“I was lucky,” the current president of the Andalusian Regional Government admitted almost six years ago. Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla (PP). That December 2, 2018, the date on which the then president Susana Diaz (PSOE) set the elections, everything was prepared for a new socialist victory in Andalusia. Even Moreno’s internal rivals had already prepared an exit ticket for him, but the unexpected happened.
The polls, polls and forecasts failed and those elections opened a new political scenario: they put an end to 37 years of PSOE governments of Andalusia, a hegemonic party and until then with a mutation capacity —shared the Government with parties as diverse as the Andalusian Party (1996-2004), with IU (2012-2015) and relied on Ciudadanos in the last stage, but without mixing in a bomb-proof Executive.
That December 2nd, Moreno Bonilla managed to access the Executive. Even though the Andalusian PP obtained the worst result in its history and the PSOE – also with pyrrhic support – was the first force, it was not enough: for the first time, the left and the socialists did not have an absolute majority in Andalusia. The combined votes of the PP with those of Ciudadanos and, also for the first time, with those of the extreme right, of Vox, which burst into the political landscape of the State In these elections, he gave Moreno the Andalusian Government.
Moreno Bonilla He didn’t hesitate. On the one hand, it agreed with the extreme right, which chose to remove the PSOE from the Government without asking for a share of power. And, on the other hand, it closed with Ciudadanos, a party that during the previous years had supported the PSOE of Susana Diazhis entry into the Executive.
The left appeared united, around the Adelante Andalucía brand, in these elections. The project was very powerful and was intended as a left-wing alternative to the PSOE. It was led by Teresa Rodriguezthen in Podemos, and seconded by the IU of Antonio Maíllo. However, the results were not as desired.
Once the right-wing government was formed, the project imploded: today, six years later, there are two minority parliamentary groups, Adelante, with two deputies, already a party founded by Rodríguez and José María González, Kichiamong others, and that of Por Andalucía, with five seats, in which Podemos and IU are, along with other forces.
That December 2, in fact, Andalusia turned right. The reasons for this turnaround, which was completed in the 2022 regional elections, with the absolute majority victory of Moreno Bonilla’s PP, with the PSOE, already led by Juan Espadas, on its electoral soil, are varied and vary depending on who is ask, but at least five factors They played a relevant role.
On the one hand, the wear and tear of the PSOE – since 2004 the PSOE has not stopped giving itself support regional after regional – after almost four decades of government. On the other hand, the internal wars of socialismthen led by Díaz from Andalusia, which caused widespread disaffection. Besides, the corruption of the ERE and other cases is a fundamental element that explains socialist decline.
Also, the evident deterioration of public healthafter the fall of Lehman Brothers, which caused large demonstrations throughout Andalusia against the Díaz cabinets. And finally, the left failed to capture the votes that the socialists left behind. The discontent was not channeled to the left.
From Guatemala to Guatepeor
“The change in the Government in the Junta de Andalucía was a need for democratic hygiene. The PSOE governed for almost 37 years. It was a regime, renewed through elections, yes, but many Andalusians did not know any other face than that of the PSOE. What happened is that he left Guatemala to enter Guatepeor“, analyzes the anthropologist and member of the Andalucía Viva platform, Isidoro Moreno.
In these six years of the right-wing Government, first, and after the regional elections of June 2022, with the PP alone, in addition to the perennial and structural concern about unemployment in Andalusia, it has been consolidated the deterioration of public health as one of the most relevant headaches for users. In recent times, problems of access to housing have also been added, especially in the most touristic cities.
The PSOE has not managed to reconnect with the electorate in Andalusia in this time. Immersed in a desert journey, the PP, until now, has had enough to blame the mistakes of the 37 years of Government to neutralize the attempts to get ahead in its opposition task. The opening of a judicial investigation into the emergency contracts of the pandemic and their extensions gives the Andalusian socialists some hope of changing the path of Moreno Bonilla after six years. Yes, there has been a change in tone in recent months in the way of opposing the president. The effects will be seen in the next surveys and polls.
For the researcher and writer Pura Sanchezanalyzing everything that is happening in Andalusia and what the arrival of the PP to the Government meant implies “opening the focus.” “There were no radical changes [tras los comicios] —he poses—. Education, health, housing and poverty rates have followed the same path the one they were going for before the arrival of the PP. The problem of Andalusia is a type of politics, which has to do with how global capitalism behaves in certain areas, with a [lógica] colonial”.
“We must talk about continuity,” analyzes anthropologist Moreno, “more than about important changes. The route has not been changed, but rather There have been several twists and turns and that is why the problems have worsened. that already existed previously: health, education, housing… The so-called public-private collaboration in health, with what that means health referral, Moreno Bonilla did not invent it. The concerted one was the work of the PSOE. The non-existence of a housing policy was already with the PSOE.”
“What is new,” adds anthropologist Moreno, “is the speed, the acceleration of neoliberalism in Andalusia. Right-wing policies have been accentuated“.
Piano, pianoMoreno Bonilla has been applying his policies while embracing the flag of Andalusia, supported by Alejandro Rojas Marcoshistorical leader of the disappeared Andalusian Party. It has done so in the fiscal field, in urban planning, with the relaxation of controls and the opening again to a reactivation of brick, and in public services, too.
Consequently, there has been a combination of discomforts —some of them expressed in the streets and sustained over time— in healthcare, in education, in the world of culture, in universities, among young people who do not have access to housing…
Indeed, Moreno Bonilla’s neoliberal recipes in a Community with structural unemployment rates and endemic pockets of poverty and misery have not had, for the moment, a tangible effect. On the contrary. Andalusia appears in the INE statistics as the last Autonomous Community —has been surpassed by Extremadura and only Melilla is worse— in terms of GDP per capita.
However, despite all these problems that citizens suffer, Moreno Bonillasix years later, has an absolute majority and the polls predict, although with slight wear, that it will repeat it, if there are new elections now. “The PP in Andalusia has adopted a non-radical profile, if we compare it with the leaders of the PP in other Communities. People don’t see aggressive policies being made. Although these are aggressive policies. The talent is not aggressive. This is the question,” says Sánchez.
The researcher gives the example of last 25N. “Moreno Bonilla’s PP has adopted a political action of not disturbing, which seems not aggressive, but it is. No [nombraron] not once the word feminismand all the time they talked about women victims of violence. [El PP] this installed in a goodist analysis of ‘poor women’. We have to talk about feminism, because if we don’t talk about feminism, we don’t talk about inequality and there is no talk of power hierarchy. “It is not presented in those terms.”
Isidoro Moreno adds to the analysis a relevant leg in the equation: the control of RTVA, regional television. “In these six years the PP has copied the PSOE in many areas: for example, public television, It is not too different today from what it was in the days of the PSOE: a government tool, rather than a public one. “They do the same but bringing the ember to their sardine.”
Regarding Moreno Bonilla and the PP’s embrace of the Andalusian flag, the anthropologist speaks of “imposture.” “The PP does the same thing that the PSOE already did so that we forget where they come from, the UCD of Suárez and the AP of Fraga and his opposition to any type of autonomy in Andalusia. The PSOE abandoned the 4D because it was better for it to focus the entire 28F to build the story of the prominence of Andalusian autonomy. The PP, let’s say, copies the policies of the PSOE: continuity in terms of the partisan capitalization of the green and white and other Andalusian symbols”.
The extreme right and the responsibility of the left
That December 2 marked the arrival of the extreme right to the institutions. “This has to do with a current that is practically global, European. This is a movement that exceeds the properly Andalusian explanation. and that has to do with the rightwardization of political parties,” says Moreno.
“Vox will be a wild card for when [al PP le] It is necessary to strengthen right-wing policies in Andalusia and it will continue to do something which is divert attention from the problems that affect the majority of people. In that sense, Why do people vote for Vox? He no longer has hope in other policies, he has settled into discredit,” Sánchez reflects.
“Sociological Francoism enduredamong other things because from the government levels, when the left-wing parties governed, practically nothing was done. An example: lThe Francisco Franco Foundation still exists. Since 1978 it has rained. That thought has always existed, which today has dramatically enough echo in people who are 20 years old,” analyzes anthropologist Moreno.
Sánchez elaborates on this argument: “How can we be surprised with the policy of historical memory that we have had? The new generations that leave a school whistling the Face to the sun They have no idea what they are doing because there has not been a policy of historical memory. This has causes. And they are fundamentally and to summarize that the left-wing parties have abandoned their functions.”
“They send messages aimed at the emotionality,” explains Sánchez, “of the people, just like people on the right. These neo-fascisms are not identical to those of before. Just like Andalusia is not identical either. Social networks and half-lies and half-truths. The classic fascists did not have the way of propagandizing today’s far-right. Today’s society has left us defenseless against these new methods of misinformation and lies.”
“There are left-wing values, but the political organizations that exist propose palliatives. Attenuate the symptoms, the consequences of the disease, but not [atacan] the causes. There is a general malaise about the area of what is usually called politicswhich is rather the gossip of the parties, the disenchantment, the crisis of credibility in the political system. Who has taken advantage of this malaise? “The extreme right.”
“From the left, no answers are given, they are complainers about the problems. People protest because things are getting worse. Why have we come this far? “Why are we the way we are?” analyzes anthropologist Moreno.
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