The president of the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community (CEV), Salvador Navarro, does not want “excuses for not addressing” the change in the financing model. In a speech held this morning at the New Economy Forum, in Madrid, Navarro made a firm defense of Valencian interests, with special emphasis on the solution to the regional underfinancing suffered by the territory. “We want a fair model and we are going to have a very active role in what they have called ‘the financing plot’ until we achieve it,” he said.
He was referring to the request for the regional leveling fund that the Generalitat Valenciana has requested from the Government and to which Andalusia, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha join, as staged weeks ago in Fitur. Sitting, he was listened to by the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, who had previously presented him as an example of “co-responsibility” of Valencian interests, in addition to numerous political leaders of the Valencian Community, such as the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, or the Mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá.
Without half measures, Navarro recalled that the financing model has expired and has reviewed the steps that have been taken against governments of both political stripes, without success. From Cristóbal Montoro to María Jesús Montero. Thus, he has also asked for debt forgiveness, “generated by so many years of unequal conditions.”
“For our demographic weight, for our contribution to the GDP, for our innate vocation to go abroad, for our power to attract investments and tourists, for being a land of entrepreneurs, for always seeking understanding and not resorting to blackmail, We have earned fairer treatment,” Navarro claimed.
Navarro has pointed out that Valencians “are being mistreated with financing and with water”, an aspect where the latter has also had an impact. “Discard the idea that we are the happy Levant where water is wasted, because it is simply not true,” he added. He has given some examples, such as that “Alicante reuses an average of 75% of its water, and in some regions of the province, such as Vega Baja, 100% is reached” and has demanded a National Water Plan and the solidarity of the rest of the territories”.
The president of the Valencian businessmen has also focused on the “mistreatment” of State investments, when he has asked that “in the ministries, in the state secretariats, in the media, the Valencian Community and the its economy how important it is”. An importance that passes through the Valencian industry, as he has described with numerous examples and milestones, such as that of the PLD Space from Elche launching a rocket into space, but also demanding investments such as the expansion of airports: “I think that the figures justify in the “In the case of Valencia, an expansion or even a new airport; and in Alicante, a second runway.” He has not lacked in his parliament either the demand for the Mediterranean corridor or the confidence in the already approved expansion of the port of Valencia.
Likewise, showing a contained fatigue, Salvador Navarro has opted for unity and strategy, which involves crying out in Madrid as many times as necessary about the need for change. “I warn you that you will hear us making noise, because we are going to come to Madrid as many times as necessary so that we are heard in the State institutions,” he assured, while warning that “if the attention and answers do not come from the way we thought, we will have to find another way to get them.
Already in question time, Salvador Navarro has rejected the proposal to penalize Catalan companies that left Catalonia when the process – “companies are sovereign to decide where we invest” – and has defended, at the request of a question from the mayor of Elx, also present, that the Lady of Elx can return to her city, “at least for a temporary exhibition.”
