After the wholesale rejection by the PP of Vox’s latest proposals on immigration, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazonsought this Wednesday a rapprochement with its former partners, whose votes it needs to approve the regional budgets for 2025.
Aware that the “fight against illegal immigration” is one of the red lines of the party Santiago Abascal To vote favorably on the accounts, Mazón said he “welcomes” the proposal recorded by Vox this Tuesday, which calls for testing all immigrant minors to determine their age.
During the control session in the Valencian Cortes, the head of the Consell “contacted” the Vox mediator, Jose Maria Llanosto “continue working” together. “This proposal can be a meeting point in the name of the legality of international agreements,” Mazón said.
The PNL to which he refers pleads for a protocol to determine the age of immigrants and for the Consell to carry out “exhaustive” medical tests for all unaccompanied foreign minors who are under the supervision of the Generalitat Valenciana.
According to data from the Consell, in the Valencian Community there are a total of 480 immigrant minors in the Valencian centers for minors, which represents an oversaturation of the system, which has 319 places.
Another point on which the Valencian president agrees with Vox is the persecution of mafias, although he insisted that responsibility in the fight against illegal immigration lies with the central government.
Carlos Mazón and José María Llanos in the Cortes in an archive image
The obligation of the Generalitat Valenciana, as stated during his speech, is to fulfill the social function established by law. In this regard, he confirmed that they would continue to comply with it, “because it cannot be otherwise.”
At this point he accused Pedro Sanchezwhom he accuses of being “responsible” and “not working originally”. So he demanded a new state law to solve what he considered “a problem.”
In this regard, he defended that “immigration must be conditioned on available work, on the demand for work in the productive fabric, particularly in the agricultural sector”.
“No one emigrates for fun and no one risks their life on a boat on a whim,” he said, adding that “this is why we must stop talking about the right to emigrate and talk of the right not to be forced to emigrate. because of poverty, tyranny, intolerance, war or mafia affairs.”
“On this path, I am sure we will meet again,” the president said. A few words to which the Vox mediator, José María Llanos, responded by thanking him for his “will”, while asking for more “courage”.
In this sense, he said that the PP “may not be doing enough” and stressed that “within its competences it can do a lot.”
Budget 2025
This first approach on immigration between Mazón and Llanos becomes important given that this month the Valencian Government will present its budgetary project for 2025 before the Valencian Cortes.
After Vox broke all the autonomous coalitions it maintained with the PP last July, Mazón governs with a parliamentary minority. The 40 deputies popular They are not enough to complete the accounts and will need at least the support of one of the other groups.
In this context, its natural partner, Vox, did not make their task easy and toughened his speech on immigration in recent weeks, placing this issue as an essential condition for supporting budgets.
Control session with Carlos Mazón this Wednesday
Despite this, the group popular voted against Vox’s measures during the general policy debate on this issue. The Mediator, Juanfran Pérez Llorcathen explained that, despite this rejection, the negotiation of budgets would start from scratch.
He affirmed that it was necessary to proceed “step by step”, but he suggested that if Abascal’s proposals were consistent with those presented during the general policy debate, the position of the PP would remain “the same”, that is, that is to say opposite.
In this debate, they proposed that a “national priority” be given in the granting of public aid from the Generalitat Valenciana. They also demanded that the Consell prevent NGO ships from docking in autonomous ports and that all social assistance for “illegal immigrants” be removed.
Just two days after this vote, Vox again registered another proposal demanding “the immediate expulsion of all illegal immigrants” from the Valencian Community.
State competition
Regional budgets do not include budget items specific to irregular immigration, beyond the grant lines to which associations and NGOs working with people in situations of social exclusion can apply as part of a competitive competition .
The majority of aid that people in an irregular situation in the Valencian Community can benefit from is aid linked to low income.
In any case, what Vox will do with the regional budgets of the PP will be a strategic decision that the national leaders will adopt, just as during their break with the PP in all the autonomies where they governed together.
If he does not obtain the support of his partner so far, Carlos Mazón will be forced to extend the 2024 budgets.
Negotiations with the rest of the political forces should begin after the presentation of the project to the Valencian Parliament, before October 31.
It will then be that the popular will sit down with all the groups with the aim of “liberating the text with the greatest possible consensus”. “We are not closed to any support,” they defend from the PP.
