The recent publication of data from the Tax Agency on the average gross income of the different municipalities, together with the holding of the municipal elections this year, allow us to observe to what extent income is a differential factor in the vote of Valencians. .
The PP, which was the party with the most votes in the municipal elections with 35.72%, governs in five of the 10 localities that amass the highest incomes in the entire Valencian Community. The PSPV does it in three; Compromís, in one; and an independent party, in another.
It is also true that the popular party was the most voted force in the two of the three municipalities that, according to official data from the Tax Agency, are at the bottom in terms of income, such as Venta del Moro, Formentera del Segura and Algorfa, these last two in the province of Alicante.
However, it is when you go down to the detail of the richest neighborhoods in a city like Valencia where you most see that income is one of the key factors in the vote. Thus, the data broken down from the capital cap i casal offered by the Tax Agency does allow us to point out with more or less correctness that the higher the income, the greater the support for the PP and Vox. In the case of the extreme right, with important nuances.
The PP governs in three of the five Valencian towns with the highest average gross income: Rocafort (50,214 euros), Bétera (42,948 euros) and Godella (41,451 euros). In the first, the PP rose to 39.15%, with an important result from Vox (13.77%). In the second, the popular party won almost 43% of the votes and, in the third, they remained below the regional average, although here there was a differential factor due to the presence of the urbanization party (where part of the urbanizations are concentrated). of its potential voter) which reached 14%. Another important note, in Bétera and Godella, Compromís surpassed the PSPV in votes; In fact, until not long ago both towns had a mayor from this Valencian formation.
In this classification, the small Alicante town of Aigües (46,093 euros) appears as the second richest in the Valencian Community, where the PSPV swept almost 70% of the votes, yes, in a census of less than 800 voters. Fifth place goes to San Antonio de Benagéber, where an independent party has the upper hand. You have to go down to sixth place to find the first important socialist mayor: that of L'Eliana. However, it should be noted that, despite the fact that the PSPV won the municipal elections in this town of Camp de Túria with a difference of 732 votes compared to the PP, that same day, it lost the regional elections by more than 1,200 ballots.
Camp de Túria is a region with many housing estates and chalets and it is there where Vox has one of its fiefdoms. In May it obtained 10.77% of the votes and its only Mayor's Office (Nàquera), which is ranked 23rd among the towns with the highest income in the Valencian Community.
Continuing with the classification of the towns with the highest average gross income, at number seven is the town with the highest income in Castellón –Benicàssim, also governed by the PP-, at number eight is Puçol (PP) and they close the top ten two towns in the hands of the left: Alboraia (PSPV) and Xeresa (the richest town with a mayor from Compromís).
Rent by neighborhoods in Valencia
However, it is in the neighborhoods of large cities where this relationship between vote and income is best observed. Although the figures are not entirely comparable (those from the Tax Agency are by Postal Code and those from the Valencia City Council by neighborhood), an obvious correlation between income and the vote can be deduced.
Thus, in Pla del Remei (100,317 euros of average gross income), was where the PP achieved its best result with 67.7% of the votes in the local elections. Vox – which got 12.7% in the city – rose to 17%. Likewise, in Massarojos-Santa Bárbara (48,288 euros), Gran Vía (47,801 euros) or Mestalla (47,624), the current mayor, María José Catalá, achieved support of 48%, 57% and 49%. In the Exhibition neighborhood – which is mainly located in the aforementioned postal code of Mestalla – the PP shot up to 62% and Vox to 16.5%. In the city as a whole, the popular party remained very close to 37% of the votes and the extreme right close to 13%.
On the contrary, in the three zip codes with the lowest income according to the Tax Agency, the vote for the PP was significantly lower. Thus, in Benimàmet, the PP fell to 29% as in Nazaret, while in Benicalap it remained at 32%. It is worth highlighting that it was in Nazareth where the extreme right achieved its highest percentage of support with 19.5% of the votes. And Vox had the peculiarity of achieving its best results in the areas with the highest incomes, but also in the most disadvantaged ones.
