Guillem Agulló, father of the young man murdered in 1993, shows a photo of his son in an archive image.JOSÉ JORDÁN
The Valencian PP now wants to distance itself from Vox, after bowing to the wishes of the extreme right a week earlier in the Valencian Cortes in a matter that has generated intense controversy.
The Popular Party accepted Vox's initiative to eliminate the Guillem Agulló Award, in recognition of the fight against hate crimes, and imposed their majority in parliament.
The name of the distinction, created in 2016 based on an institutional declaration approved unanimously (Santiago Abascal's party did not have a seat at that time), was a way of paying tribute to the 18-year-old anti-fascist young man, murdered in 1993 by a neo-Nazi, accompanied by a group of friends of the same ideology, in the Castellón town of Montanejos.
Nine hours after knowing this Tuesday at noon the intention of the Catalan Generalitat to organize and assume the award, according to the family of the young nationalist, the general secretary of the PP of the Valencian Community and spokesperson in the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FVMP), Juanfran Pérez Llorca, issued a statement at night in which he proposed that this entity be the “meeting point” to “return the consensus” of the Guillem Agulló Award as recognition of entities and people who fight against crimes of hate in the Valencian Community.
“We understand that the Federation, as a municipal entity, may be able to reconstruct the consensus reached in the past and thus guarantee the delivery of the Awards without tarnishing the memory of the young anti-fascist murdered in Montanejos in 1993,” argued the popular leader, a man of trust of the president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, of the PP, and one of the negotiators of the autonomous government pact with Vox.
Pérez Llorca defends that since the formation they have "been trying to find agreements and meeting points to resume the spirit with which this award was established unanimously by all the groups of Les Corts in 2016."
This statement contradicts the justification of the Vox parliamentary spokesperson, José María Llanos, that the creation of the award was a “unilateral decision” of the previous president of the Cortes, Enric Morera, of Compromís, as well as of the PP spokesman, Miguel Barrachina, who maintained that the 2016 institutional declaration had lost its “validity” and the name of the award was a “personal decision” of the nationalist leader, according to Europa Press.
The general secretary of the PPCV assures that with the “new scenario” in the regional chamber – chaired by Llanos Massó, from Vox – that consensus “has proven impossible.”
For this reason, and with the desire to "continue giving awards against hatred and violence", the PPCV proposes reaching an agreement in the aforementioned federation, chaired by the popular mayor of Requena, Rocío Cortés, who had the support of the PP, PSPV and Compromís and in which Vox lacks representation.
Finally, Pérez Llorca has maintained that the PP “has always condemned and will condemn all types of violence, hatred or discrimination towards any group.”
“In any case and we always condemn violence wherever it comes from and whoever exercises it,” he added in the statement issued late yesterday, Tuesday.
The award, to Catalonia
Shortly after noon yesterday, it was announced that the Generalitat of Catalonia will assume the organization and delivery of the Guillem Agulló Award.
The decision was made by the Government in agreement with Guillem Agulló's family and with the organizers of the award, as announced by the spokesperson for the Catalan executive, Patrícia Plaja, from Esquerra Republicana, who explained that the Catalan government will award the award "until the institutions Valencians decide to recover it.”
The jury for this award will be made up of the former president of Les Corts Valencianes Enric Morera (Compromís), the parents of Guillem Agulló and the journalist and former CUP deputy David Fernández, at the request of the Agulló family, among other names that the Government will announce later.
Plaja stated that the award will have "the same purposes" as the one awarded in Valencia - to recognize the fight against hate crimes - and for which it has become "a symbol against racism."
Guillem Agulló, father of the young independentist who died, was a Valencian candidate in 2019 for the European lists for Esquerra Republicana
The death of Guillem Agulló, "represents in the Valencian Community the raising of awareness regarding hate crimes", which in 2016 were not classified as they are today, in a similar way to what the racist murder of 1992 represents in Spain. the immigrant Lucrecia Pérez, as Susana Gisbert, hate crimes delegate of the Valencia Provincial Prosecutor's Office, told this newspaper.
On the other hand, Compromís proposed including in this week's Les Corts Valencianes plenary session an institutional declaration to condemn the fascist attack on the La Cosa Nostra social center in Castelló, although it will not be possible because Vox has opposed it and unanimity is needed to May it prosper.
The Compromís proposal proposed that Les Corts demonstrate publicly against “any type of institutional approval” of hate speech, and offer institutional and political support to the victims of the attack on March 2 in that social center in Castellón.
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