Carmen Moriyón (Foro Asturias), mayor of Gijón, has expelled Vox from the municipal government. The leader has made the decision after several clashes with the Councilor for Celebrations, Sara Álvarez Rouco, one of the two councilors of the ultra-conservative formation. The latest controversy has arisen after Vox has announced a series of changes to the International Film Festival (FICX) so that the event moves away from “biases and partisanship”. That of Gijón (272,000 inhabitants) is the first coalition government that breaks up in a large city after the pacts that allowed Abascal's access to dozens of municipal executives after the 28-M elections.

“It's over,” Moriyón has published on X (formerly Twitter). The mayor, in a subsequent press conference in which she did not admit questions, confirmed the news, reported by La Nueva España, and indicated that it was a “very thoughtful” decision and that it was taken after verifying that, in In just four months of the legislature, Vox “has put its acronym before the general interest of the city”. In addition to the controversy unleashed on behalf of the Film Festival, the mayor has specified that other issues have weighed, such as the fact that Vox did not want to participate in the preparation of the tax ordinances, a key project for the City Council.. “Gijón will not experience any setback in its freedoms. It is a free, tolerant and welcoming city. It always has been and will continue to be,” Moriyón concluded.. Vox sources consulted by El Confidencial early in the afternoon had no record of the first mayor's decision..

It's over.

— Carmen Moriyón (@CarmenMoriyon) October 4, 2023

The last clash between Moriyón and Álvarez Rouco was forged this morning. The Vox councilor has announced a series of changes to the film contest that had not been agreed upon either with Foro Asturias or with the PP, the other party that supports the municipal government.. Specifically, the Vox councilor has advanced the creation of an award in line with the principles that, as she has assured, her party defends: “work, effort and respect for everyone”, while detailing that financing was not guaranteed necessary to maintain the Rambal award, in collaboration with the LGTBI collective, nor that of films in Asturian.

It is not the first time that Foro Asturias and the PP collide with the cultural policies that Vox has championed in Gijón. The mayor and the popular councilors aligned themselves with the left-wing parties last August and supported a motion presented by the PSOE, IU and Podemos in defense of freedom of expression and the Asturian language.. It was the response to statements by Álvarez Rouco in which he assured that “if possible” he would not hire artists who used Asturian, although he later qualified his words..

Key votes

The support of Vox was key for Foro Asturias to snatch the mayor of Gijón from the PSOE. The socialists came first last March 28 with nine councillors, but the union of the regionalists (eight councillors) with the PP (five) and Vox (two) made it possible for Moriyón to gain an absolute majority in the municipal plenary session and be invested as mayor on last June 17. The agreement with those from Abascal was signed the afternoon before and included the Celebrations portfolio and another series of commitments, among them, the review of the Equality Ordinance, a change in the criteria for access to equality subsidies and also in the linguistic promotion policy.