Carlos Mazón submitted his resignation this afternoon, after announcing it early this Monday morning at the Palau de la Generalitat. “I can’t do it anymore,” the head of the Consell stated around 9:15 a.m., surrounded by his ministers. He no longer has the “strength” to lead the “well-directed” recovery efforts following the DANA storm, and appealed to the “responsibility” of the majority in Les Corts, which includes his parliamentary partner from Vox, to “elect a new president.” In the meantime, he will remain as acting president. If no agreement is reached, early elections will be called, added sources from the Generalitat, who later clarified some of the points left unanswered by his institutional statement—during which he did not take questions.
A tired-looking Mazón emphasized that the current majority in the Valencian Parliament—comprised of the PP (40) and Vox (13) deputies—must find a candidate from among the former to replace him (an absolute majority requires 50 seats). He will preside over the plenary session of the Consell in Alicante tomorrow, as planned. Mazón will remain in office, as stipulated by law, until the appointment of a new candidate, with the intention of completing the legislature in 2027, when the next elections are scheduled. His selection will depend on the far right.
Thus ends a mandate that was definitively broken on October 29, 2024, when a DANA storm claimed the lives of 229 people and devastated a large part of the province of Valencia. A year later, Mazón has admitted that he made a mistake, that he should have “changed the agenda” for that afternoon when he prolonged a lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana—who testified this morning before the judge in the DANA case as a witness—for more than four hours, while the officer was drowning and towns were flooded.
The public humiliation at his state funeral, where numerous flood victims greeted him with shouts of"murderer" and bid him farewell demanding his resignation, has finally triggered pressure from within his own party for him to step down. And after an intense weekend of discussions, Mazón today submitted his resignation from the post he assumed in the summer of 2023.
“In accordance with the provisions of Article 27 of the Statute of Autonomy and Article 8.d) of Law 5/83, of December 30, of the Valencian Government, I resign from the position of President of the Generalitat, so that it may be recorded before these Courts,” says the letter that entered the Valencian parliament registry at 3:24 p.m.
Article 8 of the aforementioned law lists the causes of dismissal of the President, one of which is resignation, and adds: “The President of the Generalitat shall continue his functions until, after the new statutory election of the President has taken place, his appointment by the King is published in the Official State Gazette.”
The rules of the Valencian Parliament state that “when the President's resignation is formalized, a 12-day period will automatically begin in the Valencian Parliament for the submission of nominations for the Presidency of the Generalitat.” Subsequently, a period of 3 to 7 days will be opened to schedule the investiture session for the future President. If two months have passed since the first investiture vote, or if there is no candidate for President within the legally established timeframe, the Valencian Parliament will be dissolved and regional elections will be held.
Sources within the Generalitat have also indicated that, following Tuesday's plenary session of the Consell, Mazón will"pause his activities for a few days" to take some time off, as his family requires, and attend a medical appointment. This would lead to the current vice president, Susana Camarero, temporarily assuming his duties. The president has not been prescribed any medical leave, but will follow his doctor's instructions at all times, the sources added. Nothing has been said at this time regarding whether he will continue as president of the PPCV.
Mazón will remain a regional deputy. Therefore, he will continue to enjoy parliamentary immunity, according to the same sources. The investigating judge in the criminal case related to the DANA storm, Nuria Ruiz Tobarra, has invited him to testify voluntarily several times. Only the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) can formally charge him due to his parliamentary immunity.
In his official statement, Mazón acknowledged errors, but continued to criticize Pedro Sánchez's government as the cause of most of them and for failing to provide information about the disaster, while also portraying himself as the victim of a"brutal" campaign against him. Mazón reiterated his usual argument about the"information blackout" by central government agencies, referring to AEMET (the Spanish State Meteorological Agency) and the Júcar River Basin Authority, contradicting the investigating judge's findings.
The president has maintained that “of his own volition he would have resigned a long time ago,” because there have been “unbearable” moments for him and his family. “I know I made mistakes, I acknowledge it, and I will live with them for the rest of my life. I have apologized and I repeat it, but none of them were due to political calculation or bad faith: we didn't know the Poyo ravine was overflowing, we didn't know there were fatalities until the early hours of the 30th, nor that the tragedy would have such a magnitude,” he stated. “I hope that when the noise dies down a bit, society will be able to distinguish between a man who has made a mistake and a bad person,” he added.
The president read his institutional statement at the Palau de la Generalitat, after a Sunday of marathon negotiations, multiple pressures, and telephone conversations with the national leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The statement, he said, comes after the “period of reflection” he imposed on himself as a consequence of the public humiliation he suffered at the state funeral for the victims of the DANA storm on October 29. That day, many family members greeted him with shouts of “murderer!” and bid him farewell demanding his resignation. He made no mention of the strong pressure from his party leadership for him to resign.
The House of the Witches
Late Sunday, Mazón left the Generalitat headquarters in Alicante, the so-called House of the Witches, accompanied by his political mentor, Macarena Montesinos, secretary general of the Popular Party group in Congress and deputy to spokesperson Ester Muñoz, after an intense day of phone calls. At that time, Vox sources in Valencia told this newspaper that they knew “absolutely nothing” and would not comment on the rumors circulating throughout the day regarding negotiations or a supposed veto by Santiago Abascal's party on the possibility of María José Catalá, who is also a regional deputy, being invested as interim president.
Catalá is Feijóo's preferred candidate, but backing her also carries the risk of weakening a key position like Valencia City Hall. She has also maintained a tense relationship with Vox in the City Council, where she governs with two councilors (out of a total of four) from that party.
The name of Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, secretary general of the PPCV (People's Party of the Valencian Community), parliamentary spokesperson in the Valencian Parliament, and Mazón's right-hand man, is gaining prominence as a candidate to occupy that interim or provisional presidency, provided he obtains the approval of Vox, the People's Party's parliamentary partner. However, other members of parliament are not being ruled out. Pérez Llorca's name has been on the table from the beginning as a provisional solution. In fact, the same provincial leaders who have put forward Vicente Mompó's candidacy to replace Mazón as party leader immediately pointed to the secretary general of the PPCV as a provisional alternative, given that the president of the Valencia Provincial Council is not a member of the Valencian Parliament and, therefore, cannot be elected president by the Valencian Parliament at this time.
Furthermore, Pérez Llorca maintains a good relationship with the far-right party. He has been the PP's negotiator in the agreements reached with Vox, both in the Valencian Parliament and in the governing pact they reached at the beginning of the legislature.
The proposal by provincial leaders, elected during Mazón's term, to announce that he would not be a candidate for re-election and that Mompó would take the reins of the party until he could present himself as a candidate, has run into the urgency of Genoa to remove the president from the office of the Palau de la Generalitat.
The possibility of Mazón resigning and calling early elections is also on the table, but it would run a double risk: that Vox's blow to the PP, predicted by the polls, would be much greater in the current situation and that the left would manage to mobilize its entire electorate.
