Deputy Vox Carlos Flores Juberias was a finalist in a story competition on equality organized by the Valencia City Council. The MP was found guilty of mistreating his ex-wife in 2002. This context led left-wing groups such as the PSOE And Commitments They accuse Flores Juberías of having participated in the contest and the municipal team composed of the PP and Vox of being included among the finalists after learning the authorship of the story.
In fact, following the competition rules, the MP presented his text, entitled “Alice. Protection. Anne” under a pseudonym. According to the Valencia City Council, a jury composed of four members “of recognized prestige” in different fields and who respected the criteria of parity and diversity, selected the text of Flores Juberías as first finalist. The winner of this category turned out to be Berta Esparza.
For the Minister of Equality, Ana RedondoThe election of Vox MP as a finalist in the short story contest Beatriu Civera is “intolerable”. Flores Juberías responded that “he is a citizen who fully enjoys all his civil and political rights, who participated in a contest scrupulously respecting its rules and that a professional jury decided to reward”.
For the mayor of Valencia, Maria Jose CatalaThe MP’s presentation of the story constitutes an “unnecessary provocation”.
The MP was convicted in 2002 by the fifth section of the court Provincial Court of Valencia for one offence of habitual mental violence and for 21 offences of coercion, insults and unjust humiliation and was acquitted of the alleged crimes of threats, insults, mental harm and coercion and one offence of injury.
This is how “Alicia. Amparo. Ana” begins, the seventh of my short stories to see the light of day, and which has just been awarded first finalist in the VIII “Beatriu Civera” Story Competition organized by the Valencia City Council.
My gratitude to the City Hall of Valencia… pic.twitter.com/f7S5A9XlXh– Carlos Flores Juberias (@FloresJuberias) September 19, 2024
The government has requested a rectification from the Valencia City Hall. In this regard, the mayor of the city, Maria Jose Cataladecided to suspend the awards ceremony, which was to take place on October 1. The two winners were entitled to a cash prize of 1,500 euros, while the texts of the winners and finalists were to be part of a book published on the occasion of the competition.
Catalan addressed the issue with the spokespersons of all the groups represented on the City Council and recalled that the bases of the competition are identical to those when the socialists and Compromís in Valencia. That is, “an independent jury and a system of total and absolute anonymity of the participants” in the competition. When it was learned that one of the finalists was the Vox MP convicted 22 years ago for domestic violence, the jury had already issued the minutes.
The mayor of Valencia recalled that the finalists do not receive any financial reward, but that their story is published in a book published for this purpose. Given the request of the opposition groups regarding the text of Juberia flowers Left aside, Catalá requested a report from the Legal Department of the Consistory on “this possibility.”
In addition, the awards ceremony was suspended pending the lawyers’ views on the “established bases” of the competition. “I fully understand the sensitivity and I am sorry that this is the case.”admitted Catalá, who recalled that “the mayor was neither on the jury, nor did she publish the regulations nor did she choose anything at all.” We are strangers to this determination, which corresponds to the “literary criteria of a jury.”
“We are concerned about the alarm generated”
The municipal spokesperson, Juan Carlos Caballeroclarified that the mayor had requested a “report from the legal services on how to proceed with this matter.” The mayor explained that “we are concerned about the alarm generated and the sensitivity that this case has generated,” but he stressed that “there are rights acquired by the participants.”
For the current government team, the bases of the competition, which began in 2017 with the previous left-wing group, “are questionable but we cannot violate them directly as they are asking.” Commitments And PSPV».
Caballero stressed in this regard that “the bases are the same as those approved by Compromís and the PSPV in 2017, and it is these same bases that have made it possible Juberia flowers which turned out to be a finalist. What the jury appreciated was the literary quality because they never knew who this candidate was since the works were anonymous and presented under pseudonyms.
