters of the Extremadura Science and Technology Park in Mérida, which will be added to those already operational in Badajoz and Cáceres. It will have an approximate area of 1,900 square meters, will house a dozen companies and will be located next to the future building that will house the Research Support Service in 5G and 6G Advanced Services of the University Center of the capital of Extremadura, according to the report sent by the Commission to the media.
After learning of the announcement, the mayor of Mérida, the socialist Antonio Rodríguez Osuna, assured through a statement that it is a “lie” and an “electoralist announcement” on the part of the government of Extremadura. “The University of Extremadura itself, after repeated interest from the municipality in launching the project, reported a month ago that the project could not be executed as planned, because the deadlines for the European funds allocated for this purpose were not respected,” he explained.
For this reason, the councilor asked the Council for “a clarification or rectification”, while the University itself “had informed us of the impossibility of executing the said project due to notable deficiencies in the management of the regional administration”. According to him, “this announcement is surprising because a little less than a month ago we met with the University of Extremadura and they told us that these European funds had been lost for the construction of the same building that would be hosted by Fundecyt.”
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