The general secretary of the PSOE of Extremadura, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, does not seem to have the intention, at least for the moment, of requesting that the case being pursued against him and against Pedro Sánchez’s brother for the hiring of the musician in the Provincial Council in an allegedly irregular manner change court, to which he could be entitled since he will enjoy his status as a qualified person after the elections on December 21: “I can assure you that from December 21 I will continue to be as much of a deputy as now,” he said. expressed Gallardo, to add: “What difference does it make who judges me if I am innocent?”
Last May, the Superior Court of Justice of Extremadura prevented the socialist candidate from having this protection status by considering, like the Investigating Judge of the case, Beatriz Biedma, that his ‘express’ movement in 28 hours in which he made the resignation of a deputy and four other colleagues who preceded him on the lists so that he could become a deputy was a “legal fraud”, so the case continued in the Investigating Court No. 3 of Badajoz and now the trial will be held in the Provincial Court of Badajoz from February 9 to 14. If Gallardo appealed as a certified person after obtaining the record after December 21, the trial would take place in the TSJEx.
Gallardo indicated this Saturday that he felt “frankly happy” to learn, he said, the date of the trial and, after maintaining his innocence, he considers it proven that María Guardiola pressed the electoral advance button for the “particular interest” to link the elections with the oral trial. “Guardiola’s interest was not to have a budget or not, that the interest was not the people of Extremadura”, but rather “the interest was to keep the opposition weakened, that is, particular interest over the general interest.”
Thus, he has indicated that during the electoral campaign his candidacy – marked this week by the revelation by EL MUNDO of the video of the Regional Committee of the PSOE where several leaders asked him to renounce his candidacy and leave as senator – will work to inform Extremadurans that “there was no substantial reason” to bring “instability” to Extremadura, that there was only one cause: “the deception that Guardiola’s Government has been from beginning to end.”
Oblivious to the rebellion and internal criticism, Gallardo has indicated that he is “fully dedicated to knowing every corner of Extremadura, to being able to carry the message that change is possible and that Extremadura cannot be left with an insolent government that does not listen to the people or solve problems.”
Belarra: “We are the only clean left”
Podemos is going for the vote of the disenchanted socialists: “We are the only clean left,” he assured this Saturday in Extremadura, where our country’s first electoral rehearsal scheduled for December 21 will be established and where the purple formation maintains good voting expectations (according to the Sigma Dos survey for El Mundo it would maintain its current representation, between 3 and 4 seats), although insufficient to govern in the face of the historic decline of Miguel Ángel Gallardo’s PSOE. Today, its general secretary and former Minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, Ione Belarra, visited this community, already in the pre-election campaign, and in the middle of the pre-campaign for the December 21 elections. His niche among voters seems clear: what is going to end with the Government of Pedro Sánchez “is not going to be Junts or the right”, it is going to be the “frustration” of the progressive electorate at the lack of response to social problems, especially the price of housing, he has denounced.
Belarra visited the Beekeeping Fair in Caminomorisco (Cáceres) accompanied by the general secretary of political formation in the region, Irene de Miguel. Journalists have asked her about Junts’ decision to block all the Government’s parliamentary initiatives, and Belarra has been clear with Pedro Sánchez’s executive in criticizing “the total absence of a political project” for Spain, although she has specified that the decision to call elections is “solely and exclusively” in the hands of the President of the Government. In this sense, she has been convinced that Sánchez “will move forward with or without parliamentary support and with or without budgets.”
In this sense, Belarra has stressed that the President of the Government is doing exactly “the opposite” of what he promised in the last general elections: “This Government has carried out the greatest rearmament in the history of our country, it has been complicit in the genocide, it is carrying out the worst housing speculation policy in recent decades.” Thus, it has relied on the latest Cáritas report, which stated that, “half of the workers have precarious employment that does not allow them to live with dignity.”
The lack of a social agenda and not the loss of parliamentary support is what, according to Belarra, is going to lead to the end of the PSOE cycle in Moncloa: “That and nothing else, is what I believe is going to be the end of this Government. That decision is not going to be made by Podemos, it is going to be made by the President of the Government and it is already clear that he is going to make it for partisan and personal interests, and not for what matters to the Spanish men and women.”
Criticisms also of the PP
The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has also criticized the PP, considering that its management model “puts life” and “the territory at risk.” To this end, he has given Carlos Mazón, acting president of the Valencian Community, as an example: “Mr. Mazón is no exception in the PP. The model of putting lives at risk is the model of the PP.” From the Dana to the management of Covid in Madrid and the screenings in Andalusia: “We saw it with Mrs. Ayuso’s residences, we saw it with Mr. Mazón’s dana, we have seen it with the screenings of Mr. Moreno Bonilla”, to underline that “the same company that does the screenings in Andalusia is the one that does them in Extremadura.”
Along these lines, he has called in the next elections in Extremadura to “confront” that ‘popular’ model that advocates the “privatization” and “pauperization of public services” with that of Unidas por Extremadura, considering that it is “the only truly left-wing alternative” and as “the only clean left.”
Thus, the general secretary of Podemos has referred to the PSOE as a party that “is not an alternative” because “not only can it not confront this privatization” but “where it governs it also impoverishes public services.”
The candidate in Extremadura
For her part, the leader of Unidas por Extremadura, Irene de Miguel, who will be the candidate in Extremadura for the elections, has criticized that the water in the municipalities that suffered the fires last August “comes out black due to the dragging of ashes by the rains, that the Guardiola government “guarantees drinking water to the neighbors affected by the fire.” Thus, she criticized that
“300,000 euros have been spent for a private company to carry out the Helimulching technique, which has not worked, while the residents of this town have to pay for the water out of their own pockets.”
De Miguel has regretted that the electoral advance has stopped the Commission of Investigation of the forest fires that was approved in the Assembly and has demanded the expansion of the workforce of forest firefighters to cover retirements but also to be able to “change shifts and put an end to that perverse availability that forest firefighters suffer, and that makes family conciliation unfeasible.”