Miras delivers Education and Culture to those expelled from Vox to save their government

The political spectacle of the last ten days in the Region reserved an epilogue at the height of the ‘show’. As soon as the vote on the motion of censure was concluded, in which Ana Martínez Vidal and Diego Conesa stayed two votes from unseating Fernando López Miras, THE TRUTH unveiled the draft of the agreement that the PP negotiates with the three deputies expelled from Vox , keys so that the popular have been able to retain power in the Community.

The document, which has not yet been initialed by both parties, consists of five points. The most important is the commitment adopted by the president of the regional government, Fernando López Miras, to reshape the Executive at the end of this month – specifically on March 29 – to include Mabel Campuzano, one of the deputies of the group headed by Juan José Liarte, at the head of the Ministry of Education and Culture, where he would replace Esperanza Moreno. Campuzano would remain in office until the end of the legislature, and if for any reason he left the Executive, he would be replaced by one of his two colleagues, Liarte or Francisco José Carrera de la Fuente.

Budgets and mandates

The scoop on THE TRUTH generated a stir and disbelief in the political parties, since neither the popular nor the ex-Vox referred to it during the second session of the debate on the motion of censure. Sources of the negotiation between the PP and the Liarte group confirmed the existence of this draft, which also includes the promise of Fernando López Miras not to advance the regional elections and two agreements for the approval of the Community Budgets for 2021 and the reform of the Law of the Statute of the President to establish in eight years the limitation of mandates, so that Fernando López Miras can once again be a candidate of the PP in the elections of 2023. Another of the clause required to keep confidentiality about what was agreed. Obviously, it no longer makes sense to stick to this point after the draft document has been unveiled.

The negotiation with the three Vox dissidents – who were expelled from the party last June after removing the general secretary, Javier Ortega Smith, control of the bank accounts of the parliamentary group – is being carried out from Murcia. Genoa has given total freedom to the new secretary general of the regional PP, José Miguel Luengo, and the parliamentary spokesman, Joaquín Segado, to seal the stability agreement for the remaining two years of the legislature. This is intended to be framed within “the policy of reunification of the center-right from the base” announced by Pablo Casado and Teodoro García Egea. Popular sources recall that the three deputies are not part of the Santiago Abascal party – some of them were affiliated with the PP before the emergence of Vox – and do not rule out that finally the Ministry managed by the self-appointed free deputies of Vox is another, such as the of Business and Industry, which until a week ago was in the hands of Ana Martínez Vidal and now occupies Valle Miguélez.

But it will be difficult for Juan José Liarte and his faithful to resign from the Ministry of Education. The choice of this department, which together with Health is the one that handles the most budget and the one that has the most payroll in charge of the regional Administration, is not by chance. One of the flags of those expelled, who continue to defend much of the ideology of Abascal’s party, is the recognition of the right of parents to know and authorize the education their children receive, especially when they affect moral or sexual content. Call it ‘parental pin’ or whatever you want to call it.

Complaints from the opposition

The publication of THE TRUTH, later picked up by other media, immediately provoked reactions from the rest of the parties. The promoter of the failed censure motion, Ana Martínez Vidal, denounced that the vote against those expelled from Vox “has cost the PP nothing more and nothing less than the Ministry of Education.”

Antonio Espín, from the PSOE, reproaches the PP leaving education in the hands of the extreme right, while Javier Sánchez Serna, from Podemos, regrets that the popular have turned the institutions “into a placement office.”