"The one who moves does not appear in the photo". The sentence, handed down decades ago by Alfonso Guerra to underline the importance of internal loyalty in the PSOE, can be transferred today, aesthetically and symbolically, to what happens every day during the Fallas, from 1 to 19 March, on the balcony of the Valencia City Hall with another sentence: if you're not there, you don't exist. In other words, appearing every day at 2:00 p.m., at the time of the "mascletà", at that viewpoint, together with the mayor fallera and her court of honor, is an essential condition for emphasizing one's own political existence in the eyes of tens of thousands of Valencians attentive to that moment.
The faults, their commissions, are the most dynamic and dense civil structure of all those that exist in any city in Europe; It is integrated into each and every one of the neighborhoods and streets. We are talking about more than 100,000 registered falleros, to which we must add families and friends. It would not be an exaggeration to appreciate that hundreds of thousands of Valencians experience the Fallas as their own festival, with an enormous emotional and emotional charge.
Among the daily events, the "mascletà" is the one with the most participation (apart from the Nit del Foc, the Cremà or the Ofrena de les Flors) and the one that has a powerful diffusion every day from the regional and national media . At that moment, the focus of attention is directed, precisely at 2:00 p.m. each day, to the older falleras located on the aforementioned balcony, waiting for the pyrotechnician to be authorized to start the show. A piece of information: this year the fallas are celebrated a few weeks before the 28M elections.
When the PP ruled, the former mayor Rita Barberá made very "personalistic" use of the balcony. She was the one who invited and the one who decided who could show up each day; and she always came out in the front row next to the older falleras. It was common to see prominent leaders of the national PP in failure on that balcony, and regularly the Valencian president, first Eduardo Zaplana and later Francisco Camps or Alberto Fabra.
In 2015, with the victory of the left, the model changed: daily tickets are raffled for the public to access, the mayor always comes out behind the major falleras and the invited politicians also remain in the second row. All the prominence is for the falleras. Regarding the invitations, the truth is that there is a greater political plurality than in the past. This same week, it is likely that Alberto Núñez Feijóo will appear on the balcony on Thursday, and also Pedro Sánchez, on Friday. The possibility of King Felipe VI also attending is discussed.
Every self-respecting politician wants to appear on the balcony on these dates and at the appointed time; It functions as a large television set. It is the media epicenter of the party every noon. Regional and local elections are approaching, and this viewpoint is a powerful platform for political communication. There are only a few days left until the fallas in Valencia come to an end, and the photos of each of the days in which the "mascletà" has been shot will remain in the memory. Alfonso Guerra's phrase, "he who moves does not appear in the photo" always acquires a special meaning in fallas.
