Vox secures Education and Agriculture portfolios in Valencia

Vox enters Education: 12% vote share yields two key ministries

The new government of the Valencian Community places Vox at the helm of two significant departments: Education and Agriculture. With 12% of the votes in the regional elections, a segment of the electorate interprets this as an unqualified victory. "That with 12% of the votes, which was VOX's percentage in the Valencian Community, they will hold two of the most important ministries such as Education and Agriculture, is a success. And the Presidency of the Corts and a Vice-Presidency," summarizes a message circulated on social media, ending with an let's not start with nonsense about concessions.

The real issue is not how many positions appear in the photo, but how many competencies are converted into measurable actions: class hours, ratios, vehicular language, and payrolls. That is where it gets interesting.

What governing with 12% of the vote means

Those defending the result cling to arithmetic: with a decisive parliamentary group, one negotiates and collects in ministries. The opposing view, less epic, suspects symbolic gestures for public consumption and warns that if there are no visible changes, voters will stop believing in the utility of their vote. In territories where the party has not entered the regional executive, that argument of utility holds up worse.

There is a third reading, more cynical: that of those who observe that the same institutional enthusiasm that surrounded Podemos in 2015 now drives another electorate, with identical risk of wear and tear. Four years allow for much, and the first serious measurement will not arrive until the next election.

What could change in Valencian classrooms?

The hottest front is linguistic. A part of the electorate expects guarantees that all subjects can be studied in Spanish upon request and that Valencian ceases to be a requirement for teaching or working in public healthcare. It is argued that institutional signage, office and hospital announcements, and even telephone services have shifted to the co-official language, displacing Spanish. Against this, another current recalls that it is a co-official language and that the complaint mixes administrative uses with ideology.

The second folder is the school voucher, with the Madrid model as a repeated reference, and the review of educational agreements. Also appearing in the conversation is the Junta Qualificadora de Coneixements de Valencià (Valencian Language Certification Board), pointed out as a filter for access to teaching and healthcare jobs, and teacher training institutes, considered by some a nest of patronage.

The unseen brake: LOMLOE, decrees, and key competencies

Here comes the reality check. A regional ministry does not legislate in a vacuum: state law is implemented through regional decrees, which develop what has been approved but cannot contradict or change it. The margin is for execution, not design.

To this is added the calendar, as detailed in the debate itself. The LOMLOE (Spanish education reform) is currently implemented only in odd-numbered grades, in a transition course between the old norm and the new one, and reaches 100% in 2023/2024. Curriculum design is also conditioned from above by key competencies that translate later into specific competencies for each subject. Promising a plot twist in classrooms with that legal corset is selling more than can be delivered.

Teachers, ratios, and subsidies: the fine print

Much of the battle is decided in payroll and classroom. There are calls to return to 35 students per class, as in the eighties, versus the current 15 or 20, and criticism of what is described as an oversized staff. At the same time, the outgoing government allegedly secured several interim teachers before leaving, limiting any short-term personnel cuts.

The other item is money. Among the most cited measures are cutting at least half of the subsidies to unions and business organizations in the sector, and demanding that official notifications be issued first in Spanish. Education is described in that analysis as a space with excess intermediate programs, released staff, and parasitic structure, not just ideological content.

Where the analysis stalls is in translating all this into published orders. Without the first decree on the table, the 12% will remain an electoral percentage and the two ministries, a headline. The coming months will tell whether the position was power or a showcase.