If it were necessary to measure the predicament of politicians by their stage successes - a heterodox measurement system, since they are much more imposed than spontaneous - there is no doubt that Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, who this Wednesday traveled to the Basque Country to participate In the electoral campaign of the PP of Euskadi, he still retains a degree of (apparent) popularity that continues to be superior to his government actions, which are quite discreet. “The style is the man,” proclaimed the Comte de Buffon. And the power in an Andalusia that in these five years has not changed much, hardly anything, is the president of the Board.
This Tuesday the Great Laurel - let's call him that - was seen in the Maestranza, where he went with his wife and some friends to a bullfight, after walking around the Real de la Feria de Abril in Seville, where he was taking selfies with everyone that he asked for it. Moreno Bonilla continues to be unbeatable over short distances: on Wednesday, when he visited the Comisiones Obreras union booth with his entourage, he was received with a flood of applause and kisses from the women of a union association who were delighted with his presence.
In comparison with the episode of Minister María Jesús Montero in Seville, whom a group of young people called a “traitor to Spain” the night before, the president of the Board, polka dot tie on a seagull blue background and aqua green jacket, It still receives a lot of popular heat—especially from the devout and the convinced—than eloquent silences (from the adversaries).
In the PSOE, which is trying to cut this undeniable fairground predicament by summoning him to testify in the Congressional commission that is going to investigate the health contracts made during the pandemic - together with Elías Bendodo, former counselor of the Presidency of the Board in the previous legislature, the president of the Andalusian Parliament, Jesús Aguirre, former head of the Ministry of Health, and Antonio Sanz, its current number two—the thing is not pleasing at all, but it is the invariable and atmospheric meteorology that has existed in the South for five years.
Without a booth at the Fair for the first time in its history - due to negligence - the Andalusian socialists are clinging like a burning nail (for the moment without success) to the collapse of healthcare in Andalusia, the only issue that makes them grimace. Moreno Bonilla, as a way to erode the head of the southern PP. The PSOE's tactics are logical but not successful.
The Quirinale wards off these attacks with a lot of propaganda and inaugurations. Its objective is to maintain over time the (waning) enchantment that since December 2018 is the only asset of the right-wing management. He is greatly helped in the task by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who buried the AVE direct to Huelva the same day that Moreno Bonilla opened new facilities at the Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital in the province of Huelva.
The president of the Board is (still) doing well, although less than before; to autonomy, on the other hand, not too much. The health waiting lists, made public this week by the ministry, have put San Telmo in a bind, which was coming from a parliamentary debate in which the left reproached it for diverting public funds to benefit private hospitals - through concerts that were also signed by the PSOE and IU—and the convergence of interests (not at all kind) between the large private insurers and their government.
The data on the health collapse leaves Moreno Bonilla in a bad place, although when he walks through the April Fair it does not seem like it. Patients awaiting surgical intervention have grown by 20% in twelve months - there are 205,000 people - and the number of patients not diagnosed by a specialist - some with serious illnesses - totals 873,266.
The average waiting time for a surgical intervention is 174 days. Almost 40% of patients wait more than six months to be treated. San Telmo wants to see the bottle half full—his thesis is that the ministry's data is very old and there are 5,000 patients who have already left the stock exchanges that exceed the maximum legal period—but the statistics cool his proverbial optimism. Andalusia is the penultimate Spanish region in health management.
An Andalusian patient has to wait a month longer than a Catalan patient to be operated on and diagnosed. The Board's arguments fail in the face of the reality of health centers and hospitals. That it is still not perceived on the street is not a relief for the Quirinale. Andalusians waiting for their doctor are many more than those who go to the Seville Fair.
