“But Joaquín, how did you come to become civil governor of Huelva?” Juan Belmonte asked his former banderillero Miranda. “Degenerating, Master, Degenerating”.

The anecdote is well known, but it makes sense to evoke it now that Vox has placed a bullfighter in the position of vice president of the Generalitat. progress has been put in arms. Not because of the definition of the position, but because of the profession of Vicente Barrera. Torero, or rather toricide, in the likeness of a serial killer or a rapist.

“A bullfighter!” exclaim the editorials and columnists of the purist left. As if a bullfighter could not dedicate himself to high politics. As if it were an execrable category of society. And as if the representative of Vox meant a folk option. Even more so when the attributions of the position include the Ministry of Culture. “Bulls and culture”. What a shame.

The debate is misplaced. Because the conflict is not that Vicente Barrera is a bullfighter, but that he is a member of Vox. And in that his functions in the Generalitat obey a retrograde party whose program and obscurantism imply a deterioration of the rules of coexistence.

The problem is not the bullfighter, but precisely everything that transcends the bullfighter. I am referring to his political whims —from the PP to Vox through UPyD—, to his sympathies with Francoism and his ideological adherence to the ultra-right. It means that the degenerative process of Barrera —graduated in Law— consists of having abdicated his status as a teacher to become vice president of the Generalitat. And to propel from the Valencian easy chair the worst cave ideas.

The indiscriminate discriminatory hunt that the regime's press has undertaken against the category of bullfighter is impressive. It would be said that Spain is governed by an exquisite senatorial class. And that politics should guard against hosting extravagant professionals in its selective scruples. A bullfighter is inadmissible, in the perception of righteous columnism.

My perception is exactly the opposite. Being able to be a bullfighter, Barrera has chosen to dedicate himself to politics. He has whitewashed it, as is said now, although it is pitiful, painful, that the new vice president of the Generalitat is perceived as the nuclear or essential reference of bullfighting.

Barrera represents himself and a nauseating party, but the anti-bullfighting media campaign tries to identify him as the quintessence of bullfighting. And as proof of ideological regression. bread and bulls.

It is an obscene manipulation. And from a dissuasive approach that eludes the real debate, that is, the scandalous ease with which the PP has allowed Vox to introduce itself to the bars in the Generalitat. The surrender of Carlos Mazón is as eloquent as the connivance of Genoa 13. Feijóo himself has publicly supported the capitulation of the Valencian PP. And he has tried to cover it up this weekend with the constitutional pacts of the Vitoria and Barcelona city councils.

The Galician leader did well in neutralizing the mayoralties of Bildu and Junts for the benefit of the PNV and the PSC. It is less understood, on the other hand, that the PP has come out in a rush to denounce the scourge of gender violence while the popular agree in Valencia with the same characters who deny their existence. And that they dissipate it in the abstraction of intrafamily violence. The only dignified thing contained in the Levantine agreement is the profession of Vicente Barrera. A bullfighter who lowers himself to the category of politician.

Dedicating yourself to politics is within the reach of anyone —the cases of Sánchez, Ayuso and Revilla demonstrate this—, while dedicating yourself to bullfighting is a privilege within the reach of very few. And it is not that Vicente Barrera —his grandfather was— was a leading figure, but his personality, his temper and his faintness gave rise to tasks of merit in the nineties.

The bulls do not represent Francoism or archaism, but transgression and the avant-garde. Its scandalizing capacity comes from the aesthetic stupor and the liturgical thickness. And the cheek with which he raises all the taboos that society fears, including death, eroticism, masculinity, hierarchy, religious mystery, irrational passion, genuine heroism..

The identity manipulation of the ultra-right damages bullfighting as much as Vicente Barrera's ideology can, but the inquisitorial bias with which the left-wing intelligentsia and animalist spokesmen degrade the figure of the bullfighter to marginality and depravity is shocking, as if a bullfighter would represent the worst scale of society.

Joaquín Miranda carried out his position as civil governor of Huelva with expertise. And Luis Mazzantini went further, holding the same position in Guadalajara and Ávila. A bullfighter as enlightened as Sánchez Mejías was, patron of the Generation of '27 and unequivocal proof of the harmony in which culture and bullfighting are understood, despite the redundancy.

Degenerating, like Miranda, Madrid had a novillero mayor. And not just any mayor, but Melchor Rodríguez. A serious goring in the capital precipitated the withdrawal of the arenas, but he did well to recycle himself as the first municipal mayor. And taking to the extreme an execution that would disconnect those who think that the bulls are right-wing. Melchor Rodríguez was a unionist and anarchist. And he was known as the red angel on account of the courage with which he mediated to prevent the murder of Republican prisoners during the Civil War, being, as he was, a Prisons delegate.

Its plastic-coated chairs could illustrate any news about the heatwave. They would not pass a minimum ergonomic control. no need to do. Its sound sometimes fluctuates and at one of the sessions last summer some angry, hard-hearing spectators yelled for the volume to be turned up.. Instead, what should be heard, is heard perfectly. His room does not have air conditioning, it is not refrigerated, but in reality it is: the open air, the sea breeze that comes from the nearby beach after crossing the first orchard belt. It is common, in one of those Mediterranean storms that breaks in at dawn threatening order, that its immense screen is covered in water and the cinema seems to be about to drown.. Instead, its reed flexibility contributes to its stability..

It is the Lumiere, a cinema, but also a terrace, in Alboraya, on the outskirts of Valencia to the north. Its history is that of one of those summer cinemas that was born, as in so many towns in Spain, to give free rein to the habit of putting on a good sandwich while watching some of the novelties on the billboard.. In the midst of a barrage of luxury cinemas, with comfortable armchairs and subordinates who, at the push of a button, come with mixed drinks and gourmet hamburgers, the Lumiere is a hipster counterculture.

The owner's family, Enrique Riera, attends from the access, more prone to tearing a ticket than reading a QR. Once the step has been taken, a patio with an agricultural aftertaste serves as a hall, with an L-shaped bar, spread out among fruit trees, where August entrepanies are prescribed: goats and almussafes in the lead. And a few cremaets, because to top some familiar blockbusters one must prepare beforehand.

Going through a metal door that would seem to lead to the changing rooms of a sports center, a huge open-air lounge opens instead where hundreds of beer chairs promise a double session that begins at ten at night and ends with the threat of an after-party.. There are children screaming, there is revelry, there is discomfort, there is sweat. Therefore, there is humanity, far from prophylactic wrappers. When going to the movies feels like being part of a community.

The feeling of having a double session among tiger nut fields -in the homeland of horchata, surrounding a polygon-, far from being an experience out of context, has the precise sense of a society -the one that inhabits the margins between Valencia and Alboraya – that it has carved out its future by adapting to the terraces (at best; at worst, it has swallowed them).

since the 70s

The story of the Riera family and summer cinema begins in the seventies, with a group of young moviegoers who, in the throes of the dictatorship, needed to breathe fresh air and remove mothballs from the screens.. From desire to facts. With a programming specialized in alternative titles, they founded their film club in the facilities of the old Alboraya ateneo, picking up the baton from Cine Monterrey. One of the last spare generations, the last dance in the life of the village cinemas. Later, the Lumiere moved to its current location, 'next to the gas station', where it has stood for over 25 years..

In all this time, at ten at night the lights go out. Give way to the great light. If at that time it is common in some streets of the municipality to see a trail of chairs in front of the portals, people in the cool, sharing the night between xarretas, the proposal in the Lumiere extends just that spirit.

You could imagine that compared to content platforms or cinemas that are as air-conditioned as a refrigerated truck, a terrace in the middle of the orchard is an uncompetitive option.. It has precisely been overcoming setbacks due to its differentiation. The idea of community against the automation of the shopping center, the liturgy of roots. Without holding companies or investors behind him, Riera projects movies to the lungs. Like the very same orchard that surrounds it, smallholder to the limit. Until you drop from exhaustion.

After a week of unsuccessful four-party negotiations, Ripoll will comply with what was dictated by the polls and will have Sílvia Orriols, leader of the extreme right-wing independence party Aliança Catalana, as mayor.. In the capital of the Ripollés region, with a population of over 10,000 people, 4,622 voted on May 28, of which 1,401 opted for the extremist formation.

This gave them six of the 17 councilors. The most voted force, but far from the majority. Since then, the ERC, the PSC, the CUP and Junts have worked to negotiate a joint alternative that would serve as a sanitary cordon against Aliança Catalana. Together they could have achieved ten councilors, one more than necessary. However, the agreement was broken by Junts, the second most voted party, with 760 supports. Days before, Laura Borràs expressed her support for the most voted list to govern and her refusal to establish sanitary cordons.

In reality, the irruption of Aliança Catalana coincides with the collapse of Junts, which have gone from eight to three councilors between 2019 and 2023. Much of his voter base has moved to the party of the new mayor. It is not the only place in Catalonia where this has happened: in La Masó, a small town in Tarragona, they have gone from having 7 Junts councilors to a mayor from the Front Nacional de Catalunya, another extreme right-wing, anti-immigration Catalan party.

Everyone expected the candidacy led by Sílvia Orriols to increase in votes, but not so much. The surprise came at the time of the scrutiny, when Aliança Catalana took control of six of the 17 councilors in Ripoll (Girona) and almost doubled the votes of the second most voted list, Junts per Ripoll. The tidal wave between Catalan ultranationalism and right-wing radicalism thus found a gap like never before, based on fear of the different and an alert regarding immigration.

“We will unilaterally declare independence and we will defend it until we definitively expel the Spanish State from Catalonia”, reads the first proposal that the far-right party shows on its website. “We will reach the highest standard of living for the Catalans and we will make the industry return to Catalonia”, he continues.

Regarding immigration and security, they defend the following: “We will promote those immigration policies that benefit Catalans, not foreigners. And we will establish a policy of zero tolerance towards citizen insecurity, Islamic radicalism and terrorism.”. As for society and the family, from Aliança Catalana they assure that they will defend equality before the law and the model of Catalan society and family based on values and education.

The Maghrebi collective, on target

Not much more can be said about the values of Orriols, everything is made explicit in her four years of work as a councilor in the opposition of the Ripolles consistory. Sponsored by the Front Nacional, an organization in which he was never a member, but which gave him his first position as mayor. Later, the ultranationalist leader left the party for prioritizing independence over the immigration issue.. “I cannot say that it is from the extreme right, but it is xenophobic. He has created a discourse based on fear with a clear obsession against the North African collective”, says Manoli Vega, Junts per Ripoll candidate and head of the second most voted list with 760 votes.

Vega is one of the people who, until the last moment, has had it in his power to prevent Orriols from taking over the municipal government. For that, almost a miracle had to happen: that both the ERC, the PSC, the CUP and Junts agreed. “We are trying to reach a pact like anywhere else, not to kick anyone out but to govern,” says the mayor before trying to change the image that many Spaniards will be making of the municipality: “I understand the sanitary cordons, but I important now is that we are the capital of the region with the least crime and the immigration rate is not higher than anywhere else, and there is no fear in the streets”, in his own terms.

Orriols, after all, has been doing that kind of politics for four years.. and it has soaked. “In many houses in the territory, if we eat with friends, in the end there is one who says that he has heard that I don't know which foreigner has been given help, or that they pay him everything… That has permeated to the point that he has won the elections,” Vega expands.

Nor greet in the halls

The shock forces that are trying to stop the Government of Aliança Catalana have tried to flee from the media coverage of the matter to focus and create a political program according to what everyone is after: that there is no lack of work, housing and decent minimum resources. But of course, that's like talking about freedom and equality. Nobody opposes them, everyone is in favor. The question is what do they mean for each political option and how do you intend to achieve them?. “I think it would be very good to reflect on what is happening and why people have voted for this, and if people are insecure, think about what we can do to make it not the case,” adds Vega herself..

This councilor has been part of the party that has governed the municipality for the last four years, Junts. “I only think that if instead of having one Silvia, there are six, sailor fabric,” he says. “We hope to have a calm mandate, for the good of all,” he adds.. Vega has experienced firsthand Orriols' behavior towards his fellow council members: “Although we have different ideas, when we see each other we all greet each other. Everyone except her,” he explains in his own terms..

For this reason, it seems that the sanitary cordon has been made by Orriols herself, paraphrasing the words of the Junts candidate. “Even in some motion presented by Orriols that could have been approved, the tone and the forms of the exhibition meant that we could not vote in favor,” Vega continues recounting the leader of Aliança Catalana.

impossible proposals

Beyond the proposals that the Aliança Catalana postulates on its website and against which the PSC, ERC and the CUP have signed an agreement pending the support of Junts, there are also doubts as to whether it is better not to carry out the sanitary cordon due to its conflicting results in Europe. Perhaps if they came to power, the people could see the impossibility of their proposals. In this case, immigrants are prohibited from registering and prevent them from receiving social assistance, which is illegal.

Regarding the economic program, Orriols advocates abolishing the inheritance tax and reducing the self-employed and personal income tax contributions while promoting the culture of effort and savings. On a social level, Aliança Catalana opts for eliminating the protection of the LGTBI collective and making Catalan the only official language in the municipal area.

The town of Ripoll is inserted in the Spanish collective imagination because it is the place from which the jihadist cell came from, which in August 2017 attacked Barcelona and Cambrils, leaving 16 people murdered.. “That's where Orriols came from when he got a councilor in 2019, from the fear that existed in society sponsored by speeches like his, which defend that all migrants are terrorists,” says Vega, the Junts candidate for mayor.

Be that as it may, Orriols did not always have the same speech on immigration. In one of his harangues in the Consistory, he said that “Catalonia has been enduring immigration for 70 years”, in clear reference to migrants from other parts of the Spanish state.. “It looked like the one with 8 Catalan surnames. The reality is that my name is Manoli Vega Segura and my parents were Andalusian and my grandson's name is Jordi and he has Catalan surnames. This is the world,” says the mayor of Junts.

Part of the town mobilized

Despite having been the list with the most votes, there are some residents of Ripoll who do not resign themselves to being governed by someone with the label of xenophobic and ultranationalist. For this reason, a call that is not signed by any specific organization called for a gathering in front of the City Hall on the same Saturday, June 17, the day the new corporation took office, at 11:00 a.m.. “Against fascism and intolerance” was the call to attend, making it clear that “Ripoll is not a town of exclusion and hatred but a land of passage and welcome”.

In the statement by the conveners, who have pasted some posters around the municipality and distributed pamphlets in various mailboxes, according to internal sources of the consistory, they affirm that there is some discomfort generated by the economic crisis, the increase in food prices, the difficult access to housing and gender violence. “The party that has won the elections gives as a solution to all the hatred and discrimination of migrants. It demonizes them and makes them guilty of the social problems we are experiencing,” they respond in the same text..

However, they have not been able to alter the course of events in any way. Around noon this Saturday, Orriols raised the baton that made her Ripoll's top political officer.

It was the end of the game for Xavier Trias and the independence movement. Oriol Junqueras, Laura Borràs, Artur Mas, Joaquim Forn, attended the meeting because they were expecting a party. And they found a funeral, his. The independence movement was biting the dust, although Xavier Trias and Ernest Maragall had signed an agreement that gave them 16 councilors, but which, seen as seen, was a mistake: it gave the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo the necessary incentive to endorse an operation that gives him to Pedro Sánchez the trophy of the second city of Spain, but it gives the popular leader a dimension of a statesman. The operation was cooked at the last minute and was about to not go out, just because of the doubts of the popular. That is why the independence movement did not expect it.

Although Xavier Trias compared what happened yesterday at the plenary session of the Barcelona City Council in the Consell de Cent room, it has nothing to do with what happened in 2019. In 2019 it was a personal initiative of Manuel Valls, who chose to vote in favor of Ada Colau to stop the independence movement. Valls announced it days in advance. But now it's been so different. For the first time the PP participates, something that did not happen in 2019. And what unites them takes precedence: Spain, than what separates them, which is almost everything else. The agreement was so last minute that Daniel Sirera and his four councilors were not clear about the vote an hour before the plenary session. Genoa had to intervene. And in the end the new mayor, Jaume Collboni had 23 votes: including those of the PP and nine of those of Ada Colau. Constitutionalism in Catalonia was coming together for the first time and if they had not been so surprised, they themselves would have realized that ERC and JxCAT had been caught off guard.

The reaction of the independence movement to the unexpected setback was bitter. The case of Pere Aragonès was surprising. It is a tradition that the president of the Generalitat receives the new municipal plenary session at a reception. His speech has always been formal. But it was not the case. ERC and JxCAT were bleeding from the wound. “Mayor, you have been chosen by parties with contradictory programs and ideas,” Pere Aragonès warned Collboni with a grave gesture.

And the Catalan president added that “the shadow of an agreement made from Madrid by the two major Spanish parties is projected. And we want Catalonia to decide from Catalonia and Barcelona from Barcelona.” In this way, he emphasized the accusations that both Ernest Maragall (ERC) and Xavier Trias had already launched. The latter denounced “this is not a coincidence. This is the third time it has happened.”

Jaume Collboni is in charge of a very large council with only ten councillors. And after today's speeches there is a great resentment that we will see how long it lasts. A part of the PSC, the one that wants to control the Barcelona Provincial Council —Núria Marín, mayoress of L'Hospitalet—, hopes to be able to reach an agreement with JxCAT and that within a few months those of Puigdemont will enter the municipal government. Sociovergencia, an old concept of Catalan politics. Trias has already announced that he is going home: “que us bombin a tots!”, which could be translated as “que os zurzan”. Without Trias, the municipal group would be led by Neus Munté. It would be possible to agree and have a placid government for four years.

Puigdemont unchained

A hundred pro-independence supporters booed Collboni when he went from the Town Hall to the Palau de la Generalitat. But nothing comparable to the reaction of Carles Puigdemont on Twitter. The Junts leader denounced that “the patriotic front exists, but it is Spanish: PSC, Comuns and PP. In the conversation between the Spanish right and left, Catalonia will always be a secondary actor” and he added “That it is accepted that the Barcelona mayor's office be caked from Madrid and that a puppet government is appointed and supervised by Madrid shows how far they are willing to go arrive their lackeys who today have returned to do the same as four years ago”.

But it's not the same. What happened today was a last-minute agreement and a concatenation of circumstances. And Colau's bitter face was proof. Or Pedro Sánchez, who did not congratulate on networks the man who has given Spanish socialism the largest city that the PSOE has obtained in these municipalities. The pro-independence thesis of a “State operation” has more holes than a portion of Gruyère cheese.

The Commons cornered the PP when an hour before the plenary session they announced that they accepted all the conditions that the popular ones had imposed and that seemed unaffordable for Ada Colau's party. It was a very important change of opinion. The PP was running out of arguments to say no to Collboni.

Nothing sure

The seriousness with which Collboni assumed the mayoralty showed the fragility of the situation. While JxCAT and ERC were represented at the highest level in plenary session, Salvador Illa did not come to support his candidate. nothing was sure. Everything was caught with pins. And when the ambitions of the independence movement were frustrated, the plenary session turned into a tense scene, full of reproaches, accusations and outbursts.. Only Collboni maintained the institutional tone.

“I have not participated in any pact with any political formation,” said Colau in his speech in plenary session. And it is evident that the Commons did not want the return of a Trias who were going to dismantle a good part of their policies. In addition, the Comunes renounced entering the municipal government, something that was being requested on Thursday from Génova street.

Collboni's duties go through rebuilding trust within the municipal plenary session to be able to play at governing through variable geometries. It may be easier once Trias leaves and when Colau also leaves the council, something that some sources in the Commons take for granted and predict that it will happen shortly. Only in this way will “the new Barcelona and metropolitan ambition” that Collboni announced in his speech be possible. In addition, the PSC has always used the Catalan capital to project its political strength throughout Catalonia.. That is what can be expected most immediately.

Vox has taken a giant step in its territorial expansion and ability to influence. The ultra-conservative formation has confirmed this Saturday, after the constitution of the town halls, its presence in more than 140 municipal governments. Those of Santiago Abascal have closed coalitions with the PP and other local formations in large cities and provincial capitals such as Gijón, Toledo, Valladolid, Burgos, Guadalajara, Ciudad Real or Castellón, and important cities in the Community of Madrid such as Alcalá de Henares or mostoles. Its policies will affect close to two million people throughout Spain, with gender and equality programs in the target.

Vox's growth in four years has been exponential. quantitatively and qualitatively. The party barely reached 500 councilors in all of Spain in 2019, with a presence in 35 governments (most of small municipalities) and only five alone. After the results of last May 28, the picture is completely different. The formation has 1,665 councilors distributed in almost a thousand towns and cities, with 26 absolute majorities and seats on the Governing Boards of 140 consistories. The euphoria in the dome is total and has inflated its sails for the next appointment with the polls.

Santiago Abascal himself boasted this Saturday, just a few hours before the government coalitions were confirmed. “In more than 140 municipalities throughout Spain, common sense will prevail: low taxes, strong services, safe streets and a close administration that makes life easier for people. That pride! Soon there will be many more,” he stressed on his Twitter profile..

In more than 140 municipalities throughout Spain, common sense will prevail: low taxes, strong services, safe streets and a close administration that makes life easier for people.

That pride!

Soon there will be many more. https://t.co/zI3m46DlqU

– Santiago Abascal 🇪🇸 (@Santi_ABASCAL) June 17, 2023

The party leadership, which had placed high hopes in the municipal elections, speaks of a paradigm shift and policies throughout the country. The line to follow in the 140 town halls will be the disappearance of the “ideological” departments of gender and equality and the reinforcement of security. “They have squandered millions of euros with policies that have not solved the real problems of the residents,” they point out from the formation, which will try to impose the toughest aspects of its argument on the PP, especially in the coming weeks, at the gates of the general elections. The promotion of the birth rate will be another of the keys of its government programs, always within the framework of local powers, with aid to families and pregnant women.

The third pillar of the PP and Vox city councils will be fiscal policy, an extreme in which the programs of both parties coincide widely. The way forward will be the reduction of municipal taxes and fees, as well as the circulation permits for vehicles over 25 years old.. The last aspect to be implemented is the end of the low emission zones that affect large cities, which will certainly open up a conflict within the different municipalities. This is a requirement included in the state law on Climate Change by order of the European Union and the PP has already applied it in Madrid.

The reality is that these messages have already caused a frontal clash with the national leadership of the PP, with the Generalitat Valenciana and the statements about the existence or not of gender violence as the first crisis. The line to be followed by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, as this newspaper has reported, will be to “set limits” to his partners regardless of the territory. An extreme that Santiago Abascal completely ignores. One month before 23-J, the alleged cultural war of Vox will be mixed with the first steps of the municipal governments and the regional negotiations.

The alliance with the PP has allowed them to enter the governments of large cities that just a year ago was unthinkable. This is the case of Gijón (267,706 inhabitants, according to the INE), where they have clamped down on the popular to form a coalition with Foro Asturias and seize power from the PSOE, which had been the force with the most votes, with an agreement sealed at the last minute.. Those of Abascal will assume the department of Festejos, a smaller booty than in other places.

Repeal of the left

The party announced over the last week the agreements in Valladolid (295,639), Toledo (85,085), Elche (235,580), Guadalajara (87,452) or Burgos (173,483), where the sum of the right has also made defeat possible of the socialists despite the fact that it was the first option for the voters. In other cases, such as Castellón (171,857) or Ciudad Real (74,850), the sum of popular and ultra-conservative groups has consolidated the victory of the PP, which could govern alone, but has chosen to build coalitions for the next four years.. Abascal's warning during the campaign, which he assured that he would not give away a single vote, has been fulfilled.

The interests of the ultra-conservative formation are translated into the subjects assumed. In Valladolid, considered one of the great triumphs, Vox will control Culture, Citizen Security and the vice mayor's office. In Burgos it will be Culture, Industry, Family and Citizen Security, while in Elche they will manage the areas of Families and the Elderly and the departments of Economic Promotion and Training, Districts and Territorial Vertebration. The controversy in the city of Alicante has erupted even before the legislature began, by announcing the end of the bike lanes. In Talavera de la Reina (83,247), Orihuela (80,784) they have announced the end of Equality. It will not be an exception and from the leadership they insist that it will be a “total repeal” of these policies of the left.

territorial expansion

Vox expanded its territorial network with nearly 2,000 lists for the 28-M, well above the 752 of the 2019 elections. Consequently, it has multiplied its presence in town halls throughout Spain, although there are also exceptions. The weight in the Basque Country, Galicia and the Canary Islands is practically nil and without representation. In Catalonia, although they have not entered any local government, the training has congratulated itself on its results. A total of 124 councilors, unthinkable four years ago, when they did not even reach 5. “Today begins a chapter of hope to forge the true alternative in Catalonia”, declared this Saturday Ignacio Garriga, leader of the formation in the region and general secretary at the national level.

The 26 absolute majorities in small town halls and the coalitions with the PP are distributed throughout the country, with greater weight in the Valencian Community, the two Castillas and the Community of Madrid. The last territory was the only puncture of Vox in the elections of 28-M, blurred in front of the absolute majorities of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and José Luis Martínez-Almeida. But the party has been able to rebuild itself at the municipal level and will enter the governments of the two most populous cities in the region behind the capital: Móstoles (208,761) and Alcalá de Henares (196,888)..

The PP could govern alone in the first case, having been the party with the most votes, but it has also chosen to give stability to the municipality with a right-wing coalition. In Alcalá, however, the PSOE had been the force with the most votes at the polls and the agreement was mandatory to unseat the left. Both squares have a symbolic value, given that they are two historical socialist strongholds. In Móstoles, Vox will assume the Department of Culture and Tourism Development, while in the city of Complutense it will do the same with Coordination of Strategic and European Projects; Family, Childhood and Youth; and Economic Development and Employment.

In the Community of Madrid, the negotiations have been especially prolific for the two parties on the right. Vox will enter Aranjuez with force (59,762), with the departments of Technological Development and Information Technology; Transparency; Childhood and Youth; Transport and Mobility; Health and Consumption; Family and Seniors; Agriculture; and Commerce and Hospitality. Also in Arganda del Rey (57,553), despite the fact that the PP could also govern alone.

The wonderful interview of José Antonio Zarzalejos with Cani Fernández, president of the National Commission for Markets and Competition, reveals the difficulties that institutions find today to fulfill their role effectively and precisely, but also the contradictions of political liberalism in a time when it is threatened by authoritarian capitalism. Liberals would do well to become aware of the moment in which they find themselves, because they will have to make very serious decisions in the near future; among them, that of choosing which of their ideas they are going to explicitly renounce.

The president of the CNMC points out in her words the worrying weakness of the Commission when it comes to fulfilling the functions assigned. And the task that falls to him has, at this time, a crucial importance. Any liberal understands that the concentration of power leads to abuses, and that the existence of effective institutional counterweights is essential for democracy to exist effectively.. This argument, which is widely shared, and which is continually revealed in the political architecture, is systematically overlooked when the accent is placed on the economy.. However, the idea is the same: concentrated power without defined limits leads to oppressive regimes.

It is surprising, therefore, the insistence on highlighting the dysfunctions that authoritarian figures, both from the right and from the left, suppose for democracy, while ignoring, at the same time, the difficulties that a reasonable coexistence and a healthy market imply for a broad and self-regulated power (the usual euphemism to emphasize that, in reality, limits do not exist).

And it is especially surprising because this concentration of power is at the base of the vast majority of the economic dysfunctions that we have suffered in recent years and from which we are currently experiencing.. The public debate on monopolies and oligopolies has been confined to the technological sector, due to the great concentration that exists, and due to the advances that are expected in it, for example, with artificial intelligence, but at the cost of forgetting the disturbing effects that it causes in the economy in general.

The effects of excessive power

The negative consequences of this disparity in power range from abusive price increases, lower quality, lower wages, shortages in supply chains, the destruction of small and medium-sized companies, the deterioration or disappearance of large companies. national companies and, of course, inflation; but the concentration of power is also directly related to aviation accidents, lack of weapons and strategic weaknesses. All this has already been exposed (read the links, if you are interested), so I will not insist on its description, but it must be emphasized to what extent it forms a surprising set of factors that are overlooked and that cause first-rate political effects. magnitude.

In the first instance, the concentration of power leads to an economy directed and planned by few actors, just what is indicated by liberalism as highly undesirable when carried out by the State.. Secondly, it implies the transfer of risks to the citizens, who are the ones who suffer and pay for them, and thirdly, it greatly disrupts society: the tendency to create monopolies and oligopolies explains “why it is so difficult to launch a small business that works; why so many jobs have been relocated; why it is so difficult to control the costs of medicines; why the quality of food or toys has plummeted; why company managers outsource so many activities; why the profits of big companies continue to rise; or why the powerful are becoming even more powerful”.

The peculiar thing is that this power is fought when it is the political institutions that accumulate it, but excused when it comes to private actors.. One example among many others: there are those who see a difference between public entities collecting large amounts of data on the private lives of citizens (and for this reason, among other things, the Chinese regime is perceived as a danger), and that they do so a few private companies, as they only use them for commercial purposes. But it is reasonable to think that whoever possesses this knowledge about citizens will be tempted to use it for ill-advised purposes, regardless of whether they are public or private actors, and that, therefore, such capacity should not be allowed or, in some cases, very specific cases, authorized with high restrictions.

This example of disparity in treatment is transferable to many other areas: what is feared and rejected by the State is praised when a few companies carry it out. It shouldn't be like this, as long as you agree with liberalism.

The American Example

This lesson was very well understood by Americans. Antitrust laws were an essential part of their political mobilization since the final decades of the 19th century, because they clearly perceived how the foundations of their democracy were threatened by a series of actors who had concentrated ownership of key companies in their country; they had created a power, under the legal form of trusts, that was completely altering the nature of the United States. Roosevelt's New Deal, which was the high point of that long tendency to control power, did not only involve public intervention in the economy; also, and above all, it implied the subjection to clear and precise limits both to financial capital and to productive companies to avoid a pernicious concentration. Biden's team is resuming that path, focusing first on technology, but with the intention of going further. He acts in this way motivated by the need to generate a healthy economy, to support the strategic needs of his country and to defend its political system.. It is not an exclusive position of the Democrats: there are relevant Republicans who are strongly committed to antitrust.

It is natural: if liberalism wants to defend democracy, it will have to emphasize these policies to limit economic power. Otherwise, it will be turning towards authoritarian capitalism: the lessons of the second and third decades of the last century are forceful in this regard.. It won't take too many years to find out the answer..

The pulse between the Spanish Justice and Carles Puigdemont continues and is about to enter another new chapter. This week's decision by the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court to endorse the prosecution of the Catalan ex-president for crimes of disobedience and embezzlement will give rise to the umpteenth attempt to hand over the fugitive upon request to the Belgian authorities. Until now, the instructor of the process, Pablo Llarena, has seen how his successive claims have been failing. Different European courts intersect on the current board. With sedition ruled out, the magistrate prepares to retry. Provided, yes, that the immunity of the MEPs allows it.

The order of the Supreme Court issued this week reopens the scenario by supporting Llarena's move to replace sedition with disobedience and to see aggravated embezzlement applicable, which entails high prison sentences. The new subtype introduced by the Government of Pedro Sánchez, aggravated public disorder, will not be applied. Sedition, the Chamber highlights, has been repealed, causing the “decriminalization” of certain acts, favoring the accused and encouraging impunity for the future.

Regarding the embezzlement, the magistrates also agree with Llarena and rule out an attenuation considering that the diverted money did not end up in the pocket of the former president. The step taken to allocate public assets to the financing of 1-O, “promoted and encouraged by the regional government bodies that they directed” is understood as a system to obtain a benefit, even if it was not economic and, furthermore, the destination given to the funds is illicit.

There is another key in the car that gives clues about the future of Puigdemont. The court supports another of Llarena's decisions, that of issuing a national arrest warrant against him. Regarding the immunity that the leader of Junts defends having due to his status as a member of the European Parliament, the TS argues that he cannot claim to have a “protective shield” that allows him to have the option of not appearing to be questioned about the facts allegedly criminal. Immunity, the scope of which is now in the hands of the General Court of the EU, which will rule on the matter next July, is not a “personal privilege” for the Supreme Court and has not been established “to generate areas immune to the rule of law “. Nor is it necessary, in his opinion, to process a new petition.

The delivery attempt depends, however, on the ruling of the General Court of the European Union scheduled for July 9. The court reviews the lawsuit that Puigdemont filed against the decision of the European Parliament to grant the instructor of the process the request that he requested to proceed against him and the rest of the fugitives and the initial decision of the European Parliament to provisionally withdraw their immunity. The final result will depend on whether you recover it completely and definitively..

The trick of political persecution

In the event that the General Court buys his arguments, Puigdemont will remain safe as long as he holds office and is even willing to challenge the theses of the Supreme Court and launch an ordeal at it. While Llarena considers that despite the immunity, his arrest in Spain can be ordered, the former president believes that he would violate the decisions of the European Justice if he did so. The return to national territory, and specifically to Catalonia —his first planned destination—, would thus put the Supreme Court in the position of “failing to comply” with the TUE resolutions, say the sources consulted.

Along with immunity, still pending specification, Puigdemont has the trump card of the alleged persecution for political reasons that was alluded to by the Court of Justice of the European Union.. Despite the fact that the Court partially aligned itself with Judge Pablo Llarena in his fight with the Belgian Justice, it included as an exception that a court may refuse to comply with the Eurowarrant if the person who must be handed over alleges that he would be exposed “to a violation of the fundamental right to a fair trial, because in said Member State it would be prosecuted by a court lacking competence for that purpose”, although it must be demonstrated in some way. The ex-president's defense trusts that Belgium will never hand him over.

There is little doubt that the 21st century will be the century of cities. The United Nations has estimated, for example, that by the end of this decade around 60% of the world population will live in large cities.. The proportion may still seem small, but it must be taken into account that in a large part of the planet agriculture is still the main means of subsistence, and hence its anchorage to the rural environment..

The consequence of such rapid urbanization of the territory is the birth of new problems for cities such as overcrowding, the lack of basic infrastructure, the proliferation of waste or the overexploitation of resources, which ultimately causes dramatic effects on the climate.. There is already talk of city-states, which inevitably evokes ancient Greece, built around the polis. At the other extreme are the small municipalities, the vast majority of which are condemned to disappear..

Spain, of course, is no exception. While their problems are clearly those of the first world, to use old United Nations terminology, there are some parallels.. In 2022, for example, only two cities, Madrid and Barcelona, accounted for 10.3% of the Spanish population, despite the fact that both municipalities are a microscopic proportion of the more than 8,100 municipalities in the country.. If other large cities are added to the list, in relation to the size of Spain, it turns out that cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants today account for 40% of the population, despite representing only 0.70% of the municipalities. Never before has there been such a relevant level of human concentration around cities.

What is singular, however, is that in parallel there has not been a reduction in the number of municipalities, which, far from decreasing, have grown, albeit very slightly.. The result is final: 85% of Spanish municipalities have less than 5,000 inhabitants, which makes it difficult for them to be sustainable to the extent that they are not capable of generating sufficient economic activity to survive..

Current expenditure

Its budget, in fact, is a monument to current spending in light of its minimal investment capacity. Ordinary spending accounts for 84% of the budget, while capital expenditures, which in the medium and long term are a growth multiplier, barely represent 11%. The remaining 5% are financial expenses.

This lack of investment is precisely what prevents them from competing with the big cities, which means that their offer of public services is clearly insufficient.. A fact clearly reflects it. The average expenditure per inhabitant in Spanish municipalities is equivalent to 1,082 euros, being 42% higher in municipalities with more than one million inhabitants.. This explains why even medium-sized cities, which until now were the forced destination of residents of smaller municipalities, have begun to lose population in favor of large ones.. It is an unstoppable process that reflects an uncomfortable reality. The future passes through megacities more important than the states themselves. Just as many multinationals are today larger than many countries, cities will also be larger than their states..

Spanish legislation, however, continues to be alien to this process. The design of the territorial model was built around the autonomous communities, which in the end has generated, particularly in single-province regions, a paradox. Many provincial capitals are politically and economically more important than the autonomous community itself. The most striking case is that of Madrid, although there are others of a similar nature: Barcelona compared to Catalonia or Bilbao compared to the Basque Country.. The capital of Spain represents 50% of the region's population, and its economic importance is notably greater, but the city council, due to lack of municipal autonomy, is subsidiary to what is decided in Puerta del Sol, seat of the presidency.

It is not a specific problem linked to a certain political leadership, but hides a worrying reality. The autonomous communities have tended to subtract municipal powers, a kind of autonomous neocentralism, despite the fact that the importance of large municipalities has not stopped growing. The result, how could it be otherwise, is the existence of multiple duplications in the management of certain public services, mainly in social services, cultural management or infrastructure development.. And what is no less relevant, a chronic inefficiency, even in urban policy, derived from legislation designed for a time that no longer exists.

In its day there was talk of a second Transition focused on the recovery of municipal powers kidnapped by the autonomous governments despite the existence of a constitutional principle favorable to bringing decision-making closer to citizens. However, and after various reforms of the local government, little progress has been made. Neither Madrid nor Barcelona nor other large cities in the country have their own status, rather the legislation treats a municipality with half a million inhabitants practically the same as another that slightly exceeds 5,000..

a singularity

In parallel, and here is another of the paradoxes, thousands of municipalities languish or are about to disappear without there being their own legislation that reflects their uniqueness. For example, introducing the figure of a professional manager in charge of mobilizing and maximizing the available resources and running the corporation's day-to-day activities, which is not incompatible with the figure of the mayor elected by the residents.. In other words, a more professionalized management to make better use of public resources.

It is obvious that this second territorial Transition, which includes the effective concentration of local corporations that today are only an identity without any administrative substance, can only be done from a calm political climate.. It is not the case. Instead, they have opted for confrontation, which has turned into chronic problems that should have been addressed long ago.. For example, the role of the provincial councils, which is completely redundant with the autonomous communities, and which today, as they were during the Franco regime, but with a completely different territorial model, have become an instrument of political control thanks to the large resources that manage.

The loss of identity of the municipalities in favor of the autonomous communities is not politically negligible. Citizens have fewer incentives to oversee their mayors at the polls and, on the contrary, do so based on other parameters that have nothing to do with their management. In particular, introducing into the public debate issues of general policy that have little to do with municipal work, whose main function is none other than the provision of public services.. Neither the income redistribution policy, nor the general economic policy, to give two examples, have nothing to do with the management of mayors. Of course, unless large cities have their own statute of autonomy. In the case of Madrid, a capital law.

It is true that what happens in large cities, how can it be otherwise, has a national projection, and that is precisely why they should enjoy their own statute that does not make them hostages of the autonomous governments. And the vote this Saturday in Barcelona, where thanks to the Popular Party, the socialist Collboni has been elected mayor, clearly reflects this. Undoubtedly, a success by Feijóo to the extent that it can be seen that it is possible that the two great parties in the public space can collaborate around certain purposes and nothing happens. It is part of the pragmatic policy that should guide public affairs.

The Popular Party, with few exceptions, has benefited from this reality (the national code vote) in the last elections, but it is probable that in the future it will be the PSOE, or any other party, who obtains the benefits of the weakness of municipalities as a political subject. This is undoubtedly helped by the coincidence in the time of the electoral cycles, which prevents the voter from differentiating the different territorial areas in the electoral competition. On the contrary, creating deliberate confusion that sometimes favors one party and other times another to the extent that the system revolves around an imperfect bipartisanship that today tends to be reinforced.. It is curious to observe, in this sense, how the blue or red stain varies depending on the national political moment, which only reveals a certain contempt for municipal autonomy protected by the Constitution.

The existence of a captive vote completely unrelated to municipal management is bad news because it goes against the times. If cities are to become more important, it seems reasonable to think that they must have the appropriate instruments to face the new challenges. But for that, reforms are needed that are neither here nor expected today. That is why there are reasons to think that Lope de Vega could not have written Fuenteovejuna today, which is the symbol of the struggle of a people against injustice in favor of outraged women.. Or perhaps he could have written it in the event that what happened this Saturday in Barcelona —a pact of three— had spread to more municipalities. It's called reason of state. And the PP, which sometimes plays with fire, has shown it this Saturday in the Catalan capital.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo recovers the story of centrality after starring in an unprecedented turn in Barcelona. Less than an hour before the investiture plenary session began, the Commons gave a surprise and announced that they would vote in favor of the PSC candidate, Jaume Collboni. All the pressure was on the shoulders of the PP. They were willing to facilitate a Xavier Trias government if the Socialists did not give them guarantees that they would keep Ada Colau out of their team. But the swerve of the Commons led Genoa to put their votes in the PSC basket, a decision that allows the popular leader to flee from the framework of isolation with Vox and rescue the image of a temperate politician. The statesman who wants to reach Moncloa looking to the right and left.

The historic agreement between the PP and the PSC in Barcelona to stop the independence movement is loaded with implications. Even more so in the run-up to a general election. The only municipal joy that saves Pedro Sánchez from total disaster comes from the hands of Feijóo. And not only in the second city of Spain. In Euskadi, the popular allied with PSOE and PNV to extend sanitary cordons in front of Bildu. He gave away Vitoria to the Socialists and several town halls, such as Durango, to the Basque nationalists, with the aim of reducing the institutional control of the radical Abertzale left.

The municipal map that was printed on Saturday, the date on which the more than 8,000 municipalities in Spain were to be constituted, places Feijóo in a position of strength in the face of 23-J. And not only for a result that will allow him to govern in more than 60% of the big cities. The blow in Barcelona and the cordon in Euskadi allows Genoa to claim the variable geometry with which Feijóo distributes power to the left and right. And it deflates Sánchez's strategy of wearing down his rival for his “shame pacts” with the extreme right. The success of the PP in the last appointment with the polls is cemented, in part, with the support of Vox. But he has also laid out the red carpet for his main political rival in two capitals of vital importance for the PSOE.

It is “adult”, “patriotic”, “common sense”, “generous”, “State” politics. The nicknames used by senior PP officials to define the Barcelona agreement show the discursive trail that the popular leadership will follow in the coming weeks to dilute its dependence on Vox. The renewed position of strength that Genoa will exhibit in the campaign will be based on the ability of its leader to break the granite blocks on the left and right and recover the central lane that had been left in the background due to the already normalized coexistence with those of Santiago Abascal. It must not be forgotten that the closest approach to the ultra-right has occurred under the presidency of Feijóo himself. Vox will touch power in no less than 140 municipal executives and six large capitals, where they have already targeted gender and equality policies.

Barcelona and Vitoria will have a socialist mayor and mayor thanks to the vote of the PP councillors.

It doesn't matter how many recognize it, but this means rising to the occasion and political generosity..

Congratulations @danielsirera and @DomaicaAinhoa for the example

— Borja Sémper (@bsemper) June 17, 2023

All in all, tipping the balance in favor of the PSC in Barcelona has not been an easy decision for Feijóo. The result of the polls placed him from the beginning at a crossroads. The pressure from the Catalan business class to facilitate the investiture of the seny candidate did not go unnoticed in the PP. But assuming the role of collaborator of the independence movement was too high a price to pay, a stain capable of sinking their already squalid electoral prospects in Catalonia.. The pressure led Genoa to telephone Ferraz to force the agreement. Last Thursday, Elías Bendodo raised his red line against Santos Cerdán: either he governed without Colau, or he governed Trias.

The PP did not plan to directly support the sovereignist candidate, but rather they would choose to vote for themselves. Although at the municipal level, it didn't matter. If there is no alternative sum that promotes another candidate, the most voted list prevails, which in this case was that of Junts. The PSC denied the commitment not to include Colau in its executive until the end. The pressure was maximum. But everything changed in a matter of minutes. At the last minute, the commons took a turn announcing the vote in favor of the investiture of Collboni, without the demand to enter his government team. And he put the vote in favor of its four councilors on a silver platter to the PP.

I have come to defend policies and principles that prioritize the Spanish.

If my adversary doesn't have them, that's his problem, but we don't accept moralizing. pic.twitter.com/hi3WzY5YFU

– Popular Party (@ppopular) June 18, 2023

The PP's decision will have immediate implications for Barcelona politics. Jaume Collboni was sworn in as mayor to the great anger of Xavier Trias, who put the icing on the cake on Saturday's unusual plenary session with a resounding “fuck them all!”. The socialist will govern in a minority, no less than eleven votes from an absolute majority, which fills his executive agenda in Barcelona with questions. But the PSC has its baton. And the popular ones, their story. Feijóo displays the image of a “statesman” who has closed the door to “Puigdemont's party” and Colau's “populism”. “We have taken a step forward towards the Spain of dialogue”.

The PSOE makes up its decline

The script twist in Barcelona changes the story for the socialists to a certain extent. Recovering the second city in Spain, especially after Pedro Sánchez's commitment to “pacify” Catalonia, is a symbolic victory. Barcelona makeup, however, does not change reality. The PSOE only governs in six of the 30 most populous Spanish cities after losing strongholds such as Seville or Valladolid to the PP. They are only two examples, but they give a very illustrative image of the situation in which the municipal power of the Socialists remains after a very favorable mandate, started in 2019 with a decayed PP and stalked by Ciudadanos and Vox. Four years later, the tables have turned and the absorption of the oranges by the popular has dyed the country's municipal map blue in the prelude to the general elections on July 23.

Along with Barcelona and Vitoria, the Socialists only control four other cities among the 30 most populous cities. They are Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where the former minister Carolina Darias will be mayoress; the stronghold of Abel Caballero in Vigo; L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, where Nuria Marín lost the absolute; and Sabadell, where Marta Farrés repeats. These six cities add up to 3 million inhabitants, although more than half (1.6 million) correspond to Barcelona, the loot that the PP has given it.

The mark of the popular is much higher. The PP governs 61.4% of the population of cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, almost double what it had up to now (31.8%), while the PSOE goes from 43.3% to 27.4 %. It is important to take into account that before the Barcelona carambola, that percentage stood at a meager 20.9%. That, in absolute numbers, translates into 15.4 million people governed by the PP, compared to the 6.8 million who live in town halls in the hands of the Socialists.. Less than half.

The municipal weakness of the PSOE is almost unprecedented and leaves the party with the spirits on the ground in an uphill pre-campaign. Pedro Sánchez assumed the bad results of his party and thus justified the need to call the elections, but he has placed his party in a difficult situation. The militancy and financial muscle of the party are exhausted after the work prior to the local and regional elections. Discouragement spreads among the affiliates, especially in those cities and towns where the socialists have lost power. And the spoils of the provincial councils still need to be distributed, which will also be dragged down by the popular wave and will cause a significant loss of institutional power to the socialists.

Sánchez will try to change the story with the rally that will take place this Sunday in Dos Hermanas, his fetish city, where the reconquest of power in the PSOE began. This Sevillian town is the only one of the 13 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Andalusia where the socialists govern since this Saturday. Until now the socialists had 6, but Seville, Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, Huelva and Jaén have been left behind. Another sign of the decline is that while Juanma Moreno was at the investitures of his new mayors in Seville, Granada and Cádiz, the PSOE leader attended the inauguration of the mayor of La Rinconada, a city of about 40,000 inhabitants in the area metropolitan area of Seville where the head of the Sevillian socialists, Javier Fernández de los Ríos, governs.

The fall of the PSOE is the result of the loss of 400,000 votes compared to the municipal elections of 2019, combined with the 1.9 million votes that the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo has won. But in many town halls the Socialists have found themselves without partners to their left to tie up the majorities in places where they have been the most voted for, as is the case of Valladolid, Elche, Burgos or Alcalá de Henares.. In these cities, the popular have allied with Vox to make the PP candidate mayor despite not being the winners in number of votes, a circumstance that also threatens to mortgage the future of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and compromise his credibility when he speaks to “rule alone”.

All this also responds to the weakness of the candidacies of the left to the left of the PSOE. Yolanda Díaz did not want to appear with Sumar in the municipal elections, in a strategy that Podemos already inaugurated in 2015. The objective was not to wear down the brand in an election in which there is an important dual vote. The difference is that in 2015 the political cycle was different and the leftist candidacies led to the so-called change councils: Manuela Carmena in Madrid, Ada Colau in Barcelona, Joan Ribó in Valencia, José María González, Kichi, in Cádiz. Not one of those mayors maintains the baton of command today and the same thing happens in other cities where there were this type of parties, such as Zaragoza, Santiago de Compostela or La Coruña..

The Valencian Popular Party intends to compensate with the appointments of its ministers in the Valencian Generalitat the perception that Vox has imposed its ideology and its political story in the negotiation to enter the Executive in exchange for guaranteeing the investiture of Carlos Mazón. The first week of staging the agreement has been clearly favorable to the political interests of Santiago Abascal's party, with the inclusion of the bullfighter Vicente Barrera as first vice president with powers in Culture and the statements of José María Llanos, aspiring to head of Justice, denying sexist and gender violence. The first signs of the Valencian pact have generated discomfort in Genoa, with its leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo in the middle of the pre-campaign of the general elections on July 23. There are already those who consider the management of the pact “an error”.

The PP maintains that, once the investiture has passed and the government has been appointed, the real weight and the ability to influence decision-making in the daily management of the regional administration will become evident.. Mazón, who does not rule out appointing a second vice president of the PP to avoid bicephaly, has reserved the areas with the greatest budgetary weight of the Consell and his party stands out, as a result of the controversies aroused by Vox, which intends to separate the Environment area from the Ministry of Agriculture, the relationship with civil servants and public employees (Public Service) of Justice and that policies on gender violence have been left out of the orbit of the extreme right, as ultra-conservatives have been excluded from the area of social policy, where move 2,000 million budget. Mazón has also reserved the always sensitive Education portfolio, although he has shown coincidences with Vox in linguistic matters and has accepted the parental veto in the government program, as well as the concept of “domestic violence”.

The proof of the cotton of the real weight of the government, beyond the symbolism that those of Abascal intend to print, will be in the specific weight of the consellers that the PP appoints. Mazón seeks political profiles, but also technical ones for the areas with the greatest budgetary capacity or economic cut. It's all unconfirmed speculation.. But among the names that are being considered in the Treasury, a key position to try to technically fit the tax reductions that PP and Vox want to apply, is that of the professor of Applied Economics at the Miguel Hernández de Elche University and doctor in Management and Taxation of the Company, José Antonio Belso Martínez.

Belso is currently the director of Suma Gestión Tributaria, the tax office of the Provincial Council of Alicante, and is considered one of the ideologues of the tax reform that Mazón wants to apply in the Generalitat. Gonzalo Maluenda, also in Suma, and two Economics professors from the same university as Belso, Eduardo Such and Carmen Victoria Escolano, were part of that group..

Also the former spokesperson for Ciudadanos and now a deputy with the PP, Ruth Merino, from the Tax Agency technical staff, has been part of Mazón's economic team, although perhaps she is more suited to a second-tier position like the Valencian Tax Agency ( ATV) or the Valencian Institute of Finance (IVF). The deputy Rubén Ibáñez and José Antonio Rovira have also formed part of the team, one of the most trusted people of the one who will be the new president and whose name has been used for the Education portfolio, since he was already general director of teaching staff of the Ministry of Education between 2001 and 2007.

The unwritten pact that each formation that composes it has the freedom to designate its members is common in coalition governments. However, formally, the ultimate power to appoint and remove ministers belongs to the President of the Generalitat, who has the red button in the Official Gazette to press it when he considers it. This asymmetry in the power relationship between the partners is what led Vox to seek a way out in Congress for its candidate Carlos Flores, vetoed by the popular, in exchange for guaranteeing entry into the Executive of the Generalitat. In the same way, the need to seal the agreement before formalizing the lists to the Cortes Generales explains why the PP has agreed to shorten the terms of the negotiation to close a lightning pact, which includes the bullfighter Barrera as first vice president with powers in Culture and the transfer of the areas of Agriculture and Justice, the Interior and the Interior.

The agreement document, however, does not name the last two portfolios. Its owners will leave the negotiation, although it is up to Vox to designate them. Mazón will not make his entire government public until he has been sworn in, which could happen between July 17 and 21.. However, Vox has started slipping names. The one from the deputy José Luis Aguirre for Agriculture sounds, a person whom the PP values for his knowledge of the sector. An agricultural technical engineer, Vox came to consider Aguirre as a candidate for mayor of Valencia, although he finally opted for the Civil Law professor, Juanma Badenas.

The aspiring minister who can generate the most controversy and who can put Mazón in a bind before public opinion and before Feijóo is José María Llanos. He was the provincial president of Vox, until Santiago Abascal decided to replace him with Ignacio Gil Lázaro, and he was second in the regional list for Valencia after Flores.. Considered a representative of the most conservative Valencian religious right, Llanos sparked controversy last Friday by stating in statements to TVE that “gender violence does not exist” and “sexist violence does not exist”. These statements, added to the acceptance by the PP in the programmatic document of the pact of the concept of “domestic violence” unleashed a storm that led Núñez Feijóo to step forward to censure Llanos, which forced the Valencian PP to react in the same line.

It remains to be seen whether Feijóo and Mazón accept Llanos in the government of the Generalitat and face a new fire. He has a PhD in Law and a degree in Political Science, but the Ministry of Justice has under its powers the supervision and staffing of courts specializing in gender violence. In other words, it is up to Llanos to negotiate with the judiciary for the allocation of resources. The popular ones have been critical of the reorganization of the courts carried out by the current person in charge, Gabriela Bravo, who has regrouped the windows from eleven to five, eliminating jurisdiction over gender violence in the judicial districts of Quart de Poblet, Carlet, Xátiva , Moncada, Catarroja and Picassent. Bravo assures that the reorganization has been for reasons of efficiency and that it has been agreed upon with the approval of the Judiciary, the Valencian Superior Court of Justice and the body of lawyers.