The Minister of Justice and the Interior of the Valencian Generalitat, Elisa Núñez (Vox), continues without relieving the two senior Emergencies officials that the Botànic once appointed – the former progressive executive formed by PSPV, Compromís and Unides Podem. Despite the insistence of both the regional secretary for Emergencies, José María Ángel, and the general director of the Interior, Salvador Almenar, both appointed at the proposal of the PSPV, to leave their responsibilities, the new head has avoided dismissing them.
While the Valencian Government is gradually completing its organization chart, Núñez has made it clear this week that the emergency managers of the previous government will continue in their positions "temporarily and transitorily" in the face of the adverse circumstances of this summer. A circumstance that has angered the leaders and that has stirred up the party that appointed them; The Socialists accuse Vox of not having a bench to occupy key positions in the Executive.
In fact, on June 15, after the PP and Vox agreement was signed to form a coalition government in the Valencian Community, it became clear that the ultra-conservative formation would lead, among others, the Justice portfolio. For this reason, it is surprising in the socialist ranks that since then a replacement has not been found for such a delicate position, and even more so in these moments of extreme heat and risk.
As it is, Vox is having difficulties completing its organization chart. In the first two batches, he did not name any of the senior positions dependent on his departments (neither regional secretaries nor general directors). His most surprising signing came to light on Friday, August 4, when the former bullfighter Vicente Barrera –first vice president and Minister of Culture– chose Paula Añó as regional secretary, a Valencian woman living in Barcelona who rose to fame after denouncing the consequences on a television program. of the independence process.
Añó was a member of the Catalan PP – she was on the popular lists in the 2021 Catalan elections – although she ended up disenchanted and committing herself to the Valents project, a formation that emerged from Barcelona pel Canvi after the departure of Manuel Valls. She was her in the candidacy of this formation in the recent municipal elections of Barcelona on 28-M. Just a few months later, she has joined the Valencian Executive through Vox.
With Añó, the poet and critic Sergio Arlandis, professor at the UV and author of recognized works on the work of Vicente Aleixandre, Francisco Brines or Jaime Siles, who will occupy the general direction of Culture, and Pilar Tébar, who will manage the department, arrive at the Council of Cultural Heritage. It is striking that, after fighting for the PP not to subtract, as it intended, this competence from his ministry, Barrera ended up turning to a person like Tébar so closely linked to President Mazón, since she was currently the general director of the Alicante Institute of Gil- Albert, an institution dependent on the Provincial Council of Alicante in which this art critic and UNED professor has worked since 2007. In the organization chart of Vice President Barrera, the only thing left to complete is the direction of Sports.
The relays in the Valencian Council are generating controversy. Thus, despite the fact that in principle her dismissal was taken for granted, which was even published in the Official Gazette of the Valencian Generalitat, the regional Secretary of Financing, María José Mira, continues in her position. Mira was one of the signings of Ximo Puig, in 2015, who even placed her as the head of the list for the Valencia constituency (the PSPV candidate for the Generalitat was from the province of Castellón).
Mira's case caused a lot of surprise in the socialist ranks, although the reason for her continuity – she has been closely linked to Ximo Puig's project – is explained by the requests of the Volkswagen group not to generate a break with those interlocutors who have made it possible the project for the German multinational to install a gigafactory in the Valencian town of Sagunt. Mira has been one of the key pieces in this entire process, so her presence in a PP and Vox executive is expected to be temporary.
The one that will not be temporary is the continuity of the general director of the Valencian Tax Agency, Sonia Díaz, and that of José Manuel García Duarte, who will remain as general director of Information Technologies and Communications of the Consell. Coincidentally, all three (Mira, Díaz and Duarte) are in the Ministry of Finance directed by the former Citizens' Trustee in Les Corts Ruth Merino. And it is that, in that department, in addition to the former PSPV, there are also two other former deputies from the orange formation.
With these maneuvers, the new president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, tries to show that –despite his agreement with the extreme right– he is not committed to a policy of blocks and that he is capable of working with positions inherited from the previous government.
