María Guardiola, at a moment of last night’s act in Cáceres. /
In Cáceres, she says goodbye to her campaign to be proclaimed president of the PP and presents herself as the candidate of those who want a “real change”, even if they are not from her party
After more than 9,000 kilometers that started with the start of the route on June 10 in Guadalupe, María Guardiola (Cáceres, 1978) chose Cáceres, ‘her’ Cáceres, where she was born and grew up, “at number 32 Antonio Hurtado” , to star in his closing campaign. She has spent the last few weeks from end to end, from one province to another, without leaving behind a single region, those who accompany her presume.
The effort has been dedicated to making himself known. Because despite her media presence as Councilor for the Economy during the PP mandate from 2015 to 2019, Guardiola is little known outside of Cáceres. Much better known will be from Saturday when she is proclaimed, possibly by an overwhelming majority, successor to José Antonio Monago, whom she did not mention at the start of her speech, and who was one of the absentees at Tuesday’s event.
It was in the courtyard of the Extremadura hotel and it was packed. From Cáceres, but also from affiliates from other towns who came to support, with background music by Caty Palma, pure Cácereñismo, this woman who is committed to an inclusive reformism, who prefers to listen to impose and who is running to be the first president of Extremadura. Real equality, she came to say at one point in her speech: “Let equality not be a mere speech or a slogan.”
María Guardiola together with Rafael Mateos, local president of the PP. /
Guardiola has sweated the shirt in just over a month that has been intense for her. He did not need to work hard because he will not have a rival in the Regional Congress, but this daily traveling tour of the corners of the region has also served as training for what is to come, an electoral campaign in which he will have to fight copper with a Guillermo Fernández Vara, who out of sheer experience takes several lengths ahead of him in these fights. Guardiola is going to fight him with other virtues, aware that his recourse is to hook those most disappointed with the policies of the PSOE. In Cáceres, last night, the future popular president winked at her own but also at those who do not have the PP card.
It presents itself as the voice of those who want “real change” in the region. “Whatever your political color is,” she clarified. She appears, or so she pretends, as a woman of dialogue, that she does not come to impose, but that at the same time has clear ideas. She promises harsh criticism “without offending anyone.” She confirms this when she refers, as she did this Tuesday at her campaign finale, to the fact that Extremadura “heads the poverty rate” or continues to be “the poorest region” and at the same time the one with the “greatest tax burden.” Or when she alluded to the “chutzpah” of the (no) AVE or the promises broken by the current government.
He announces a “fiscal revolution” because it is not understood, he assures, that if Extremadurans pay the highest taxes, the region leads “the poverty rate”
“Why are we where we are?” he asked himself. It seemed like a rhetorical question and without an answer, but then the answer was given with another question, curiously. “Why have we lost 30,000 inhabitants, 12,000 young people since Vara governs?” Guardiola grew up in Cáceres with his family. With Rafael Mateos, local president, the former mayor Nevado or the provincial president, Laureano León. All three he made some mention. From the first, that he opened the act, to predict that he will make Cáceres “a city of opportunities.” “He is a friend and a good person,” he was honest.
He also remembered his mother, his grandparents. From the apartment on Antonio Hurtado Avenue (the PP used to have its headquarters on the street). Nine people lived in it: grandparents, uncles, mother, her brother, the next popular president and her dog, ‘Lucero’.
Where nine eat…
“I received so much that I will not have enough life to thank and return it,” he confessed. From that stage, he said, in which he learned the value of friendship, neighborhood, family, “that where nine eat, 15 eat” he intends to get part of his political ideology. And he spoke of recovering the value of the word given in that ‘renovate to win’, his campaign motto.
Guardiola chose Cáceres because his cacereñismo admits few doubts. Like that image that he has as a profile on social networks in the most beautiful bank in Cáceres, in the San Marquino neighborhood. It was a much more emotional and crowded night than, for example, during his visit to Plasencia.
She played at home and was surrounded by her own. Between applause and applause from her faithful, she announces a “fiscal revolution” if she governs from May 2023.
The role change is already internalized. The word ‘Cáceres’ only appeared six times, but ‘Extremadura’ did it almost triple, 16. He spoke of the revolution four times and Vara cited it twice, not too much, if one takes into account that the objective of this woman, folksy and educated and who refuses to be considered the ‘Ayuso from Extremadura’, is to dislodge the president from the Board. And nothing less than in full absolute majority.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.