Friday marked ten months since the DANA (National Anti-Drug Administration) in the Valencian Community. After all this time, not only is Carlos Mazón still the president of the Valencian Generalitat, but we haven't even seen the bill for the meal at the sadly remembered El Ventorro.
In return, we have now learned (via a publication by Compromís, which had obtained the data from the Generalitat Valenciana's Transparency Portal) that President Mazón and two of his ministers spent more than 22,000 euros on per diem in the first six months of this year. This is no small amount, nor did they eat just anywhere: the three leaders, apparently, have a strong following at Michelin-starred restaurants, or at least those in the higher price range (853 euros for a meal for three, for example). Nor were the two diners who accompanied Mazón during this half-year of high-class meals just random. They are José Antonio Rovira, Minister of Education and Culture and a close friend of Mazón, known primarily for his crusade against public schools, against the Catalan language (or Valencian, however you want to call it), and against the Valencian Academy of Language, an obsession that has led him to commit excesses, abuses, and... The other is retired Colonel Gan Pampols, Vice President for Reconstruction after the DANA (National Anti-Terrorist Front), a position Mazón created on an inspired day and which can be translated as a kind of trusted figure charged with closely monitoring how the pie of reconstruction funds, a whopping €29 billion, is distributed (mostly) to companies affiliated with the PP or implicated in cases of corruption and/or irregular financing of the PP. After all, Mazón is still a Zaplanista willing to follow the party's historical line, based on thievery, theft, robbery, and trickery at the expense of the public treasury.
Current circumstances force one to position oneself within a terribly polarized political arena, in which Mazón, however, also has no problem finding a place. The recipe is to harass enemies (feminists, environmentalists, social movements, immigration; above all, the Catalan language), promote xenophobia, tension, and social division, while simultaneously presenting himself as the voice of moderation and dialogue. On the other hand, Mazón has also already achieved one of the main objectives of his mandate: a position on the Legal Advisory Council, that is, two more years with a salary of 75,000 euros per year, which he would have obtained if he held out as president until last July. Just six or seven months ago, everyone (starting with the PP) considered him a political corpse. Vox resurrected him by approving the budget, in exchange for imposing its entire agenda: anti-immigration policies, climate denialism, and a relentless fight against Valencian and public schools. Citizen protests (there were a dozen on Friday) and the memory of the 228 victims are still holding out against the leeches of the common good.
