The Valencian PP will be done today with the vast majority of important mayors of the Valencian Community and will impose a change of cycle at the municipal level. In the last municipal elections, the popular ones removed 2,300 councilors in the three provinces for the 1,956 of the PSPV; Compromís achieved 662 and Vox 227. A difference that widens as the PP has gained control of the largest cities and has ratified its new hegemony with last-minute pacts with Vox that will allow it to govern, despite not being the most voted, in cities like Elx, Torrent or Xirivella.
Today the 542 municipalities of the Community are made up and, as was seen on March 28, the PP will govern the three provincial capitals: María José Catalá will be the mayoress of Valencia, Luis Barcala, that of Alicante and Begoña Carrasco will raise the staff of command in Castellón.
Since Tuesday, minutes before the autonomous pact was announced, PP and Vox reached an agreement to snatch Elx, the third most populous city in the Community, from the list with the most votes – that of the socialist Carlos González.
The PP also recovered the 28-M Orihuela -also with an unnecessary agreement with Vox, since they were the list with the most votes- and increased its comfortable majority in Orihuela at the hands of Eduardo Dolón and in Benidorm, with Toni Pérez. An agreement was also signed yesterday without being precise (the Catalá formula of governing alone could have been chosen) in Sant Vicent del Raspeig. Of course, in this last town, the lack of agreement would have complicated the day-to-day life of the PP a lot as the left added more votes than the popular ones, something that does not happen in Torrent
Yes, an agreement between the PP and Vox was necessary to avoid the continuity of the PSPV in Torrent and Xirivella. The pact was made to wait, but it was finally reached 24 hours after the constitution of the municipal corporations. In the town of more than 80,000 inhabitants, Amparo Folgado (PP) will be the mayoress in exchange for giving Vox the position of first deputy mayor and the direction of the areas of Education and Family, Fiestas (with the exception of the Fallas), Sports and Health. In Xirivella, Paqui Bartual will be the mayoress and the extreme right will manage Commerce, Consumption, Health, Local Development and Culture.
On the other hand, the PSPV has managed to maintain important fiefdoms thanks to agreements with Compromís in towns such as Sagunto, Gandia, Alcoi or Xativa and in red belt municipalities such as Quart de Poblet or Alaquàs. The Socialists also enjoy calm absolute majorities in Paterna, Burjassot, Silla, Aldaia or Mislata. Some results that will allow him, except for surprise, to govern the Diputación de Valencia.
For its part, after losing Valencia, Carcaixent and Crevillent, Compromís has managed to save in extremis and with an unnatural agreement, the control rod of Alzira. It will also maintain the Mayor’s Office of Altea with the support of the PSPV and will enter, after many years outside it, the Mayor’s Office of Dénia, which will be divided between Socialists (three years) and Nationalists (the last year of the legislature).
