During the second legislature of the Botànic, the three left-wing parties (PSPV, Compromís, and Unides Podem) reached a preliminary agreement with Ciudadanos to reform the Valencian electoral law of 1987. The four groups totaled 70 deputies (two more than the two-thirds needed to modify a regulation protected by a reinforced majority). It was an ambitious proposal that not only lowered the electoral barrier from 5% regional to 3% of valid votes – it also proposed the obligation to achieve this percentage in each of the three provincial constituencies as well as in the Valencian Community as a whole. The reform also introduced important novelties such as the possibility for the voter to show their preference for up to three candidates from the same list, the obligation to hold debates on Valencian public television, or to increase the amount of the electoral subsidy by 5% for those candidacies chosen by primaries.
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However, this electoral modification came to nothing when Ciudadanos backed out of an agreement that seemed closed and feasible the day before it was to be presented. The possibility of modifying an old law that introduces the highest quota of all autonomous communities (with the sole exception of the Canary Islands) vanished at a time of multi-party politics and without any party having enough votes to block a two-thirds agreement in Parliament.
The Botànic closed an agreement with Ciudadanos to change the electoral law, but Toni Cantó backed out at the last minute
Despite the difficulties of once again securing the endorsement of 66 deputies, Unió Municipalista – a confederation that already brings together 300 independent local parties from all over Spain and has a special presence in the Valencian Community with parties such as Ens Uneix and Mayoralties such as those of Ontinyent, Sueca Nules, Alberic, Calp or Oliva – has once again embarked on this legislative modification.
The municipalists have presented a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) whose signatures, which they have been collecting for months, will be delivered next Thursday, April 30, to the Corts Valencianes, thus initiating the parliamentary processing of the reform. Sources from the organization indicate that they have collected almost 12,000, slightly more than the 10,000 needed for the proposal to proceed in the regional Parliament. A margin must always be kept for possible annulments.
Their proposal is simple: that, instead of the 5% regional currently required, the votes of all those formations that exceed 3% of the valid votes cast in each of the three electoral constituencies – Valencia, Alicante, and Castellón – be counted for representation in the Corts.
In their initiative, they argue that “strikingly, Valencian electoral legislation introduces a set of barriers that differs from other regional electoral laws and is distinguished by the burdens it introduces. The 5% quota is the highest; the calculation is made on the total votes cast in the Valencian Community (not on each of the three constituencies) and this calculation is not carried out on valid votes, but on all votes cast (valid and null), an added difficulty that is absent in other legislations.” And the explanatory statement concludes: “The inclusion of limit clauses serves to exclude formations with less presence, thereby violating participatory plurality.”
Circumstances on which left-wing parties (PSPV and Compromís) have historically agreed, but not PP and Vox. The extreme right’s “no” is clear, although from Ens Uneix, the most emblematic party of Unió Municipalista which governs with the popular party in the Diputació de València, they have a minimal hope of securing the support of the 40 PP deputies. This would allow the reform to go ahead before the regional elections, scheduled for next year. “It will be possible as long as there is political will,” Ens Uneix points out.
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A Compromís survey: 74% considered changing the electoral law very or quite a priority
When the possibility of modifying the Valencian electoral norm was discussed, Compromís included a question about it in an internal study. According to the data (from 2017 and with a margin of error of +-2.77%), 74.1% of respondents considered an electoral reform that included unlocked lists, that is, that citizens had the ability to modify electoral lists, to be “very or quite a priority.” Even PP voters leaned towards this option.
The objective of the platform of local parties is to convince the PP and achieve a reduction of the electoral barrier that gives them wings in their very complicated attempt to reach the Corts. Approximately 75,000 votes would be needed to enter the Valencian Hemicycle.
For now, the signature collection has served as a pre-campaign to make themselves known and sell their local project in different municipalities of the Valencian geography. Sources from the formation admit that the support (the received signatures) has been mostly in the province of València (close to 60% due to the pull of Ens Uneix), although they point out the good performance of Alicante (25% of the signatures achieved).
The municipalists are open to negotiating a 5% provincial instead of regional
Perhaps for this reason, their greater implantation in Valencia is what makes the promoters of the ILP open to negotiating with the PP some modification, such as the 5% being provincial instead of regional. It will also be necessary to see if Ens Uneix, the party led by the mayor of Ontinyent, Jorge Rodríguez, uses its good relationship with the PP in the Diputación to convince the popular parliamentarians of the Corts. And it is that the aspirations of the municipalists could go against the electoral interests of the left.
With the 3% provincial requested by the municipalists in their proposal, the results of the last regional elections (May 2023) would have barely changed. Unides Podem (the alliance of Podem and EU) would have entered, having been left out with 3.62% of the votes, but this coalition would only have two deputies. One that it would have taken from Vox in Alicante and another from Compromís in Valencia. PP and PSPV would have remained the same. Thus, the conservative bloc would have had 52 instead of the current 53, while the progressive forces would have remained with 47, despite the entry of Unides Podem.
