Vox squeezes Catalá but does not suffocate. The spokesperson for the municipal group of the formation in the Valencia City Council, Juanma Badenas, offered this Wednesday “for the third time publicly” – he also admitted offers privately – to become part of the local government of the city.
For now, he acknowledged that the current mayor, María José Catalá, has given him trouble despite his insistence, although it is true that the first mayor did not close the door, a few days ago, to including the Vox councilors in her team.
However, judging from Badenas’ words, there are no negotiations with the PP to raise this possibility, which is why the Vox councilor tried to increase the pressure. At the beginning of his speech at a press conference to assess current political issues, the spokesperson for the far-right in the council slipped that “logic” indicates that his entry into the government would occur before they were approved. “Time is running out,” he dropped as an ultimatum.
Badenas was upset with the fact that the PP sent him “a three-quarter-page executive summary” with some data – which he did not want to reveal – about the tax ordinances that the popular party intends to approve with them. He demanded more information and to participate in the “preparation” of the 2024 accounts, which need their votes to be approved. Badenas argues that to approve these measures, “a general agreement must first be reached and then agreements would be made on particular issues.”
However, when asked about it, the Vox leader did not dare to condition his affirmative vote on next year’s accounts when his party enters the Government. He did emphasize that it would be difficult for his four councilors to give their support to the PP to approve the budgets without a prior agreement between the two parties, unless these were “wonderful and magnificent” for the city.
And it does not seem that Badenas and his people have just accepted Catalá’s strategy, because at the same time that they ask that they be welcomed into the Governing Board or in “important delegations” – he then stressed that they are not looking for seats – they do not hesitate to criticize the management of the current mayor and to emphasize that the change in the capital is imperceptible in many matters.
This tug of war between PP and Vox – this complicated relationship between “preferred partners” – will be seen next Friday in the board of directors of the EMT, where Badenas has already advanced that the popular ones do not have their votes guaranteed to make the appointments. planned.