Activities of the people of Alicante in Cortes: the transition from crisis to investments and tourism

Alicante right is more active than left. Proof of this is that the People’s Party presented more than 12,000 initiatives during this period; this is a figure similar to that of three Vox MPs. The PSOE justifies less activity to lead these years. The Socialists have already made their list for the 23J, it’s not without controversy, and they have options to go ahead as Alejandro Soler, Patricia Blanquer, Lázaro Azorín and Ana Martínez are top of the line. Events such as the dissolution of Ciudadanos, the departure of Marta Martín from the Lower House and his replacement by Juan Ignacio López-Bas, or the transfer of Emilio Argüeso to the group of non-natives are also happening in this region. Members in the Senate.

The pandemic management, involuntarily, began to focus most of the agenda of the 18 state representatives, who started their legislative work in both houses, with proposals to repel the attacks of the health, economic and social crisis unleashed. covid. The tourism blockade, the collapse of the service sector and the increase in unemployment and ERTE were the first axes on which the proposals of the deputies moved. In this regard, questions were asked, for example, from the PP about the estimates of applying VAT reductions to tourism activities or the examination of Alicante-Elche airport’s link with the AVE.

In the legislature’s early stages, which coincided with the outbreak of the pandemic, Vox emerged as one of the most active. By the end of 2020, his deputy, Eduardo Luis Ruiz, made 1,942 attempts. He was also the speaker of the bill on emergency prevention, containment and coordination measures to deal with the health crisis caused by covid, and made recommendations to find out the total expenditure that the Government has allocated to contracts related to health supply.

Marta Martín, the only C MP to receive the minutes after Alicante’s November 2019 elections, garnered the most Alicante involvement in Congress by the end of 2020. Regarding the performance of MPs from the two parties in government, the Socialists have raised issues with the General Budgets or the reversal of the section of the AP-7 highway between Valencia and Alicante. Txema Guijarro, the sole representative of Unidas Podemos, intervened, for example, on the bill for the digital transformation of the financial system or the Financial Transactions Tax.

In 2021, transfer and General Budgets were in the lead role again. The effects of the pandemic on footprint and tourism were equally present. Reducing contributions from Tagus-Segura and putting the province at the tail end of the entire country in terms of per capita spending were arguments that shaped the nearly 10,800 initiatives and thousand interventions by Alicante lawmakers. The year in which the melon of the reform of the autonomous financial system was opened ended in failure.

With the rapid end of the unity in the search for a common solution to the pandemic and the increasing tension between the right and left blocs, another feature of the activity in the parliamentary field was polarization. This was the main reason why a common front was not formed from Alicante against the successive slaps of the General Budgets and the province. As for the pure numbers, PP’s Agustín Almodóbar became the MP with the most initiative in 2021, followed by Vox’s Eduardo Luis Ruiz. Txema Guijarro of Unidas Podemos had the largest number of interventions.

Changes

In April 2021, Juan Ignacio López-Bas of Oriolan accepted the mandate to replace Marta Martín, who resigned from her Cs seat. He was not the only casualty among the Liberals, as Senator Emilio Argüeso also left the formation led by Inés Arrimadas at the time. orange resigned from the card to benefit PP.

In these twelve months, more than 4,000 attempts and interventions were recorded by three popular lawmakers; This is a figure that positions them as the second most active group since Vox broke the 5,000 barrier. The policy of water solidarity, reindustrialisation, protection of SMEs and defense of Spaniards were the main banners of the far-right formation. The most represented group among socialists was Alejandro Soler from Elche, with four deputies, the most active. The labor reform, the arrival of the AVE in Elche and Orihuela, the location of the Smart Platform for Tourist Destinations in Benidorm, the increase in the minimum wage or the Euthanasia Law served as context for the activities of the former mayor of the third city. Valencian Community. Pablo Ruz, another man from Elche, was the most active of the Alicante citizens in the Senate, along with his friend Adela Pedrosa in the popular ranks.

The last full year of the legislature has left another 4,500 initiatives with a new concern on the part of the representatives of Alicante in the Cortes: to mitigate the consequences of the occupation of Ukraine by Russian troops, above all the rise in inflation. and the energy crisis. All this without the effects of the pandemic, which has hit particularly the most vulnerable and has yet to be fully overcome. New state-related grievances in the General Budgets and cuts in Tagus-Segura have forced lawmakers to direct a significant portion of their efforts to these two issues.

In the first months of this year, tourism continued to occupy an important place in the activities of Alicante lawmakers, who were discussing the new scenario for the sector after the pandemic or the Imserso program, until the electoral progress brought the end of the legislature. . Other prominent issues in their intervention have been the reform of the crime of embezzlement, measures to mitigate the drought, or the impact of artificial intelligence on university activities.