Carlos Mazón was sworn in yesterday as president of the Generalitat Valenciana with the votes of Vox, and with his election the PP reconquered the piece it longed for, and was missing, to consolidate its territorial power in Spain. An aspiration that Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself expressed during the 28-M campaign, because recovering the fourth Spanish region that the right lost in 2015 and which governed for 20 years means closing a Madrid-Valencia strategic and political axis that José María Aznar has always it was marked as a priority to limit Catalan influence. Feijóo, in geopolitical terms, has surpassed Aznar’s dream, because Andalusia and Galicia add to this strategic vector. The Spanish political map yesterday was consolidated in favor of the PP.
The Valencian investiture was possible yesterday thanks to the votes of Vox; formation that has achieved an important share of power in the Generalitat Valenciana, in addition to the Presidency of the Corts. The ultra formation will manage a Vice Presidency that assumes Culture, and that will be directed by the former bullfighter Vicente Barrera, who yesterday applauded the censorship of Catalan magazines in Burriana; in addition to the Ministries of Agriculture and Justice, on which the resources to provide the Valencian courts for gender violence depend. Vox has puffed its chest in Valencia with its involutionary positions on gender violence and equality, with the agreement that it signed with the PP in a few hours and that came to generate alarm in Genoa; but that is now past water. The facts are consolidated, and the PP is once again presiding over the Generalitat Valenciana, the same one that has been managed for two legislatures by all the Valencian left wing of the Botànic and chaired by Ximo Puig.
Carlos Mazón, in a speech in which he combined Valencian and Spanish, yesterday in his inauguration speech avoided criticizing the extreme positions of Vox, defended the pact with the ultra-right due to the refusal of the PSPV to abstain from the investiture, but He offered signs of his willingness to prevent some matters from ending up blowing up the image of his Council. Vox has shown in the Valencian Community a great capacity to dominate the political scene. To counter this, Mazón announced that Equality will have the rank of vice presidency, which will be led by a woman, according to PP sources, and that his government’s priority will be to fight “against sexist violence.” The new president, moreover, has removed the environmental policies from Agriculture to place them in another department controlled by the PP and everything points to the fact that next Monday, after taking office, he will announce a moderate government, in contrast to the Vox advisors.
He was tougher on anti-Catalan positions. He announced that he will promote a Law on Identity Signs that, among other objectives, will put an end to subsidies and aid to associations or entities that defend “els Països Catalans”, and advocated giving parents freedom to choose the center they want for their children and the language with which they want to be educated, Valencian or Spanish. There will be, therefore, a paradigm shift in the Education policies of the former executive of the Botànic. Regarding his program, he confirmed what was announced during the campaign regarding tax cuts and reduction of the administration; without specifying too much.
In his speech he assured that he was willing to reach agreements with all political forces. And even in the face to face with Ximo Puig, both were ordered to establish agreements on equality, democratic quality, energy, well-being, culture and defense of the Valencian, as well as financing and water at the request of Mazón. The former president warned, however, that he is not going to give “not one day’s grace” to the new Valencian executive if he tries to apply regressive policies on gender, equality or sustainability. Harder was the leader of Compromís, Joan Baldoví, who established himself as a battering ram: “we will make an opposition so that the infamous agreement with Vox chokes him.”
In other autonomies, Vox has participated to elevate the popular to the regional executives. But in no autonomy has a distribution of power been negotiated as in the Valencian one. Santiago Abascal, who held a meeting in Valencia yesterday, is eager to transfer this model to the Spanish executive if Feijóo needs them to reach the presidency; that is, enter the Spanish Government. What is still curious: the Valencian pact of the left served as a model for Pedro Sáchez for his government coalition with Podemos. Now, in a new cycle, Valencia marks a path that Vox wants to emulate in the Spanish executive and that Feijóo wants to avoid.
