Les Corts Valencianes were constituted last Monday and, waiting for the opposition parliamentary groups to register, PP and Vox have already shown who their voices will be for the XI legislature that has already started and will continue with the investiture of Carlos Mazón fruit of the pact between the Valencian right.
In the two formations that will govern in coalition there have been no big surprises. The PP has placed the feisty Miguel Barrachina with extensive experience in Congress and in Les Corts to lead a group with many new faces. In fact, the three assistants are rookies. At the top of that trident is the right hand of Mazón, the mayor of Finestrat and vice-secretary of Organization of the PP. Barrachina and Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca were the ones who were with the future president of the Generalitat Valenciana in the negotiations with Compromís, PSPV and Vox.
As this newspaper recounted, the case of Pérez Llorca is curious because, at first, he was not particularly on the ropes of the Alicante leader. However, with his appointment as provincial deputy, Mazón made it clear that he intended to count on everyone so that the internal wars in the province of Alicante would not go on forever.
The other associate will be Salomé Pradas. From the moment that Mazón sought to expand his support outside the province that he controlled from the Diputación, his complicity with the senator from Castellón was evident. He is also in special harmony with Laura Chuliá, the former mayor of Benetússer, who will be in charge of being the other deputy.
In the PP it remains to be seen if there are members of the group who jump to the Consell. From the popular bench, everyone looks at deputies like José Antonio Rovira, who already had experience in the Consell as general director at the Ministry of Education, where he coincided with María José Catalá.
In 2019, Rovi entered the lists at the express request of Mazón, whom he has known since they shared a rental apartment in Valencia when they were part of the second echelon of the Valencian Executive in the time of Eduardo Zaplana. His wife is the coordinator of the advisers of the Provincial Council of Alicante, chaired by Mazón.
Pablo Broseta could also have reserved a position in the future Government, who joined as a star signing in the campaign of the regional authorities at number three for the Valencia constituency.
In the parliamentary group, Vox are also clear about their distribution of powers in the group. The far-right formation has not taken risks and has entrusted the work of spokesperson to Ana Vega, who will be the only one of the síndics to repeat from the previous legislature. Yes, the appointment of the assistants, who will be David Muñoz and Joaquín Marín Alés, has been more surprising.
Not so much because of the names chosen but because of the absence, among them, of José María Llanos who even sounded to preside over Les Corts. His words denying gender violence that had a great media impact (although they did not stray from Vox’s argument) could have weighed him down on his political projection, since he has also appeared in the pools as a possible Minister of Justice. This appointment would put Carlos Mazón against the ropes since this department is the one in charge of the competencies in the comprehensive care of victims of gender violence.
On the other side of the bench, the groups have not yet been defined, although in the case of Compromís they have been profiled. The candidate for the Presidency of the Generalitat of the coalition, Joan Baldoví, will be the trustee and two of his deputies will be the former councilor Vicent Marzà and the outgoing first vice-president Aitana Mas. The third is yet to decide if Iniciativa will stay (as demanded by the party of Mas and Mónica Oltra after Més Compromís will stay with the representative in the Mesa de Les Corts) or if it will stand for Els Verds.
Nor is the distribution of roles in the PSPV very clear, although the renewal with respect to the previous leadership of the parliamentary group is clear. Neither the former spokesperson Ana Barceló nor the deputy Sabina Escrig repeat and the deputy Carmen Martínez who assumed the de facto representation of the group when Barceló was focused on the municipal campaign is on the list of the generals and, barring disaster, will be a deputy in Congress.
Regarding the group’s Syndicate, Ximo Puig, who does not seem willing to speed up the investiture deadlines, will have to decide between his Ministers of Finance, Arcadi Spain, who has always been considered his political dolphin, and the Minister of Territorial Policy, that It has already overtaken Spain in the regional list and since the announcement of the establishment of Volkswagen in the Valencian Community it has gained a lot of political weight in the PSPV.
In the direction of the group, it will be necessary to see how Puig circumvents the maneuver of PP and Compromís that has left his candidate for the Table of Les Corts Josefina Bueno without that relevant institutional position. A miscalculation that has generated discomfort among her deputies.
