The parliamentary groups of PP and Vox responded this Thursday by applauding and standing (some extreme-right deputy shied away) to the interventions of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, who was making his debut in the Les Corts control session. The popular president did not seem at all uncomfortable, quite the contrary, and he distributed PSPV – he criticized the absence of the “multiple employee” Ximo Puig – and Compromís – whom he recalled is in the Les Corts Table for the votes of the PP – to the point of turning the session into an hour of inspection of the opposition.
Although in the vote that took place after the questions to the president, PP and Vox voted separately on the petition to renew the Valencian pact against gender violence, the Government demonstrated unity and each other supported each other to repel criticism. of the opposition. Not even the words of the president of the national PP, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, assuming that the pact with Vox harmed him, and which the Compromís ombudsman, Joan Baldoví, recalled, made an impact on an Executive that avoided showing its internal contradictions.
Both PSPV and Compromís tried, recalling the statements of the Vox councilors regarding sexist violence or climate change, but Mazón did not give the option to show any internal weakness.
In the cross-questions to the president, which are always answered by councillors, Mazón appropriately chose the representatives of his government who were going to answer and on all four occasions he chose leaders of the PP. Although the Presidency insists that it was not premeditated and that all the councilors will speak depending on the matter being asked, the truth is that yesterday they avoided answers that would show the different positions within the Consell on sensitive matters.
It was summarized by the spokesperson and Minister of the Treasury, Ruth Merino, who pointed out that “the steps that this government has taken have been unanimous, and agreed upon, with dialogue and consensus. We act as a team and the government’s action is unique.”
Neutralized the criticism, the president went on the attack and denounced having received “the worst inheritance of a democratic Government in the Valencian Community in economic matters.” He recalled the debt figures that he raised to 58,000 million euros, and warned that the previous executive has placed the Generalitat in the “very serious” risk of having to return to the EU around 2,800 million euros for structural funds and the Next Generation.
However, and despite the warning from the Government of Spain itself, as confirmed by sources from the Consell itself, only with respect to 1,687 million euros is there a latent risk of repayment, because the EU gives an additional period of justification for the structural funds of 3 years that ends on December 31, 2023. To justify the rest of the investments, there is time until June 2026.
Be that as it may, the truth is that a large part of the session revolved around the management of the Botànic and its president and now deputy, Ximo Puig, who was absent (he did participate in Wednesday’s plenary session), leaving the socialists in a complicated situation. It was strange that the main seat of the PSPV parliamentary group – the one that faces that of President Carlos Mazón – was empty. The leader of the PP justified this by the fact that Puig is at the same time general secretary of the PSPV, former president, parliamentarian, senator and is “campaigning to be a minister.”
This task of turning the session into a control session for the opposition was also helped by the fact that two of the four questions to the president were from the groups that support the Government and that have not given up on raising those questions that the socialist trustee, Rebeca Torró, called “bath and massage.”
