The PP of Carlos Mazón was particularly belligerent towards the salaries of the Botanical Pact government when it was in opposition. Even though Mazón earned more than the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, when he was president of the Provincial Council of Alicante, he constantly criticized the remuneration of the members of the Consell. Upon arriving at the executive, Mazón waved a flag of austerity by eliminating management and advisory positions. A few months later, he disguised a salary increase for senior civil servants or those who give courses so that they could earn up to 15% more than the president in regional budgets. This summer he approved a decree modifying regional budgets and applied a 2% increase to civil servants and members of the Executive, the same one that criticized the Botánico. Next November, with the third composition of its executive, the salary cap is removed for those who come from the public service: they will be able to earn more than 90,000 euros per year.
Neither in the decree in which this salary increase is camouflaged, which establishes measures for civil servants regarding DANA, nor in the communications on this subject, has it been explained to those concerned, but both the wording of the article and new incorporations emphasize retirement. Lieutenant General Francisco José Gan Pampols, second vice president; and at the professor of medicine and doctor of surgery Juan Carlos Valderrama, new Minister of Emergencies. The new rule allows them to maintain their salary as a public official, exceeding without limit that of the president of the Generalitat Valenciana. A professor at the University of Valencia earns more than 60,000 euros per year if he works full time, while the salary of the retired military high command would be around 90,000 euros, according to the Defense transparency portal. A basic advisor earns 68,000 euros per year in 2024, according to the Transparency portal of the Generalitat Valenciana.
Salary limitations have made it difficult to integrate front-line private sector staff, recognize the leaders of the Botanical Pact, who value those who give between 15,000 and 30,000 euros per year to become regional advisors or secretaries. In the first Consell del Botànic, the coalition formed by the PSPV, Compromís and Unides Podem, a councilor received 58,000 euros per year, practically the same amount as an autonomous secretary, without taking into account residency supplements or mandates of three years if he was a civil servant. Until then, regional legislation only allowed the maintenance of this annual allowance for the exercise of public service. Even the chiefs of staff lost money, they point out.
One of the rare people to have left a private company to reach the second step of the executive is Clara Ferrando, appointed regional secretary of the Treasury by Compromís. Until now, she was director of the Banc Sabadell private bank, with a remuneration of around 80,000 euros. She is, according to her curriculum vitae, a financial analyst and was responsible for asset and treasury management of family businesses and SMEs, as well as financial and capital market analysis. He returns to the judiciary at the end of the legislature. Ferrando was number two to the socialist Vicent Soler, who entered the Consell from the University of Valencia, where he was professor and dean of the Faculty of Economics. Soler stopped receiving almost 20,000 euros per year, given that almost 8,000 euros per year for the deanship would be added to the professor’s remuneration. He also lost, like all academics, six-year research periods. Gabriela Bravo, head of Justice, from the State Attorney General’s Office and losing almost 17,000 euros per year, was a member of the same Consell.
Before Botànic, the last executives of the PP also turned to employees in the public or private sector who considerably reduced their income. Manuel Llombart, Minister of Health with Alberto Fabra, received almost 300,000 euros at the Valencian Institute of Oncology, of which he was general director, to reach almost 70,000 in the regional executive. In the same Consell was Juan Carlos Moragues, head of the Treasury between 2012 and 2014, official of the superior body of State Treasury inspectors. He was previously delegate of the Tax Agency of the Province of Castellón and professor of the ADEIT master’s degree in Taxation at the University of Valencia. Only with the difference in positions, he stopped earning nearly 40,000 euros per year, or between 40% and 50% of his salary taking into account educational supplements. PP sources also cite the cases of Máximo Buch, who moved from the private sector to the Ministry of Economy, and of Vicente Rambla, Minister of Industry with Francisco Camps, who was also Treasury Inspector, with salaries similar to those of Moragues.
There are also other senior positions of the second level that have seen a difference in their remuneration, such as regional secretaries who were, until the time of their appointment, auditors in the municipalities. This is the case of Andreu Ferrer, regional secretary of the Presidency, Puig’s right-hand man in the Consell, who, as municipal auditor, came close to 90,000 euros, or of the director of the Valencian Tax Agency , Sonia Díez, also tax inspector, who became general director.
The Mazón Executive, which denies that the removal of the limitation implies a salary increase, explained that the measure applies to new members and justified it as a way to “attract talent”. “We must integrate the talents and capacities necessary to tackle the reconstruction, with people who have acted in scenarios as vast as the one we currently find in Valencia.” These remarks lit up the hemicycle during the last control session, held last Thursday, where the left bench asked if there was no talent among the civil servants and accused the new vice-president of linking his salary vocation.
