The mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, in red, at the National Day parade in Madrid on October 12.Daniel González (EFE)
The PP and Vox complete the entry of the Ultra formation into the government of the Valencia City Council. The agreement is imminent and could be officially announced this Friday. The mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá of the PP, wanted to govern as a minority with her 13 city councilors and the support of the four from Vox. Together they have 17 councilors, the absolute majority in a consistory made up of 33 councilors, while the Left has 16 (Compromís, nine and PSOE-PSPV, seven). Catalá even called Vox “her preferred partner”, but Santiago Abascal’s party has not stopped putting pressure on her to enter government in the four months that the PP government has existed.
The details of the agreement and the positions that the Vox councilors will take have not been disclosed. Except that the distribution will reflect the weight of each party based on their results in the local elections on May 28th. The possibility that Juan Manuel Badenas, Vox’s municipal spokesman, will be appointed second deputy mayor has not been confirmed. With this agreement, Valencia joins the Valencian municipalities governed by PP and Vox, such as Elche, Torrent or Castellón. In the first two cases the party with the most votes was the PSPV-PSOE, in the third it was the PP.
The tone of Vox spokesman Juan Manuel Badenas had already dropped by decibels yesterday, Wednesday, when he announced in a public appearance his group’s support for the tax regulations prepared by the PP, which will reduce tax revenues by 70 million from 2024. Vox had only warned a few days earlier that it wasn’t right for them. Between both dates, a meeting took place on Tuesday afternoon between Catalá and his team with the Ultra formation, attended, in addition to the municipal spokesman, by the deputy in Congress and provincial president of Vox in Valencia, Ignacio Gil Lázaro. From there came the support of Santiago Abascal’s party for the PP’s tax regulations in Valencia. The mayor denied on Wednesday that there was a global pact behind the meeting, but contacts have intensified in recent hours and are ongoing.
Juan Manuel Badenas, on October 11, when he covered the overt accent of the native name Valencia with a Spanish flag.
Since Catalá formed the government in the Valencian capital in mid-June, Vox has been demanding entry into the executive in exchange for the four votes that give the PP its 17 absolute majority. Badenas has told him publicly up to four times that he has reached out to the popular. But the mayor delayed the deal until it was time to implement key City Council policies, such as tax ordinances or negotiating the budget. An agreement with the opposition was not possible, so only Vox remained.
Municipal sources indicate that the agreement was expected in September after the holidays, but the inauguration of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and other elements of national politics have delayed an alliance that was expected since the same election night of May 28 PP, with María José Catalá, at the helm, was the party with the most votes in the city with 13 councilors, but was not strong enough to implement its local policies as a minority.
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Vox has not hidden and has maintained a demanding tone towards the PP every time it has had to support it on issues such as changing the accent of the city’s name in Valencian, contrary to the criteria of linguists or at the time negotiate with the owner of the Valencia Football Club on a solution for the construction of the new stadium, work on which has been paralyzed since 2009. The Ultra formation not only threatened Catalá with a no, but also put it into action. Last Friday, without elaborating, he voted, together with the opposition parties Compromís and PSPV, against the new management team proposed by the PP to run the Municipal Transport Company.
Yesterday, after learning of Vox’s support for the tax regulations in the Finance Commission, the opposition groups in the city council denounced that “a covert global pact” was hidden behind the gesture.
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