Mazón reappears in Genoa for the first time since the DANA (but loses influence in Congress)

MadridOver the past six months or so, Carlos Mazón's absence from PP leadership meetings in Madrid has been the most common sight. However, this Monday, the Valencian president officially reappeared at the state headquarters on Génova Street for the first time since the DANA disaster. The PP congress brought forward This is what has caused Mazón to reunite with the rest of men Popular Party leaders, who during this time have avoided appearing in the same photo as the controversial leader of the PP in the Valencian Community. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has also limited his meetings with a president harassed by his handling of the tragedy that left 228 dead. However, with the congress called for July 4, 5, and 6, this Monday he has taken center stage.

Mazón has played down Feijóo's role in the meeting of the national board of directors, the party's highest body between congresses, which has endorsed its leader's decision to call the party congress nine months earlier than planned. One of the unknowns is whether this move could precipitate the departure of the Valencian president by calling a regional congress. Since Feijóo's announcement, the leader of the People's Party (PP) in the Valencian Community has defended the idea that this is not the time for organic debates in his region, and once again ignored the debate over his continued presence, both in and out of Génova, insisting that he continues "working on reconstruction" without offering any self-criticism. The Valencian president has presented himself as just another pawn aligned with Feijóo and has focused on criticizing Pedro Sánchez. "We need this congress because it is a decisive step for Feijóo to become president of the [Spanish] government. In a community like mine, we need the PP to govern, because the Spanish government is abandoning us at the most critical moment," he said.

Inside the meeting, Mazón addressed his colleagues—as others have done. men like Isabel Díaz Ayuso—in an intervention that sources in Génova framed within a climate of normality. It is the same script that the Valencian president followed after the meeting. "We have been with all our colleagues, working, and very well," he said. However, the Valencian People's Party (PP) has been left out of the teams that will lead the preparations for the PP congress. While Feijóo has given particularly significant weight to Madrid, Andalusia, Murcia, and Extremadura, none of the names that will lead the organization of the event or prepare the presentations to be debated are from the territory presided over by Mazón.

A Catalan at the statutes presentation

The president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, will be in charge of leading the political report, along with the president of Castile and León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco. Both will face regional elections next year. They will be accompanied by MEP Alma Ezcurra and the mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca. Regarding the report on the statutes, the men The presidents of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, and Extremadura, María Guardiola, will lead it. They will do so together with the mayor of Santander, Gema Igual, and the PP spokesperson in Barcelona City Council, Dani Sirera. The congress will be organized by Ayuso's right-hand man in the Madrid PP, Alfonso Serrano, who will have Sofía Acedo, a member of Congress for Melilla, as his second-in-command.

"Goodbye, Sanchez"

In his speech before the national executive committee, Feijóo admitted that there are "differences" within the party, but called for unity to defeat Sánchez. "We don't all think alike, but we all want the same thing: a stronger party," he said. The PP president asserted that he is "better prepared" than in 2023 to face the Socialist leader and asked for his party's "trust." Although Feijóo's leadership will not be called into question at this congress, a second failed attempt to reach the Moncloa Palace would foreseeably open the debate over succession. "While Sánchez prolongs the end, we are opening a new beginning," Feijóo said, in an optimistic message that ended with the prediction that the PP will finally be able to say "goodbye, Sánchez."