Carlos Mazón on the ropes: bring forward elections or hand over the presidency

Valencia / BarcelonaCareful consideration should be given to the decision on who will replace Carlos Mazón as head of the Valencian Generalitat. Although elections for the Valencian Community are not scheduled until May 2027, and the head of the Consell intended to complete his term and try to run again, the Latest revelations on the management of the DANA storm and, above all, the booing he received at the state funeral They have shown the Alicante politician the way out and cornered him.

According to sources within the People's Party (PP) who confirmed this to ARA, two scenarios are on the table, and a decision could be made this Sunday: either Mazón resigns and calls for early elections, or he relinquishes the presidency without having to go to the polls. In fact, the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the president of the Generalitat will discuss both possibilities this Sunday, as announced by the conservatives' deputy secretary for institutional regeneration, Cuca Gamarra. "They will address both the needs of the Valencian Community and those of the PP at this time," she said in an appearance in Logroño. Furthermore, as announced by À Punt, the PP will hold its executive committee meeting tomorrow in Madrid, which Mazón will not attend.

In the first scenario, that of 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)—a meeting that was not held behind Mazón's back. With this move, the Valencian Popular Party was trying to get ahead of the national leadership, which has the power to choose the candidate. The PP 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 is an attempt to prevent Feijóo from dictating that the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, be the candidate. She is a member of parliament, unlike Mompó, and could assume the presidency immediately. Feijóo's preference for Catalá is explained by the fact that she is the most highly rated candidate by the public according to various polls. But Català hasn't focused on forging alliances within the Valencian PP, which penalizes her in the eyes of local barons, who prefer Mompó. Furthermore, placing her in the Generalitat would mean stripping the Valencia City Council of its power, an option that displeases both the national and Valencian leadership.

The snap election also carries a danger: that Vox could capitalize on the PP's weakness due to its handling of the catastrophe 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. This option would also mean stripping Mazón of his parliamentary immunity. This is a very important factor for the Valencian president, considering 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, she will do so once the investigation is complete, while he retains his protected status. Regarding the timeline, if elections were announced in the coming days, they 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. The People's Party hopes to secure several victories in these elections to put pressure on Pedro Sánchez.

The early calling of elections is not, in any case, the only scenario that Mazón and Feijóo will consider today. The current Valencian president will also propose investing his second-in-command, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, as a transitional solution. The PP spokesperson in the Valencian Parliament, and secretary general of the party, would temporarily assume the presidency of the Generalitat before an election is called. But there is also an element that works against this option: the PP would have to reach an agreement with Vox for the handover. 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 agreements between the PP and Vox in the Valencian Community, starting with Mazón's investiture.

A final option would be the one mentioned by the newspaper Levant which reports a possible three-way deal involving María José Catalá, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, and Vicente Mompó. This would consist of them sharing the leadership of an interim management committee (Catalá), the interim presidency of the Generalitat (Llorca), and the candidacy in the upcoming elections.

As announced by À Punt in an unusual news update at 6:15 p.m., the PP will convene its leadership, the executive committee, tomorrow in Madrid to discuss the situation in the Valencian Community, and will do so without the presence of Carlos Mazón. The PP also explained that the party president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was going to speak with Mazón today, but without specifying a time or confirming whether the meeting took place.