PV Initiative, a key party in the emergence of Compromís founded and led by Mónica Oltra, is going through a major crisis just weeks before the general assembly is held that should set the course of the formation in the coming years. This week, important figures from the province of Castellón were aware of the party’s departure, such as the only Initiative deputy in this constituency, Verònica Ruiz; the councilor of the Castellón City Council Pau Sancho or the mayors of Xodos, Miguel Ferrer, and Vistabella, Jordi Alcón. The latter was also the spokesperson for the party in the northern regions, which denotes the dissolution of the ecosocialist formation in a province where, it is true, its implementation was very punctual.
These casualties join those that occurred in November when Sergi Campillo, who was vice mayor of València in the time of Joan Ribó, left the party, along with other former senior officials of the Botànic. A dozen resignations based on “disappointment” in the management of the current leadership headed by the national deputy Alberto Ibáñez and the regional parliamentarian Aitana Mas.
Casualties that have unleashed a strong internal crisis in a formation that has been the second leg of Compromís for many years thanks to the leadership of Mónica Oltra, who resigned from all her positions after her judicial indictment. PV Initiative was key for Més Compromís, the former Bloc, the main force of the coalition, to gain space among the voters of the Valencian social left.
Let’s return to the current crisis. The reason given by Alcón to this newspaper to motivate his abandonment is: “Discomfort with the current leadership”, which they accuse of not having paid attention to this concern on the part of the militancy – there have been around fifteen casualties. – and the “need for a change” which, in his opinion, involves betting on a “single team that is Compromís and not three different ones” (in reference to the three parties that form the coalition).
“The party is prioritizing particular interests and seeking to guarantee majorities by politically killing potential rivals. Some militants who stood out became targets to beat,” denounces one of those who is no longer in the party. “This leadership applies sectarianism and is leading the Initiative to irrelevance due to its lack of political vision,” adds another.
The current management prefers not to make a public statement until the executive meeting this Monday. However, they regret that “the defenders of the single party” have not waited for the Assembly on February 24 to present their proposal to dissolve into Compromís and see “how much support they have.” A circumstance that, according to the same sources, denotes “that they do not have much support.”
In this sense, they consider that “it is very ugly to take advantage of a position they achieved as Initiative candidates” to weaken the project. And why do they do it? “They believe that in the reformulation of Compromís, Més Compromís [the largest party] is going to keep everything and jumping ship is the easiest way to repeat it.”
Thus, and despite recognizing almost thirty casualties in recent months, they point out that the party has 234 more members than in the congress two years ago where the current leadership was elected.
The historic leader and one of the founders of Initiative, Pasqual Mollà, father of the former Minister of Agriculture, Mireia Mollà, has not left the party until his resignation caused by his confrontation with the then vice president and co-leader of Initiative, Aitana Mas.
Away from the public front line for years, Pasqual Mollà speaks freely to La Vanguardia. He believes that the debate should not focus on what the organizational formula of Compromís is – whether it becomes a federation or a party – and asks his people to do politics.
In this sense, he does not understand that the coalition has given up on entering the Government of Spain when Sumar offered a former regional secretary of the Botànic to direct the Imserso and it was the Initiative itself that “vetoed” this appointment. “It seems that Compromís wants to be like the BNG, ERC or Junts; We support Pedro Sánchez, but we do not participate in the Government. With the difference that we do not have the pressure capacity that these groups have.”
This idea leads him to denounce that Compromís is adopting decisions that “mimicking themselves with an identity-based nationalism that has a limited space in the Valencian Community.”
In this context, Pasqual Mollà preferred to be at the presentation of Sumar instead of at the National Initiative Table, of which he is still a part, which approved the calendar of the General Assembly scheduled for February 24 and the draft of the political strategic presentation.
This leader confesses that he was not too enthusiastic about what he saw in that event starring the ‘Alicante’ deputy from Sumar, Txema Guijarro. “There are plenty of wise men.” However, Mollà is clear that “the implementation of Sumar is inevitable in the Valencian Community. Or is EU [which has more than 55 councilors throughout the Community] going to merge with Compromís? ”He asks.
In this context, he considers that “the worst thing that can happen to Sumar is that it is only made up of the people of Esquerra Unida, but that Sumar does not exist in the Valencian Community is impossible because it is already represented in what is left of the US.” It must be remembered that the Initiative was born precisely from the split of a current of Esquerra Unida in 2007 and that the party coordinated by Rosa Pérez Garijo is the one that has entered the most in Sumar.
Precisely one of the points addressed in the political presentation that will be addressed in the Assembly is the relationship with Sumar. In the draft, which was approved unanimously in the last National Table and to which La Vanguardia has had access, it is noted that “the short-term usefulness of the electoral coalition [with Sumar] is undeniable, but the lack of definition of the project generates reasonable doubts that It will have to be resolved in the coming months.” Likewise, it is recognized that “if there are significant differences in terms of ideology or political approach, the parties could compete in elections and in the political arena independently.”
For this reason, it is noted that “the relationship between Sumar and Initiative-Compromís in the future will depend on several factors and circumstances. Politics is dynamic and can change rapidly, making it difficult to predict with certainty how relations between political parties will evolve in the future.”
All in all, the strategic presentation highlights that, although “we must avoid the atomization of the shared political space and bet on synergies”, the participation of Compromís in different electoral coalitions “does not have to dilute us.” Thus, they point out that it is necessary to maintain “one’s own profile that, contributing to the common space of the transformative left of the State, maintains strict obedience to the political reality of the Valencian Country.”
All of this is based on the principle of the proposal for a Compromís converted into a federation of parties that gives it “legal stability” and a “more dynamic structure”, with “common management bodies that have decision-making capacity in daily operations.”
A formula that does not convince any of the resigned who have registered directly as members of Compromís and not in another of the coalition parties. In fact, Sergi Campillo wants to move towards “a unification” as the only way to guarantee the survival of Compromís. The management insists that this proposal could have been voted on as an amendment if Campillo had not left the formation.
The problem for Initiative is that it is facing this reformulation process of Compromís – Més Compromís has left its congress for the end of the year – at its most delicate moment. Because, as mentioned in the draft of the presentation, “the most politically relevant person in our formation [Mònica Oltra] has suffered a clear case of lawfare, along with her team and one of our former spokespersons. A dirty legal war to which perhaps we have not known how to give the necessary response within the electoral coalition of which we are part.” And the fact is that, since the departure of the Vice President, the formation has chained an endless number of internal crises until leaving it at the feet of the horses at a key moment for its future.
