The surprised faces of the socialist deputies exemplified the end of an era. It happened last Monday, in the election of the members of the Board of the Valencian Parliament. Vox had achieved the Presidency and the PP and the PSPV each got a seat in the vice presidency. The socialists also hoped to achieve a secretary, like the popular ones. But the surprise came: the PP gave up part of its votes so that Compromís was the one who achieved it to the detriment of the Socialists. For weeks, the PSPV had refused to cede one of its two positions to the Valencianistas. On Monday the Botànic was buried, the pact that had united the left during two legislatures.
The Valencian left have begun their journey through the desert with the bridges broken between them and with the threat of internal processes that can bring many political corpses. The most serious case is that of Podem, which has remained as a residual force, far from the Valencian institutions.
Let’s go by parts. There are many who appreciate that the complicity between the PSPV and Compromís had long since vanished. Some even go back to the electoral advance that Ximo Puig decided in 2019 to match the regional elections with the general ones against the opinion of the party led by Mónica Oltra. But the 28-M has finalized an alliance that for eight years governed the main Valencian institutions, with reasonable stability.
The regional and municipal elections have rearmed the sovereignty of each one of these parties, which already see the other as a rival, not only in the face of 23-J, but also in the Valencian institutions. The only thing saved, for the moment, is the entente in the Valencia Provincial Council, where they must agree to try, with the collaboration of an independent force from Ontinyent (led by a former socialist), to maintain this institution with a progressive government. If achieved, it will be the main watchtower of socialists and Compromís in the Valencian Community.
But internally, malaise is also brewing, with probable consequences. In the PSPV there is a drive for leadership change, championed by the figure of the mayor of Mislata, Carlos Fernández Bielsa, and virtual president of the Valencia Provincial Council if the agreement is confirmed. His group managed to get Ferraz to disavow part of the lists that Ximo Puig had presented to Congress and the Senate for 23-J. A clear warning that the authority of the still president is questioned. There is fear that a tragic journey will begin like in 1995, when the Socialists lost themselves in a thousand internal battles, while the PP extended its hegemony for 20 years.
In Compromís it is not clear at this time who holds the leadership beyond the institutional roles. The eternal coalition of three parties aspires to achieve the stability that would be given by becoming a single party or a federation of these. Lost the government and with it many positions to place their own, the battle for the positions has already come to light. In Initiative they believe that the majority Més Compromís, formerly Bloc, is trying to keep everything, taking advantage of the weakness of the ecosocialists after the step aside of Mónica Oltra and the leadership frustrated by the change of cycle of Aitana Mas. It will be necessary to see how the differences are resolved even more so when the parties to the left of the PSPV have embarked on the Sumar experiment whose long and medium-term results are not very clear. Compromís already coexists in this campaign with the US and it will be necessary to see if it does so in the future. Quite a challenge for Joan Baldoví who will be the Ombudsman and Vicent Marzà who will have stripes in the group and has a lot of organic weight in the match.
The Valencian left have changed their roles among themselves and are facing internal processes at a time when the alliance of the PP and Vox has been consolidated in the Generalitat Valenciana that Carlos Mazón will preside over, with the possibility of initiating a counter-reform to the policies that for years identified to a political project
