He was the candidate imposed by Pablo Casado who, first, swallowed and then adopted Juanma Moreno and, for a few hours, has been the symbol of the new political stage that is opening in Andalusia. José Luis Sanz took the mayor of Seville in his hands this Saturday and formally consummated the new political dominance of the PP in Andalusia after it achieved a historic victory in municipal elections on May 28, surpassing the PSOE in votes and taking control of the majority in all the capitals with the exception of Jaén, which, despite everything, will also govern thanks to a pact.

The importance of the Sevillian conquest attests to the fact that the leader of the Andalusian PP and president of the Junta has supported the new Seville mayor with his presence, of whom he has said that he will be “the best mayor in Spain”.. He has done so after attending the inauguration of Bruno García in Cádiz and the agenda will be completed this afternoon in Granada, covering his great personal bet, Marifrán Carazo.

In the more than four decades of autonomy in Andalusia, municipal hegemony had never corresponded to another party that was not the PSOE, which in the elections three weeks ago suffered its second major blow. After losing the Junta de Andalucía in 2018, Andalusian socialism had its last refuge in the town halls and in the provincial councils.

The new mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz, after taking office. EFE

But that shelter has flown. The force of the electoral storm has been of such magnitude that, from today, the Seville municipality of Dos Hermanas (130,000 inhabitants) will be the most important with a socialist mayor in the entire community.

To such an extent it has become a bastion, that Pedro Sánchez has chosen it to start the pre-campaign of the generals with a great act this Sunday full of symbolism. It is the same place where in January 2017 he announced that he was running for primaries after being ousted the previous year by a federal committee.

If Andalusia was, until 2018, a rare bird where political alternation had not occurred, since May of this year it can be said that this alternation has been fully consummated after the socialist monopoly began to break five years ago.

In this sense, and shortly before Sanz's inauguration in Seville, Juanma Moreno himself highlighted how “a social majority has supported us” and that “we have done so without the influence of other political groups, maintaining our personality, our criteria, our political project”, in a vague allusion to the forced pacts with Vox in other territories of the country.

The Popular Party won the 28-M elections with 1,486,796 votes compared to the 1,301,405 for the PSOE, although the Socialists have the consolation that they still have the majority of councillors, 3,780, despite having lost 428, while the PP rose from 2,493 to 3,373. In the capital Seville, the PP took advantage of the PSOE in councilors (14 compared to 12) and in votes (132,745 compared to 110,242).

Second round of the autonomous

If the 28-M was raised on a national scale as a first round of the general elections -which will finally be held on July 23-, in Andalusia the municipal elections could be equated with the second round of the regional elections in 2022. And the victory of the PP has been overwhelming.

Like Sanz in Seville, seven other PP candidates have wielded the mayoral staff since this Saturday in the rest of the Andalusian capitals: Mar Vázquez, in Almería; Bruno García, in Cádiz; José María Bellido, in Córdoba; Marifrán Carazo, in Granada; Pilar Miranda, in Huelva; Agustín González, in Jaén, and Francisco de la Torre, in Málaga. Of them, five with an absolute majority.

Of these mayors there are two that are especially significant for the PP. The one in Seville was the most coveted square, since it was (in the past) the most important city in Spain with a PSOE mayor. The president of the PP himself, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, pointed it out when asking, days before the elections, to give Pedro Sánchez a “great upset” by voting for his candidate, Sanz.

The constitution of the town hall of the Andalusian capital has, in fact, been one of those that aroused the most interest and even its Plateresque building in Plaza Nueva has not only been approached by Moreno, but also by a large representation of the PP and of. the regional executive. The Minister of Education, Patricia del Pozo, the Deputy Secretary of Economy of the PP and number one for Seville in Congress, Juan Bravo, or the former minister and former mayor, Juan Ignacio Zoido, attended the event.

Along with Seville, the Andalusian PP had bet heavily on Granada, where Juanma Moreno placed one of his closest and most trusted collaborators as a candidate -since this afternoon mayor. Minister of Development until just a few months ago, Marifrán Carazo achieved what seemed impossible, an indisputable absolute majority of 15 councilors, eight more than his party had.

The new mayor of Cádiz, Bruno García, receives the command rod this Saturday. EFE

The same story, with variations, is repeated in other capitals. Like Cádiz, where the turnaround has been spectacular. From a mayor of Adelante Andalucía -José María González, Kichi- to an absolute majority that has made the provincial president of the PP, Bruno García, the new mayor. Oen Huelva, where the PSOE saw its only absolute majority in a capital evaporate at the hands of the new PP mayoress, Pilar Miranda.

Where it already governed, the PP has seen its positions strengthened. This has happened in Malaga, whose perennial mayor, Francisco de la Torre, has got rid of his partners and has seen his prayers answered with an absolute majority of 17 councilors. The same in Córdoba, with José María Bellido at the head of 15 of the 29 councilors of the plenary session and a completely clear mandate ahead. The same as in Almería, where the successor to Ramón Fernández-Pacheco has improved the results, reaching 15 councilors out of 27.

Jaén has been, by far, the most disputed consistory. It is, in fact, the only capital in which the PSOE won the local elections, although only in votes and by a difference of just 300 ballots.. The key here was held by Jaén Derecho Más, a newly created party inspired by Teruel Existe that appeared out of nowhere and took out three councilors.

The PSOE, in order to retain the mayoralty, even offered them a year as mayor, but the promise of investment by the PP ended up tipping the scales in favor of Agustín González, today mayor.

Agustín González, holding the staff of mayor of Jaén. EFE

On the political map drawn on the night of May 28, the blue of the PP predominates from one end of Andalusia to the other. With exceptions, such as Seville, the vast majority of the provinces supported the PP. Some, like that of Huelva, in which socialist domination has been total for more than four decades.

The councils: six out of eight

This predominance also in the provinces is what will be displayed below, when the provincial councils are constituted. According to the Electoral Law, this will be the fifth day after the formation of the consistories, although the date may vary.

At the beginning of the year, in the strategy meetings of the Andalusian PP, the 8+8 was caressed when forecasts were made for the municipal elections. Eight mayoralties in the eight capitals and eight councils, the plenary session at eight was seen as an objective within reach.

The fear of an excess of demobilizing euphoria and the adjusted results that the surveys indicated in some points stopped the enthusiasm dry.. But the score for 28-M has finally been much closer to the euphoria of the beginning of the year than to the prudence of recent months.

So much so that in five days, day up day down, the PP will also assume power in six of the community's eight provincial councils, all except those of Jaén and Seville, which the PSOE has managed to retain, although in the latter case losing the absolute majority.

Granada, Córdoba, Huelva (which had only been in the hands of the PSOE) and Cádiz are now added to Málaga and Almería, which were already governed by the popular groups, the latter after securing the support of the independents of La Línea de la Concepción, who They have negotiated two ways.

With a total joint budget close to 2,700 million euros, the provincial councils were the last jewel in the crown of the PSOE. Not only because of the territorial power they represent, but also, and especially, because of their ability to sign up for different positions and give party members and leaders a payroll.

That explains why the feeling that the 28-M leaves within the PSOE is that of an orphan. There is talk of an unmitigated “disaster” and internal discontent is growing against the general secretary, Juan Espadas, with whom a sector intends to dispute the leadership when, after the general elections and if the tragedy is confirmed and they are also lost, the congresses are called extraordinary of the party at all levels.

Puertollano has put an end this Saturday to 44 years of chained mandates of the PSOE in an industrial town in Ciudad Real where more than 47,000 inhabitants reside. The popular Miguel Ángel Ruiz has been invested mayor only with the votes of the 10 councilors of his group after the two from Vox have voted for themselves for their intention to govern alone.

“We have been able to create an illusion for change and that the fear of always voting the same is lost,” says the winner of the last municipal elections, who considers that his predecessors in office have managed the city as if it were their ” farmhouse” and have applied policies “marked by ideology”. “They have forgotten to listen to the people,” says the new mayor.

Before the investiture, the PP candidate for mayor held two previous meetings with Vox, which asked him in exchange for the support of his two representatives to enter the Government with the position of deputy mayor and a councilorship. The agreement did not come to fruition, because according to Ruiz it was “unfeasible”, but even so, the mayors of Santiago Abascal's party have paved the way for his election.

“If they are going to put an armchair before working for the city, there is a problem here,” says the newly elected councilor, who nevertheless trusts that the representatives of Vox “will lower their expectations”. “We are open to negotiating with everyone,” he adds, also referring to the eight councilors of the PSOE and the IU who will also form the local corporation.

During the campaign of the municipal and regional elections on May 28, Puertollano was the only municipality in Castilla-La Mancha in which the regional president, Emiliano García-Page, and Pedro Sánchez met at a rally. The Minister of Territorial Policy and Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, who was mayor of the municipality between 2019 and 2021, also participated in it.

His successor, Adolfo Muñiz, faced his first test at the polls with the support of the acronym that had been controlled by the town's mayor's office since the beginning of democracy. From now on, he will sit on the opposition bench, in principle with the intention of remaining there for the next four years, although this newspaper has tried -unsuccessfully- to contrast this extreme as well as to know to what he attributes the defeat of his party in a purely socialist fiefdom.

At his inauguration, the new mayor of Puertollano has been supported by the leader of the Castilian-Lamancha PP, Francisco Núñez. For the formation of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, this is one of the symbols of the political “change of cycle” that predicts that it will reach La Moncloa in the July 23 elections.

Although the community continues to be governed by the only PSOE baron who achieved an absolute majority on 28-M, in addition to this municipality, the mayoralties of the region's provincial capitals -Toledo, Albacete, Guadalajara and Ciudad Real- have changed their political sign with the only exception of Cuenca. In all of them from now on there will be popular councilors with the support of Vox.

The change that the right longs for at the national level is already a reality at the local level and it is possible that it will soon be so at the regional level. The Popular Party has increased its municipal domain and predicts that the triumph of 28-M will be the prelude to a national victory that will allow Alberto Núñez Feijóo to reach La Moncloa. The unknown today lies in how much the PP will need Vox for this, given the formula that both parties have been forced to activate in order to beat the left in not a few or small municipalities.

Toledo and Valladolid are emblems of this new clamp between the PP and Vox in large cities. On both points the PSOE was the first force but the sum of the right, materialized in pacts forged in recent days and negotiations against the clock, gives the mayor's office to the PP with the support of Vox from within the consistory. In Toledo (86,906 inhabitants), Carlos Velázquez will team up with the national deputy of Vox Inés Cañizares to unseat the PSOE after 16 years of left-wing mayoralties. The pike is symbolic for having been the political cradle of Emiliano García-Page, who was mayor of the capital from 2007 to 2015 and became the leader of the Castilian-Manchego socialists as city councilor.

The PP, despite not winning autonomy on March 28, has dyed important cities in the region blue through the mechanism of the pact with Vox. Guadalajara (89,169 inhabitants), Ciudad Real (74,850 inhabitants) or Talavera de la Reina (83,247 inhabitants) are some examples, but in Genoa the case of Puertollano (47,881 inhabitants) is especially liked, where the PP will try to govern alone -since , with ten seats, needs one more for an absolute majority – and put an end to an entire socialist bastion after 44 years of left-wing mayors. The regional leader of the popular, Paco Núñez, went there this Saturday to celebrate the new local situation of the right in Castilla-La Mancha.

“It is the beginning of an exciting stage,” said Velázquez, the new councilor of Toledo, who won nine councilors in the May 28 elections after being sworn in.. Added to the four that Vox obtained, the right can form a local government and overtake Milagros Tolón's PSOE, which won eleven seats, insufficient to repeat the mandate.

The new councilor from Toledo thanked Vox for its “will” to form agreements, defined his new government as “without labels” and called for forging a “fruitful, cordial and cooperative” legislature within the new mayor's office, but warned that the objective of the City Council that he already directs is to “solve problems and not create them”, nor “divide the citizens”, just at a time when the PP and Vox have shown their first differences at the national level after the pact in the Valencian Community and the statements of those from Abascal denying the existence of gender violence. “It is not a day to talk about violence,” said Cañizares in this regard to remove the issue.

The Vox candidate in the region's capital did not specify what position she will assume in the new local team and praised the “ease” with which both parties have agreed. In the same way, he assured that the only “red line” that has been assessed is the dismantling of socialist policies that have so harmed autonomy.

The municipal power of the PP in Castilla-La Mancha becomes incontestable from now on: it governs in six of the seven most populated cities -only Cuenca is missing- in the region, in four of them with the support of Vox, Toledo being the jewel of the crown for both parties.

Valladolid: management without “precipitation”

257 kilometers from there, the situation was different but the result was the same. Valladolid (295,639 inhabitants) was another strong point for the PSOE, especially for Pedro Sánchez, since the until now mayor, Óscar Puente -who will go on the lists to Congress on 23-J- is one of the leaders closest to the president. Despite winning by a few hundred votes, the PP and Vox agreed on the horn to stop a new socialist legislature in the municipal institution.

Jesús Julio Carnero is the new mayor of Valladolid and Irene Carvajal, Vox candidate, will be first deputy mayor. Those of Santiago Abascal will get three of the ten councillorships, although which ones will not be specified until next week.

During his speech, Carnero defended the triumph of democracy, manifested in the change of cycle in Valladolid and in the birth of the new coalition between the PP and Vox. In addition, he called on his team not to “rush” and make decisions and make announcements “in due time.”

Burgos (174,051 inhabitants) is the other major Castilian-Leonese capital in which, despite the socialist triumph, this alliance has worked to raise a right-wing mayor's office. There, the PP delivers to Vox the portfolios of Citizen Security, Employment, Industry and Consumption, as well as Culture and Education.

Unlike in the case of Toledo, the provincial capitals of Castilla y León -the PP also won in Segovia and revalidated in Salamanca- are in tune with the change in cycle that brought about the pact between the PP of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco -who accompanied Carnero in the inauguration and celebrated the return of the PP to Valladolid after eight years- and Vox, with Juan García-Gallardo, in February 2022 to govern the Board. That was the first regional agreement between the two formations, which has served Vox above all as a reference when negotiating other possible regional executives after 28-M. For the moment, these negotiations have only resulted in a governance pact in the Valencian Community that will allow the popular Carlos Mazón to be the next president of the Generalitat, with Vicente Barrera, from Vox, as vice president.

The replica of these pacts covers other important provincial capitals and large cities. The PP will govern with Vox, for example, in Castellón de la Plana (171,589 inhabitants) and also in Elche (235,580 inhabitants), as well as in Alcalá de Henares (195,570 inhabitants), Móstoles (207,095 inhabitants) and Torrent (81,245 inhabitants).

This right-wing equation writes a new page in the political history of our country. Until now, the left had led the way in terms of local and regional pacts since 2015. Now, the weakening of the progressive formations and the entry of Vox in practically all the regional parliaments and many consistories draws a map of the country completely different from that of a few weeks ago: of the 966 municipalities in which those of Santiago Abascal have achieved representation, They will enter 140 town halls, the vast majority at the hands of the popular ones. In addition, they accumulate 26 absolute majorities and will be able to govern in another hundred locations thanks to pacts with other forces.

With an atmosphere of enormous tension and a strong police presence in the Plenary Hall, María Fernanda Sánchez (Always Don Benito, with seven councilors), contrary to the municipal merger with Villanueva de la Serena, has assumed this Saturday the command rod of the Mayor's Office, thanks to the agreement reached on the horn with the Popular Party (five councilors), and in this way they have evicted the socialist José Luis Quintana, who had lost the absolute majority on 28-M, going from 14 to nine councilors. Always Don Benito and PP have agreed to divide the Mayor's Office for two years each, the last of the legislature being for the popular. In addition, they have agreed that the referendum on the merger will be repeated in three years.

It should be noted that the new mayoress has been elected with six votes from the Siempre Don Benito formation, since although she achieved seven councilors in the 28-M elections, there is one of them who has not taken office this Saturday.

With this change in the Mayor's Office of Don Benito, the possibility of the merger that the socialist mayors of this city and that of Villanueva had agreed to in the previous legislature is removed (here Miguel Ángel Gallardo has maintained the absolute one), setting it for 2027 after a controversial process.

The Imperial Theater of Don Benito, where the Extraordinary Plenary session was held, has been filled with people in favor of the merger and against it and there have been moments of great tension. In fact, on several occasions, the representatives of the Mesa de Edad have been forced to ask the public to remain silent after hearing shouts of 'pucherazo' and in favor of the merger. María Fernanda Sánchez has assured that they do not deny the merger “if the majority of the citizens want it”, but what they reject outright is that “in order to achieve it, the established procedures are not complied with”. Regarding the referendum, he stated that the results were “not at all clear” and that, due to democratic hygiene, “they should be investigated,” he stressed.

After taking the baton, the new mayoress has assured that they still have to “continue negotiating” with the PP because there are “many things pending.”

However, he has assured that “it is clear that we are going to form a consolidated group to give stability to the City Council and to govern rigorously and seriously and above all with stability” in Don Benito, in which Siempre Don Benito and PP will share the councilors

María Fernanda Sánchez has advanced that in the next few days they will reveal all the terms of the agreement between Siempre Don Benito and PP, in which “it has all been at the last minute”.

In this sense, he has stressed that “people demand it” with transparency and with “a percentage according to the city of Don Benito”, and that, in his opinion, it will be “advisable to calm down that tense society” that exists in the locality at the moment, that “some people and some interested parties have tensed it”.

Faced with this situation, Sánchez has called “for calm to all citizens”, as well as “to work and collaborate” with the aim of “improving Don Benito”, which is the objective of Siempre Don Benito, he said.

In addition, the new mayoress has highlighted that this Saturday “the desire of the people of Don Benito to change the government and political party in the city council has finally come true”, for which she has assessed that “the polls have been heard”

New name query

Pedro Noblejas, PP candidate, has advocated carrying out the merger between Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena “in another way, and for the good of the citizens”, after which he has reiterated that the PP “is in favor of the union” , but he doesn't “like how things have been done, they haven't been done well”.

“Look if they have not been done well, that one part of the population is facing the other”, highlighted the local PP spokesman, who has advocated “correcting what has been done wrong”, as well as “explaining to the citizens each of the points and commas that the union agreement has”.

The former mayor of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena, José Luis Quintana and Miguel Ángel Gallardo, respectively, accused yesterday the president of the PP of Extremadura, María Guardiola, of “sabotaging” the merger between the two cities.

In a joint statement, both socialist leaders reproached the regional leader of the popular for having “buried the harmony” between the two cities and blamed her for taking Don Benito to “a dead end”, increasing the “tension between neighbors to the limits”. that, they affirm, they still do not reach “to calibrate”.

Caceres and Badajoz

For their part, there were no surprises in the mayoralties of Cáceres and Badajoz. The new mayor of Cáceres, Rafael Mateos, from the PP, has rejected an agreement with Vox and will govern the City Council alone for being the list with the most votes, for which he has expressed the intention of “seeking meeting points” to improve the lives of the people of Cáceres because “Cáceres must occupy the space that corresponds to it, stick out its chest and always look ahead”. Mateos has been helped by the support of his 11 councilors to get the baton.

In Badajoz, Ignacio Gragera (PP) will repeat as mayor of Badajoz thanks to his absolute majority, although in the last legislature he did so as a Ciudadanos candidate by reaching a pact with the Popular Party for alternation in the mayoralty.

The national president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has announced this Saturday in the Teruel town of Celadas, where he has attended the constitution of the new City Council, an intensive tax reduction for companies that settle in rural areas.

Likewise, he has promised that, if he is president of the Government of Spain, there will be a tax reduction for those who buy housing in the towns to reside in them.

The leader of the popular has also announced a system of residences and free nurseries in the towns to facilitate the reconciliation of families. And it will offer the Autonomous Communities 50% of the budget to make these social facilities.

Feijóo has indicated that he wanted to attend the constitution of a small town hall like Celadas, similar to the one where he was born, to make visible the importance of rural Spain and his commitment to fight against depopulation.

With his presence in Celadas, a town of 362 inhabitants, Feijóo has supported the mayor Raquel Clemente, who has revalidated the absolute majority in the last elections.

“I feel especially proud to be here, with some colleagues from this wonderful town in the province of Teruel, Celadas. With a partner like Raquel Clemente, who has been elected mayor of this municipality for the fourth time and also makes up the list for Congress for Teruel and I hope to be her partner in the next elections on July 23,” the popular leader commented.

Raquel Clemente Muñoz holds the position of National Secretary for the Demographic Challenge within the Popular Party, reporting to the Vice-Secretary for Social Policies.

The emptied Spain

According to the PP, “Feijóo's presence in Celadas is a symbolic gesture and demonstrates the party's interest in visualizing rural Spain, emptied Spain, and its particular problems, to which the party wants to respond.”

A few months before the municipal elections, Feijóo presented a decalogue of measures for the rural world in Teruel and promised that, if he becomes President of the Government of Spain, he will create “specific” taxation for the entire Spanish rural environment, so that “taxes are not a problem to live” in small municipalities.

Celadas is a town in Teruel with 362 inhabitants, located 18 kilometers from the capital of Teruel at the foot of the Sierra de Palomera. In the town, its parish church of Santo Domingo de Silos stands out, a Gothic-Renaissance work from the second half of the 16th century, as well as the hermitage of Santa Quiteria, Baroque from the 17th century, as well as a Renaissance castle rebuilt after the Civil War.

Raque Clemente has held the position of mayor of Celadas since 2011, when she took over from Antonio Andrés Deocón, who, in turn, had governed the municipality since the first municipal elections in 1979, when he ran for the ranks of the now-defunct UCD.

There have been no surprises or shocks in the municipalities of Errezil (Guipúzkoa) and Berrioplano (Navarra) this morning. Both municipalities were considered 'hot spots' of the day but everything went according to plan.

The forecasts and the lines marked by Bildu were fulfilled (after filtering the presence in municipal lists of ETA members convicted of blood crimes) and neither of the two elected councilors in Ezerril and Berrioplano took possession of their minutes as councilors.

Of course, the two Mayor's Offices were for Bildu. In the case of Errezil, Begoña Uzkudun Etxenagusia did not attend the plenary session for the constitution of the consistory, which started at eleven thirty in the morning, with which her vacant position as councilor has been filled by Iosu Uzkudun Zubizarreta, who held the post number six on the plate that EH Bildu presented in this small rural municipality of Gipuzkoa.

In Berrioplano, Juan Carlos Arriaga, who was number 3 for EH Bildu for the Navarrese City Council, also fulfilled the commitment to renounce the act. In Berrioplano the victory was historic for Bildu.

Uzkudun was at number 3 on the EH Bildu list, which won in Errezil by obtaining five councillors, while the Errezilgintza platform obtained two. This former member of ETA was the only one of the seven convicted of blood crimes who was elected in the Basque Country in the elections on May 28, since the other who obtained a seat as councilor, Juan Carlos Arriaga.

The former prisoner of ETA Urtza Alkorta, sentenced to five years for collaborating with the armed band, has been elected today as the new mayor of Ondarroa (Vizcaya) with the absolute majority obtained by her formation, EH Bildu, in the last municipal elections. EH Bildu obtained seven councilors in the coastal town, compared to the six of the PNV, with which both formations repeated the result obtained in 2019.

The inclusion in the Bildu sheets of former terrorists convicted of murder had become one of the axes of the last electoral contest.

After the controversy caused by the inclusion of their names, the seven former ETA members with blood crimes included in the Bildu lists for 28-M announced, days after making it public, that they would resign from being councilors, in the event of being elected .

His reason: he wanted, they said, “to contribute to peace and coexistence”, according to a letter published in the newspaper 'Naiz', linked to the Abertzale left.

“The configuration of the lists in our respective municipalities has reached an undoubted importance, which forces us, for different reasons, to withdraw our candidacies to the extent possible and to ensure that in no case will we take the position of councilor,” they reasoned in the publication.

All of them announced that they were withdrawing their candidacies, after the great controversy that arose from the fact that the Collective of Victims of Terrorism (Covite) denounced that Bildu's candidacies included 44 people convicted for their relationship with ETA.

The last elections of May 28, in total, Bildu obtained council seats for fifteen of the 44 convicted of terrorism who were on their lists between the Basque Country and Navarra. The seven ex-ETA members who were included resigned to take office as it has been.

The constitution of the Town Halls throughout the Spanish geography draws a map where the municipal power is dyed in blue PP what four years ago was drawn in red PSOE. The Socialists have lost their territorial muscle and of the 10 main cities in Spain, the ones with the most inhabitants, only Barcelona and Las Palmas govern, this town with former minister Carolina Darias, thanks to a tripartite agreement with Nueva Canarias (NC) and United Yes We Can (USP). The capital of Gran Canaria thus also becomes a “symbol” for the PSOE, as evidenced by the fact that Isabel Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Executive and Minister of Territorial Policy, has traveled there.

“It is a symbol for what Darias represents, for what women represent,” Rodríguez has exposed, who wanted to emphasize that it will be a woman, and a socialist, who holds the command rod. In addition to congratulating on behalf of the Government all the mayors and councilors who take office this Saturday, he has taken the opportunity to attack the policy of pacts between the PP and Vox that has led to the eviction of the PSOE in more than a hundred towns, the socialists having been the most voted list. “I cannot ignore how some of these Town Halls are being formed.”

The Moncloa sees in the Government pact in the Valencian Community, with the popular ones accepting the term “domestic violence” and representatives of Vox denying that sexist violence exists, a flank of attack against Alberto Núñez Feijóo in this electoral pre-campaign. “With these shameful agreements, Feijóo's PP has been willing to sell women's policies to a far-right force, thus questioning the entire development of these public policies throughout all these years,” Rodríguez pointed out.

A strategy that has been supported by the Minister of Education and PSOE spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, from Borja, where she accompanied the Socialist candidate for Mayor, Eduardo Arilla, at his inauguration ceremony, after obtaining an absolute majority on May 28. “On July 23, women will be a containment dam to prevent that Spain of setbacks and cuts that the PP and Vox want to propose to us does not become the reality of the country2.

Isabel Rodríguez, from Las Palmas, has called on “moderate right-wing women” against these “shame pacts, which eliminate women's councilors and make us go back on progress and even question something so serious, that concerns us all, such as gender violence”.

“Each chair of those who have achieved the PP and Vox shows that they bury that false idea transferred by Feijóo that the most voted list governed, so each chair represents a setback. In addition, you don't play with sexist violence, it is something very serious, I am with the women and the victims or I am with Vox”, added Alegría from Borja.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, through his social networks, has also referred to the constitution of the City Councils, with a message on his social networks that can also be interpreted as an implicit allusion to the PP pacts with Vox. “Today, the town halls are constituted in Spain with full institutional normality. Congratulations to the socialist mayors and mayors and to those who, from the opposition, will serve your neighbors. Let's keep advancing in rights and transformations”.

The PSOE has managed to govern in Las Palmas with Darias thanks to a tripartite that was signed this week. Carolina Darias has indicated that “the programmatic agreement has been developed based on extensive knowledge of the municipality, on an accurate diagnosis. An agreement that revolves around seven major objectives, whose purpose is to make a more prosperous, more inclusive and cohesive city ; healthier, more sustainable; a city in which mobility is a backbone and a creative and innovative city, which is at the forefront of progress policies”.

The popular María José Catalá is already the new mayoress of Valencia after receiving this Saturday the command rod from Joan Ribó, who eight years ago snatched the Mayor's Office from Rita Barberá for Compromís. Catalá, who gave birth to her second son a few days ago, has thus recovered for the PP the symbolic square of the Valencian capital, in a plenary session of investiture in the City Council in which she has flown over the PP-Vox pact at the regional level and the controversy on account of the denial of gender violence by those of Santiago Abascal.

To the point that yesterday Ribó was in charge of leaving his seal hanging the LGTBI flag from the balcony of the consistory. The flag was no longer displayed this morning on the façade of the building – the PP says that by order of Compromís – but, in exchange, the image of the Virgen de los Desamparados that her government relocated has returned to the main floor of the consistory. A whole declaration of intent from the new mayoress, who has also sought her own profile, moving away from Vox.

Catalá has not needed the votes of Vox to become the new mayor, since the PP has been the list with the most votes and has taken advantage of its 13 councilors. The four from Vox would have given him an absolute majority, but Catalá has preferred for the moment to keep his distance from Vox and not even sit down with them to negotiate. This strategy contrasts with that followed by the president of the Valencian PP, Carlos Mazón, who has managed to close an express pact with Vox to be able to be sworn in as president of the Generalitat. In this case, out of necessity.

But Catalá has not strayed from his roadmap, since since he won the elections on 28-M he has been insisting on an idea: he will govern alone (and in a minority) seeking specific agreements. In fact, the four Vox councilors, led by Juanma Badenas, have voted for their candidate and have not given Catalá free support.

Moreover, during his speech, Badenas has reproached him that at least Compromís and PSOE followed “a moral principle that was to achieve a stable and solid government”, unlike Catalá. “His decision to govern in a minority is not aimed at the common good,” warned the Vox candidate, who has directly described the Government of Catalá as “amoral”: “Obtaining a government without conforming to a required majority just because it allows it the law is not considered the most moral and virtuous”.

Catalá has avoided responding directly to him during his speech, although he has made it clear that “Valencia is above everything, ideologies, acronyms and people”. In this sense, he has promised “the search for consensus as a guide” and has urged the groups to join the beneficial agreements for Valencia.

Now, PSOE and Compromís already anticipate a hard line in the opposition. Ribó has remarked that “the differences between its city model and that of Compromís are multiple”. And while the already former socialist vice mayor Sandra Gómez has lamented the “national absurdity” of the pact with Vox, Catalá has stressed: “Not one step back in the fight against gender violence and not one more lesson on this issue.”

“Valencia is Spain and Spain is Valencia”, has declared the new mayoress, who has promised to “protect” the hallmarks of Valencian identity and begin her mandate seeking an agreement that recovers the bilingual name of the city (the official name is now only in Valencian). What's more, he will ask for reports that determine whether the denomination in Valencian should be Valencia (the regulation) or Valencia.

The PP expands its local power

Valencia will not be the only large city governed by the PP, which on 28-M recovered an important share of local power. In Alicante, the Popular Party revalidates the Mayor's Office after winning the third consecutive election.

Luis Barcala could not govern in 2015 due to a pact from the left, but in 2018 he presented a motion of no confidence from which he emerged with the baton due to the vote of a defector from the confluence promoted by Podemos. In 2019, he supported Ciudadanos to form a government and on May 28, he was one councilor from the absolute majority, which will force him to come to terms with Vox. At the moment, he flees from integrating them into his government and has announced a delegation of powers that rests solely on the 14 popular councillors.

In Castellón, the popular Begoña Carrasco will also be mayor because she topped the list with the most votes, but in the end she will govern in a minority as the attempted pact with Vox has failed. This party intended to hold the departments of Education, Culture and Tourism, in addition to the first tenure of Mayor.

In Elche, the third largest city in the Valencian Community, the pact between the right-wing was closed even before the regional one, since it was necessary to unseat the PSOE as the winner of the elections. Pablo Ruz will be mayor with the votes of Vox after an agreement by which this formation reserves the departments of Family and the Elderly, with competences in childhood and policies in favor of life, and those of Economic Promotion and Pedanías.

Torrent is in the same situation. Amparo Folgado (PP) closed an agreement with Vox to seize the command rod from Jesús Ros, the socialist who headed the most voted list. For this, it has ceded to Vox the areas of Education and Family, Fiestas -with the exception of the Fallas, which will be directed by the PP-, Sports and Health.

It is in Orihuela where, despite having the option of becoming mayor as the most voted party or with Ciudadanos as partners, the popular have chosen to make José Vergara mayor of the capital of Vega Baja with the votes of Vox, which They will be integrated into the Governing Board with two areas: Family and Coast. In addition, they have started that Equality becomes integrated into Social Welfare and loses its LGTBI last name.

The two large Valencian cities where the Popular Party will govern with an absolute majority are Torrevieja, with the 14 councilors out of 25 that Eduardo Dolón achieved, and Benidorm, with Toni Pérez at the helm, who also aims to be the substitute for Carlos Mazón as president of the Provincial Council of Alicante.

Vox, for its part, has achieved its first mayoralty in the Valencian Community this Saturday with the election of its candidate, Iván Expósito, in the municipality of Náquera (Valencia), where he will govern with the Popular Party.