Vox boycotts Blas Infante commemoration as Moreno defends coalition pact with the far-right in Andalusia

Vox's boycott overshadows commemoration

The Andalusian Parliament's annual tribute to Blas Infante, the father of the Andalusian homeland, was marked this Monday by the conspicuous absence of Vox, the junior partner in the newly formed regional government. Neither Manuel Gavira, who will soon become vice-president and minister of Tourism, Deregulation, Justice and Local Administration, nor any of the party's 15 MPs attended the event, continuing a boycott that began when Vox first entered the chamber in 2018. The party justifies its stance by arguing that it defends the Spanish nation as the common homeland of all Spaniards and cannot accept "paternities outside Spain". Vox has previously accused Infante of wanting to "re-Islamise Spain".

Vox will be a reliable, predictable and demanding partner.

Moreno invokes Infante to defend coalition

President Juanma Moreno, sworn in just a day earlier for his third term, seized the occasion to frame his controversial pact with Vox as consistent with Infante's legacy. Speaking in the courtyard of the old Hospital de las Cinco Llagas, he insisted that the parliament's diversity and plurality reflect what Infante himself championed. Moreno stressed that Infante "encouraged the coexistence of ideas" and "appealed to people of the most opposite ideas to unite for Andalusia". He also warned against fearing those who think differently, adding that the real danger lies in those who do not think at all.

There is no need to be afraid of those who think differently, but of those who do not think; those are the dangerous ones, because if you do not think, you do not love, nor feel, nor understand, nor can you defend anything.

Left-wing opposition attacks the pact

The left-wing bloc, comprising PSOE, Adelante Andalucía and Por Andalucía, used the ceremony to denounce the PP-Vox agreement. Socialist spokesperson María Jesús Montero accused Moreno of allying with a party that "ridicules" Andalusian autonomy. José Ignacio García of Adelante Andalucía went further, calling the pact an "infamous" deal with the "political fathers of Blas Infante's murderers". He rejected Moreno's characterisation of Infante's death, insisting the notary was killed for being an Andalusian leftist and republican, not merely for being "too human".

I do not understand how you can pact with the extreme right, who are the political fathers of Blas Infante's assassins, and come here to celebrate the figure of Blas Infante.

Historical memory law under threat

The coalition agreement includes a commitment to pass a new "Law of Concord" that would replace the current historical memory legislation before the end of 2026. This echoes a similar pledge from the 2019 investiture deal, which Moreno then conditioned on broad consensus. With Vox now inside the government, that consensus is impossible. Infante was executed by Francoist forces on 11 August 1936 and buried in a mass grave in Seville; his body has never been identified. The opposition argues that honouring Infante while dismantling the law that seeks to recover victims like him is a profound contradiction.

A divided start for the new legislature

The commemoration, just four days after the investiture, exposed the fragility of the PP-Vox coalition. While Moreno's team downplayed Vox's absence as a long-standing position, the image of the future vice-president skipping an official act on the very day he gave a radio interview underscored the ideological gulf between the partners. The president's appeal to "the Andalusian way" of serenity, concord and understanding now faces its sternest test.