The Valencian anomaly: How can we explain Mazón's continued presence a year after the disaster?

Dossier The Valencian anomaly 1 article

• "I need a place to sleep": when precarious housing and a destroyed house meet

Valencia"The victims will experience this first anniversary as we all did. With great shame. We do not deserve a president of the Generalitat who does not take responsibility, who does not ask for forgiveness and who thinks that nothing happened here and clean slate and reconstruction. It's not like that. There are families who haven't been able to begin grieving over this whole situation." Mariló Gradolí is the spokesperson for the Association of Victims of the Flood of October 29, 2024, one of the most combative against the management of Carlos Mazón. Gradolí perfectly explains the situation in the Valencian Community one year after the flood it caused. President of the Generalitat who avoids any responsibility and tries to ensure that public debate focuses exclusively on reconstruction;

All the tension the country is experiencing is concentrated in a very specific location: the office of the Catarroja judge, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, who is single-handedly investigating the case of the greatest catastrophe of democracy in Spain, and who is gradually dismantling the multiple versions given by the PP officials involved. "This whole situation is basically because Mazón hasn't resigned. If he had, we would be in a different situation, and there wouldn't be so much political tension in the case, in which all of Spain's far-right groups have finally appeared," explains Manolo Mata, a former Socialist leader who now works as a lawyer for one of the...

Mazón's continued presence not only creates an open wound, preventing the victims from turning the page and causing the investigation into the case to occupy the front page every day, but also places the Valencian Community in a state of democratic anomaly, with a president rejected by 80% of the population, yet with polls that are still in the air. "For us, he's a usurper; he's no longer president of the Generalitat," says Joan Baldoví, leader of Compromís in the Catalan Parliament. Baldoví has made a specific decision to emphasize that he does not recognize Mazón as his president: he always addresses the Catalan Parliament as "you."

Thus, Mazón has gone from being a president who was knocked out in the days following the coup, in the words of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to aspiring to repeat as a candidate. To achieve this, he has applied a manual that the Valencian People's Party (PP) knows perfectly well, having already applied it on other occasions, this time seasoned with elements from Ayuso's party. It's going hand in hand.

Mazón's strategies

1. Vox support

The first strategy Mazón implemented to survive, once he realized Feijóo wasn't willing to sacrifice him, was to secure the support of Vox. The Valencian president took special care of his relationship with Santiago Abascal, with whom he had lunch and maintains an "extraordinary" relationship, as he himself admitted at an event in Madrid last February.

"In practice, Mazón is like the president of Vox, and every day he spends in the Palau, the far right rises," laments Joan Baldoví, the leader of Compromís in the Valencian Parliament. Political scientist Jordi Sarrión-Carbonell also warns that Vox is the one that is most capitalizing on the discontent over the Dana. "Just as Juanma Moreno tries to isolate Vox, what Mazón is doing is co-opting their discourse. Even in the general policy debate, Mazón mentioned Charlie Kirk before Vox," comments Sarrión-Carbonell. This week, the Valencian People's Party (PP) accepted another of Vox's demands, which is to differentiate between immigrants and nationals in statistics, including blood donations.

2. Divide the victims

The second strategy implemented has been to divide the victims, similar to Francisco Camps's approach to the metro accident, and promote the creation of organizations aligned with the council. Specifically, sources from the first victims' associations created denounce that both Todos a Una Voz, whose discourse focuses on reconstruction, and SOS Desaparecidos are aligned with the Mazón government.

"The Consell has mistreated the associations, they tried to discredit us, and when they saw that it wasn't working, the next step was to try to dismantle us," complains Mariló Gradolí, a resident of Catarroja, one of the towns most affected by the flood.

3. Media control

The second strategy has consisted of controlling the media, especially À Punt, which in the early days of the protests provided notable coverage, although it focused more on the victims than on political responsibility. This year, the PP government, led by Vox, has imposed total control of the network, and has changed from the president of the news outlet to the newscasts. À Punt employees issued a statement on October 6 denouncing the network's "manipulation" and the fact that "news was produced as directed."

Employee sources told ARA that the existing political section has been dismantled, and that news about the Catarroja judge's investigation is minimized and never opens the news. Instead, the emphasis is on very local events and news, such as a mosquito infestation in Betxí. Viewership, however, has plummeted.

4. Ayuso's manual: ETA and Venezuela

The third point in Mazón's playbook is taken from the purest Ayuso playbook. When Mazón talks about his responsibility on the day of the Dana, he always resorts to two classics: ETA and Venezuela. "It's an Ayuso-ism from Hacendado, because it's clear who the original is and who the copy is," says Jordi Sarrión-Carbonell.

At the October 16 plenary session, Mazón applied the manual to the smallest detail. Instead of answering questions about the Dana, he accused the left of not sharing the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan María Corina Machado and announced that the PP would put a motion to a vote. And when the left accused him of wanting to remove Ernest Lluch's name from a healthcare center, he responded by recalling the PSOE's pacts with Bildu.

It's in the control sessions where we see the complete harmony between the PP and Vox, to the point where the far right doesn't question the government, but only makes speeches against Sánchez and the left.

5. The same old manual: language and Catalonia

Mazón has also applied the Valencian right's own playbook: language and Catalonia. In a 1980 article, sociolinguist Lluís Vicent Aracil wrote: "The Valencian right, branch-oriented since time immemorial, has discovered a trick for survival. It has invented a 'Valencian language' that all Valencians must defend against 'Catalan.'"

The Mazón administration has acted primarily in two areas. On the one hand, it has cut 25 percent of the budget of the Valencian Academy of Language, a reduction that in practice amounts to 44 percent, according to the institution itself. The reason? The AVL recognizes the unity of the language.

The cuts have forced the institution to suspend a large part of its activities and operate at a minimum. "It's unprecedented; no government has ever cut back on a statutory institution," denounces its president, Verònica Cantó. What pains Cantó most is having to suspend initiatives such as the Carme Miquel Awards, which promote the use of Valencian in schools. "What they're trying to do is create conflict with Valencian, because that benefits the hegemonic language, which is Spanish," she asserts.

On the other hand, it has attempted to divide the educational community by forcing parents to choose between Spanish and Valencian in a referendum. The results were not what the government had hoped for, as Valencian won by a narrow margin overall. However, in practice, teachers complain that the referendum has been used to increase the number of hours taught in Spanish, even in schools where Valencian won by a landslide, such as the Alejandra Soler Primary School in the Ruzafa neighborhood of Valencia. "In reality, parents weren't choosing anything, because in the end, they do what they want," complains teacher Carme Pérez.

The judicial instruction

The greatest threat to Carlos Mazón is not Diana Morant or Joan Baldoví, but Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, the Catarroja judge investigating criminal liability in the DANA. Lawyer Manolo Mata describes her as a "hypermeticulous" person who becomes emotional when she hears the victims' stories, never cuts anyone off, and ensures that "everyone feels comfortable in the proceedings." "The important thing is that the courtroom that reviews all of her decisions is endorsing the investigation," Mata explains. These include decisions such as not charging any officials with central government authority, despite demands from far-right accusations, and focusing on regional officials, since Civil Protection is the exclusive responsibility of the Generalitat (Catalan government).

The judge has charged former councilor Salomé Pradas and her deputy, Emilio Argüeso, and has invited Mazón to testify on several occasions, but he has always refused. This judicial pressure forces Mazón to combine a political strategy with a legal one, which are often incompatible. Mazón, for example, boasts about not having been informed or having played any role in the late dispatch of the alert.

"Mazón's judicial strategy consists of saying: 'There is no decree or law that obliges me to intervene in an emergency.' Politically, it's dramatic. I was a spokesperson in Les Corts and I can't imagine an alert being sent to the population without the president's approval. And he boasts about it."

However, the lawyer is skeptical about the possibility of obtaining convictions in this case, and believes that going to trial would already be a success. "The errors aren't criminal. What this represents is very serious negligence. There's a very fine line. In the subway case, an unassailable investigation was conducted, people were paid, and no one was convicted in the first instance. And this could happen again," he warns.

Key testimonies are missing

But he also recalls that there are important witnesses who have yet to testify, such as the head of the Valencia Fire Department, José Miguel Basset, against whom Pradas is now targeting. "The silence cannot last forever, and Pradas herself has changed her story several times," he states. "Mazón is waiting for someone to betray him in the proceedings; he surely can't sleep at night," he adds. But what evidence could bring him down?

"We don't have the recording in which Pradas says: 'Until the president gives me the go-ahead, we can't send the message.' Because that's what happened," he concludes. Mazón, therefore, is awaiting the timing of the investigation. The lawyers estimate it could last two more years, so it could overlap with the end of the legislative term. Everyone agrees, however, that if the judge submits a letter to the TSJCV requesting the president's indictment, Mazón will have no choice but to resign.

The role of the opposition

And in the face of all this, how is it that the opposition isn't clearly capitalizing on Mazón's weariness? The PSPV (Socialist Party of Catalonia) is trying to see the glass half full. "The reality is that a year ago Mazón was a likeable president, who made TikTok videos asking about horchata or potato chips, who was rocketing in the polls, and now he's not so funny," says a Socialist leader. "No matter how hard he tries to change the script, he's trapped in the 29-O referendum and his lies, and that's sinking in," argues that voice. But not everyone is so optimistic. "The PSPV candidate, Diana Morant, is part of the Spanish government, and that's also wearing on us. And, furthermore, we're living in the midst of a global wave of reaction," points out the delegate ofEldiario.es In Valencia, Sergi Pitarch. In fact, the Valencian People's Party (PP) told ARA that they are very relaxed about their opposition and are closing ranks behind Mazón. "He is in the position of running again," says Pitarch.

But there's a mystery with a name and surname looming over Valencian politics: Mónica Oltra. The former leader of Compromís has been sidelined from the political frontline since resigning after being accused of covering up a case of sexual abuse committed by her ex-husband from the regional government. "If she returns, she has the capacity to shake up the political landscape," says political scientist Jordi Sarrión. "The left has only won in the Valencian Community in the last 30 years when she has run," recalls a close collaborator. "The gap between left and right in the Valencian Community is narrow, between 50,000 and 70,000 votes. If elections come and the gap is significant, there could be change," concludes Pitarch.

In any case, it's clear that the political game in the Valencian Community remains open a year later. And aside from the Mazón government's maneuvers to exonerate itself, something else has happened this past year that serves as a macabre reminder of what wasn't done on October 29th. Since that day, eleven alerts have been sent to mobile phones in different parts of the Valencian Community, the last time on October 9th. And the death toll in these emergencies has been zero.

Dossier The Valencian anomaly 1 article

• "I need a place to sleep": when precarious housing and a destroyed house meet