Vox puts pressure on the PP to govern in big cities

“Whoever wants us to give our votes to the PP, should vote for the PP”. Santiago Abascal's warning, repeated over and over again during the municipal and regional campaign of 28-M, marked subsequent negotiations in which Vox would achieve its greatest share of power. Six regional governments and up to 140 town councils have turned green since then, with a trickle of agreements without which the result of the general elections cannot be understood.. Now, five months after those elections, the party intends to squeeze even more out of its results.

Vox is putting pressure on the PP to enter the big cities where it was left out of the municipal government. This is the case of Valencia and Seville, the third and fourth cities in Spain in terms of number of inhabitants.. With the PSOE governing in Barcelona and Almeida's absolute majority in Madrid, Valencia and Seville are the main municipalities where the PP needs the support of Vox to approve the budgets. After confirming the pact in the Region of Murcia, the last autonomy that was resisting, the party has issued the same warning in the two town councils where it has the most influence: if they do not come to govern, there will be no support for the accounts.

Vox has insisted during the last week on the importance of being in governments after what happened in Gijón, where Foro Asturias expelled the councilors of the coalition. The general secretary, Ignacio Garriga, did it first in Seville, where he pointed out the withdrawal of Juanma Moreno's Doñana irrigation law in Andalusia as an example of what happens when the PP governs alone; and then in Zaragoza, the fifth city in Spain—waiting for the INE update—and where the PP mayor's office also depends on its support.. In the case of the Aragonese capital, at the moment there is good understanding, although in both Seville and Valencia the order has already been launched to start managing as soon as possible..

It was precisely the Government of Mariano Rajoy that modified the Law on Rationalization and Sustainability of Local Administration in 2013 to make governance more comfortable in town councils with minority mayors.. The Governing Board of a town hall has tools to carry out day-to-day management without going through the plenary session. But issues such as municipal budgets or major decisions on urban planning require the search for consensus to gather majorities, a weapon that the ultra-conservatives now use to pressure the PP mayors..

The Vox representation in the Andalusian capital was the first to press, revealing a conversation with the PP after the municipal elections. According to the group's spokesperson in the Seville City Council, Cristina Peláez, the current councilor was willing to allow his entry into the Government, although he asked him to wait until August, when the general elections were over.. Not receiving any calls after the summer, Vox went on the counterattack. The mayor, José Luis Sanz, denies that commitment and, according to municipal sources, maintains his total determination to continue governing alone, despite the fact that integrating the three Vox councilors would guarantee him approving all the projects with an absolute majority —the PP has 14 of the 31 councilors—. Next week the round of contacts will begin to prepare the budgets and he will negotiate with all the groups, starting with the PSOE, the first party that Sanz will mention.

Vox has already left the PP alone in several of its proposals raised in recent weeks. Recently, he stopped the call for an emergency plenary session to approve a budget modification of 14 million euros. The party did not tolerate being warned less than 48 hours in advance and the PP accused it of “boycotting” Seville. “We want to enter to change the policies. The people of Seville placed us in the co-government and the mayor in the opposition”, summary from Vox in Seville.

Surrounding the mayor of Valencia

The approval of the municipal budgets will also mark a turning point in the relationship between the PP and Vox in Valencia, the third capital of Spain in number of inhabitants. Vox has been increasing the pressure on the mayor, the popular María José Catalá, to touch real power as the months have passed since her inauguration on June 17. Already then, the first mayor asserted the absence of an alternative with an absolute majority to be elected as the head of the most voted list, as established by Loreg, without the four votes of the ultra-conservative formation..

But in recent days, the Voxist spokesman, Juan Manuel Badenas, has warned that there will be no budget agreement without a prior governance pact, while he has put his party in opposition mode on issues such as the New Mestalla agreement, questioning even the Councilor for Large Projects, José Marí Olano, for his compatibility as councilor and partner in the Legal area of KPMG in the Valencian Community. “Things must follow their logic and the logic is that first a general agreement is reached and then agreements are made on particular issues, including those related to tax ordinances and the budget,” he said..

However, the PP has been taking steps in budgetary and fiscal matters that will test Vox's ability to maintain its resistance when matters have to be submitted to a vote by the corporation's plenary session.. The Government Board, controlled by the popular party, approved this Friday the tax ordinances for 2024, a step prior to preparing the budget, with significant reductions of 20% in the IBI, 8.5% in the circulation tax or the bonus 95% of the capital gain in the event of transmission by succession or family donation. The fiscal package will mean a reduction in income of 70 million for the municipal coffers and the same savings for the citizens' pockets, although the PP has inherited a healthy local treasury, with 300 million in cash on hand, thanks to the progressive reduction of debt made by the previous local government of Compromís and PSOE.

Vox has been critical of the package of ordinances, not because of its content, but because it maintains that it has barely been consulted for its preparation. Badenas has already announced that they will vote against, and has launched a first message knocking down the renewal and salary increases of the leadership of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) proposed by Catalá. The question is whether she will maintain her position until the end by forcing a budget extension, something for which the mayor's team is already preparing, or will she finally vote in favor of accounts that reflect a large part of her political positions on tax matters.. Badenas insists that under current conditions his vote will be negative.

With its thirteen councillors, the position of the PP of Valencia has been to make decisions and reach agreements on specific issues without giving up management areas.. Catalá relied on Vox to carry out the tribute package to the deceased Rita Barberá in exchange for accelerating the changes in the toponymy, including the accent on the name in Valencian against the criteria of the Valencian Academy of Language. He assigned the Vox councilors exclusive dedication so that they could collect the maximum salary, up to 74,431 euros gross per year, but Badenas and another of the councilors, José Gosálbez, renounced the exclusive dedication after a complaint from the PSPV-PSOE to the Valencian Agency Anti fraud. Catalá's intention is to exhaust the options as much as possible before introducing Vox into the municipal government. In the ranks of his team they do not trust the intentions of Badenas, who is known for his tense relationship with the mayor.