Carlos Mazón has been able to negotiate the investiture agreement with Vox, which began work immediately after 28-M, with full autonomy; which does not mean that he did not inform Alberto Núñez Feijóo of each step, who has been interested, and has collaborated, throughout the negotiation process. But Genoa sources stress that the support of the national president of the PP, very interested in reconquering the Valencian Community, for the next president of the Generalitat “has been total.” Even Borja Semper’s maneuver is interpreted as a movement by Mazón himself in collusion with Genoa to unblock a problem that Feijóo also needed to solve: that Carlos Flores, convicted in the past for mistreatment of his ex-wife, would not join the future Valencian executive and that it was not part of the Valencian Cortes either.
The pressure worked. Santiago Abascal has designated Flores as a candidate for Congress for Valencia; problem solved to pave the pact. It remained to assess the price that the PP had to pay for this sacrifice of the Vox candidate, which has been the same that was paid in 1995 with the Valencian Union for Eduardo Zaplana to reach the presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana: Vox will have the presidency of the Valencian Parliament (in 1995 it was held by Vicente González Lizondo) and some ministries, possibly two, and probably a vice-presidency. But the Valencian pact of the PP and Vox goes far beyond the distribution of quotas of power.
It is surprising that some thought that the PP and Vox were not going to agree in the Valencian Community. There was no room for maneuver for Carlos Mazón, who needed to guarantee the agreement that would allow him to reach the presidency of the Generalitat and, as far as possible, a stable government for the entire legislature. Parliamentary arithmetic prevailed. In addition, Vox has always made clear its objective of occupying plots of power in the Valencian Administration; They want to be part of the government of the institutions, also in Spain, and the PP is open to negotiating and formalizing agreements.
These sources underline that the Valencian popular leader, who also has a direct channel with Abascal, was clear with what negotiation margins he could work with to achieve his objective without granting Vox more power than it deserves in proportion to the number of deputies. The case of Carlos Flores, already mentioned, had been worrying for days, it was the main stumbling block a few weeks before the 23J elections. Vox, with this agreement, guarantees notable institutional visibility and will be able to develop its own policies, from the premise of being a party that does not believe in the State of Autonomies. It remains to be known which areas of government this formation will assume. This will be a key point.
The pact between the PP and Vox to govern the Valencian Community (and agreements such as that of Elx) sends a powerful message to the rest of Spain and prepares the ground for a future Spanish Government agreed between the two political forces. The Valencian case translates a new “normality” of the PP’s relations with Vox that Alberto Núñez Feijóo wanted, in an autonomy that, in addition, consolidates the territorial power of the PP to the detriment of the PSOE. The Valencian Community is the piece that Feijóo was missing to demonstrate that the political cycle that began on March 28 may be the prelude to a change of cycle in Spain as well, even if it is by agreeing with the extreme right.
Success for Carlos Mazón is unquestionable. He won the elections, his party has conquered almost all the institutional power of the Valencian Community and is guaranteed to be president of the Generalitat Valenciana. He has achieved for Feijóo a geography longed for years by his party. But not everything is going to be a bed of roses, because now it will be necessary to see how it modulates the demands of its partners in matters such as Education, Culture, Economy, Health, Social Welfare or the Environment. Carlos Mazón said yesterday that he will be the president of “all Valencians” and that he will assume the management of “the entire government of him”, which means also assuming responsibility for everything Vox does. That will be, to a large extent, the challenge of his legislature, to govern with all Valencians in mind. And for this he will also have full autonomy.
