Carlos Mazón has reached the first anniversary of the Dana of Valencia as president of the Generalitat and the regional PP. Although for weeks, even months, many denied this possibility, he is supported by all his colleagues, at least in public. Its leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has frozen the regional congress that should have been held in the summer and thus fails to comply with its own internal rules so as not to open the succession melon of a Mazón increasingly cornered by judicial and journalistic revelations about what he did, and what he did not do, that October 29, 2024 in which 229 people drowned.
Mazón will be at the state funeral this Wednesday, which the kings of Spain will preside over, despite the fact that the victims of the dana have expressly requested his absence. There he will meet Feijóo again, who has become his main supporter to remain in his two political positions despite the social clamor that has been demanding his resignation for a year now.
But not all PP presidents will comply with the official invitation. The president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will not attend the state funeral presided over by Felipe VI. And it seems that other barons don't either: Alfonso Fernández Mañueco and María Guardiola have not confirmed their presence.
Feijóo has reduced his media presence to a minimum in the last two weeks, when the memory of what happened in October 2024 has dominated the headlines. His press team has even hidden his presence at some information events that the PP leader has attended without prior notice, contrary to custom.
It is the same time, two weeks, during which the PP has stopped calling the usual Monday press conference at the party's national headquarters. With Borja Sémper on leave, Alma Ezcurra had assumed that role and although she has continued giving interviews to some media, the last one this weekend, she has stopped appearing before the media in Genoa.
But Feijóo can't always avoid journalists. This Monday he participated in an awards ceremony by the self-employed employers' association to the president of Extremadura, María Guardiola, who announced an electoral advance after her lightning visit to Madrid. The move from two years ago is repeated: in 2023 it was also after a round trip to the capital when he announced an agreement with Vox that he had denied almost until the last moment.
After the event, Feijóo met a crowd of journalists who wanted to know his opinion on the umpteenth change of version by Carlos Mazón and the journalist with whom he secretly ate for hours on that fateful October 29, Maribel Vilaplana.
The Congressional commission, in the air?
“I come to say a phrase, okay?” snapped the PP leader, and added: “It is the week of the victims and the victim's relatives. And, of course, this week I have no other objective than to pay tribute to the relatives and people who have unfortunately lost their lives.”
The journalists insisted and between pushing and increasingly louder voices the leader of the PP added: “I do not agree with giving the spectacle that the President of the Government gave yesterday, out of respect.” A reference to an act in which Pedro Sánchez attacked Mazón and that caused an exchange of messages on Twitter. Feijóo settled: “There is a lot of time to talk about whatever you want. Don't count on me this week.”
On Tuesday, Feijóo attended another information event without his press team reporting previously through the usual channels. But, once again, the PP leader found journalists ready to ask him.
“What do you think of this change of versions?” they asked him. Feijóo once again did not respond and attacked Pedro Sánchez. “I, with all the tranquility and with all the responsibility, believe that this week is the week of the victims and their families. I leave it to the President of the Government to use people's pain to make politics. I am not like that.”
Cross-examined, Feijóo once again avoided giving his opinion and limited himself to ensuring that Mazón “will have to give all the answers that are necessary in the investigative commission in the Valencian Cortes and in the Senate.” “Mr. Mazón will have to answer that,” he stressed, to insist on the two aforementioned parliamentary commissions.
Feijóo bypassed an investigative commission: that of Congress. Mazón will have to appear before the deputies on November 17. But the Senate, where the PP makes and breaks with its absolute majority, has not set a date for the appearance of the Valencian president. In fact, the investigation has been open for half a year and only a few technicians have appeared. Nor is his summons yet scheduled in Les Corts, where Vox saves Mazón time and again when he faces political problems.
Sources from the PP leadership assure elDiario.es that Feijóo wanted to make express reference to the committees of the Cortes and the Senate, and that “he has not had a lapse” for leaving Congress out. “I don't know if the national president is aware that another chamber has summoned Carlos Mazón,” says a spokesperson for the management.
It is not the first time that Feijóo threatens to harden his position on a Mazón whom he has defended most of the times. But the reality is that the PP has frozen the regional congress that, due to deadlines, should have been held last July.
In fact, in the weeks before the summer, various information was published that pointed to an activation of the conclave. Something that, according to the entire party, would have meant the end of Mazón at the head of the party and, therefore, of the Generalitat.
Quite the contrary, Feijóo traveled to Mazón's fiefdom in Alicante and settled the entire debate. “Good job,” he conceded.
But the PP cannot afford to relieve Mazón because it would put the Generalitat itself at risk. And Feijóo has already said that his priority is that: maintaining the Government of the Valencian Community.
