JUANFRAN Perez Llorca has been elected as the new Valencian president after winning an investiture vote in parliament on Thursday.
Perez Llorca- who will step down as the mayor of Finestrat and is the secretary general of the regional Partido Popular(PP)- got help from the far-right Vox party to secure the victory.
He needed at least 50 votes to be elected and got 53 consisting of the 40 PP deputies- including that of his predecessor, Carlos Mazon- plus the 13 Vox deputies.
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The opposition socialists and the left-wing Compromis party could only muster 45 votes.
The vote was taken after Perez Llorca was the only name put forward, and each deputy was polled individually to either say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or to abstain.
Carlos Mazon shook hands with his successor, after which he left the Les Corts chamber, while the remaining PP deputies took a group photo with the new president.
Mazon quit his post in early November- over a year after the Valencia flood disaster- amidst continuing criticism over the way he handled the emergency.
Perez Llorca has offered ‘dialogue, consensus and agreement’ in his new mandate and emphasised that ‘calm’ is needed because ‘tension and insults distance us politicians from reality’.
“We have to continue with the reconstruction and attend to many needs that Valencians have,” he said after his investiture.
“We need to show to society that politicians are up to the task,” he continued.
Perez Llorca added that his resignation as Finestrat mayor was not a trivial matter for him, as he has been involved with the council for 22 years.
“I want to say goodbye to the officials and the council,” he remarked.
He concluded by saying that once he is sworn in as Valencian president, he will work with ‘transparency, humility and closeness’.
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