Les Corts Valencianes held this week their last ordinary plenary session of the legislature – they will be dissolved in the coming days after Puig calls the elections on Monday – with the approval of three new laws. A final rush that allows us to close these four years with a balance of 30 new regulations approved in the Chamber (including four budgets and their corresponding Accompanying laws). By way of comparison, in the first botanical legislature (without a pandemic in between), the legislative desire of the Executive and the parliamentary groups materialized up to 73 new regulations, some of them difficult to implement.
Although in these four years the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, has indeed chosen to carry out government crises (some forced by circumstances), there has been considerable institutional stability. And it is that it has been a legislature marked by the profound change of faces. Only Puig resists and figures who were fundamental for political change have disappeared from the scene, such as Mónica Oltra, the soul of Compromís who is now trying to reinvent herself with shared leadership. Nor do Isabel Bonig (PP) or Toni Cantó (Ciudadanos) continue and Podem has changed vice president.
All the parliamentary spokespersons of Les Corts, except Ana Vega (from Vox), have been replaced. Of the candidates for the Generalitat, only Puig repeats. Carlos Mazón (PP), Joan Baldoví (Compromís), Mamen Peris (Ciudadanos), Héctor Illueca (Podem) and Carlos Flores (Vox) will debut.
Despite the difficulties and internal changes, the long-suffering budgetary agreements always reached on the horn have shown a certain solidity between the partners of the Government, since the Valencian Community has been the only one of the large autonomies to ratify its accounts before the end of each year. Isabel Díaz Ayuso could not do it in the Community of Madrid due to Vox's refusal; Andalusia had to extend the 2021 project and Catalonia had to wait until March of this year to approve the 2023 accounts.
Budgets on the sidelines, in a legislature weighed down by the pandemic (in 2020 only four laws were approved) important regulations have been approved such as the Gambling Law -considered one of the most restrictive in Spain for prohibiting betting houses near schools and increasing the sanctions-; the Climate Change Law; that of Public Function or the recently approved Animal Welfare Law.
All these regulations were not exempt from controversy due to pressure from the different sectors affected. In fact, the Civil Service regulations left the hot potato of the language requirement for later, whose agreement was reached between PSPV and Compromís after the resignations of one and the other, while the Animal Welfare regulation generated strong discrepancies between the partners despite because the text that was approved was more restrictive than the future state regulations in process regarding hunting animals.
As it has been observed in the last plenary session of Parliament, the urgency of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine (with the consequent increase in inflation) have forced the Valencian government to resort to legislative decrees. This urgent formula has been chosen, which requires parliamentary validation up to 61 times. In the previous legislature there were only 28.
Thus, only in the last session three decree laws were validated: one on housing emergency; another on the Law of Cooperatives; and a third on aid to the audiovisual industry. In addition, it seems quite plausible that a Permanent Deputation be convened so that their lordships ratify one of the Botànic's latest bets before the end of its second term: a help voucher for the shopping basket that will be accompanied by other subsidies for the payment of mortgages or rents. All this at the gates of the electoral campaign.
The not always simple agreement between the three legs of the Consell have allowed all these legislative agreements to be reached. However, beyond the recovery pacts after the pandemic, consensus also reached Les Corts last fall in the unanimous approval of the tax reform. A debate that was opened at the beginning of September, which generated a lot of tensions between the partners (it seemed impossible to reach an agreement) and which, despite the fact that it did not quite convince the ranks of the opposition, ended up being supported by all the parliamentary groups .
However, consensus has not always been the norm in Les Corts. In fact, it has been impossible to renew the statutory bodies that have expired for months or to reform the Electoral Law, despite the fact that attempts have been made until the last moment. A reinforced majority was necessary and force was not exactly the quality that Ciudadanos possessed, the necessary partner to achieve both purposes.
During these four years there have also been many tensions between the members of the Botànic. Despite attempts to reach agreements, the Valencian left has not been able to reach an agreed position on prostitution due to the battle between abolitionists and supporters of regulating this practice. It was one of the flags of the legislature that the PSPV raised and that, despite the insistence of Minister Gabriela Bravo, has not had a legislative reflection. The Valencian left was lucky to approve its own Trans Law before the national debate stressed the positions in feminism.
Another of the warhorses on which the progressive forces have not reached an agreement -although they have known how to weather the storm so that important investments are not lost- has been in the development and installation of renewable energies as a result of the increase in energy prices and the aggravation of climate change. The model on how to implement solar panels and wind farms has opened an important debate in left-wing parties that will surely last for years to come.
