Joan Baldoví, the deputy who wanted to put the Valencian Community on the map of Congress and now seeks to govern it

He says he likes electoral campaigns. That she faces it “with the energy of a child”. To try to conquer the Generalitat Valenciana, Joan Baldoví (1958, Swedish) will bring out the “face of a good person” to which he attributes his successes in the rankings of politicians and will bring to his land the issues that for more than eleven years claims in Congress. The objective is clear, at least he must obtain the 17 seats that his predecessor, Mónica Oltra, won in 2019. 17 seats that could open the door to the reissue of the Botànic in the Valencian Community.

As a candidate, Baldoví promises to transfer the priorities of his land to the central government, invest in health, public housing, education and other social services.. And the tone of confrontation with the parties of the right will be key in his strategy, as it has been since he entered Congress in 2011.

On December 20 of that year, when Mariano Rajoy was sworn in as Prime Minister, Baldoví's first intervention in the Lower House was one of the most famous. From “the cabin of the Marx brothers”, that is, the mixed group of which Compromís was a part, Baldoví dedicated the five minutes that were granted to him to confront up to the point of blushing against the recently inaugurated. “They have governed for 16 years in the Valencian country. We know the results: unbearable debt, scandals and corruption”, he reproached Rajoy, whose party he accused of being “directly responsible for destroying the Valencian financial system”.

Years before, Baldoví's first steps in politics took place in Sueca, the town where he was born and raised.. In 2007 he was the head of the poster of the Bloc Nacionalista Valencià for the elections in Sueca. Five councilors from his formation entered and he was sworn in as mayor of his town. Baldoví came from dedicating himself to teaching, for years he had taught Valencian and physical education in a Swedish school.

In 2011, the professor took another step forward and ran as a candidate in the general elections.. Then he entered Congress as head of the list of the Compromís-Equo coalition. Throughout the campaign, Baldoví and his group proposed a change in Spanish electoral law, a measure dubbed the 'Baldoví Referendum'. “It makes no sense that the vote of a person in Valencia is not worth the same as, for example, that of a voter in Soria,” defended the Valencian.

From his seat in the Lower House, Baldoví has been building a combative and sometimes controversial image, focusing his speech on the defense of the Valencian language and culture, on the redistribution of wealth, the importance of public services and, during in recent times, the confrontation against the extreme right.

In 2013, he caught the attention of the media by doing a striptease against evictions.. While speaking from the seat criticizing the Popular Party's Anti-Eviction Law, Baldoví took off his tie, unbuttoned his shirt and brought out a red T-shirt with the words 'stop evictions' stamped on the chest. The deputies who witnessed the scene were already accustomed to Baldoví displaying T-shirts, whistles, money or envelopes in the Lower House to denounce the corruption of the Popular Party.

In 2021, the politician expanded his commitment to a media profile and created an interview program published on a YouTube channel called En Confiança. The first interviewee was Manuela Carmena and since then personalities such as the rapper Lory Money, the presenter Anabel Alonso, the analyst Pablo Simón or the current Más Madrid candidate for the Community, Mónica García, have passed through there.

In September of last year, Compromís launched a primary process to designate a candidate for the autonomous elections of the Valencian Community. And thus the figure of the deputy was consolidated as a benchmark for the coalition after the departure of Mónica Oltra, who in April of the same year was charged by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community in relation to the conviction of her ex-husband for abusing a warded minor.

Baldoví received the support of 93% of the voters in the primaries, a support similar to that obtained by Oltra in 2015. Since then, the politician has toured the community from end to end in a van, visiting all the Compromís groups in the region. On May 9, Baldoví said goodbye to the Congress of Deputies with tears in his eyes and to the applause of the journalists present there.. “Today is a special day because it is my last press conference in this room. I hope I don't get too excited but life without emotions is less life,” he said in the press room, already visibly moved

To put a final touch on that adventure, he went back to “one of the happiest days” of his life, when he was appointed mayor of his town, and later recalled the 11 years he had spent in the Lower House.. Throughout his career as a deputy, he admitted, he had made “errors and successes”, but he said he was grateful for everything he had learned.

And among all the anecdotes that he could highlight as a source of pride, he recalled the moments in which he received the 'Azote del Gobierno' award and the 'Best relationship with the press' award, two awards granted to the Valencian by the Association of Parliamentary Journalists in 2013 and 2016 respectively. And so far the looks to the past, the politician is now focused on what is to come, eager to face “the greatest adventure” of his life. The lashes to the Government are left behind, Baldoví wants to govern.