The Spanish Government and the Generalitat Valenciana have signed a truce, with the exercise of veiled diplomacy. Both institutions have activated in the last 48 hours all possible resources to dissolve the harsh storm that broke out last Friday when the Ministry of Health left almost the entire Valencian Community in phase 0. And, in parallel, the Health technicians of both administrations have made progress in identifying the problems that prevented Valencians from jumping out of phase to solve them as soon as possible.
Only in this way is it understood that yesterday morning the Valencian Ministry of Health, Ana Barceló, he announced, after meeting with Ximo Puig, who had sent a letter to request the Spanish Government that next Monday the entire territory be in phase 1. In the absence of that previous, intense, calming political work, mobilizing many resources, that announcement would not have occurred. In fact, Ximo Puig He said Monday that they would not ask to go through the phase if they were not clear about the Health criteria and the guarantees. The truth is that the Valencian Executive could not have endured another failure: the first one has supposed a huge spiral of political tension between Madrid and Valencia, and a big problem for the president.
The key must be found on Monday at noon; a day after Ximo Puig launched his strong message: “Loyalty is not submission.” That day, the team of Minister Salvador Illa began working with the Valencian. There were, according to various sources, the political will in Moncloa to solve the technical problem as much as possible. They wanted to end the climate of Valencian unrest that had been transferred to the national media ecosystem. The teams of Dr. Fernando Simón and his Valencian counterpart, Herme Vanaclocha, opened direct dialogue, and began to analyze all the possibilities.
Valencia assumes the Basque formula: advance phase, but with restrictions on concentrations
On Tuesday the work was intense. In the morning, Ana Barceló had already changed the tone in her daily press conference, more conciliatory with the central government.
The solution was possible. But there were certain concerns on the part of the ministry that the Valencian Community had to resolve to make the solution viable; the most important was mobility in a geography where people want to go to the beach at this time, in nuclei of strong concentration.
That is why yesterday, Ana Barceló announced that in the letter sent to the Government it is proposed that the specific activity referring to outdoor acts and shows for 200 people be postponed in all areas of phase 1. The ministry is also asked that the possibility to hold meetings of up to 10 people in homes and outdoors is postponed in one of the fourteen departments, in the region of La Ribera. They are restrictive and corrective measures of phase 1 similar to those proposed at the time by the Basque Country to achieve its objective.
Ana Barceló’s request confirmed what had been working for hours, and that the entente and the bridges between the Spanish and Valencian Executive had recovered. So much so, that from the surroundings of Ximo Puig it was hoped that this time the Valencian Community would reach phase 1 next Monday. Even these sources commented that from the Valencian Generalitat the ministry was asked that if they do their homework well not there is a one-week lag to reach phase 2; that is, that you want to keep up with the autonomies that are already in phase 1.
Compromís explodes against Montero due to statements by the minister on regional aid
However, another storm, with its epicenter in the Congress of Deputies, raged yesterday in Valencian politics. In a debate by the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, with the Valencian deputy Joan Baldoví on the criteria for the distribution of the 16,000 million from the fund for autonomies, the first stated that “the criteria are technical, objective and not political; let’s not mess, let’s not invent problems that don’t exist ”. He affirmed this after the Valencian asked if the funds will be distributed equally to the autonomous regions to fight the coronavirus, highlighting the serious financial situation of the Valencian Community.
Compromís’s reaction was immediate. “We are going to review our support for the government,” said the deputy. This party called a meeting of its executive to analyze what the minister said, although in the afternoon María
Jesús Montero stressed that his words had been taken out of context and that she had never questioned the underfunding that Valencia suffers. At night, the Compromís executive agreed to demand that the government of Pedro Sánchez that the distribution of funds respond to the criteria of the population if they want to count on the Valencianists for support in future votes.
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