The 2022 and the electoral proximity shake the Botànic: seven changes in the ministries and new trustees

During his first legislature, the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, boasted of having the most stable government in democracy.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
29 October 2022 Saturday 22:32
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The 2022 and the electoral proximity shake the Botànic: seven changes in the ministries and new trustees

During his first legislature, the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, boasted of having the most stable government in democracy. Except for the forced change of the Minister of Health, Carmen Montón, who was called by Pedro Sánchez to be minister, the socialist leader did not touch his executive in the four years. Of the 9 ministers who began the mandate with him, 8 ended up as members of the Valencian Government.

However, that conservatism of Puig when making changes in his executive -which was even criticized at times- has been truncated in this second botanical legislature, in most cases by obligation. A situation that has been accentuated in recent months with a continuous change of faces that not a few attribute to the turbulence of the legislature (the post-pandemic and the consequent crisis), but also to organic battles fueled by the proximity of the elections.

Up to seven portfolios have changed their heads in just half a year: the First Vice Presidency, Finance, Education, Health, Territorial Policy, Universities and Agriculture. Thus, of the 11 ministers who took office together with Puig in June 2019, only four continue in office (Gabriela Bravo, Rafael Climent, Rosa Pérez and Arcadi España, the latter in another responsibility).

To this, we must add that of the five syndics who began the legislature in the parliamentary groups of Les Corts - Manolo Mata (PSPV), Isabel Bonig (PP), Toni Cantó (Ciudadanos), Fran Ferri (Compromís), Naiara Davó ( United We Can) and Ana Vega (Vox), only the spokeswoman for the extreme right continues. And it is that in a few months, many of the protagonists of Valencian politics have changed in many unexpected ways. A circumstance that forces new leaders to be built quickly before the next election date.

Especially traumatic has been this 2022 for the Botànic. The change of year has already begun with the loss of a prop for the good synergies between the Executive and the Legislative such as Fran Ferri. The parliamentary spokesman for Compromís, key to smoothing out rough edges and agreeing on and polishing amendments between the partners, announced that he was returning to the private company after the approval of the budgets.

At that time, Aitana Mas ran for the position, but her colleagues on the bench opted for the figure of Papi Robles (leader of Més Compromís in the city of Valencia). At that time, the Minister of Education, Vicent Marzà, already threatened to leave the Government and take the reins of the group in Les Corts. Something was beginning to cook in the Valencian coalition.

Three months later, during the celebration of the 25th of April, the PSPV spokesman and lawyer by profession, Manolo Mata, surprised locals and strangers alike and informed President Ximo Puig that he was leaving the spokesperson in Les Corts to dedicate himself to defending the alleged ringleader of the Azud case, businessman Jaime Febrer. Mata was also deputy secretary of the PSPV and a person of the highest confidence of the president who did and undid in Parliament with total freedom. He acted as a shield for the president, parrying the blows and battling the opposition.

It should be noted that these changes on the left were undertaken after the internal problems of the opposition that ended with Toni Cantó's resignation and departure from Ciudadanos (March 2021) and the dismissal of Isabel Bonig (May 2021), who was fired by censoring the treatment of the then leader of the PP, Pablo Casado.

Mata's departure was a hard blow for Puig, who tried to take advantage of the moment to give his government a political boost one year before the elections with the pandemic already over. While the president lengthened the reflection, he received a call from Minister Marzà, who informed him of his intention to leave the department he had occupied since June 2015 to focus on his party and parliamentary work. Another setback for the head of the Consell who maintained a tense relationship with Mónica Oltra since the end of the previous legislature and who had a valid interlocutor in the deputy from Castellón.

Marzà's decision and Mata's departure ended up materializing in the first great crisis of the Puig Government. They left the Executive, in addition to the head of Education, the Minister of Health, Ana Barceló (to fill the vacancy of the parliamentary spokesperson left by Mata); the Treasury, Vicent Soler; and that of Universities, Carolina Pascual. Spain changed its portfolio and reinstated the regional Executive Raquel Tamarit, Miguel Mínguez, Josefina Bueno and Rebeca Torró.

A cascade of changes that even affected the Government Delegation, where the leader of the PSPV took the opportunity to remove one of the few remaining referents of abalism (Gloria Calero) by giving stripes to the councilor of Valencia Pilar Bernabé.

In that inauguration of May 2022, which was expected to be the last of the legislature, Mónica Oltra was still as vice president of the Consell. However, the legal problems surrounded the leader of Compromís who, after her accusation and a harsh letter from the Prosecutor's Office questioning her management in the case of abuse that affected her ex-husband, had to leave office with tears in her eyes and denouncing little support from the president of the Generalitat throughout this process.

The departure of the coalition leader led to the appointment of Mas. This support from the outgoing vice president for the new visible face of the Initiative –she was already appointed co-spokesperson for the party months ago- is one of the keys that explains what happened this week.

The disappearance of Mónica Oltra from the first political line forced Compromís to reinvent itself and look for new leadership. With Initiative clearly betting on Mas, the coalition made an effort to confirm that Joan Ribó would stand for re-election to the Valencia City Council and Més Compromís launched his deputy in Congress, Joan Baldoví, into a long pre-electoral race without waiting for anyone.

The formation made a move to recover and not sink after losing its political and electoral reference, but there was still a piece to change that squeaked in the new Compromís gear. The relationship between Mas and Mollà, who did not quite accept that Oltra would have preferred the deputy from Crevillent, was increasingly distant and difficult, to the point that, after four months in office, with a simple and short phone call, the Vice President announced to her party colleague that she had asked Ximo Puig to resign as Minister of Agriculture. The president agreed this week thus executing the umpteenth (and supposedly last) change in the Valencian Government.