Who will replace Carlos Mazón?

ValenciaThe countdown began this Tuesday. The People's Party (PP) and Vox have until November 19th to agree on a candidate to replace Carlos Mazón as head of the Valencian Generalitat. If they reach an agreement, the Speaker of the Valencian Parliament (Les Corts) will set the date for the investiture session, which would be held between November 24th and 27th. If no agreement is reached within two months of the first vote, Parliament will be dissolved and elections will be called. The most likely date for the elections is March 22nd, but the PP does not want to go to the polls. Although the latest polls They grant the majority to the right-wing blog, and also depict a transfer of votes from the People's Party to Vox. Furthermore, a mobilized left could overturn the predictions. That is why Feijóo's party will strive to convince Santiago Abascal's party, which, despite not ruling out a pact, has already warned that its price will be very high.

Juanfran Pérez Llorca, Mazón's right-hand man

The Valencian PP's preferred candidate to replace Mazón is Juanfran Pérez Llorca, who has been the former president's right-hand man. Parliamentary spokesperson in the Valencian Parliament (Les Corts) and secretary general of the PP, a position he assumed after replacing the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, he is a skilled individual. A good negotiator, he has no problem adapting his message to his interlocutor, a trait that makes him ideally suited to lead the party until the 2027 elections—barring early elections—when the PP will choose its new leader, who, in principle, should not be him, but rather Catalá or the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicençon. The provincial leaders of the Valencian PP made a bet.

Despite being a Valencian speaker and representing the more conciliatory wing of the PP, he didn't hesitate to lead the negotiations with Vox to invest Mazón as president, demonstrating that, beyond his personal positions, he is flexible and capable of adopting some of Abascal's party's arguments. His good relationship with the far-right party is precisely another reason why the PP has opted for him. Although Vox claims they are not yet negotiating, Lorca (also the mayor of Finestrat) was absent from the meeting of the spokespersons' board of the Valencian Parliament (Les Corts) this Tuesday. In doing so, he wanted to avoid questions from the media.

María José Catalá, Feijóo's preferred candidate

The mayor of Valencia is Alberto Núñez Feijóo's preferred candidate for the 2027 elections. In fact, her main support comes from the national leadership, given that the deputy hasn't dedicated time to building alliances with her party colleagues in the Valencian Community. It's often said of her that she has no political family. Indeed, it was this isolation that penalized her last week at the meeting between the provincial presidents and Pérez Llorca, where Vicent Mompó was proposed as Mazón's replacement. The fear of exposing the Valencia City Council, where the PP leader has no reliable successor, also didn't help her.

Catalá has been repeating for months that she doesn't want to be president of the Generalitat and that she wishes to remain in the city council. One of the reasons for this refusal is that she is the mother of two young children, and it is obvious that being head of the Consell – a position that requires traveling across the territory daily – would take away time from her family. Despite her public stance, some say she is playing hard to get and that if the party puts her in a difficult position, she will have no choice but to accept the nomination. In fact, this Tuesday, in statements to the media, she was not as categorical as before. "This process [the appointment of a new president of the Generalitat and the replacement of Mazón] is very important in my party, and I must maintain a very prudent and respectful attitude, and I am not going to comment," she simply stated before adding that her working style is "discreet." She said it all without saying it.

3. Vicente Betoret and Alfredo Castelló, alternatives to Pérez Llorca

Although the People's Party insists there is no other candidate besides Juanfran Pérez Llorca, there are other members of the Valencian Parliament (Les Corts) who could be an alternative to the PP's general secretary in Valencia if his candidacy is blocked by Vox. First is Vicente Betoret, who was president of the conservatives in the province of Valencia and who chose Mompó to succeed him. Furthermore, the former mayor of Vilamarxant was deputy spokesperson during the 2008-2015 legislature and has extensive experience. Another name is Alfredo Castelló. The former mayor of Sagunto is the current first vice president of the Parliament and, therefore, the PP's top representative in Les Corts. More authoritarian than Pérez Llorca, Catalá, and Betoret, his profile is appealing to Vox and would represent a choice of someone with a traditional and somewhat harsh approach to the opposition.

4. New elections

The selection of a candidate from the People's Party (PP) is just one of the possibilities on the Valencian political scene, and it shouldn't be ruled out that Vox might try to block the appointment of a new president by taking advantage of the PP's weakness and thus poaching its voters. "We're a long way from talking about names. First, we need to negotiate the platform, and depending on the agreements we reach, we'll see if we can seal a pact for the candidate," Vox representatives told ARA on Tuesday. These words demonstrate that the far-right party wants to increase the price of its votes, which have already been very high in recent months. In fact, they have managed to get the PP to adopt some of their ideology, especially regarding language policies, immigration, and their denial of climate change and gender violence. It remains to be seen, then, what is more advantageous for them: whether to call elections with the expectation of gaining ground and assuming the risk of bearing the blame for a hypothetical electoral defeat of the right-wing bloc, or to impose their own agenda. In all cases, the far right holds the key in the Valencian Community.