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It is not the first time he announces it in recent years although now it seems that it will be the definitive one. The socialist baron of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, has waited for the last day of this campaign to ensure that he will no longer be a candidate for the Junta de Extremadura.

After 12 years at the head of the regional administration of Extremadura (eight in a row plus another previous legislature, which was interrupted when José Antonio Monago won the elections in 2011), Fernández Vara surprised this morning by confirming that this 2023 – in which he is presented for the fifth time – "is the last, which is always important in life", Warned. The secretary general of the Socialists of Extremadura, before acceding to the presidency of the Board, had been Minister of Health in the government of Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, and became his successor.

It is not the first time that the retirement of Fernández Vara, who turns 65 in October, is on the table. The last time has been in this same legislature, where he gave rise to speculation about whether he would head the PSOE list in Extremadura, an issue that he did not reveal until last year, even having renewed his position as secretary general of the PSOE of Extremadura. This fact unleashed, although behind the scenes, the first movements for his succession, headed by the mayor of Villanueva de la Serena, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, who in turn is president of the Diputación de Badajoz. There has also been talk of the possibility of the current Minister of Health, José María Vergeles, and even the mayor of Mérida, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna.

"Reasonable to make way" for others

The announcement of this Friday of Fernández Vara also coincides with another made in the last hours, in an interview in the newspaper Hoy, in which he has advanced that if he does not govern, he will have finished his "political life", advancing that he would not be in the opposition as he did in the legislature from 2011 to 2015, years that were the worst of his political life and from which he also felt political detachment, of many of his own party, of the defeated: "I think it would be reasonable to give way", although he has also warned that this possibility, that of electoral defeat, "is not going to happen, although some would be happy if it happened". Of course, he said he would like to close the circle of his life by returning to the activity of forensic doctor.

In parallel, there has also been speculation about the possibility that Vara had presented himself to these elections but with the intention of holding at most until the middle of the legislature to resign and make way for his successor or undertake a last political stage in Madrid, an issue that he has always ruled out despite the offers he has had at certain times to become a minister of several socialist governments.

According to all the polls, the PSOE will lose the absolute majority it enjoys in this legislature and will be forced to agree with Podemos to govern in Extremadura while the block of PP and Vox would also be close to being able to reach the figure of 33 deputies, the limit to govern.

  • Extremadura
  • Guillermo Fernandez Vara
  • Jose Antonio Monago

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