In the PP there are many PP. The Valencian spokesperson for Vox dropped it this Monday: there is one from Moreno Bonilla, another from Azcón, another from Guardiola, another from Feijóo. But the one they feel comfortable with is Carlos Mazón's PP, a party that, despite expelling them from the Valencian government, followed the agenda they agreed upon for the legislature and for the approval of the budgets. That is why Vox needs the PP to “clarify itself and propose a candidate” before negotiating; because they have to know that he will keep his word. That is why Vox wants Carlos Mazón's successor to be Juanfran Pérez Llorca. Although Feijóo is not so clear about it. “No one has told me that I am going to be the candidate,” he said this Monday.
Juanfran Pérez Llorca is Mazón's right-hand man. He is his general secretary, spokesperson for the party in the Cortes, and a personal friend. It is to him that they attribute the merit of the express pact with Vox for the investiture after the regional elections of 2023, a pact that was not liked at all by the national leadership of Genoa. First, because they didn't know about it. Second, because they believe that this predisposition to approach those of Santiago Abascal cost Alberto Núñez Feijóo the elections. It's not that he wasn't president because he didn't want to; It wasn't because Mazón torpedoed it. This affinity of Pérez Llorca with the ultra party must be read in terms of loyalties in a negotiation that has already jumped to the state level: Vox, with several open fronts in the regional elections, which are not its strong suit, needs someone who “complies with the agreed policies”, and who better than the man who put them on the table. Certainly, Vox's new demands are not new; It is the same agenda that they already agreed on in March 2025 to agree on budgets that would support Mazón in the Generalitat. To date, that has been his policy in Valencia: to give the questioned president a breath of fresh air after extracting some promises from him that do not materialize. Allow it to advance while it simmers and they rise in the polls. The question is if the rice is already overcooked and it is advisable to remove it from the heat, change the dish.
The far-right party insists that they don't care about the candidate, but they will not move forward in negotiations until they have a name. “Vox doesn't care about the names, it doesn't care about the seats, whether it is one or the other,” said the general secretary, Ignacio Garriga, on Sunday. On Monday, José María Llanos, spokesperson in Valencia, insisted: “There is no negotiation because there is no candidate,” despite the fact that a meeting has already taken place. A week has passed since the president's resignation and the name of the PP candidate is neither there nor expected in the short term. This delay leads one to think that, if the number two of the Valencian PP were such a solid proposal, the party would not be rushing the deadlines to appoint him and begin the negotiation. With each passing day, Pérez Llorca's options are fading.
The mayor of Finestrat has always been loyal to the acting president. He is his plumber in the party, he has entrusted him with organic life. This is what he uses to talk about the meal with the three provincial leaders of Valencia, Alicante and Castellón, in which it was leaked that Vicente Mompó would be the candidate for the Generalitat proposed by the PPCV, a movement that unleashed the anger of Génova once again. In the national leadership, they look more favorably on the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, who also makes an agreement with Vox but is more discreet when it comes to applying policies and has not ruined any of the boss's campaigns. There are those who believe that Mompó was tricked into burning himself in that move and those who believe that the president of the Valencian Provincial Corporation set himself on fire voluntarily. The leak was interpreted as a warning to Genoa about the possibility of appointing Catalá, a threat to press the nuclear button if Mazón's wishes were not accepted and blow everything up. And the response of the national leadership was to ask for heads.
Once the Valencian president is practically out of the equation, leaning out of the exit door, the national leadership intends to clean up his entire team. The meeting of Mazón's right hand with the provincial barons blew up the bridges between the national and regional leadership and caused what should have been an agreed succession to become a battle. Three days to finalize the resignation of a president and more than seven days without a reference figure. A clear candidate does not remain in the shadows for a week.
Mazón's number two has spent more than a week confined in Alicante, only making public appearances as mayor of Finestrat. He wants the rest of the planet to think that he knows nothing and that he is just a mayor. That he is not part of the negotiations, nor has he spoken about his future. In a press conference lasting more than 20 minutes, the parliamentary spokesperson did not confirm anything about the internal dispute. “I am mayor of Finestrat and I have a duty and an obligation to the residents there. Allow me to be prudent,” he said. He has only confessed that he is aware that his name “is on the table”, which puts him in a delicate position, and he has referred time and again to the national leadership, in charge of appointing candidates. Of course, after Genoa decides, the Valencian leadership will get negotiations with Vox back on track, he said. The name depends on Madrid but we are not waiting for what Madrid has come to say. Pérez Llorca has stated that in the last week he has spoken with Feijóo and his number two, Miguel Tellado, and that in that context “no one” has proposed that he be the candidate.
The question of the negotiations is almost a tongue twister: they say in Madrid that the task belongs to the Valencian PP, but that it will be supervised from Genoa, while in Valencia they say that it corresponds to the national leadership. A ball that is passed and shows that there is a breakdown, no one at the wheel in making decisions. Nobody wants to answer the question about who will be the candidate to succeed Carlos Mazón, or who is negotiating with Vox. Nobody wants to appear in the photograph sitting on the other side of the table. The ultras, on the other hand, are rubbing their hands: they have acknowledged meetings with the PP through a statement and have made public who their negotiators are. The popular ones, meanwhile, even make those who ask them doubt that there has been a negotiation. The PP has placed the Valencian Courts in an anomaly: going to an investiture without knowing the candidate, something unheard of in the forty years of self-government.