Vox Secures Education and Social Services in Valencia

Vox takes charge of Education, Social Services and Agriculture

The portfolio causing the most stir in the Valencian Community isn't Finance or Health. It is Education. The agreement to form a government in the Generalitat (regional government) assigns Vox a vice-presidency and three consellerias (ministries): Education, Social Services and Agriculture, a distribution that has shaken school staff rooms and ignited half the region. There is consensus on one point, even among those who agree on nothing else: this isn't about budget allocations. It's about language, classrooms, and who decides what is taught.

Which portfolios does Vox control in the Valencian Community?

The allocation places Vox at the helm of three areas with the capacity to influence daily life: education policy, social services and agriculture, in addition to that vice-presidency. This is no minor detail in a region where the previous executive, known as the Pacte del Botànic, governed for eight years. The political paradox surrounding the pact has not gone unnoticed anywhere: PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo had stated, according to a tweet shared in the thread, that "Vox is La Falange. I will not make a pact with Vox and Vox will not enter my government," yet the Valencian agreement was reached anyway, with public congratulations included in that same message. On the left, it is read as a plot twist; on the right, as the only possible arithmetic after the polls.

Valencian in schools: requirement, merit or free choice?

Here lies the core of the issue. One current argues that Valencian should cease to be an entry condition for holding certain public jobs and become, at most, a counted merit, always weighted less than a university degree or master's. Another demands separating students by linguistic lines: those who want to study in Valencian, do so in Valencian; those who prefer Spanish, do so in Spanish, with mixed plans and no impositions. The argument circulating most among critics is that obligation has generated rejection towards the language itself, and that a language cannot be sustained through decrees. On the other side weighs the opposite thesis: removing it from the public sphere weakens it, and its status as a vehicular language in education is not an identity whim, but a way to guarantee its transmission between generations.

Why does the C1 Valencian certificate weigh so much in civil service exams?

Because it functions as an entry filter. Requiring the language for a doctor to practice, for a teacher, or for any public servant attending to citizens excludes candidates who do not master it from the selection process, and that is where the debate becomes heated. It is argued that a level certificate cannot compete in scoring with years of specialized training, and that if Valencian ceases to be a requirement but becomes a merit adding several points, the practical effect is the same: whoever holds the title overtakes whoever does not. The most repeated intermediate proposal is that it serve only for tie-breaking and little more. That the best professional is not the one who conjugates best, but the one who works best.

EBAU and the real toll on students

The discontent is not only adult. Students facing the university entrance exam report that the Valencian subject adds extra load to an already saturated syllabus, and some describe marathon study days in courses like third year of ESO (compulsory secondary education) to pass pending subjects. A graduate recounts finishing the stage having failed Valencian and describes the clash with a teacher as an experience dragged on for years. The counterargument presented by some participants carries weight: those who do not study in their mother tongue rarely reach the same level of comprehension, and that, they argue, is not said by politics but by studies on bilingualism.

Parental PIN and classroom content

A portion of the electorate supporting the agreement demands implementing the so-called parental PIN, allowing families to authorize or reject their children's participation in complementary activities, especially those with affective-sensual content, and calls for reviewing equality and diversity programs taught in centers. Against this position, others defend that school is not a neutral space and that such content protects minors. The clash is not new, but now it has a ministry behind it willing to move paperwork.

Social Services: the other open front

The Social Services portfolio passes to Vox amidst full debate on access to public aid. Some sectors argue that there needs to be a review of who receives certain benefits and prioritization for families with fewer resources; critics warn that tightening requirements turns social protection into an instrument of control and punishes the most vulnerable groups. The issue inevitably crosses paths with the discourse on immigration, where positions harden and data are used as weapons.

The coming struggle: teachers, strikes and sick leave

From the day of the announcement, conversation filled with forecasts. Some anticipate an increase in sick leave and conflict in centers; others directly put a date on the first strike. Some maintain that the Valencian teaching body is largely aligned with the outgoing government's theses, while others respond that this diagnosis is precisely proof of what needs correcting. In the middle, an element nobody disputes: the teachers' vacation calendar becomes a weapon whenever effort or privileges are discussed.

The most striking aspect of the case is that the language being protected is probably the one needing protection least. In Valencia, it has not been necessary to shield paella, fallas, or traditions for them to remain there, year after year, without a ministry behind them. Perhaps the problem was never Valencian. It is who decides how, when, and to whom it is taught.