Valencian Nationalist Bloc
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The Valencian Nationalist Bloc (Bloc Nacionalista Valencià, BLOC or BNV) is a nationalist party in the Valencian Community, Spain, currently led by Enric Morera.
The BLOC's main aim is, as stated in their guidelines, "to achieve full national sovereignty for the Valencian people, legally declared by a Valencian sovereign Constitution which allows the possibility of association with the countries which share the same language, history and culture" [1]. The latter part of the sentence refers to the nationalist idea of association between the territories known as Països Catalans or Catalan Countries.
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[edit] History
The BNV was formed in 1998 as a result of the federation of several parties in a coalition formed for the regional elections in 1995. That group of parties was headed by Unitat del Poble Valencià (UPV, founded in 1982) which is the main predecessor of the current BLOC, together with other smaller parties, often locally based, such as the Valencian Nationalist Party (1990) or Alcoi Nationalists (1994).
The BLOC has historically defined itself as a left-wing party. This position shifted to a centrist or center-left position in the late nineties, as a part of a strategy to appeal a broader audience.
Then, for the 2007 Spanish regional elections to the autonomous Parliaments, the BLOC returned to a more left wing agenda as it ran in coalition with EUPV (federated with Izquierda Unida, a coalition whose main member is the Spanish Communist Party PCE). This coalition operated under the name of Compromís pel País Valencià. Compromís' results (seven seats) did not achieve their goal of growing and forming a front alongside the PSOE to oust the Partido Popular from the regional government, but allowed BLOC to enter the autonomous Parliament (two seats) and secured EUPV representation as well (the remainder 5 seats). For the 2008 General election Bloc ran in coalition with other left wing and regional parties. However despite the fact that the list was headed by a sitting deputy, Isaura Navarro, their vote fell relative to 2004.
[edit] Representation
BLOC has never achieved representation on its own at the autonomous Parliament (however it was briefly represented as part of a previous coalition with EUPV, which continues to the present day) due to the current threshold of 5% of votes required to enter this Parliament. The party (including the UPV era) has historically polled around 4% of the votes in this Autonomous Community. The 5% of the total votes threshold which is required for a list to enter the Valencian Parliament is traditionally a hot topic in Valencian politics due to the important consequences in terms of political alliances which would result if it was lowered to 3% (the most common threshold in Spanish Parliaments). If the threshold was lowered, BLOC would most likely enter the Parliament, which, if the results permitted, would probably facilitate a big coalition PSOE-BLOC-EUPV to oust the Partido Popular (PP) from the regional government or Generalitat Valenciana. Currently PP is enjoying its third consecutive absolute majority in this Parliament and claims the Valencian Community as one of its strongholds in the Spanish context.
Support for the BLOC is higher at the municipality level, where it claims to be the third Valencian force in number of local councillors after PP and PSOE. The party is nearly absent in a number of areas in the Valencian Community, while it is a major political agent in others; all in all, the BLOC counts as its historic stronghold the contiguous area formed by the northern most part of Alicante province and the southern most part of Valencia province.
[edit] International projection
The BNV joined the GalEusCa coalition in the 2004 European Parliament election, with other nationalist parties from the Spanish state such as the Basque Nationalist Party, the Catalan Convergence and Union, the Galician Nationalist Bloc, and the Mallorcan Socialist Party. GalEusCa got 2 seats, neither of them for the BNV.
[edit] External links
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