The important transfer of positions from Ciudadanos to the PP lists for the regional and local elections of 28M in the Valencian Community has some similarities with the one that was activated at the end of the 90s and which concluded at the end of 2010, to incorporate positions from Union Valenciana, UV. This change of party of several Valencianist leaders accelerated the decomposition of the regionalist and anti-Catalanist formation that Vicente González Lizondo founded in 1982.
Unión Valenciana, like Cs in its best moments, was a party that could speak face to face with the PP, and which allowed Eduardo Zaplana to reach the presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana and Rita Barberá the Valencia City Council. Its process of electoral weakening was parallel to the rise of the Valencian PP, a party that ended up integrating all UV voters, consolidating its political hegemony and assuming victories with more than 50% of the votes both at the regional and municipal levels.
The official date of death of the Valencian Union can be dated to April 11, 2011. Day in which the last president of the formation, José Manuel Miralles, announced that he was going to campaign in favor of Francisco Camps, and that his party would not appear to the regional elections. Thus ended the story of a political force that was decisive in the 90s to wrest the institutions from the PSPV and initiate a change in the political cycle that would last 20 years in the Generalitat Valenciana and 24 in the Valencia City Council.
There are facts that surely the youngest are unaware of. Unión Valenciana, founded by Vicente González Lizondo, was only one councilor away from becoming mayor of Valencia in 1991. Rita Barberá was the one who obtained that extra mayor. And in 1995, UV was the party that allowed Eduardo Zaplana to be president of the Generalitat Valenciana after a negotiation that was called "the chicken pact", as it was carried out in the office of the Valencian businessman, Federico Félix, dedicated to the business of chickens.
Eduardo Zaplana, first, and Francisco Camps, later, acted to deactivate the Valencian Union. First, relaxing the linguistic conflict, with the creation of the Valencian Language Academy, AVL; pact championed by Zaplana and forced by the agreement between José María Aznar and Jordi Pujol. This pact weakened the political action of the Valencianists. But the incorporation of regionalist positions into the ranks of the PP was more decisive for this operation to dismantle UV. The trickle began to be significant a year before the 1999 elections and continued almost until 2011.
One of the first to join the PP was María Ángeles Ramón Llin, who managed, as a UV militant, the Agriculture and Environment portfolio in the first executive of Eduardo Zaplana. Months before the 1999 elections, she announced that she was embracing the PP and continued managing the same department. Years later, in 2007, she would become part of the list of Rita Barberá to the Valècia City Council. Her case was followed by other very significant ones, such as the former president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Fernando Giner; Vicente Ferrer, who became general secretary of UV or Alfonso Novo, who would end up being a key piece of the Valencia City Council with Barberá. One of the last was José María Chiquillo, who reached the leadership of UV and later was a senator for the PP for years.
Fermín Artagoitia was a leader of the Valencian Union. In conversation with this newspaper, he recalls that the PP also offered him the option of leaving his party "through a succulent offer" that he did not accept. He points out that "now, as then, the system to attract Cs positions is to offer positions on lists to run for public office." And he adds that, as happened with UV, "this means that Cs is in full decomposition and either you get a position in the PP or you stay on the street."
In the case of Cs, the drip has been incessant for weeks. The first significant case was that of the former trustee Ruth Merino, who has achieved one of the first positions on the list of the PP to the Generalitat Valenciana. Later, others have followed, such as the former deputy of Cs Jesús Salmerón, who will be a candidate for the Loriguilla City Council, or Rocío Gil, a former councilor of Cs in the Valencia City Council until a few days ago and who is already part of María José Català's team.
They are not the only ones, there have been signings of people from Cs in Rafelbunyol, Cheste, Aldaia, Tavernes de la Valldigna, Alfara del Patriarca, Picassent, Cullera or Beniflà. Incorporations that have not always been, of course, well received by the local collectives.
Artagoitia points out that "if Cs were strong this would not happen." The truth is that the formation now led by Mamén Peris is on its way to disappearing in the next Valencian elections of 28M. Despite this, some remain firm, such as the Ciudadanos candidate for Valencia City Council, Fernando Giner.
