Mazon resigns; PP and Vox negotiate interim Valencia leader

Mazon resigns as PP hands Generalitat control to Vox

The news broke via tweet and was confirmed live. The People's Party (PP) has agreed to Carlos Mazon's departure from the head of the Valencian Regional Government (Generalitat) and will negotiate with Vox for a provisional president until the end of the legislative term. There will be no early elections. This announcement comes after a year of political wear, with the testimony of key DANA witness Maribel Ventorro Vilaplana pending in court. According to circulating reports, the sequence is: force the resignation, find a name acceptable to Vox, while Mazon takes medical leave. The PP avoids the polls due to poor polling numbers, and Vox prefers not to risk winning but having to govern.

What peine and why it was done this way

The pact was closed against the clock. The resignation was announced the day before the witness cited in the DANA investigation was set to testify, a detail that did not escape anyone. For months, the official narrative insisted Mazon would hold on. He lasted a year. Now he leaves without a designated successor, without a prepared Plan B, and with the region in an interim situation that no one clearly explains. The PP had twelve months to organize an orderly transition. It did not.

Some argue the exit responds to judicial and media pressure; others counter that the PP simply waited for the calendar to provide a window. The result is the same: an acting president, medical leave involved, and negotiations with Vox that turn Abascal's party into the arbiter of the situation. The paradox is evident: Vox left the regional government denouncing the PP's inability, and now decides who presides over it.

Vox's role: from partner to lifeline

The most repeated thesis is that Vox does not want elections. If called, there are chances Vox could outperform the PP in the Valencian Community, forcing Abascal to either govern or explain why he doesn't. Neither option interests him. Therefore, his strategy is to support the PP, invest an interim candidate, and let time pass. This mirrors the logic attributed to them nationally: being the PP's support, not an alternative.

Critical analysis suggests Vox has abandoned municipal involvement—holding barely thirty mayoralties across Spain—and lacks real governing ambition. Comparisons are made with Podemos: without territorial power, absolute leadership persists, but the party becomes a prop. In the first municipal and regional term, more than half of their elected officials ended up removed. In the second, the path seems the same.

The DANA narrative and the battle for blame

DANA management is the backdrop to everything. One sector of analysis argues Mazon made a fatal error by not requesting a state of alarm the next day, when the catastrophe's magnitude was already visible. Another responds that the tragedy affected six autonomous communities and that ultimate responsibility lies with the central government, which did not send the Army or declare a national emergency. The discussion has become an exchange of accusations where each side has its data and its omissions.

The political calculation is this: the PP buys the narrative that the blame is theirs and accepts positioning itself against itself. Some call this stupid management, because the PP had room to attack the central government for flood response but ended up bearing the cost. Feijoo emerges weakened from the operation. And Mazon, who hasn't even managed to resign elegantly, leaves a power vacuum that will last months.

The upcoming interregnum: who rules meanwhile

The technical key almost no one explains: an acting president cannot call elections. Until Vox agrees to vote for a candidate, Mazon remains formally in office, even if on sick leave. The farce could last months. The PP has no successor, Vox is in no hurry, and Valencians have a zombie government. The lingering question is whether this is an exit pact or a way to never really leave.

The name sounding as a possible interim president is a profile Vox can digest. A bullfighter has been mentioned as a candidate, indicating the level of negotiation. Meanwhile, the key DANA witness testifies in court, and the PP prays for no surprises. If there are any, the pact could unravel in hours. And then yes, elections. Or not.