From the same electoral night of the last regional elections, where Guillermo Fernández Vara returned to recover the absolute majority in Extremadura, the PSOE in this community - in the midst of euphoria for the results obtained - was introducing - through the statements of his high positions - the message that the limitation of mandates for eight consecutive years for the presidency of the Board was an issue that had become 'obsolete'. The PSOE had abstained when José Antonio Monago (PP) approved the law in the only mandate that was in charge of the presidency of the Board (2011-2015). He approved it, specifically, in 2014.

Fernández Vara will follow the line of his party partner in Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, on which the same conditioner weighed, so the law changed on July 22. And both have followed the same strategy: to approve the change of law in the first months of the new legislature, long before reexamining at the polls within four years. There is the circumstance, in addition, that Vara had previously been president of the Board, in the legislature from 2007 to 2011, so he will accumulate 12 years -8 continuously- before he returns to re-election in 2023. If he succeeds, he would be at least 16 years old.

So during the summer months, and until today the Socialist Parliamentary Group has registered in the Assembly the proposal for a Law to approve the modification as soon as possible, the statements in this line have multiplied, both to the press and in official acts Match First, the mayor of Mérida, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna, who also enjoys an absolute majority: "We owe it to the citizens; it is they who decide who governs them and manages the public money. Therefore, I just asked my party to start the procedures to reform the Public Charges Law and eliminate from it the limitation of mandates so that it is the voters and the voters who exercise their legitimate right to always decide who wants to govern them in freedom and without legal constraints that eliminate the fundamental right of free choice. " And so, a plethora of socialist leaders in 'orchestra' mode, such as the regional socialist spokesman, José Antonio González: The limitation of mandates "does not improve democracy", since "it is the citizens who have to put and remove the leaders. " In his opinion, this law "is counter-natural" because in his opinion "it goes against the principle of democracy", since "it is the citizens and citizens of Extremadura who have to decide who is their ruler."

Today, the last example: Lara Garito, parliamentary spokesman of the Extremadura PSOE has said that the law passed in 2014 was intended to "distract the public debate to hide what they were really doing, which was to cut in all the houses of the Extremadura through education and health. " And he added: "This modification of the law does the opposite of what was done in 2014", with the aim that "we only need to work for Extremadura", because "there is no greater exercise of freedom and democracy that the vote, and that it is the citizens and the citizens who decide who they want. "

Vara's opinion

The 'affected' himself, Guillermo Fernández Vara, had also already sent some messages in this line during the summer, both in interviews granted in local media (newspaper 'Hoy', July 31) and in some debate in Parliament: "Yes I would see that the fact that the mandate runs out will mean a deterioration of the government action, the change tomorrow. If that is going to condition the government action internally or externally, the change, "he warned this newspaper.

The Extremadura PSOE has given such rapidity that yesterday Monday agreed the position at the meeting of its regional committee and this morning early in the morning has registered the proposal in the Assembly for approval to occur "as soon as possible." Specifically, it proposes the modification of section 3 of article 8 of Law 1/2014, of February 18, on the regulation of the Statute of Public Offices of the Government and the Administration of the Autonomous Community of Extremadura. Once the third section of this article has been repealed, it will be renamed 'Incompatibilities of the position and declarations of activities, assets, rights, interests and income'.

The opposition

However, the opposition parties believe that this measure is due to internal issues of the PSOE, and in particular to the difficulty and possible 'internal wars' when it comes to finding a substitute for Fernández Vara: The president of the Popular Party of Extremadura , José Antonio Monago, has criticized the "roller of sectarian character" that Fernández Vara is applying in the region remembering that the socialist promised to "govern as if he did not have an absolute majority" but that this purpose "has been carried away by the wind" . In a press conference in Mérida, Monago has lamented that in Extremadura "the roller works like in the old days of Extremaduran socialism." Thus, he has criticized that the PSOE will repeal the limitation of mandates that weighed on the figure of the president of the community and that was approved by the majority of parliamentary groups. He has even remembered that Fernández Vara came to say that "chaining mandates was an anomaly" but now, Monago has warned, "that is no longer valid."

For his part, Cayetano Polo, president and spokesperson for Citizens in this region, said that it is "really regrettable that the PSOE uses the laws and institutions of Extremadura to quell possible internal fires." Both PP and CS agreed that the limitation of mandates provides "democratic hygiene" to institutions.

In addition, the spokeswoman for United for Extremadura, Irene de Miguel, has criticized that the priority of the PSOE in this beginning of the legislature is "to perpetuate Fernández Vara in power" instead of the problems of unemployment or the health and education of the region.

De Miguel has criticized that the first proposal that the PSOE presents in the Assembly in this legislature "does not honor the reality" of the region, since it does not worry about high unemployment rates, poverty "or that there is no enough teachers in the classrooms or that the hospitals fall to pieces ".

"For the PSOE the priority is to perpetuate Mr. Fernández Vara in power for the years it takes and until he retires," said the spokeswoman for United for Extremadura, who recalled that only a few months ago Fernández Vara said "that the bata was waiting for him "and, it seems," has changed his mind and has seen that raising a succession within the PSOE could break the internal peace, "EFE report.

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  • PSOE
  • Estremadura
  • José Antonio Monago
  • Guillermo Fernández Vara
  • Citizens
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  • Castilla la Mancha
  • Unemployment
  • Health

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