The landing of Vox in the Valencian Government: without shading the PP and with problems to sign
The First Vice President and Minister of Culture of the Generalitat Valenciana, Vicente Barrera, attended this Wednesday what is his first official act in two weeks: the inauguration of the Festival of Ancient and Baroque Music of Peñíscola (Castellón). The name of the former bullfighter was the first that Vox opted for for a coalition government with the PP, unprecedented in the Valencian Community. However, despite the commotion over the express pact between the two formations that shook the national political scene after 28-M, Santiago Abascal's party has remained to date in a very discreet background, unable even to complete its organization chart..
Together with Barrera, the person in charge of Justice and the Interior, Elisa Núñez, and that of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, José Luis Aguirre, sit in the Carlos Mazón Council. Now, the three representatives of the Vox quota in the Valencian Government have ceded all the prominence to the PP in the first two weeks of the new Executive. With hardly any public agenda, they have not starred in a single appearance before the media beyond the first act of inauguration on July 19.
The three directors have limited themselves to holding meetings with some representatives and groups of their respective sectors, although without reporting all the appointments. No statement and no outburst from the representatives of a party that already had to call attention to its number two in Valencia, José María Llanos, when after the signing of the government pact he got off the hook saying that “gender violence does not exist”. Pointed out in his day as a possible Justice adviser, the Vox deputy has not spoken again since that controversy, which even forced Alberto Núñez Feijóo to intervene.
That put the PP of Mazón on maximum alert, where authorized voices came to express their fear that Vox could overshadow the president of the Generalitat himself and the management of the entire Consell with its incendiary statements.. In reality, it has been quite the opposite, since the three directors have opted for the moment for a low profile.
In this sense, the election of Barrera by Vox was experienced with relief in the circles of the PP. The former Valencian bullfighter, who in the past was a member of this party and surprised everyone by sitting at the negotiating table where the PP-Vox pact was cooked, “does not really have a political profile”, according to the popular sources consulted.. This is interpreted as hardly wanting to dispute the spotlight with Mazón.
The Valencian president already warned his government partners that he did not want any “show” like the one that the PSOE, Compromís and Unidas Podemos staged in the previous legislature with their public disputes. In fact, Mazón and the PP have been in charge of leaving their mark on the meetings of the Consell. If the first served to approve the elimination of the Inheritance and Donations tax as promised by the popular campaigners, the other meetings have allowed the organization chart of the new Valencian Government to be shaped.
Unlike Mazón, who has practically closed his Presidency team, Barrera has the main positions in his department vacant. The same happens in the case of Núñez and Aguirre, who still have the appointments of almost all the high positions of their ministries pending.. There is a paradox that Emergencies, under the control of Vox, maintains those responsible for the previous left-wing government. Mazón, Barrera and Núñez recently visited the Emergency Coordination Center to call for “caution” in the face of possible fires.
Although more appointments are expected to be approved this week, Consell sources attribute this power vacuum to the fact that “the best profiles” are being sought. From Vox they admitted, however, that the party is having difficulties to make signings that can be incorporated into their departments. To this is added, according to these sources, the intervention by the party leadership from Madrid.