The mayor of Mislata, Carlos Fernández Bielsa, has not taken long to establish ground after the 28-M elections. In the provincial executive of June 1 (four days after the Socialists lost the Government of the Generalitat Valenciana), he was ahead of time and achieved the support of the leadership he presides over to become the next president of the Valencia Provincial Council. That as long as Ferraz does not knock down the proposal and the Socialists rebuild the bridges with his former partner, Jorge RodrÃguez. Bielsa is already on it, too.
A rush that was already seen by the party leadership as a hasty attempt to take positions on what could happen in the coming months. Although the collaborators of the mayor of Mislata refute this very widespread thesis in the party: “It was not Carlos who called the generals and the Provincial Council must be tied down because it is necessary to negotiate with La Vall Ens Uneix.”
Thus, the movements and gestures in the PSPV have not stopped since the night of 28-M the party was in shock. In the first meeting of the leadership of the PSPV to analyze the bad electoral result (increase in electoral support, but loss of the autonomous government), Bielsa remained silent. While the interventions to support Ximo Puig’s decision to lead the opposition took place -the Socialists obtained the best result since 2007, when then the bipartisanship was much more exaggerated-, but he did allow himself to be photographed upon arrival with Alejandro Soler, the Alicante provincial leader.
The following week, both took advantage of their control of the provincial bodies to launch the first ordeal at Puig and drew up (as the statutes mandate) lists without the consent of the general secretary.
A first rebellion that on Thursday the national leadership of the PSPV contained (with the support of 81% of the executive) in a tense meeting. The first with broad reproaches among the members of the leadership since the PSPV regained power in 2015. In this meeting, Puig changed the lists presented and introduced the changes that he considered appropriate.
All in all, if Puig did and undid the regional lists without any opposition, the preparation of the candidacies for the Cortes Generales has evidenced the new reality of the party, with emerging leaders who understand that, although Ximo Puig has to lead the opposition, they have their right to express their opinion and their preferences. “It seems that we are radicals when of the five positions on the Valencia list, the provincial secretary only proposed one.” “Loyalty, but not submission,” they reiterate.
Those who have known him for a long time and have worked closely with him reject the image of “ambitious” that they have labeled him. “It’s not how they paint it. He may not be the nicest, even a bit dry, but he is very loyal and generous. And they qualify that widespread idea of ​​ambition: “Whoever tells you that he is not ambitious and that he is in politics…”.
In addition, they add that Bielsa “works more hours than a clock” and that this explains, to a large extent, his good results in the last municipal elections where he became the mayor of the PSOE in Spain with the most support in populations of more than 40,000 inhabitants, surpassing a myth like the mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero. Bielsa achieved 61.72% in Mislata, a city attached to Valencia with the highest population density in Spain.
From the hand of Alarte and Bono
During the tight count of 2008 where Jorge Alarte won the general secretary of the PSPV from Ximo Puig, Bielsa could not stand his nerves. The mayor of Alaquàs won the mayor of Morella by a narrow margin and Bielsa could not contain his tears of joy and emotion. Only three years later, in 2011, he appeared for the first time in Mislata and achieved, at just 29 years of age, the first of four consecutive absolute majorities (2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023).
A curious and relevant fact: his presentation as a candidate was officiated by the then José Bono, at that time president of the Congress of Deputies. And it is that in a certain way, both share that same way of understanding socialism and a similar vision of Spain. Less PSPV and less federalist than Ximo Puig has.
During the absolute governments of the Popular Party in the Valencian Community (1999-2015), in the red belt -the metropolitan area of ​​medium-sized cities that surrounds Valencia- the socialist mayors resisted, except for those of Manises and Mislata already in the hands of the PP. This last town was governed by the PP since 2001 after a vote of no confidence and was a blue village between important mayors and mayors of the PSPV. For this reason, Bielsa’s first victory in a year -2011- in which a popular tsunami reached the Valencian Community was even more surprising.
It was the only electoral call in which the PP won the brand of the fist and the rose in the l’Horta Sud worker. What’s more, on the opposite sidewalk, in the municipal of Valencia city, Rita Barberá, took out the 53, 71% while Mislata returned to socialist hands with a young mayor.
Bielsa has never failed to reconcile work at the Mislata City Hall with plumbing work at the PSPV. He was one of those who, after Jorge Alarte’s defeat against Ximo Puig in 2012, did not give up. Along with a group of mayors who still follow him (and maintain great electoral results such as Paterna or Cullera) he supported Toni Gaspar, then socialist spokesman in the Valencia Provincial Council, to fight, in 2014, with Morella in the first open primaries of the Socialists to decide their candidate for the Generalitat. There were no surprises, Ximo Puig won comfortably and, a year later, he became president of the Generalitat after agreeing to the first edition of the now-defunct Botà nic.
With the comfort of power there were years of internal peace, although the underground movements never stopped. In fact, in 2022, after two years as third vice-president of the Valencia Provincial Council, presided over by his comrade in battle, Toni Gaspar, Bielsa crushed abalism (with the approval of Ximo Puig) and became the provincial president of the PSPV in Valencia . Already then some warned the head of the Consell of the dangers that in the future he would have to have laid a red carpet for the mayor of Mislata. But Puig did not want wars and agreed (it is not clear to what extent he could have avoided it). The truth is that from this position of provincial president, Bielsa is from which he has launched this first notice.
And it is that, after the results of 28-M and waiting for it to be clarified what will happen with the Presidency of the Provincial Council, Bielsa is in the best position to opt for a hypothetical succession in the PSPV that, it must be remembered, has not yet has begun. At least until the general elections are over.
