We had to wait for Vox spokesman Alejandro Nolasco to step onto the podium of the Cortes de Aragón this Thursday afternoon to hear the most delicate points of the program of the new autonomous coalition government, namely the brand new president, the popular Jorge Azcón had during avoided the two days of his investiture debate. The vice-president in pectore – he will be officially on Saturday when the new board takes office – has announced some of the 80 points of the pact signed between the PP and Vox.
From the repeal of the regional law on historical memory because, in his opinion, history “must be academic and neutral”, to school checks – which require public funding of unconcerted private education – to prior approval of the content of extracurricular parenting (what the Ultra party dubbed “parents’ needle”) to “remove the ideology of the school, which is there,” he says. The “explicit eviction of squatters” or the tax deduction for the spouse who dedicates to the household are also ways to encourage women to return to housework. Only the reform of the Aragonese Trans Law, which at the time was supported by the PP and which no one has explained in what sense it will be changed, remained unanswered.
As the future head of the Department of Territorial Development, Depopulation and Justice, Nolasco announced that his priority will be to reduce labor costs for companies settling in Teruel by up to 20% and to promote it as if it were his inauguration and not that of Azcón’s arrival of doctors and teachers. Despite his long list of commitments made by the PP, he warned that Vox “did not sign a white check nor abandon any of its proposals and principles, but positively.”
After accusing the left of putting its members at “physical and moral” risk by saying his party is opposed to human rights, he categorically denied that Vox does not condemn violence against women but compares it to many other forms of violence equate violence. “I don’t think the PP will repeal a law related to gender-based violence,” the PP presidential candidate decided.
Azcón was surprised that the left followed the Vox spokesman’s presentation of their government program with such keen interest, claiming it was public and well-known, although he had avoided elaborating on it and most of the time devoted more to investigating the opposition parties had devoted himself to investigate.
He announced that the first action his executive will take will be to exempt from income tax the 15,000 Aragonese who have had to pay this tax for failing to lower the tax rate. However, he did not name the cost of the tax cuts he had promised, nor did he deny the figure of 200 million given by socialist spokeswoman Mayte Pérez.
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The new president defended his coalition deal with Vox, assuring it was “the only possible government with the polls’ result” in the May 28 regional elections. Although he declared after the election that he wanted to govern alone, he denied having changed his mind. “What is happening,” he replied to the Socialists, “is that there has been an election result and given your refusal to even meet me, there is no more stable government than the one being voted on here today.” In the face of the Accused that he did not dare to repeat elections for fear of losing them, he argued that he “would not have acted seriously or responsibly in the face of the possibility of forming a government.”
Azcón denied that he would privatize healthcare, as the left accused him, arguing that the biggest privatization is that the number of Aragonese who have taken out private insurance has increased by 24% to over 300,000, and he asked if that was the case. The government should be judged “on facts, not prejudice.”
He did not explain the contradictions between the agreement he had signed with Vox and the agreement with the Aragonese Regionalist Party (PAR), two formations that represent “antagonistic positions in the state model or in the Ebro transfer” such as Tomás Guitarte from Teruel , reminded him. exists. While Azcón attributed the suppression of the General Directorate for Language Policy to its tight budget, Nolasco made the reasons for Vox clear. “We don’t speak Catalan in Aragon,” he said, denying the fact that a variant of Catalan is spoken on the eastern fringes of the community.
Although refusal to transfer is not included in the agreement with the PAR, their only deputy, Alberto Izquierdo, presented himself as “the guarantee that there will be no transfer”, while Azcón replied that “the only real risk”. . for the Ebro is that Pedro Sánchez, in order to be re-elected President, gives in to the pro-independence parties’ claim to manage the stretch of the river as it passes through Catalonia. The PAR will not enter the government but will occupy five directorates-general, which is not officially recognized but is an open secret. “You have very valuable people in your team and my goal is to be able to count on them,” Azcón told Izquierdo with a wink.
In his last speech, the new president warned his Vox partners that some coalition governments have failed because they have focused on “putting on a show” rather than “doing well”. After more than nine hours of debate, the vote brought no surprises: Azcón was elected on the first ballot with 36 votes in favor (PP, Vox and PAR) and 31 votes against (PSOE, Chunta, Aragón Existe, Podemos and IU). In the palace of La Aljafería, the headquarters of the Cortes, everything is already prepared for his swearing-in this Friday.
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