The scene contained an abundant political and also symbolic charge. Teresa Ribera and Carlos Mazón appeared last Monday to show the agreement between the Government and the Generalitat Valenciana in order to seek agreements on water matters. Both emphasized their good harmony and their mutual predisposition to find solutions, in a climate of complicity. The scene is important from a Valencian perspective, because that image was never produced with Ximo Puig as president, even though the vice president and Minister of Ecological Transition and the former Valencian president are from the same party, the PSOE.
On the contrary, the socialist leader maintained a distant and, at times, uncomfortable relationship with Ribera, including public criticism. But suddenly, issues of high political tension in the Generalitat Valenciana and the Government such as the Tajo-Segura transfer or the urgency of increasing flows to save La Albufera settled into institutional normality last Monday. Forms in politics are important.
The event had the precedent of the Valencian president's support for the transfer of water from the Sagunt desalination plant to help Barcelona this summer if the drought persists. Carlos Mazón highlighted a concept, “water solidarity”, that creates a precedent in a context of an unresolved “water war”. In parallel, his team was working to prepare the visit of the leader of the Valencian PP to Catalonia, an appointment that will be held in March with representatives of Foment del Treball, the large Catalan employers' association. It will be one of the many events that the Valencian president will carry out in Catalonia while he does not hesitate to criticize the independence "procés" and to invite Catalan companies "to settle in the Valencian Community."
Days before, in Fitur, Mazón showed his good relationship with PP barons such as the Andalusian Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla and the Murcian Fernando López Miras, but also with the socialist Emiliano García-Page to demand from the Government a “leveling fund” to alleviate the effects of regional underfinancing until a new model is approved; proposal that is also supported by the left and the Valencian employers' associations but that has been rejected by the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero.
Carlos Mazón moves comfortably in political negotiation, in what is known as “realpolitik”. And he seeks to establish “coalitions” for specific objectives of his government. A commitment to “multilaterality” that, for the moment, has served to provoke the creation of a working group with other autonomies to review the “rules of exploitation” of the Tajo-Segura or to add allies in order to implement palliative measures against to regional underfinancing.
His association with Vox to govern the Valencian Community, with many tensions but less than those suffered by his partner María José Català, mayor of Valencia, has not prevented him from establishing relations on the right and left, with other regional barons and even with the Government . The same Executive that approved the expansion of the Port of València last December, days after the summit that Mazón held with Isabel Díaz Ayuso in Madrid to demand, precisely, a project demanded for years by the employers' associations and, also, by the Valencian socialism.
The Valencian president himself has verbalized on several occasions his strategy to “establish alliances” with other autonomies. One fact: he always pointed out that his priority was to initiate these alliances with Catalonia, a territory that is always complex for institutional harmony. He harshly criticizes the policies of Pedro Sánchez's Government, but he has achieved, in a few months, a better agreement with several ministries than Ximo Puig himself was able to achieve, which is still significant. The former Valencian president fought a lot to find support from the Government for many demands of the so-called “Valencian way”, without success. At the regional level, Mazón is favored by the presence of the PP in several regional governments, but with Castilla La Mancha he has not hesitated to coordinate outpatient care.
The “multilaterality” strategy is benefiting the leader of the Valencian PP. Shortly, in addition, the results of the Government's support for investments by strategic companies in the Valencian Community will be known. The opposite of what happened with the Botànic, which, as an example, managed to bring the gigafactory to Sagunt despite the fact that Sánchez preferred another destination.
