Redaccion
Relatives of the president, mayors, and other institutional positions attend the Pazo do Hórreo in a meeting without BNG guests
The first session of the Debate on the State of Autonomy that started this Wednesday at the Pazo do Hórreo was marked, as usual, by the announcements of the President of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda. But there was also room to contrast political models, some calls for consensus (with little chance of materializing given the tone), and more banter than anecdotes that sometimes mark the records of the most important annual political meeting.
The day started at the Pazo do Hórreo with the announcement that the Government was leaving the Altri project without the funds from the Perte decarbonization, with a hasty call from the leader of the PSdeG, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, about an announcement that had been confirmed hours earlier by the leader of Sumar and the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, in a post on social media after its publication in ‘eldiario.es’.
As expected, Rueda used ‘aldraxe’ in his speech and also irony in congratulating his political rivals for their «efficiency» in ensuring «that no money comes to Galicia.» Such «success» led the leader of the PPdeG to suggest that the epithet of «os do non» –«those of no»– that he usually directs at the BNG was beginning to be, in his opinion, applicable to the socialists as well.
Against «those of no,» the president has called for «thinking big about Galicia»: a slogan that the nationalist Ana Pontón has used on several occasions, in campaigns and even in a similar event to this Wednesday’s, in 2021. It was her first general policy debate as the protagonist of the Bloque and the opponent was still Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
But Rueda has also taken advantage of other slogans coined in his own political home: «Galicia works and Galicia delivers. Said and done,» he has proclaimed several times, recalling a campaign in 2020 where the PPdeG sought to «value the word» of his predecessor at the head of the Xunta, who now leads the PP.
On the other hand, the opposition has focused on the «propaganda» and «personalistic regime» of Rueda. Besteiro started with a list: «You said a year ago that you would not indulge in self-satisfaction and, since then, you have done nothing else. Celebrations for the first 100 days, celebrations for the anniversary of the elections, celebrations for the investiture, and you only lacked a party for the first Consello of the Xunta.»
«At this rate,» he added, «we should start thinking about changing Galicia Day, which is celebrated on July 25 in conjunction with the feast of St. James the Apostle, to August 1, which is San Alfonso. «An autonomous holiday, of course, with a procession, floral offering, and anthem,» quipped the socialist.
Rueda responded afterward in an ironic tone and pointed out that he does not celebrate his Saint’s day in August, but on February 23, the Feast of San Ildefonso. «Maybe I’ll have a party, next year it falls on a Friday and you are invited, but I don’t know if, being a Friday, you will be the one having a party. We shall see,» he argued.
He was followed by the nationalist Ana Pontón, who also wanted to coin a term: «Ruedafeudalism, where people have to go and thank the great leader for the favors he bestows.» «You don’t want rights, you want charity. You don’t want citizens, you want servants,» she rebuked, before warning him that «politics is not about serving oneself from the people.»
Pontón was precisely the target of one of the harshest criticisms in the speech of the Galician president when he, a civil servant and municipal secretary, stated that the «difference» between them is that when they both leave politics, he «will have somewhere to go,» but the nationalist leader «won’t.» The BNG spokesperson criticized his «machismo and classism.»
PAZOS AND HIS ‘BENEGUÉS DICTIONARY’
«Welcome to the 2015 autonomy debate,» summed up the parliamentary spokesperson of the PPdeG, Alberto Pazos, one of those who used the most banter in his speech, in which he identified the interventions of his political rivals as «the same arguments, litanies, and falsehoods as always.»
With the focus on the BNG (whom the populists accuse of «lying, manipulating, and propagandizing»), and while showing a book, in line with a campaign that the populists have been running on social media, he jokingly proclaimed that the PPdeG believed it was time to create a «Galician-Benegués dictionary.» He also reminded them that Rueda had renewed the absolute majority last year.
«MOVING THE REARS, BUT NOT THE HEARTS»
In this scenario and awaiting what happens in the next session and the agreements that the groups finally reach, the deputy of Democracia Ourensana (D.O.), Armando Ojea, was able to sum up the day with a phrase: «Long sermons move the rears, but not the hearts.»
But he gained prominence in other moments of the debate. For example, in the second turn, he began his speech by poking fun at the level of applause from the popular bench to Rueda’s speech: «I just checked with an app the rhythm of applause from the PP and it never fails, it’s always 165 PPM.»
In addition to responding to some of the allusions of the President of the Xunta, Ojea also emphasized the defense of the Galician language with a reflection that earned him a «historic» single applause, in the words of President Miguel Santalices — being the sole member of the Grupo Mixto–: «Galician is a pediatric disease, it must be picked up as a child, as an adult, it is no longer acquired.»
There was no survey among the guests who passed through the platform –none from the BNG, which is reprimanded after an incident involving activists from Queremos Galego, who interrupted with chants the counselor of Culture, Language, and Youth, José López Campos– to find out if they shared Ojea’s perception of the «long» sermons.
Despite the regulatory limitation on the Bloque, the mayors of Santiago, Goretti Sanmartín, and Pontevedra, Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, both from the BNG, attended the debate, invited by the Parliament. The mayors of Lugo, Miguel Fernández, and A Coruña, Inés Rey (PSdeG), also traveled to the Galician capital at different times during the day, as did the mayor of Ferrol, the popular José Manuel Rey Varela.
Missing were the socialist Abel Caballero, mayor of Vigo; and the mayor of Ourense, Gonzalo Pérez Jácome. However, other institutional positions, senators, and deputies of the PPdeG in Madrid, as well as the Government delegate, Pedro Blanco, among others, were present.
Similarly, several socialist figures such as the general secretaries of the PSOE in A Coruña and Pontevedra, Bernardo Fernández and David Regades; as well as the former mayor of Ferrol Ángel Mato and the general secretary of the Socialist Youth of Galicia, Xurxo Doval, followed Besteiro’s speech.
Also present at the Chamber in the afternoon were Marta Coloret, the wife of the Galician president, and his mother. Furthermore, for this debate, Rueda chose to switch from papers to a tablet (he has used it on other occasions for different types of speeches). His speech was accompanied by an image of him on a recent trip to Buenos Aires, at the Plaza de Mayo.
