Feijóo fails to reach an agreement with Mazón for his replacement

Valencia / BarcelonaAlberto Núñez Feijóo did not reach an agreement this Sunday with Carlos Mazón to replace him as president of the Valencian Community. According to sources within the People's Party who spoke to ARA, Mazón will appear on Monday to report on the outcome of the talks with his party leader and the period of reflection he has taken in recent days. The announcement will come after the Latest revelations on the management of the DANA storm and, above all, of the booing that Mazón received at the state funeralTwo incidents have left the Alicante politician on the ropes. At this point, the Popular Party is not only uncertain about whether to postpone the elections, but also about which candidate to field. According to sources within the Popular Party who spoke to ARA, two scenarios are on the table: either the head of the Valencian government resigns and brings forward the elections, or he relinquishes the presidency without facing a vote. In the first option, the early elections, the Valencian leadership of the PP... has already moved to nominate Vicent Mompó —albeit informally— as a possible candidate. This was done on Friday with a meeting attended by the three provincial leaders and presidents of the provincial councils—Vicent Mompó (Valencia), Toni Pérez (Alicante), and Marta Barrachina (Castellón)—and which had Mazón's approval. With this move, the Valencian conservatives were trying to get ahead of the national leadership, which has the power to choose the candidate. The Popular Party's spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies, Ester Muñoz, reiterated this on Friday when she made it clear that "it is the party that decides who the candidate is in an election."

The Valencian PP's move was an attempt to prevent Feijóo from dictating that the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, be the candidate. The mayor is a member of parliament, unlike Mompó, and could assume the presidency immediately. Conversely, the president of the Provincial Council would need new elections to be appointed head of the Council. The Galician's preference for Catalá is explained by her being the most highly rated by the public according to various polls. But Catalá hasn't focused on forging alliances within the Valencian PP, which penalizes her in the eyes of local barons, who prefer Mompó. Furthermore, they also believe that placing her in the Generalitat would leave the Valencia City Council vulnerable, an option that displeases both the national and Valencian leadership.

The snap election also carries an added danger: that Vox could take advantage of the Popular Party's weakness due to its handling of the DANA storm and narrow the gap between them. Moreover, the left is not so far from the sum of the right-wing blocAnd a large mobilization of progressive voters could turn the electoral landscape upside down. A danger Feijóo wants to avoid. This option would also mean stripping Mazón of his parliamentary immunity. And this is a very important factor for the Valencian president, given that the judge in the DANA case has implied in several rulings that if the head of the Valencian government didn't have this protection, she would have already summoned him to testify and perhaps even indicted him. The judge doesn't want to lose control of the investigation, and if she has to indict the Valencian president and refer the case to the High Court of Justice, she will do so once the investigation is complete. As for the timeline, if the election announcement were made in the coming days, the elections could be held in early January. This would include the Valencian Community in the 2026 regional election cycle. Extremadura votes on December 21, Castile and León in March, and Andalusia in June. A series of elections with which the People's Party hopes to secure several victories to put pressure on Pedro Sánchez.

An early election is not, in any case, the only scenario that Mazón and Feijóo have considered. Also on the table is Mazón's resignation, followed by the replacement of the Valencian PP's number two, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, as a transitional solution. The PP spokesperson in the Valencian Parliament (Les Corts), and the party's general secretary, would temporarily assume the presidency of the Generalitat before an election in which Mompó would run, after the electoral damage caused by the handling of the DANA storm had subsided. But there is also a major obstacle to this option: the PP would have to reach an agreement with Vox for the transition. And this is no small detail; in recent months, the far-right party has steadily increased the price of its support for the conservatives. To facilitate an understanding with the far right, Pérez Llorca has the advantage of having been the architect of the pacts between the PP and Vox in the Valencian Community, starting with Mazón's investiture. In this scenario, there is one last option, according to the newspaper. Levantwhich would include a three-way maneuver. The three actors divided the leadership of the party with three positions: the presidency of a management committee (Catalá), the interim presidency of the Generalitat (Lorca), and the candidacy in the upcoming elections (Mompó).