The complicated negotiation for the completion of the works at the Nou Mestalla with Peter Lim’s Valencia – a president whom the majority of the club’s fans want to see out – is being choked by the new Government team of the Valencia City Council. Already in the previous legislature, Joan Ribó’s executive could not reach an agreement and, now, it is the PP that sees how this arduous negotiation is increasing the pressure on a mayor who, unlike her predecessor, does not have a solid majority in the Hemicycle.
In fact, the disagreements of recent days are evidencing the solitude of the first mayor, María José Catalá, in the face of an opposition that demands that the Councilor for Large Projects, José Marí Olano, be removed from the negotiation with Valencia CF. The three parties, including Vox (called to be Catalá’s preferred partner this term) have launched different initiatives for the first mayor to get rid of one of her electoral bets to solve the great problems of the legislature such as the agreement of the new stadium or the development of the Navy.
The problem is that neither Compromís, nor PP nor Vox view favorably that Marí Olano, who still works at the consulting firm KPMG, is in charge of piloting the negotiations when, they explain, this company has Valencia CF’s largest shareholder, Peter Lim, in your client portfolio.
The City Council has always defended that “Marí Olano has not participated in the almost ten years of professional involvement with KPMG Abogados, S.L.P., in any matter of any nature that, directly, indirectly, or even remotely, is related to Valencia C.F. or with Meriton Holdings.”
Yesterday, in fact, the mayor reiterated her confidence in the person responsible for Major Projects and defended his “career, his training and preparation.” Catalá denied that her Government was “relaxing measures” of the agreement with Valencia CF and assured that what the PP is doing is working – “doing good” – on the agreement left by the Socialist Party and Joan Ribó.
Some explanations that do not convince the opposition, although they do not agree much on how to act. Yesterday, the PSPV spokesperson, Sandra Gómez, demanded that “Olano be removed from the negotiation he is carrying out with Meriton due to a conflict of interest” and threatened to present a motion convinced that “he has a good chance of winning it.”
Vox already asked last week – in an increase in its particular tug-of-war with the PP – that Olano be removed, so it was pleased that the PSPV joined its proposals. Of course, he did not clarify whether he would support the initiative. In any case, as municipal sources confirmed to this newspaper, the power to remove the powers of a councilor rests solely with the mayor.
Meanwhile, Compromís – which on Friday had announced the request for an extraordinary plenary session to ask Catalá for explanations, and the possibility of opening an investigation commission due to the possible conflict of interest – yesterday registered this request. Now there is a maximum period of 15 days to convene the aforementioned plenary session. Compromís considers that the PSPV’s request for dismissal was of little use given that the opposition cannot alter the powers of the government team, but it does not want to miss the opportunity to pressure and put the mayor on the ropes.
As if Catalá did not have enough, yesterday he had to use the PSPV to approve the appointment of the new manager of Aumsa. A support that generated deep discomfort – one more – from Vox, which denounced “a secret pact between PP and the PSOE to share the management of municipal companies.”
A vote that has once again highlighted the differences between the PP – which governs the council in a minority – and its preferred partner. And it is not the first time that this has happened since Vox already voted against it last Friday and prevented the renewal of the EMT leadership.