"The real Valencia has returned," said María José Catalá the night she won the elections. The future mayoress of Valencia aspires to make the city the second in Spain, surpassing Barcelona -which she considers paralyzed due to poor management- making it more fiscally competitive and attracting large innovative, cultural and sports projects.
The leader of the PP -who will once again occupy a seat in Les Corts- wants Valencia to once again have that influence (which often depends on the complicit conjunction of parties in the different power administrations) that it had in the past when its referent, Rita Barberá, was considered "the mayoress of Spain".
It is true that the PP also won the night of 28-M Seville and has the Mayor's Office of Madrid, but Catalá is the only female face of these great Mayor's Offices in the hands of the PP. Yes, the new popular mayoress of Zaragoza is a woman, another place to take into account. In this state scenario, the Valencian leader aspires to a "leading and vindictive city that returns to play the game at the national level", as already happened in the time of Barberá where the national PP tried that everything (or a large part of the important things ) will pass through Valencia.
After the Valencian Community ceased to be a stronghold for the popular, the Valencian PP has gone through some difficult years (and ostracism) that now, led by Catalá and Carlos Mazón, they aspire to leave behind after the overwhelming victory in the regional and municipal last Sunday.
A greater role for the city that could be reinforced with a victory for the PP in the next general elections. And it is that Catalá will need to have the favor of the central government to fulfill some of its large projects such as the northern expansion of the Port of Valencia or a greater investment for key infrastructures for the city such as the access channel, the central station and the through tunnel . In this sense, with the City Council and the Generalitat having won, the missing piece to fit the puzzle will be decided on 23-J.
On the night of 28-M, during the beginning of the scrutiny, there were some doubts, but the count quickly confirmed the thirteenth councilor for the PP and certified the change of cycle in the Valencia City Council after eight years of government of Joan Ribó. The last mayor of the change who, together with Ada Colau, still had options for a third term.
Catalá got 151,000 votes (6,000 more than his leader Carlos Mazón) and was the first political force in all the districts of Valencia. In addition, it was imposed in all the neighborhoods of the cap i casal except in 10. The popular leader was the list with the most votes in neighborhoods such as Ribó (Patraix), such as that of the socialist candidate, Sandra Gómez (el Cabanyal) or in areas traditionally on the left like Benimaclet.
He reaped the expected victories in the districts with the highest incomes -Pla del Real (56%) or l'Eixample (50.2%)- where he opened a gap with his rivals. These areas did not ignore the call for the mobilization of the PP candidate and were the two with the least abstention.
As the analysts predicted, the victory in the city had its subsequent correlation in the blue wave that washed over the Valencian Community.
After the victory and without the need for Vox for the investiture, now Catalá must start building its city model. As she has repeated during the campaign, she aspires to be a mayor who, apart from ambitioning the big, "takes care of the small." Thus, she has committed to cleaning up the neighborhoods, the aesthetics of the city (she likes pedestrianizations, but not their design), the state of the streets or the accessibility to all areas. In her team they understand that she cannot lose closeness to the citizenry and that the neighbors "have to feel heard and cared for."
Among the priorities of his mandate are the 20% reduction of the IBI to all and a bonus of 95% of the surplus value in cases of inheritances and family transmissions; the expansion of the Local Police staff by 500 troops or the construction of 1,032 public housing in 8 neighborhoods (Ruzafa, Malilla, Nou Moles, Na Rovella, Fonteta, La Torre, Benicap and El Grao). During the campaign, Catalá has emphasized the housing problem and has taken advantage of the late reaction of the Rialto Government to provide a housing solution for many young people and families.
Another of the first issues that the new corporation will have to address is the lack of parking spaces, one of the issues that has generated the most criticism from residents, according to data from the municipal barometer. The PP program includes the intention of 4 large park-and-rides at the entrances to the city with shuttle services to connect it with the center, and provide 8,000 spaces so that residents can park at home.
Small large initiatives that will go hand in hand with those large projects that claim to be the emblem of the legislature to relocate the city, such as the burying of the Serrería roads to connect the Grao and Peña-roja neighborhoods and open Valencia to the sea, ending the old bed of the Turia river and extending the Paseo de la Alameda.
