Leaving subsidized Extremadura behind, burying victimhood, changing the map of a "well-to-do" Spain in the development of the North and East. Guillermo Fernández Vara, president of Extremadura and candidate of the PSOE, defined a year ago in the last debate on the state of the region the axes of the final stretch of the legislature, which are the political, economic and social approaches with which he attends these elections of 28-M. Candidate for a fourth re-election, the PSOE bases its commitment on the conversion of the community into a great technological pole linked to the green and digital revolution.
They are the letters of introduction of this socialist baron, who has governed since 2007 except in the period 2011-2015, when the popular José Antonio Monago presided over the Junta de Extremadura. Fernández Vara, a temperate baron more in tune with Pedro Sánchez than Emiliano García-Page and Javier Lambán, is facing his last elections with polls that point to the loss of an absolute majority, although he could govern with Podemos, whose candidate, Irene de Miguel, consolidates positions.
Although this is the initial drawing, the movements on the Extremadura political board have led the PP, and its president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to bet heavily on the campaign. The popular ones have renewed their candidacy after a complex internal debate and it is María Guardiola, elected president of the formation in 2022, who is running for the first time as an electoral poster. The PP rises, according to the polls. And Vox with Ángel Pelayo, would enter the Assembly after failing to do so four years ago. Although the demoscopia does not make it easy for a right-wing majority, Feijóo was at the start of the campaign and will return to Extremadura shortly in a bid by the popular to try to break the socialist hegemony.
Extremadura is the third poorest community in Spain, in terms of GDP per capita, although it has improved its position in recent years. Depopulation, in a very large community (25 inhabitants per km2, in Madrid it is 808 km2), continues to be one of the main problems. And it is in this scenario that Vara tries to present a paradigm shift in the region. The green and digital revolution linked to projects such as the Navalmoral de la Mata battery gigafactory, the synthetic diamond factory in Trujillo or the lithium mine project in Cáceres. Projects on which, according to the PSOE, "will create 35,000 jobs." Employment also as a fundamental way to retain the population.
The PP weaves its campaign together linking the debate in a "national" key -Bildu and ETA in the argumentative axis- and the denunciation of the "historical injury" suffered by Extremadura, accusing the PSOE of the lack of investment. The debate on infrastructures emerges. and. above all, the train, after the successive incidents on the fast line between Badajoz and Madrid inaugurated in July 2022. The deficiencies in Extremadura's railway infrastructure, the isolation with the rest of Spain, is a latent issue and a crossover of accusations depending on the color of the central government.
Eusebio Medina, professor of Sociology (Universidad de Extremadura), believes that Vara is facing the campaign with a good prognosis in a community with a traditional socialist vote, and against a still little-known PP candidate. Many older people vote for the PSOE, indicates the sociologist, in a “subsidized region, and also with a lot of European aid. It's a conservative socialist vote."
It gives relevance to the Government's commitment to renewables, not only to the large photovoltaic parks but also to green hydrogen and to the investments that are beginning to arrive. But he wonders if these investment funds that arrive will stay for the citizens and, above all, if depopulation can be reversed.
This is one of the main underlying problems, in a vast region where towns of less than 5,000 are gradually being emptied. The youth goes to the largest cities to which must be added emigration to other Spanish regions. The candidates, each with their formulas, want to bury migrant Extremadura forever.
