Vicente Barrera, Valencian vice president and Minister of Culture of Vox, recently joined the hard core of Santiago Abascal. He regularly travels to Madrid to hold meetings with the ultra leader. Upon his return, the number two of the Valencian executive comes with a portfolio loaded with clear instructions to project to the Valencian public opinion everything that separates them from the Government of Pedro Sánchez but also from the PP, in this case in matters such as Equality or Diversity and in the so-called “cultural battle”.
Barrera, who is not a person who moves comfortably in conflict, and who has only called two press conferences in seven months, stages these differences with reluctance, with a prepared and limited speech. He recently did it to question the cultural policies of the “communist” Government, as he emphasized, attacking the Minister of Culture. It was his first press conference. But this week, in his second appearance and a day after traveling by AVE to Madrid to visit the headquarters, he attacked the Consell’s campaign in favor of the LGTBI group entitled “Community Pride”, which was presented during the Benidorm Fest.
Vox is very restless. Especially in an autonomy like Valencia where the soft institutional opposition, conditioned by the processes of organic changes in the PSPV and Compromís, allows the PP to scan the horizon with optimism, even with the perspective of ending up pushing Abascal’s party to marginality ( In the Valencian Community it is necessary to overcome the 5% electoral barrier. Vox now fears inanity in the Galician elections, it needs to denounce the “weakness” of the PP against the Government and, at the regional level, highlight the margins that separate it from Carlos Mazón’s party. That was Abascal’s order that Barrera executed on Tuesday.
But the strategy of the ultra formation can backfire, because it is allowing the PP to consolidate an image of a “centered” party. The Valencian vice president of Equality, Susana Camarero, and also Mazón himself, have shown their clear predisposition to promote campaigns to support the LGTBI community and to treat sexist murders as “gender violence”, as an example. Each attack by Vox allows the PP to position itself in a space not far from the territory that the left has always considered its own. This is recognized by the PP itself, who affirm that Barrera’s gestures make it easier to highlight messages to public opinion on Equality and Diversity policies, once the heritage of the Valencian left.
It also happens that Vox is not going to blow up its government pact with the PP. It is an unthinkable scenario at this time. They can put pressure, but the rope is not going to break. The Valencian Community, the first in which an agreement was forged after 28-M, is a key piece for the formation of Abascal. Something very serious would have to happen at the national level between Vox and the PP for the Valencian coalition government to end. This evidence is what most benefits Carlos Mazón’s party. The popular Valencians have learned to accommodate the denialist drive of the ultras with two strategies: accepting the “plurality” of the executive, but preventing Vox from altering the policies of the departments managed by the PP.
Those who know him well say that Barrera is between “a rock and a hard place”, in reference to the orders he must follow from Santiago Abascal. From the rest of the Vox councillors, at the moment, there is hardly any news that bothers the Valencian PP. But he is paying attention to the movements that may occur at the national level, where Abascal’s pressure on Feijóo may grow, a lot, in the coming months. Even more so given the proximity of the European elections, where the strength of each of the parties can be clearly outlined. For now, the Valencian PP is calm, defends “pride” and sees its partner more as an ally than as a rival, which is even allowing it to underline a story of moderation that can allow it to expand its social base and aspire to the majority. absolute in 2027. Surely, just the opposite of what Vox wanted, a formation also loaded with “prejudices.”
