"We are a united government that will work for the well-being of the citizens," said the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, about the new agreement she has reached with Vox for the City Council. Catalá appeared this morning, accompanied by all of her councilors and also those of Vox in the Crystal Room of the City Council to give an account of the government agreement that represents the entry of the ultra-right into the local government.
With the agreement, Juanma Badenas, spokesperson for Vox, will be the second deputy mayor and his group will assume up to 10 delegations in a total of three areas: Employment, Entrepreneurship and Training; Parks and Gardens, and Natural Spaces and Family, Elders and Traditions. "Today has been a great day and we should all be happy," declared Badenas, who had "constantly" reiterated, as he himself has pointed out, his offer to enter the government of Valencia.
Catalá has stated that it is a group with which "I share a large part of the political program" and has acknowledged that "from the first moment" we were holding conversations to reach the agreement that was presented today. "It took us the time necessary to see how we could make it more efficient," he added. "Always aware" that it only had 13 councilors, Catalá pointed out that this "has not been a dog-eat-dog negotiation, we have done it well and in the end we have reached an agreement that seems optimal to all of us."
Regarding the timing of the negotiation, the mayor has placed it in the last four months, after the electoral result of May 28. "We didn't close it on Tuesday, in a meeting from a quarter to four to half past five in the afternoon," she said. In fact, she has even mentioned being clear in the decision regarding the Valencia Football Club, known this week, that her "future partner" in government would agree. "Valencia has never been part of the negotiation," the mayor reiterated.
Regarding the distribution of areas, Catalá has explained that it has been done according to the proportionality of the latest electoral results, when the Popular Party obtained 13 councilors and Vox, 4. The municipal structure led by the mayor of València is structured in 11 areas, of which eight will depend on the Popular Party and another three on Vox.
Thus, as this media reported yesterday, the far-right party will direct Parks and Gardens and Natural Spaces, so it will assume the management of beaches and the Devesa-Albufera. You will also have responsibilities in Entrepreneurship, employment and training and in a particularly charismatic area because it allows greater contact with citizens, such as Family, Elders and Traditions.
Here, however, the Popular Party has reserved the management of the Fallas and its governing body, the Fallera Central Board, which will continue in the hands of Santiago Ballester. "The four of us from vox have assumed delegations that try to be in contact with the citizens of Valencia," said Badenas, now second deputy mayor of the city. "With the entry of Vox into the City Council it will be clear that the majority feelings of Valencians will feel reflected," predicted the spokesperson for the ultra-right.
