The PP is convinced that the next 28M will conquer the Mayor of Valencia. The polls place him as the first political force in the chamber with a sum of the blocks of the right and left, yes, very tight. In this context, the popular candidate for the Valencia City Council, MarÃa José Catalá, yesterday called on the voters of Ciudadanos, the Vox and the socialists “disenchanted with sanchismo” to unify the vote around her.
In his electoral presentation at the informative breakfast organized by the Nueva EconomÃa Forum (with an audience that did not hesitate to applaud some of his answers), Catalá defended that, beyond ideology, he seeks a “broad majority” since his option “is not another than to govern alone”.
Despite the fact that this Thursday the Vox candidate for Mayor of Valencia, Juanma Badenas, challenged the PP leader to try to rule without them in an interview in La Vanguardia, the truth is that if the polls are met and the PP rises with the victory (and the left does not reach the 17 councilors that would give an absolute majority), Catalá would not need the extreme right to be the next mayor of the city because it is the list with the most votes.
In this sense, the institutional deputy secretary of the PP, Esteban González Pons, even went so far as to make Ciudadanos ugly by running for election when they have no options, according to different demographic studies, to have municipal representation. The national leader of the PP brought up a GAD3 survey – posted on his website – which, according to González Pons, had been commissioned by Cs and which placed the oranges at 3.1%. This same survey smiled at the popular ones because with its 15 seats (plus the three from Vox) it gave them an important cushion over the 15 that the left would take (8 from CompromÃs and 7 from the PSPV).
González Pons came to wonder if the leaders of Ciudadanos who decided to present themselves did so with “the desire to help CompromÃs.”
In this strategy that the PP has embarked on to nationalize the campaign of the regional and municipal governments, the party’s institutional deputy secretary wanted to emphasize that the vote for the PSPV “consolidates Pedro Sánchez”, because following his argument, “even if they say otherwise , voting for Ximo Puig or Sandra Gómez is voting for Sánchez”. González Pons was convinced that only a “great abstention” would give Joan Ribó and Puig “a chance”. For this reason, he appealed to mobilization and insisted on “not dividing the votes” and unifying them in the PP. A useful call to vote that will become more apparent as election day approaches.
During his speech at the New Economy Forum, Catalá described some of his government proposals; from the construction of 1,032 homes on municipal lots in eight different neighborhoods to naming the Puente de las Flores the name of the former mayor Rita Barberá, whom she wants to make honorary mayor of the city posthumously in the first plenary session she presides over.
In addition, the mayor set another challenge. “In a context in which Barcelona is losing strength due to its political and social instability, why not aim for Valencia to be the second city in Spain? In an ambition that I want to lead”. Thus, she was convinced that the city needs “strong leadership, a mayor who fights for the defense of the city” to meet the challenge of “being the second city in Spain” behind Madrid.
