Thursday, March 28

The president of the Xunta vanishes between a blurred agenda and his light government action


In the photographs of the Spanish-German summit in A Coruña there was a conspicuous absence. Alfonso Rueda, president of the Xunta de Galicia since May, did not appear anywhere. The altarpieces were made up of Sánchez, Olaf Scholz, the Government delegate José Miñones, the mayor of the city Inés Rey, a councilor from Facenda or some military uniforms. Rueda did not offer public explanations for his absence until elDiario.es became interested in it. His excuse, sources from his team argued, was that he had received the invitation only two days before the event. The socialist opposition did not take long to criticize him for “not yet being aware that he represents Galicia”. The image of the Galician president, raised politically in the shadow of Núñez Feijóo for 16 years, seems to fade in a crowded agenda – more than that of his predecessor – but which avoids thorny issues, and in a rather light government action.

Alfonso Rueda reaches the halfway point of the Feijóo legislature with little political weight and a blurred project

Know more

Rueda’s attitude contrasts with that of his mentor, who, in 2014, stood at the foot of the plane’s steps at the Lavacolla airport (Santiago de Compostela) to receive, together with the then Spanish president Mariano Rajoy, Angela Merkel . Feijóo also accompanied them on the guided tour of the cathedral. There was greater ideological proximity, it is true, but the event was of a lower level, since with Rajoy and Merkel no ministers traveled. AA Coruña was attended by 15 ministers from both cabinets. Alfonso Rueda chose not to attend and the representation of the Autonomy fell to the person in charge of Facenda, Miguel Corgos.

Not even two days had passed since another resounding disagreement starring Rueda. The Galician chief executive had been unable to get a meeting with the councilor of the largest city in Galicia, governed by the PSOE with 20 of 27 councillors. Rueda tried to impose on Mayor Abel Caballero the presence of a third, the delegate of the Xunta in Vigo, Marta Fernández-Tapias. But it just so happened that Fernández-Tapias is also the candidate chosen by the PP to compete with Caballero in next year’s municipal elections. Rueda’s cabinet has made an effort to promote his figure, to which it has given the focus in the presentations of the great Xacobeo concerts in the city. At stake is not only improving the mediocre result of the Vigo PP, but also the Pontevedra Provincial Council, since 2015 in the hands of a coalition of socialists and BNG. Caballero disregarded, criticized Rueda’s “forms” and accused him of creating a problem for not addressing “the neglect of Vigo” by the Galician Government. There was no meeting. Yes in the other six Galician cities, but in none does the figure of the Xunta delegate coincide with that of the PP candidate.

Nor did the veto of the European Union to bottom fishing shake too much the chair of the president of the Xunta. He did not make an appearance at the demonstration called in Ribeira last weekend, which was attended by his Minister Rosa Quintana and other conservative officials. And while the president of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno, traveled to Brussels to ask for explanations from the European Commissioner for Fisheries, the Lithuanian Virginius Sinkevicius, Rueda stayed in Galicia. Faced with criticism from the Socialist Party, he hid behind the fact that he prefers that there be “one voice” in the conflict. And despite the fact that the community concentrates half of the state fishing fleet and will be one of the areas most affected by the community decision, Moreno was the one who occupied the photos in the European capital. That day, the president of the Xunta de Galicia opted for a courtesy visit to the headquarters of the Royal Galician Academy in A Coruña.

the pixelated president

The truth is that popularity was never Alfonso Rueda’s strong point. After 13 years as councilor and vice president in the Feijóo governments, two months before taking over from him they only knew him, according to a survey of The voice of Galicia, 45% of Galician citizenship. Already president of the Xunta, the coverage that the magazine readings made the visit of the king and queen to Santiago de Compostela on July 25 – National Day of Galicia – turned that circumstance into an anecdote and meme meat. An image of the infanta Sofía illustrated the magazine’s information about the act. In it she appeared escorted by two men whose faces were pixelated. One of them was Alfonso Rueda, confused by the editors of readings with the Infanta’s security personnel. The expected mockery circulated on social networks.

Not even the unprecedented act that, in mid-September, he organized in the Cidade da Cultura seems to change the dull course of his presidency. On the 19th, he brought together his entire government, cabinet chiefs, advisers, secretaries and general directors – the first three levels of the Administration – to a kind of opening meeting of the political course. The star announcement was the aid of 25 euros, which is added to the 50 already in force, for school supplies. The agenda played a trick on him. That same day, almost at the same time, Abel Caballero explained that the Vigo City Council was going to pay for the primary and secondary textbooks for all Vigo students. Asked in the appearance after his weekly cabinet meeting, he did not dare to question Caballero’s measure and said that “it seemed good to him.”

Gone are the complicated summer months, in which a huge wave of fires destroyed more than 44,000 hectares. Opposition and those affected attacked the lack of means and lack of coordination, in addition to a notable delay in the Xunta’s anti-fire measures. The Prosecutor’s Office has initiated proceedings after a complaint from environmental entities. His schedule, meanwhile, seems denser than Feijóo’s, who used to have most weekends off. But often they are gastronomic festivals or acts related to the Camino de Santiago aimed at popularizing the figure of him. This week, yes, he has made his first trip as president to Argentina and Uruguay. After the elimination of the requested vote, huge numbers of potential voters are concentrated there. Unlike his predecessors Emilio Pérez Touriño, from the PSdeG, or Feijóo, received by the successive Argentine presidents –Néstor Kirchner, Cristina Fernández and Mauricio Macri–, Rueda limited himself to speaking by videoconference with the head of government of the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, which is from the macrista right. The piece of the Galician Television newscast, whose reporters travel with him, was a chronicle against the current Peronist executive of Alberto Fernández.



That speech from Mount Gaiás before his senior positions – not all: the changes and resignations in Sergas or in the General Directorate of FP led the PSdeG to warn that Rueda “lost the reins” of his cabinet – was also carefully collected and glossed on Galician public television. And that their news programs now tend to focus on state politics, with a light that is not favorable to the policies of PSOE and United We Can and yes to Feijóo, current president of the state PP. The bias of the regional channel reached the point that there was not even a live connection with the Spanish-German summit from which Rueda decided to absent himself, despite the fact that it was taking place in A Coruña.





www.eldiario.es