Alicante. The province, its capital and its main cities, can decide the final result of the regional and municipal elections of 28M. “It is the keyâ€, point out sources close to Ximo Puig, aware that it is in this geography where the PP has the most muscle: and also Vox, especially in the southern regions of the province. It is also a province whose economic actors feel aggrieved by the Spanish Government: it is at the tail of the territorial investments of the General State Budgets, PGE; the cutting of the Tajo-Segura transfer has been decreed, which has spurred the PP against Ximo Puig and the Government, and it has not been chosen to house the Space Agency or the Artificial Intelligence Security Agency. Rains, it pours.
Ximo Puig has not had, in this sense, the support of the Spanish executive to cushion certain discomforts. For this reason, he has decided to intensify his presence in the province, aware of the importance of transferring the support of the Generalitat Valenciana. These days he will attend sectoral meetings and political actions in the capital, in Elx, in Benidorm and Orihuela, and on Friday he will share a campaign event with Pedro Sánchez. The idea, according to these sources, is to explain that the Botà nic has developed all the policies at its disposal in support of Alicante, such as the recovery of the City of Light, after the decision of the European Commission to grant ownership and management to the Generalitat Valenciana, or the support measures for the irrigators of the Segura basin.
The PSPV does not give up the battle. Not even in the capital, which he won in 2015 after 20 years of PP governments, but which he later lost due to a vote of no confidence against the mayor Gabriel Echávarri. “The president is clear about the importance of raising a battle in all scenarios, because we can winâ€, add these sources. Ana Barceló, former Minister of Health and trustee in the Corts Valencianes, is Puig’s bet to try to recover the mayoralty that is now held by LuÃs Barcala, of the PP. Objective that she needs from the good result of CompromÃs and Esquerra Unida-Podem. It will not be easy. In other cities the electoral struggle is expected to be intense, such as in Elx, Alcoi, Xà bia or Elda, currently governed by a socialist mayor and that the PSPV hopes to maintain.
The president of the Valencian PP and president of the Alicante Provincial Council, Carlos Mazón, has been working for months to consolidate the power of his party in the province. In addition to Alicante, the PP boasts important capital cities of the province such as Benidorm. Mazón has encouraged the grievances suffered by the province, pointing to Pedro Sánchez as responsible but also Ximo Puig. He has had the collaboration of local actors such as the Chamber of Commerce and its president Carlos Baño, who has criticized the Government and the Generalitat Valenciana in the same direction as Mazón. The PP also has the support of the farmers’ associations affected by the cutting of the Tajo-Segura transfer. Somehow, he has encouraged a victimhood that the PP trusts that it can give him electoral gain on the next 28M.
Alicante weighs heavily in the regional elections in the Valencian Community. The province elects 35 of the 99 deputies at stake in the Valencian Courts, the province of Valencia 40 and 24 that of Castellón. In the 2019 elections, the PSPV obtained 10 deputies, compared to 7 for the PP and 7 for Cs; Vox achieved 4, CompromÃs 4 and Unides Podem 3. With a very close result as the polls predict, the dance in Alicante of one or two deputies can determine the victory or defeat of the Botà nic in the Valencian Community.
Ximo Puig, as sources from his team point out, “is going to be next to Alicante”. He is confident, and a lot, with the drag effect of the municipal elections and the good results that are expected to be obtained in the indicated cities. The PP also hopes to wrest part of the municipal power conquered in 2019 from the PSPV and that its collateral effect will be reflected in the results of the regional elections. Alicante province and its cities appear as the most intense battlefield in the Valencian Community. The next legislature will decide in this geography
