The deputy spokesperson for CHA in the Cortes of Aragon, Verónica Villagrasa, has asked the president of the regional government, Jorge Azcón, to clearly explain whether he knew about, shares, and is willing to support the "serious and worrying" proposals of his government partner, Vox, which involve suppressing equality plans and questioning the tools designed to combat inequalities between men and women.
"Equality plans, Villagrasa has argued, are public policy instruments that serve to detect real inequalities, correct pay gaps, and improve work-life balance and ensure that women and men have the same opportunities in the workplace, institutional, and social spheres," so questioning or directly eliminating them "is a step backward in policies that have taken years of social, political, and institutional consensus," she lamented.
Given these initiatives by Vox, PP's partner in the Aragonese Executive, the Aragonese deputy has underlined Azcón's direct responsibility: "It is not enough to say that there are discrepancies or that each party has its position. A president must clearly state whether he shares this direction or rejects it," she demanded, urging him to take a clear stance.
Villagrasa has expressed her concern about what she interprets as a previous dynamic in which "the PP has ended up adapting its position to the demands of Vox," citing as examples "discourse that criminalizes unaccompanied foreign minors," cuts in development cooperation policies, the withdrawal of institutional support for the Cooperation Chair of the University of Zaragoza, and "when the Government has avoided a firm response in defense of freedom of information against repeated attacks by Vox on journalists and media outlets."
In her opinion, all these episodes draw "a pattern" according to which "Vox proposes, Vox pressures, and the Popular Party gradually assumes part of that political framework to sustain the stability of the Government, power above all else, above Aragon and the most elementary democratic values." However, for the CHA spokesperson, "stability cannot be an argument that justifies any concession or any setback" because that "supposed political stability ends up becoming an inertia of cuts, concessions, and deterioration."
And, "every step in that direction, has valued, "generates new cracks, cracks that are not generated by the opposition, but by its own partner, even if the president does not want to see them". For this reason, he has defended that "governing is not accepting every new demand from the partner to maintain that parliamentary majority, but having the capacity to set limits when those demands represent a social setback".
Because, he has claimed, "Aragon needs to advance in equality, not go backwards. It needs to reinforce public policies that work, not dismantle them due to ideological pressure. And it needs a president who leads the government, not a president who limits himself to yielding and managing the conditions imposed by his partner".