The formal negotiation between the PP and Vox to elect Carlos Mazón’s replacement as head of the Valencian Community is about to start, according to sources from Santiago Abascal’s party. Once ―published today in the Official State Gazette (BOE)―, a period of 12 days has been opened for the parliamentary groups to present a candidate for the investiture, so the clock is ticking against the PP, which has not yet revealed the name of the candidate to succeed the still president.
Abascal has commissioned his number two,, who will pilot the negotiation, for which he will count on Montserrat Lluis, recently promoted to the position of deputy general secretary. The choice of interlocutors shows the importance that Vox attributes to the negotiation of the future president of the Valencian Community, which Abascal has turned into a testing ground for the new generation of agreements that he aspires to reach with the PP. After the agreements that followed the regional elections of May 2023, in which Vox prioritized entry into coalition governments, its strategy now involves conditioning the PP executives from the outside, imposing its policies on them.
Abascal has already made it clear that his priority is two assignments that he already took from Mazón, but he has not ruled out increasing the pressure now with new demands. For his part, Garriga has anticipated that his party will maintain a “firmer and more demanding attitude” than in previous negotiations with the PP.
The leader of Vox was on good terms with Mazón, who called him to inform him of his decision to resign, and has not hidden his anger with the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for letting him fall. He even accused him of having given “a scapegoat to Pedro Sánchez,” whom Abascal considers “the great culprit of the Dana tragedy”; despite the fact that the Supreme Court filed the complaint that Vox filed against the president of the Government and several ministers, while the Valencia judge investigates the possible negligent actions of the Generalitat.
Feijóo and Abascal had a telephone conversation last Tuesday about the future of the Valencian Community “cordial and in good tone”, in which both agreed “on the need to provide stability to a territory that is still immersed in a complex and painful reconstruction process after the floods of last year”, according to PP sources. The two right-wing leaders met on Thursday night at a Madrid digital party, where Abascal warned Feijóo that he was playing a “very dangerous lottery” with his changes in attitude towards Vox.
While Feijóo insists that it would be irresponsible to go to elections now in the Valencian Community, Abascal – with the wind of the polls in his favor – assures that he does not fear them. The ultra party has not detailed its demands, but sources from the party anticipate that the investiture speech of the Valencian presidential candidate must include a solemn declaration of rejection of the European Green Pact and the immigration policy, like the one Mazón made last March, as a prior step to the approval of the budgets.
Furthermore, his successor will have to confirm the agreements already reached with the until now leader of the popular Valencians to “neutralize” the Trans Law, implement “national priority” in social aid, create segregated statistics on the use of public health by immigrants or relegate the use of Valencian. But it could also raise new demands, such as the closure of juvenile centers, which it has already achieved in Murcia.
Vox assures that it does not want to talk about names to succeed Mazón, but sources close to the party do not hide that they have preferences and that the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, is not their favorite. The problem, these sources acknowledge, is that, once inaugurated, the new Valencian president will have a free hand, since the budgets for 2026 have been approved, so the ultra formation wants to ensure that he will fulfill what he promised.
