The Valencian employers, first, and the Valencian right-wing PP and Vox, then, believe that ERC and Junts have incorporated the demand to stop the expansion of this powerful infrastructure in the negotiation to support the investiture of Pedro Sanchez We insist, it is a hypothesis, because there is no objective data to support it, since both Junts and ERC have “roundly” denied it to this newspaper; also from the Spanish Government through the Government Delegation to the Valencian Community. There is, it is true, a precedent: ERC has always opposed the expansion of the port of Valencia “for environmental reasons”, they emphasize from the republican formation.
But the reality is that in a few days, based on information disseminated by a digital from Madrid, many alarms have gone off in the Valencian Community. And a political and media agitation is being generated that is strengthening the foundations of a story whose consequences point to a resurgence of anti-Catalanism, this time not based on identity or culture, but material, and a new line of pressure against the pact that Sánchez wants to close with the Catalan pro-independence parties. The port of Valencia, the most important in Spain in terms of container traffic and the main entry route for goods to the center and north-west of Spain, becomes an unexpected element of the possible investiture of the leader of the PSOE.
This conflict framework also had, at the end of this week, a protagonist who legitimized it, and that is Compromís. The Valencian coalition, allied with Sumar, has taken a step that may have important consequences: it has announced that the package of demands on Sánchez will also include paralyzing the expansion of the port of Valencia if a new Declaration of ‘ Environmental Impact (DAY), and that it is favorable. A demand with which Compromís gives strength to the Valencian right-wing denunciation at a key moment in the negotiation of Sánchez’s investiture. ERC and Compromís had already requested this stoppage in Congress in the past.
The framework generated in relation to this question is simplified into two ideas: the Catalan independence supporters want to stifle the growth of the port of Valencia to favor that of Barcelona, ??the main competitor, and the Valencian left, the PSPV and Compromís, are necessary collaborators of an objective in which Sánchez appears as a clear “traitor” to the interests of Valencians. They are simple ideas, but as recognized by the management of the PSPV, of enormous power in a geography where anti-Catalanism is a historical trend, with periods of maximum effervescence.
The most innovative thing is that, until now, the main reason for confrontation had been the identity and language of the Valencians. A simple look at the past reveals the decades in which the linguistic conflict caused episodes of great violence, even terrorist attacks and fierce battles in the streets between anti-Catalanists and Valencian nationalists. They were the years of the so-called “battle of Valencia”.
This is the first time that the risk of a resurgence of anti-Catalanism is based on a material and economic fact, which gives a new dimension in which, for the first time, the main business leaders participate. This week, even a person as moderate as Salvador Navarro, president of the Valencian Business Confederation (CEV) referred to the possibility that the independentists and Sánchez were using the expansion of the port of Valencia “as a bargaining chip for the investiture”. He is not the only one who has used this expression; the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, and the mayoress of Valencia, María José Catalá, have also done so, and have warned that they will launch all resources to oppose it.
The fact that this idea has been built on a material basis also allows the conflict to be addressed from something visible (a port) and objectifiable, in traffic figures or jobs.
In the case of the language of the Valencians, this objectivity is more complex: feelings and quite a few passions come into play. To pacify the linguistic conflict, the PP, with Eduardo Zaplana as president, created in 1998 the Valencian Language Academy, AVL, a regulatory and statutory entity that has been a fundamental instrument for keeping the language out of the scope for years politician. The Valencian Executive has taken some steps to reduce the presence of the Valencian in education or in other areas of the administration, but does not question the regulatory authority of the AVL. The Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, defends it.
The Conexus Foundation, an entity directed by the prestigious lawyer Manuel Broseta, son of the professor and politician killed by ETA, is organizing a Valencian and Madrid “summit” for the end of November with the presence of Carlos Mazón and Isabel Díaz Ayuso to discuss, precisely, of infrastructures and, among these, the port. The PSPV is growing anxious because it senses the rebirth of the “prosperity axis”: Madrid-Valencia-Mallorca. Years ago, this axis, encouraged by Aznar, had Francisco Camps, Esperanza Aguirre and Jaume Mata as protagonists. The conflict at the port of Valencia is, in this sense, a powerful element of the recovery of an axis, which is also “a vision of Spain, less circular and more radial”, they add. It would be an axis in clear competition with the Mediterranean, where Catalonia and Valencia are each other’s main customers. Valencian employers have fought and are fighting for the Mediterranean corridor to end, but now they fear that the investment will drown the future of the port of Valencia
What there is no doubt about is that this Valencian infrastructure, which aspires to be the most important in the Mediterranean, in front of Algeciras and Barcelona, ??is already subject to investiture due to an unconfirmed fear that has dominated the media debate this week in Valencia, and for a risky bet of Compromís.
