PP takes Extremadura from Socialists with left's help

[xchrom]

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/PP/takes/Extremadura/from/Socialists/with/left/s/help/elpepueng/20110707elpeng_14/Ten

The Popular Party's José Antonio Monago was elected regional premier of Extremadura on Thursday, taking over one of the Socialists' traditional stronghold regions, with controversial help from the United Left (IU) group.

Defying orders from their group's central committee, the three renegade IU Extremadura lawmakers abstained from voting for a regional premier, which allowed the PP to elect Monago with 32 votes out of a possible 65 in the regional assembly.

For the first time in 28 years, the PP will govern in the western region that borders Portugal.

IU national coordinator Cayo Lara had warned his fellow coalition members in Extremadura not to break the group's rules, which forbid doing anything that would help the conservative PP govern anywhere. But the three regional deputies said that they were obeying the mandate given to them by members of the local assemblies, who decided in June not to support the incumbent Socialist premier Guillermo Fernández Vara for another term.

"The world isn't going to stop nor is anything else going to happen" because of the abstention, explained Alejandro Nogales, one of the trio. "The only thing that is going to occur is that there is going to be a change of government, which is a normal occurrence in any full-fledged democracy."