Juan Cardona, Vicent Colomer and Llúcia Signes of Compromís Xàbia resign due to party disagreements

Tuesday 25th October 2022 – Mike Smith
Source: Carlos López (XAD)

Juan Cardona, Vicent Colomer and Llucia Signes of Compromís per Xàbia have presented their resignation from the nationalist coalition after failing to obtain the support of the group after starting the project four years ago now.

In a letter sent publicly, those who were at the head of the list in the last elections (Cardona and Colomer as councilors and Signes in a position on the AMJASA board of directors), state that when they reached autumn “we wanted to continue and give a new promotion of the project” that began in 2019, but they stressed that they have “lacked support” and have encountered “important project differences, our will to open up and go further has not been shared and we have seen personal attitudes and lack of respect” that have forced them to “rethink their own position”.

Thus they have decided to give up the different positions that the three have in Compromís per Xàbia, which also means giving up leading the list of the elections in 2023. They leave the local executive, which was led by Signes itself, and the regional and national positions, such as the one that Juan Cardona held with Mes Compromís (secretary of municipalism). And all this, they insist “because of the incompatibility of our project with that of the majority of the militancy of the local group.”

In their statement, they reviewed the last four years, in which they were able to make a list for the 2019 elections with “an average age below 30 years” and ultimately achieve two councilors “after four years in which Vicent Colomer was working alone”.

And they have valued the work carried out from the opposition, putting on the table “the issues that nobody talked about, from the protection of the coastline, the change of the productive model, the control of mass tourism or the recovery of historical memory”. They have also tried to put “housing, energy and water” at the centre of the debate.

“We have known how to confront but also agree when it was necessary, for example, in the pandemic, and we think that at the gates of 2023, Xàbia’s common sense is more like ours than it was four years ago.” They concluded that “we think that our commitment to remain in a constructive opposition has been a success”.

The full statement, translated from the original Valencian:

At the beginning of 2019, we took on the responsibility of establishing the new municipal executive, elected by the local collective, with the aim of presenting a project that will return political life to the town after years of what we understand as apathy and paralysis. We came from a legislature in which Vicent Colomer had worked a lot alone, without activity in the collective and at the same time assuming the responsibility of management in a demanding council like that of Sports. To overcome this, we set out to join: we set out to build, from the foundations of Valencianism, the common house of those who care about the defense of our people: of the environment, of an economy at the service of people and not mass tourism, universal access to housing, electricity and water, all from an ecological and transversal feminist perspective. And that’s why, to build an alternative for the present and future, we thought we needed new and young faces, to make it clear that in institutional politics it’s up to us all to be protagonists and not just spectators.

To make this possible, we started a round of contacts with associations, collectives and like-minded people, with the aim of presenting a list that would be in accordance with the project, that would clearly represent the principles of the party and the will to openness to the rest of society. With this work we managed to make the youngest list in Xàbia with an average of under 30 years and which had more female participation than ever before. The effort to renew people and the project allowed us to add one more councilor to those we have. Despite everything, our 827 votes left us in opposition to a PSPV that had revalidated its absolute majority.

Despite this, for the last four years we have tried to fulfill the mandate we received in the 2019 elections from the opposition: we have put on the table the issues that no one was talking about, from the protection of the coast, the change of model productive, the control of mass tourism or the recovery of democratic memory; putting the social rights that we brought to the program – housing, energy, water – at the centre and including perspectives of sustainability and care that we were missing. And some things we feel are successes: in aspects such as mobility, energy or coastal protection, not only have we managed to open debates, but the other parties, starting with the government, are approaching our positions. We have been able to confront but also agree when it has been necessary – for example, during the pandemic – and we think that at the gates of 2023 the common sense of Xàbia is more similar to ours than it was four years ago. And in this sense, we think our commitment to remain in a constructive opposition has been a success.

We arrived this autumn eager to continue, to give new impetus to what we started in 2019 and ready to lead an alternative in that direction. Because we believe that change happens by adding those who are missing and usually do not approach local politics, and that to do that we need to talk more about collective projects and less about salaries and places on the lists. But to do all this we have lacked support at home, in our collective: we have encountered important differences in the project, where our will to open up and go further has not been shared; and even more, we have encountered attitudes and even personal disrespect that have forced us to say enough and rethink our own position.

That is why today we have submitted our resignation from the various organic positions we have in Compromís per Xàbia, as well as presenting ourselves to head the list for the 2023 elections. We are leaving the local executive and the group’s spokesperson, as well as the regional and national positions held by Juan Cardona in Més-Compromís. And the main reason is the incompatibility of our project with that of the majority of the militancy of the local Compromís collective.

However, we want to take advantage of this letter to reaffirm our commitment to our 2019 mandate: out of respect for the 827 people who supported us in the last elections, to whom we are very grateful, we will complete the legislature for which we be chosen In addition, we will do so without ceasing to support and be linked to Compromís, which we believe is the best project for a green, feminist, progressive and Valencian alternative for our country, and from the conviction that Joan Baldoví will be the best President of the Generalitat possible.

Until forever, attentively Vicent, Juan and Llúcia.