There was a time when the Andalusian Parliament seemed like a calm sea, especially compared to what happens in the Congress of Deputies, where arguments and disqualifications are the usual tone. That era of calm and serene debate seems to have been left behind, judging by what happened this Thursday in the Andalusian Chamber, where Jerez native Ana Mestre debuted as president of the Parliament, with the support of her party, the PP, and also Vox.
In her first plenary session, held this Thursday immediately after her appointment, Ana Mestre suffered the walkout of the socialist deputies, after repeated calls for attention and order to the leader of the Andalusian PSOE, María Jesús Montero, and also to Mario Jiménez.
“This is not going to be a ring, with words and fingers rudely pointing. Respect the person at the rostrum,” Mestre warned, when socialist deputies interrupted Antonio Sanz, Minister of the Presidency, Health and Emergencies, who appeared to report on the fire in Los Gallardos (Almería) that caused the death of thirteen people.
The socialist bench complained angrily because Antonio Sanz “has accused us of wanting there to be fires,” to which Mestre replied that he only said “it seems” to be so. Mario Jiménez asked to intervene, considering it an offense from the minister, but the new president of Parliament did not allow it. Immediately, the socialist deputies, led by Montero, left the plenary hall before the session ended.
Therefore, none of the 28 deputies of the Andalusian PSOE heard, around 2:00 p.m., the declaration of intentions about her mandate that Mestre made, asking the parliamentarians “what contribution we want to make to Spain” from the autonomous Chamber, which “belongs to the Andalusian people” because the deputies are only “custodians for a time.” She warned that “every gesture, every word and every applause” can “inspire,” while “disqualification destroys”. “What kind of Parliament do we want?” Mestre asked, expressing her conviction that what the different groups have in common is greater than what “separates us.”
Mestre replaces the popular Jesús Aguirre in the presidency of the Parliament, who has resigned from the position under the government pact signed at the beginning of the month by the PP and Vox, which implies that Juanma Moreno’s populars cede the first vice-presidency of the Chamber, previously held by Mestre, to the party led by Santiago Abascal. The agreement between both formations also served for Moreno to have sufficient support for his investiture as president of the Junta de Andalucía and for Vox to place Manuel Gavira as vice-president and Minister of Tourism, Justice, Deregulation and Local Administration.
Aguirre leaves the Presidency of the Parliament and goes to the Senate, after being elected senator by autonomous designation at the proposal of the PP. The first vice-presidency of the Andalusian Chamber will be occupied by the Vox deputy for Seville Cristina Peláez.
Ana Mestre, born in Jerez de la Frontera on July 8, 1981, is married and has a daughter. She completed her primary, secondary, and higher education between the Compañía de María, the Perpetuo Socorro, and the Faculty attached to the UCA of Tourism, Labor Relations, and Social Work, where she studied Social Work. She joined the Popular Party in 2000 and was provincial president of Nuevas Generaciones. She has also been deputy secretary of Organization for PP Cádiz and government councilor with Teófila Martínez in Cádiz for two terms. She is currently deputy secretary of the Andalusian PP in Juanma Moreno’s team.
She is the fourth woman and the first from the PP to become president of the Andalusian Parliament since its inception, after the socialists Mar Moreno, in the VII legislature, and Fuensanta Coves (VIII legislature), and the then Ciudadanos deputy Marta Bosquet, who presided over the Chamber in the XI legislature.
Before the vote by which she was elected president of the Parliament, she dedicated words of “gratitude and recognition” to Jesús Aguirre for his “four years of intense work” as president of the Chamber, carried out with “generosity” and “dialogue” capacity.
Aguirre’s Farewell
For Mestre, Aguirre leaves an “important legacy” and “reforms” in the Chamber, which “he has always said is everyone’s home,” and to which “he has come to open the doors and windows.” Aguirre listened to those words from his seat as a deputy for Córdoba and received an ovation from the parliamentarians.
Subsequently, Jesús Aguirre, who was also Minister of Health during the pandemic, claimed “discrepancy” as “the essence of democracy,” as well as “reaching agreements and consensus points.” In his farewell, he also apologized to the deputies if “sometimes, perhaps as a result of parliamentary vehemence” or his “way of being,” he may have “made mistakes” in his “appreciation” or his “decision-making.” In his new position as senator, he wants to “staunchly defend” Andalusia.
Appointment of Senators
The plenary session of the Parliament has also appointed the senators by Andalusian designation who are, in the case of the PP, Javier Arenas, Francisco Javier Oblaré and Virginia Pérez, as well as Jesús Aguirre. Vox has proposed María Auxiliadora Pastor and Álvaro Zancajo, while the PSOE has designated Susana Díaz, Juan Espadas and María Jesús Montero.
