The push to decentralize state offices advocated by Generalitat President Ximo Puig has not emerged as a top priority for Generalitat Vice President Mónica Oltra. Puig has been driving a broader effort to bring the decentralization agenda back into national focus, but Oltra’s response has been measured. It appears she sees other issues as more pressing at this point in the session, preferring to tighten controls over Finance and administration before pursuing a major reform that would alter how funding is distributed. Community opportunities sit among the considerations in play.
“The first step is to decentralize the money, and then we can consider other symbols or mirrors of progress,” Oltra stated during a weekly briefing after a Consell plenary session, when asked if Puig’s decentralization plan had broad support within the Consell.
In response, Puig emphasized that the initiative had not been discussed at the plenary as a formal proposal, noting that the plan would not be treated as a conventional item. He reiterated the priority: “The first thing we must decentralize is money. Once that is done, the rest will follow, even if it means facing questions about elaborate symbols.”
Double criticism of Puig plan: Government refuses to relocate institutions and partners are skeptical
The new push by Puig to energize the debate about moving state institutions away from centralized locations has met limited traction under current conditions. The central government has resisted the Consell chief’s proposal to relocate existing state administration bodies. A spokesperson for the Minister for Executive and Regional Policy rejected the idea, arguing that the dissolution of the government’s headquarters would apply only to newly created entities and would not affect core state structures like the Supreme Court or even the Senate. Puig has found little support within his own political circle for the proposal.
Left-leaning groups in the Valencian Community have not rallied to defend renewed calls for institutional deconcentration with the force that might be expected. Instead, they urged the government to prioritize other commitments, pointing to investments that have not yet been made in the region. Reports indicate only a portion of the allocated budget has been realized since the previous year. Critics described Puig’s plan as a political maneuver to present the autonomous community in a favorable light, arguing that what is truly required is constitutional reform. Valencia officials have likewise pressed Madrid to fulfill the planned investments, arguing that longer delays threaten regional development and governance credibility.