Three days and three meetings. This is how long it has taken the PP and Vox in the Valencian Community to close an agreement to share the areas of power of Carlos Mazón’s executive and the policies to be developed during the next legislature. A pact that gives Vox the first vice-presidency, which will be managed by the former Vicente Barrera, who will also be responsible for the area of ??Culture, in a bilingual autonomy. In addition, the Ministries of Justice and Agriculture are handed over to the formation of Santiago Abascal. The PP will assume the rest of the so-called strategic portfolios, from Finance to Health or Education, which means that it controls more than 90% of the Valencian budget. One of the most important frictions between the two formations during the rapid negotiations has been the area of ??Education, which Vox intended.
But the agreement includes fifty points of government action, of active policies, which confirm that Vox has succeeded in imposing its cultural and symbolic narrative on the PP. In its content it can be seen that there are no references to gender-based violence, equality or feminism, but only to “intimate family violence”. The will of the two parties to eliminate all measures regarding historical memory is stated: “The rules that attack reconciliation in historical matters will be repealed.” In addition, there is no reference to climate change, which means giving in to the denialist positions of Vox in a context such as the current climate emergency. Initiatives against “illegal immigration” and the creation of an office against “occupation” of housing are announced, despite the few powers of the Generalitat Valenciana in these matters. And it shows the will to “eliminate” aid or subsidies to entities or associations that promote the “Catalan Countries”, in addition to creating an Identity Codes law, the objective of which is to grant non-regulatory entities the ability to issue Valencian degrees.
Carlos Mazón had announced during the electoral campaign that he would not accept some of the policies now agreed in writing by Vox, such as those relating to gender issues or the denialist view of climate change. But everything points to the fact that the Valencian PP has had to pay this price in exchange for Abascal agreeing to sacrifice its candidate for Valencia, Carlos Flores, convicted of sexist violence; Flores vaser designated that same day number one on the list of the green formation for Valencia to not become part of the future Valencian executive.
The pact known yesterday has caused concern in Genoa, where the national leadership has surprised the content of an agreement and the distribution of areas of power because it can convey a negative message for the PP a few weeks before the 23-J, according to sources of this party. On Tuesday, Feijóo already had to defend the need to agree with Vox to guarantee governability in Valencia, since the PP did not have enough seats to win the presidency. But the distribution of power in an autonomy of the weight of the Valencian Community and some of the agreed policies generate a powerful message to the rest of Spain about what a future relationship between the PP and Vox in the central government might look like.
Aside from the cultural and symbolic terrain, the PP has managed to include its star measures in the agreement, such as a drastic reduction in taxes or the freedom of choice of school for parents. A freedom that opens the door to putting the parental pin.
However, the policies defended by Mazón during the campaign yesterday were subjected to the impact of seeing this new road map in an autonomy like the Valencian one, referent, until not long ago, of advances in social policies, with pioneering measures against gender violence or the fight against climate change, and even a trans law of its own.
It remains to be seen whether what has happened in Valencia conditions, for better or for worse, the talks between the PP and Vox on the pacts for other autonomies. At the moment, Valencia is already marking a path for what can happen in the future in Moncloa.
