Juanma Badenas makes his debut on the political front line with the aspiration of turning Vox into a decisive and influential force in the Valencia City Council. Professor of Civil Law at the Jaume I University and academic at the Belgian Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences, he staunchly defends the postulates of his party on issues as thorny as gender violence or positive discrimination against certain groups. He attends to La Vanguardia at the party headquarters.
In recent days there has been a lot of controversy and Vox has been criticized for having the same municipal program for all of Spain. Are the problems of Valencia the same as those of Madrid, Murcia or Albacete?
Let’s say that there are problems that are common and others specific to each city. The program for Valencia is not similar to that of Albacete or Vigo, but there is a common core. The fundamental essence of the Vox program is ‘take care of yours’, your neighbourhood, because Spain is built from neighbourhoods. There are common elements in all programs. Then each city has its singularities.
And what are those of Valencia?
The main one is mobility. It is one of the issues that most irritates Valencians. Valencia should continue to be a friendly city and it has become an irritating city because it is very difficult to travel through it. And there are certain conflicts between the users of the different means of locomotion. An ideological model has been established for mobility in the city that does not meet the demands and preferences of citizens. Vox advocates freedom of movement and decision-making when choosing the preferred means of transport.
You have been seen in a video promising to reverse the bike lanes. Do you want to reverse them all?
The video clearly states that we will reverse cycle lanes that are poorly laid out, poorly constructed, dangerous, or artificially congesting traffic. We will only act on those in which these circumstances occur. There are a number of reports that have not been transferred to the citizens. One of them says that the use of the bike lanes has only reduced the use of public transport. Hence, the EMT is deficient. Valencians do not take their vehicles because they pollute or consume more gasoline, they do it because they have no other choice.
The data in Europe confirm that the cities that have extended the bike lane and have opted for pedestrianization have achieved a better quality of life, less pollution and more sustainability. Are you for or against this?
Of course I am in favor of sustainability. But what is clear to me is that citizens have to have the freedom to choose the means of transport they want to get around. And that is compatible with the sustainability of cities. You have to listen to the technicians. A UPV report points out the places where the bike lane is dangerous.
Would you reverse any of the pedestrianizations carried out in recent years?
I would take into account what the technicians and residents of the pedestrianized streets say, as well as the merchants. You have to ask them what they prefer. We must return the decision-making capacity to the Valencians.
Wouldn’t you rule it out if you saw negative results?
Clear. Another thing that this City Council is not doing is listening to the technicians. When the opinions of the technicians do not coincide with the ideological position of the consistory, they are automatically kept in a drawer. The ideologues of municipal management must be removed.
What would you do to control the proliferation of tourist apartments and gentrification?
Apply the law and fair and not unfair competition between tourist apartments and hotel companies. It seems good to me that there are tourist apartments as long as they respect balance and the law. There cannot be two different rules of the game. In addition, it is necessary to comply with the Horizontal Property Law and with the uses that correspond to each of the buildings. It is necessary to coordinate and reconcile the various interests.
And what do you think of the measures that the Valencia City Council has taken to control this type of tourist establishment?
You have to study them. I do not have the technical reports in hand and I cannot assess it.
Would the tourist tax apply in a city like Valencia?
No. I think that everything that means an increase in income, even if it is only for a certain sector such as tourism, ends up redounding to the benefit of all citizens. More in a city where many people could be in a better economic situation than they are. This pre-campaign, I have been to two places that have made me particularly concerned: the Food Bank in front of Mestalla and the Formula 1 settlements that nobody talks about. They are the manifestation of the great Valencian failure.
In the Valencia Local Police there is a specialized care unit for victims of gender violence. Would they keep it?
We would increase the number of police officers to prevent all kinds of family violence. We will increase the neighborhood police, with agents who know who the neighbors are and who the merchants are.
We told him about the Gama group specializing in gender violence.
Yes, it is that this neighborhood police can know the problem that arises in each of the houses. The motorized Ribó Police that passes through the neighborhoods non-stop does not know the reality of these. The Local Police could avoid many family conflicts. We will encourage the police to prevent all kinds of family violence, among any member of the family.
So, would that specialized group be reconverted?
It would become a Police against domestic violence; of parents with respect to their children, wives with respect to their husbands, husbands with respect to their wives… and of any neighbor inside the buildings, because there is also violence between neighbors that must be avoided. Many times for reasons of noise it has been necessary to call the Police because the neighbors were organizing a lot of scandal and did not let us sleep. Violence must be avoided, but not only with respect to one gender or sex over another. All people are equal and there should be no discrimination based on sex; all positive discrimination is a negative discrimination with respect to the other.
Is there discrimination against men?
Sure, gender laws mean unequal treatment.
And that there is a group specialized in gender violence is a discriminatory treatment for men?
Yes, because men who may suffer violence from their wives are totally unprotected by that police group.
And the aid from the City Council to LGTBI groups, would you maintain them?
I still think that all people are equal and that each one should receive help based on their personal need, not because they belong to a certain group, not because they are a woman, not because they are white, male, North African or because they are from Cádiz. Aid must be received based on personal circumstances. The circumstances of each case must be considered. I believe in equity, which is the justice of the specific case regardless of the characteristics of the group to which the person belongs.
Valencia CF is having a hard time at an institutional level, what is Vox’s proposal?
We propose the modification of the Sports Law so that 51% of the capital of sports companies is national. How can it be done? With the transitional right, giving four years to companies that have foreign capital such as Meriton to get rid of those shares in order to adapt to the law. You would see how they would sell their shares immediately.
Are you in favor of the expansion of the port of Valencia?
We want it to once again become the most important port in the Mediterranean as it was in the years 2000-2008. Obviously, we are in favor of enlargement. Now the port is not being provided with the necessary infrastructures.
It is also true that there is an evident deterioration of the beaches in the south of Valencia and there is a risk for L’Albufera.
What you have to do is find the balance. There are very good engineers and things can be done rationally to maintain the level of protection of the natural space and, at the same time, to strengthen the port. We Valencians have the right to develop our port without losing the beaches. You have to make it compatible, everything is compatible if it is done from a technical and rational point of view, without ideology.
If they govern, would they remove the aid to promote the Valencian from the groups that promote it?
We would remove the aid that promotes Catalan.
You are a man of science. Do you think that the Valencian being subsidized is not Valencian?
In most cases it is Catalan and does not coincide with the Puig standards or with the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture.
But yes with the AVL, which is the regulatory body, according to the Statute of Autonomy.
The AVL is in the Statute and since the law must be respected, it must be maintained. What needs to be done is, as regards its internal law, to develop it so that the AVL protects the Valencian language.
Don’t you share the consensus that Valencian and Catalan are the same language, although here there is a dialectal variant?
I do not share it to the extent that the majority of Valencians do not share it. And the language, as most philologists say, are alive and belong to those who speak them. Regulatory bodies are artificial. English has no real academy.
We understand then that aid would only be given to those who use the Puig standards.
Only those who promote the language spoken in the street.
Do you see yourself as vice mayor of Valencia?
I see myself as mayor.
What would be Vox’s red lines to accept, if you did not have the necessary support, that the PP candidate, MarÃÂa José Catalá, was mayor?
What we will do is agree on a city project that defends the interests of the Valencians with whom it corresponds. Our red lines are the truth, the principles, the values ​​and the tradition of the Valencians.
What do you think when MarÃÂa José Catalá insists so much that she wants to govern alone?
I think it is very good that you try, but to see if you can.
Is it true that you do not have a good personal relationship with Catalá?
Neither MarÃÂa José Catalá nor I are important. Nor the relationship that we may have had in the past, which has been simply a technical relationship, where, if there were discrepancies at any time, they were not ideological, but technical about a certain procedure [the sale of the VIU] from more than 10 years ago. .
