Mariano Rajoy in Benavites, Camp de Morvedre: 11th Local Administration Conference
Benavites, in the Camp de Morvedre district around Sagunto, invited Mariano Rajoy to its 11th Local Administration Conference on 23 October.
Former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, who headed the government from 2011 to 2018, was due to visit Benavites on Friday 23 October. The village is one of the Les Valls municipalities in the Camp de Morvedre district. He was the draw of the 11th Local Administration Conference (Jornadas de Administración Local), organised by the town council and carrying this year the motto "Municipalities that transform".
Benavites is a very small municipality: Spain's national statistics institute (INE) counted 652 inhabitants on 1 January 2025. The event also has a visible political side, because the host, Carlos Gil, is both mayor and secretary general of the Partido Popular of the Valencian Community (PPCV). According to Valencia Plaza in April 2024, Gil governs Benavites with an absolute majority and has headed the PP list in eight elections, with five wins and three defeats. The same report says he lost by nine votes in 2003 and by ten in 2007, before becoming mayor.
The day was due to begin at 9:00 with the reception of attendees. Rajoy's opening lecture was set for 9:45, preceded by the institutional opening by the president of the Diputació de València (the provincial council), Vicent Mompó, and by Gil himself. Paula Sánchez de León, who was the central government's delegate in the Valencian Community from 2012 to 2014, was to introduce the former prime minister.
After that start, the programme was to focus on everyday municipal management. At 11:30 a round table on artificial intelligence in town halls was due to open, with participants from the ValgrAI Foundation, Lãberit, Sequoia Pro and the Diputació de València, who were to discuss what these tools can bring to the way public administrations work.
At 12:30 the programme moved on to the table "Mayors who transform", a discussion on how to govern in order to improve residents' lives. The municipal leaders of Azuébar, Utiel, Alpuente and Massamagrell were to share their experience running their towns.
The debate with the most political weight was scheduled for 13:30: journalists, communication specialists and experts in administrative law would analyse the outlook for municipal politics ahead of the 2027 elections. The panel was to include Pascual Claramonte of COPE Valencia; Alicia Martí, La Razón's delegate in the Valencian Community; consultant Rafael Laza; and José Alberto Ituren, a professor at the University of Valencia. The programme does not say which positions each speaker will defend.
The conference began a decade ago as a space to reflect on the problems of small municipalities, where town halls provide services with fewer staff and less money. Over the years it has brought together politicians, academics and public administration professionals to exchange experience on funding, the modernisation of public services and residents' needs.
In the afternoon, an artistic performance and a talk on positive thinking by Fabián Villena and Toni Bright were scheduled, plus an interview with Jorge Santiago Barnés, president of the educational institution ALEPH, before the closing conclusions. The organisers set a maximum capacity of 200 people, with registration on the conference website.
With this year's edition, Benavites aims to give visibility to how small municipalities are run, with a former prime minister of Spain as its main guest. This report is based on the programme published before the event, so it does not cover what was said in the sessions.
According to El Periódico de Aquí, with additional data from Wikipedia on Benavites and from Valencia Plaza on Carlos Gil.