Vox expels councillors Badenas and Herrero, putting Catalá's Valencia council majority at risk

Vox expels its two Valencia councillors

Vox has expelled two of its four councillors on Valencia's city council, Juanma Badenas and Cecilia Herrero, who are also a couple. Party sources confirmed the expulsion, and Vox informed the council's general secretariat of the pair's departure from its municipal group. Once the plenary takes note of the change, the two will sit as non-attached councillors, free of Vox's voting discipline. The move comes during the campaign for the general election of 29-N, in which Mayor María José Catalá heads the PP list for Congress in Valencia province.

Badenas announced his exit on his social media accounts, framing the decision as the party's.

“By decision of the party, I have stopped being a member of Vox.”

A dispute that predates the expulsion

Badenas and Herrero had already clashed with the party. Badenas was suspended from membership in March 2025 over a disciplinary file opened on the award of a contract presumed to be irregular, and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor is investigating those contracts. They were readmitted in April after negotiations that Mayor Catalá held with the party leadership. Party sources tie the expulsion to that same file, according to eldiario.es, which also reports that Badenas is under investigation for entering the headquarters of the Sindicato de Estudiantes and that Herrero is under investigation for a hate crime over racist messages on social media. La Razón reports that the two had at one point decided to leave Vox, then reversed course to keep the PP-Vox majority in government intact.

What the expulsion does to the council majority

The two seats are arithmetically decisive. El Confidencial reports that their votes are needed to form an absolute majority, and El Mundo says that without them the PP and Vox lose it. The PP governs the city with the support of Vox's four councillors, so the departure leaves the government in a minority, according to El Mundo. Catalá has opted to keep the two councillors' responsibilities, which were already much reduced after Vox's earlier internal crisis, according to El Confidencial. Eldiario.es notes that the 2027 budget project, which the government has approved, needs the two councillors' votes to secure a majority.

Reactions and next steps

The municipal government says it keeps its commitment to Valencians and guarantees continuity and stability in its work, pointing to the 2027 budget that goes to a vote at the plenary on Friday, 30 October. La Razón reports that city hall hopes the two non-attached councillors will keep backing the government rather than voting with the left groups PSPV and Compromís. The plenary of 30 October is due to note the switch to the non-attached group. Badenas made his announcement on the same day Vox presented its lists for Valencia, in a video recorded outside its former headquarters, according to eldiario.es. The 30 October vote will show whether the pair votes with the government on the budget.