“I came without any closed agreement with any political formation,” declared the People’s Party candidate for president of the state of Valencia, Juanfran Pérez Jorca, as soon as he ascended to the podium of Les Cortes. Through this declaration of humility, he used a strategy of seduction to attract the votes of 13 independent Vox representatives, which were necessary to obtain his position.
Like a suitor who aspires to win the blessings of what he intends, Pérez Jurca gave his ear to Santiago Abascal’s party with flattery and flattery. He praised their “responsibility,” thanked them for their “cooperation,” and even made clear statements. My mistake By recognizing that the Vox party was right when, in the summer of 2024, it closed the door of the Valencian government in alliance with the People’s Party under the pretext of distributing unaccompanied minor migrants. “Time has shown that there are reasons to do this,” he added.
The Vox Party refused to sign the Programmatic Agreement, a written agreement containing the obligations of Carlos Mazzone’s heir, arguing that the PP failed to comply with it and it ended up becoming a dead letter. Instead of a signed document, he decided that the agreement would serve as the inaugural address itself, and therefore, as Pérez Jurca admitted, the agreement would not be closed until he had fulfilled his part; That is, until he said it.
It was easy to guess Fox’s pen in some paragraphs of the candidate’s speech, but in case the extremist representatives were distracted at that moment, he warned them with phrases such as “We must speak clearly,” as a preamble, before reading it. For example, when he said that “the European Green Deal, as proposed, and promoted by European elites, is the greatest threat facing our farmers.” Or before saying: “We cannot turn a blind eye when people come along who try to maintain practices that are in direct conflict with our values, equality, freedom or the dignity of women.”
If Fox is not the author of these statements, he supports them to the last comma, because they literally contain the ideological parameters of the extreme party; However, every time he made a concession, Pérez Yurca insisted that it was not an “ideological debate” but common sense. To emphasize his full acceptance of the ultras’ postulates, he spiced up his intervention by criticizing “Brussels” – a reference to the European Commission, which is headed by someone from his party, the German populist Ursula von der Leyen – or the “environmental charlatan”. He also considered that the “uncontrolled” arrival of migrants exacerbates the collapse of public services and threatens “coexistence, security, and the preservation of our identity.”
The problem is that the speech does not constitute an electoral program or an organizational regulation, but rather it is a cocktail whose composition includes much more speech than concrete measures. One is a commitment to allocate “zero public assistance to those organizations that encourage or facilitate migration.” Pérez Yurca does not specify these organizations, but Fox is clear: all NGOs that provide humanitarian aid to migrants; This includes Catholic Church organizations, such as Caritas.
The candidate was wiser when it came to fulfilling Fox’s request to conduct forensic tests on undocumented minors to determine their ages, because he would only do them “if necessary.” He added that he would oppose the distribution between communities of minors arriving in the Canary Islands and would continue to file a lawsuit against the decree that regulates it, but not that he would violate it or close reception centers, as Fox intends.
He also announced that he would look for “legal formulas” for foreign minors who are alone in Spain to return to their families and showed his support for publishing the nationality of alleged criminals, as the autonomous Basque police have done and are considering doing with the Catalan police, but his margin of action in this area is limited, because he lacks an independent police force. Also, the continuity of the Kofrentz nuclear power plant will not depend on it when its operational life ends in 2030, but this did not prevent him from officially announcing: “Kofrentz will not close.” More of a wish than a promise.
The most concrete measures came in the economic quarter, with the announcement of doubling all deductions from the regional section of personal income tax and increasing the number of beneficiaries by two million people. At this point, the agreement was easy, given that PP and Vox were aligned. The Abascal people’s contribution was a signal that they would fight “against unnecessary political spending,” although Pérez Yurca did not explain what this contribution would be or why public funds had so far been allocated to unnecessary expenditures.
What no concessions were made on was combating violence against women. It wasn’t necessary. The Vox party, which once championed the war against so-called “gender ideology,” has left it in the drawer for the time being, perhaps because of the high cost it imposes on female voters, as the party of extremes is recognized.
Pérez Jurca did not forget to emphasize the importance of music to the identity of the Valencian people. At the risk of falling out of harmony with his party’s official line, he delivered a speech to the tune set by Abascal. He who had followed the inauguration debate in Congress expected that, although he was not aware of the whole intervention, what he heard seemed good to him. Valencia’s future government will be run by the People’s Party, but it will look like the Vox Party.