The anniversary of the Valencia dana, which in that community alone claimed the lives of 229 people in October 2024, has been a reality check for the PP. The reaction of the victims and their families during the State tribute on Wednesday, with stark screams directed almost exclusively against the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has dispelled the dream that some had at the top of the party: that time would do the work that they did not want to do. But what was experienced firsthand on Wednesday, the polls and the inexorable progress of the judicial investigation have added pressure to resolve the problem as soon as possible.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo has called next Monday to the Executive Committee of the PP, the body that brings together the national leadership with the regional barons. There will be notable absences among the presidents, who will allege scheduling problems to avoid approaching Madrid. At least Alfonso Rueda (Galicia), Jorge Azcón (Aragón) and, predictably, María Guardiola (Extremadura), will not travel, according to their teams. Mazón’s own environment does not confirm his presence. Other regional governments also remain silent about what their respective leaders will do.
The regional presidents avoid commenting on their colleague’s management and avoid interfering in what is happening in another region, lest in the future they may be in a delicate situation. There are barons who, furthermore, believe that it would be worse for the “reconstruction” if he resigned right now. In fact, both in the territories and in the national leadership it is maintained that this decision must be made exclusively by Mazón himself and without external pressures.
However, the sources consulted hope that “something will happen” in the coming hours or days, given a situation that is increasingly difficult to sustain. May Mazón take some step and may the national leadership assume its responsibilities. Because “something” has already started to “happen”, and the pressure is going to intensify. The PP has a very vertical structure and with a lot of power from the national leadership. According to the statutes, Madrid decides the candidacies at the state and European level, but also the regional and municipal headliners in large and medium-sized cities.
That is, Feijóo will be the person who will decide if Mazón is the PP candidate in the next elections. And this was recalled this Friday by the parliamentary spokesperson for the PP, Ester Muñoz. “The party decides who is a candidate in elections,” he noted in a press conference. And he added: “The decision to resign is personal. It is Mr. Mazón who must decide his political future.”
Until now, the PP leadership had linked Mazón’s possible continuity to “reconstruction.” Feijóo recalled this in an interview in ‘La Nueva España’ that was published in the days prior to the anniversary of the dana: “Mazón has linked his political future to the success of the reconstruction. We will continue to see how the reconstruction is going in Valencia and what Mazón’s political future is.” But reality, stubborn, forces Feijóo to increase the pressure on Mazón. A recent survey published by ABC placed the PSPV very close to the PP in vote estimates. But more important was another devastating fact: 75% called for the resignation of their president. After the funeral, the media right called for the president’s head.
At the gates of the tribute presided over by the kings, the leader of the PP already began to point the way to his baron, and urged him to urgently go to the investigative commissions of the Valencian Cortes and the Senate, after months without significant progress in either of them. Feijóo expressly ignored the one that has just been opened in Congress and that has already set a date for the summons to Mazón: November 17. The reason is that the commissions cited by Feijóo are controlled by the PP, with the help of Vox in the Valencian case. That of Congress, no. In the Lower House it is the block that supports Pedro Sánchez that controls the mechanisms.
The idea they are working on in the PP is for Mazón to announce that he is giving up running for re-election in 2027, but that he remains at the head of the Generalitat until then. In Genoa they believe that this will greatly reduce the pressure on the ‘president’, and on themselves, that Mazón will be able to focus on “reconstruction” and the PPCV on looking for a replacement.
Time and silence: Feijóo’s strategy
But what happened on Wednesday exceeds even what was expected. And Mazón seems to be running out of internal credit. This Thursday, in the middle of Pedro Sánchez’s parliamentary appointment in the investigation commission of the ‘Koldo case’ in the Senate, the Valencian ‘president’ announced a “reflection” after the reaction of the victims of the dana and an unspecified future appearance. In the PP there were those who thought that Mazón could resign. But not. Everything indicates that the ‘president’ will announce his attendance at the investigative commission in the Valencian Cortes before having to go to Congress.
It remains to be seen if Feijóo also gives the order for the Senate to call him in advance. Because the leader of the PP is from the Mariano Rajoy political school, as he himself has referred to on multiple occasions. Their maximum policy is to speed up decision-making and apply silence, to see if things resolve themselves. And, if you have to intervene, do it at the last moment. This is what he himself explained recently in an interview for the Media Power podcast. Expressly asked about how “he thinks strategically when he has to make big, difficult decisions, whether state or business,” Feijóo answers: “Manage time.” “You should not make a decision until the deadline for making it has expired,” he adds.
And this is what he has been doing since October 2024. Feijóo quickly closed ranks with his regional baron and tried to place the focus on the central government, aware of the political importance of the Valencian Community. He trusted that Mazón would end up stew in his own sauce, and that it would be he himself who would end up assuming political responsibilities.
But the opposite has happened. Mazón has tied himself to office and chained himself to Vox to stay in power. Those of Santiago Abascal have the key to governability in the Community, and the strategists of the extreme right are clear that a weak and controlled Mazón at the head of the Consell fattens their electoral account.
In fact, the leader of Vox is right now Mazón’s main defender. On his Twitter account, Abascal took the opportunity to attack the PP, its leaders, the Government… and to show clemency for the Valencian president.
If Feijóo follows his own guide, he would not have to make any decisions until 2027, when regional elections are scheduled. And that was the plan. With the lure of “reconstruction”, and a trompe-l’oeil ex-military man at the head of a vice presidency empty of powers and budget, in the noble floors of Genoa,13 they trusted that Mazón could exhaust his mandate, while the echoes of the floods of October 29, 2024 faded amid the constant noise of everyday life.
But the constant thing in Valencia is the noise of the machines that a year later are still working on a reconstruction that is far from complete. And the roar of the judicial investigation led by an investigating judge from Catarroja, one of the most affected municipalities. Each advance in the investigation reveals a new lie from Mazón. Each new document points out a contradiction of the ‘president’. Every testimony and every video of the crucial hours of that day bring the PP closer and closer to the precipice.
“Stay silent as long as you can.”
Feijóo and Mazón met on Wednesday in Valencia, but unlike what happens at party events, the PP leader barely greeted his baron. They did not sit together or hold any meetings, as confirmed by different media these days. The leader of the PP has reduced his media presence to the maximum for a few weeks and avoids the cameras more than usual. When you can’t, avoids answering what is asked. This same Thursday, without going any further, he attended the presentation of another book by José María Aznar. But he did not enter the event through the door, but by car and through the parking lot.
Monday press conferences at national headquarters have also been suspended. And this next one there won’t be either, since Feijóo will make a speech without questions before the members of the CEN. Silence is, precisely, the second of the strategies that Feijóo revealed in the Media Power podcast. “Stay silent as long as you can,” he advised. And he concluded: “Try that, in the end, it is a reasoning in which brain and heart are mixed.”
Source: www.eldiario.es
