From “whitewashing ETA” to an opportunity for the “projection” of Valladolid: Vox's change of discourse on the Goya

The newspaper archive shows Vox's position towards the Goya awards.

Ignacio Garriga, general secretary of the party, about the 2023 edition in Seville: it was “a party act” where “millions of Spaniards were insulted with real atrocities.”

Her fellow member, Carla Toscano, spoke like this about the national film sector: “They need to live off public money and give servile messages because otherwise they would be scrubbing stairs or working as ATMs at Mercadona.”

Vox spokesperson in the Seville City Council, Cristina Peláez, accused the gala of serving to “whitewash ETA.”

The vice president of Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo, then asked “to bet without any type of sectarianism on our film industry, which has lost its essence.”

This speech clashes with the silence established in this community and in Valladolid in the days before the city hosts the 2024 gala this Saturday. The Councilor for Culture and Deputy Mayor, Irene Carvajal (Vox), stuck to the “projection ” that the awards guarantee to the city without affecting the critical postulates of its formation.

In addition, the 2024 ceremony will feature members of Vox for the first time.

The regional vice president, Juan García-Gallardo, and the president of the Cortes, Carlos Pollán, will attend, as well as the Ministers of Culture and Agriculture, Gonzalo Santonja and Gerardo Dueñas.

Irene Carvajal herself, Alberto Cuadrado and Víctor Martín, councilors from Valladolid, will also attend.

Vox harshly criticized not having been invited in 2019, but its president, Santiago Abascal, declined to attend in 2020.

The Valladolid corporation, where the PP allied with Vox governs, came to Government at the end of May with the Goya scheduled once its predecessors, the PSOE with Valladolid Toma La Palabra, had managed to get the city to host the 2024 ceremony. The socialists Óscar Puente and Ana Redondo, then mayor and Councilor for Culture and today Ministers of Transport and Equality, respectively, gave way to Jesús Julio Carnero (PP) and Irene Carvajal (Vox) as successors.

The municipal government agreement began with a change in the organizational chart with respect to previous local structures: the Department of Culture lost management of the Seminci film festival, attributed to Tourism, commanded by Blanca Jiménez (PP).

The organization of the Goya also fell to Tourism and not to the wing led by Carvajal.

In Seville, headquarters of the previous edition, the mayor held Culture, the area that administered the awards.

More information

The PP of Valladolid removes the Seminci from the powers of the Department of Culture, in the hands of Vox

Carvajal, when asked by EL PAÍS on the day of the announcement of the pact and the distribution of councillors, shied away from controversy and focused on the “projection” that the gala would bring to Valladolid.

García-Gallardo, in the last edition of the Seminci under socialist command, demanded that “the future governments of the Valladolid City Council recover that essence and focus on the main thing, betting on cinema without ideology”, and alluded to alleged films “with ideological or sectarian content.”

The vice president has not spoken recently about the Goya and Carvajal's press team has rejected the mayor's response to the criticism of her Vox colleagues against the awards.

The mayor, Jesús Julio Carnero (PP), has issued a municipal statement appealing to the “feeling towards culture in all its manifestations and disciplines as something indelible in our way of being”, and has highlighted that the people of Valladolid “carry the surnames of culture and tolerance”, thus inviting us to feel “the emotion of the great gala of Spanish cinema, an exceptional event”.

The hotels are packed, with the last rooms costing around 1,000 euros for Saturday night, and the trains between Valladolid and Madrid have been full for days.

The Film Academy has estimated in previous editions that the appointment with the seventh art brings an economic return of more than 50 million euros, a figure with which the Valladolid City Council agrees "in the short, medium and long term in the image of the city." .

Sources from the City Council indicate that they have contributed around 7.5 million for the celebration of the event, which involves adapting the Trade Fair, where the awards will be awarded, and avoiding controversy over their partner's position regarding the Goya.

Meanwhile, several unions and opposition parties in the Cortes of Castilla y León have called for a demonstration on February 10 to take advantage of the visibility of the date.

There they will gather together with more than 100 regional social groups to ask for “respect for Castilla y León” and attack the policies of the Board, also of PP with Vox.

The parties in municipal and regional leadership have criticized the mobilization as inappropriate and damaging to the image of the city.

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