Ximo Puig rounded up the decentralization debate this week. The proposal by the head of the Generalitat Valenciana as a speaker includes the removal of as many as ten headquarters from the State and their distribution among different autonomous communities, although the Sánchez Executive has closed the door to this claim for now. Employers, unions and university experts support the PSPV’s leader’s claim and believe the time is ideal to address this issue. However, there are also many voices urging Puig to examine his conscience and compare what he wants in his model of state organization with what is practiced internally in the Valencian Community.
The hidden feeling from Alicante is that the Generalitat president wants what he hasn’t given in his own home yet, and that actions such as taking Puertos del Estado to Valencia will mean intensifying more regional power in the region. The city of Turia. From the Valencian Rulers, this point of view is refuted and for the Botànic Government Alicante is made a fundamental pillar in the future of the Generalitat Valenciana. “Concell has never been so Alicante,” they add, before reassuring that the decentralization process in the community is now irreversible.
Within this plan to remove some strong institutions from Valencia and move them to Alicante, the most visible action has been the relocation of the Ministry of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society, a movement seen as its maximum exponent. movement, and in this sense, it is the most comprehensive decision in forty years of self-management. This ministry changed ownership exactly last May. Its new president, Josefina Bueno, took office with the aim of promoting the division’s Alicante direction and strengthening its visibility.
The implementation of the Valencia Agency for Innovation (AVI) in Alicante was much more controversial, openly discriminatory, aside from the great discomfort that the controversial distribution of aid had caused in the province. “This is a project that places Alicante as a node of innovation”, one of the first statements Josefina Bueno has made since becoming department head. Now the de facto handover of AVI headquarters has to take place and its vice-president Andrés García Reche has to run his work from the province. Its corporate headquarters are in Alicante; Operation in Valencia.
productive model
The Digital District, which is also connected with the change in the production model, new technologies and the digitalization process, is located in Ciudad de la Luz and aims to be a center of attraction for the leading companies in the province and wants to settle Alicante in Turkey. center of the new digital economy. Expansion of Distrito Digital to have offices in all regions of the Community and financing of the new building for this project at Pier 5 of the Port of Alicante are some of the stakes planned for development next year.
Outside of the innovation realm, there are other Conell projects that are timidly moving on, having to overcome deadlines and multiple administrative hurdles. In this context, one of those that has taken an important step these days is Valencia Democratic Memory, Human Rights and Public Freedoms Institute, which will be located in the Alicante Port Outer Health building. Last Monday, Minister of Inclusion and Transparency, Rosa Pérez Garijo, received the keys to the building from Julián López, the head of the Alicante Port Authority. , with the aim of making the new institute operational in 2023 before the end of the current legislative term.
Consell’s decentralization process goes beyond the city of Alicante and aims to have a positive impact on the rest of the province. In the case of Elche, the Valencian Regional Conservation Agency is slowly taking its first steps, an office that seeks the arrangement of the Community’s homes on undeveloped plots. The aim of this body is to have a staff of 22 people this year, this number will be increased to 35 and for this it will apply to pools of architects and lawyers.
The plan proposed by Puig at the state level also has cultural implications, such as the creation of new branches of the Prado and Reina Sofia museums in Murcia, Cantabria and Andalusia. There have also been decentralized movements in this field, in the field of culture, and in the countryside. Most notably is the lower headquarters of the Valencian Institute of Modern Art in Alcoy, located in the Center d’Art d’Alcoi (Cada), a symbolic modernist building in the center of the municipality that has been closed for some time. years.
failed attempt
An unsuccessful attempt was to bring the headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism to Benidorm. Of course, Consell’s point comes into play when he mentions that the Tourism Headquarters is located in the tourist capital of the Costa Blanca. In this context, Palau de la Generalitat also sells cultural events such as Benidorm Fest or sporting events such as the Ocean Race, which will be held in January next year, among the milestones in Valencia’s spine. region..
A legal institution armored in Alicante is the Sindicatura de Greuges de la Comunidad Valenciana. During the processing of its new law, which was one year old last March, no parliamentary group has questioned its place in the state, so it will continue to protect its base in the Alicante area. His new norm was approved by broad consensus in the regional Parliament, and was voted in favor of all groups except Vox, who had distanced him from the deal.
Generalitat Valenciana also supported an international research center in the province to face the challenges of population aging. Its headquarters will be located in a building near the Institución Ferial Alicantina, and the board of trustees of this scientific foundation will consist of twenty businessmen from Alicante and Elche, headed by Joaquín Pérez Vázquez of Elche, confirming its continued presence in public opinion. initiative, but nothing is known yet as to when it will become a reality.
Another center whose headquarters will be in Alicante, in this case at the Ciudad de la Luz facilities, is the center for training on safety and climate emergencies presented by Minister Gabriela Bravo in August last year. At this venue, courses will be given to 6,000 professionals, including local police, firefighters, and volunteers from the Civil Protection and Red Cross. Among other purposes, Generalitat asks this center to lead work in the field of climate change from Alicante. The goal is for it to be fully operational before the end of this year.
Effects of DANA
Consell also points out as one of the milestones of decentralization that the office that manages the Vega Renhace Plan is located at Orihuela Prop’s premises; Responsible for managing DANA’s aid related to damage in Vega Baja. Generalitat’s plan includes 28 lines of action, centered on five main action areas, respectively.
Manuel Alcaraz, professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Alicante (UA) and former Minister, believes that it is not possible to propose a «mimetic transfer» when asked whether the decentralization Puig proposed for the State was primarily achieved in the Community. Because, in his view, “Valencia’s relationship with Alicante cannot be equated with Madrid’s relationship with Barcelona”. “There is a long tradition in the Community that the capital is in Valencia, with the exception of some isolated cases, such as teachers who think they should be in Xàtiva,” explains the UA professor. The Constitutional Law expert is skeptical that a Ministry is headquartered in Alicante. «The best thing for the operation of the Generalitat is that all its ministries are in the same city, because it simplifies work and prevents travel. The normal thing is for Castellón to request a ministry as well, and so we’re going to get into a hellish dynamic,” Alcaraz says.
Enrique Conejero, professor of Political Science at the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Elche, favors bringing institutions closer to Alicante because “bringing the decision-making process closer to the citizens is positive”.