The Valencian PP is a pressure cooker. The popular leaders of the Valencian Community continue in a state of shock after Dana’s state funeral last Wednesday, where President Carlos Mazón received numerous insults from the victims in the City of Arts and Sciences of Valencia. Since then, Mazón has secluded himself in Alicante, surrounded by his people, where he has asked for a period of “reflection” that has opened up numerous unknowns in the party, both at the national, regional and local levels. Will he resign? Will he bring forward the elections? This last option is the one that his environment wants him to take, according to sources from his closest team. “Don’t let yourself do a Rita Barberá,” leaders of the Valencian PP have privately warned him, who contacted him by phone during a lunch held this Friday.
Since last Wednesday, Mazón’s phone has been a powder keg. Nobody knows what decision he is going to make, or what he will do in the coming days. No scenario is ruled out. Mazón, yes, is not going to be the candidate for the 2027 elections and his bet for that electoral poster is the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicente Mompó.
Added to this is the calendar that the Valencian PP has this week, with three days marked in red. On Monday, journalist Maribel Vilaplana, who ate with Mazón on the afternoon of October 29, 2024 for almost four hours at the El Ventorro restaurant, will testify before the judge investigating the tragedy of the Dana. On Tuesday, the Valencian president holds his Government Council. And on Wednesday, he plans to announce his third government crisis in a year. Few changes are expected, according to the sources consulted. The departure of the second vice president and the reconstruction, implies that, in principle, the adjustment is that the current Minister of Infrastructure, Vicente Martínez Mus, assumes the powers of Pampols.
However, other popular voices suggest that Mazón is considering making this Government crisis on Tuesday, after the Consell meeting, the weekly appointment with the councilors. And here, perhaps, he could announce the decision about his future to the media. Meanwhile, the main leaders of the Valencian PP met this Friday for lunch. The president of the Provincial Council of Valencia, Vicente Mompó, attended the meeting; the president of the Castellón Provincial Council, Marta Barrachina; and the president of the Alicante Provincial Council, Toni Pérez; together with the general secretary of the Valencian PP and number two of Mazón, Juan Francisco Serrano, in a municipality of Alicante.
According to the sources consulted, it was not an extraordinary meal. In fact, they point out, they usually have lunch once a month to discuss matters related to their portfolios. What’s more, Mazón also usually closes another day a month in his agenda to discuss internal party matters with them. The meeting point for these meetings is usually the Denia area, which is the closest location for everyone. Halfway through the meal, according to sources from the Valencian PP, they telephoned President Mazón, where they asked him directly:
-What do you want to do? Don’t let yourself do a Rita Barberá.
The reference to the former mayor of Valencia is not a minor issue in the Valencian PP. Barberá was pressured by Génova in 2016 to leave her role as senator, a move that Barberá refused, but she did leave the party. The former mayor was being investigated for an alleged corruption scheme. of the Mixed Group in the Senate. Years later, the popular have tried to rehabilitate his figure.
Mazón, who is not being investigated in the dana case, responded to his people that he still needs time to think and that he has not yet digested the image of the funeral with the insults of the victims. The leaders insisted that, if you make a decision, you inform them as soon as possible, especially to be prepared.
The leadership of the Valencian PP went to work to propose a consensus candidate, given that Mazón will not be the candidate for the 2027 elections. With the president’s approval for Mompó to be the figure of the next electoral poster, the Valencian leaders, including Mompó himself, argued that yes, the ideal solution would be the current president of the Valencia Provincial Council.
Mompó is the bet of President Mazón and the leadership of the Valencian PP, but among the names to replace him is also the current mayor of Valencia and also a regional representative, María José Catalá. The final decision, in any case, will come at the Valencian regional congress, which is pending. And it will be Feijóo who sets the times.
In recent weeks, however, Mompó, 38, has gained a lot of media presence. Last Monday he had an informative breakfast in Valencia, where a large part of the senior staff of the Valencian PP and also the Consell de Mazón attended. Mazon, no. He had an agenda in Alicante, as is usual on Mondays, but his closest advisors were present. In this meeting with the press he was questioned about the president’s continuity at the head of the Generalitat. “In the end,” he said, “we Valencians do not decide when a president resigns, but rather which president we want.” And he insisted that Mazón has linked his future to the reconstruction: “He will have decided what to do in the future.”
