The internal battle of the PSPV threatens to weaken the main counterpower to Mazón

The Valencian socialists believe they caress the presidency of the Diputación de Valencia. The provincial institution, with a 650 million budget, would be the largest redoubt of power for the PSPV-PSOE and Compromís after the blue wave that led to a turn to the right in the capitals of Valencia and Castelló and in the Valencian Generalitat, if the Party Popular completes the government agreement and investiture with Vox. However, for the left to maintain control of the provincial corporation is something that is not yet closed.. The socialist aspirant to preside over it, Carlos Fernández Bielsa, has not yet guaranteed the necessary vote to obtain the absolute majority of Ens Uneix, the party of the mayor of Ontinyent, Jorge Rodríguez.

Under normal circumstances, with a defined internal leadership, the provincial corporation should serve as a spring and sounding board for the opposition discourse and construction of an alternative to the PP-Vox Council, in coordination with the parliamentary group in the Valencian Parliament. This is what the popular did with the Diputación de Alicante, with Carlos Mazón at the helm, who took advantage of his position to improve his visibility, create municipal and media complicity and, at the same time, coordinate with the general secretary of the party and current mayoress of Valencia , María José Catalá, who acted as spokesperson for the parliamentary group and questioned Ximo Puig weekly in control sessions.

Bielsa, as was the case with Mazón, is not a regional deputy either, a circumstance that would prevent him from directly confronting the new president at the Palau de la Generalitat. For now, control over the socialist parliamentary group is held by Puig, who plans to become president of the group, appoint a spokesperson and lead the opposition.. This intention, as well as his continuity at the head of the PSPV, will depend on the result of the PSOE in the general elections on July 23, on how the Socialists at the federal level decide whether or not to replace Pedro Sánchez in the event of defeat, as the polls predict, and the influence that the new internal balance of families will have on the Valencian federation. Bielsa is a contender, but he might not be the only one. The Minister of Science, Diana Morant, with the support of the same if Puig takes a step back, or the mayor of Elda, Rubén Alfaro, are other names to take into account.

This organic uncertainty is going to condition the position of the Valencia Provincial Council as a counterpower to the new PP and Vox coalition Council, according to various sources linked to the PSPV-PSOE. Bielsa's critics are convinced that he will make the institution an instrument of “personal promotion”, while those around him maintain that he will strive to build an alternative discourse to the right-wing with a view to benefiting his party for the next four years, whatever happens. what happens in the internal push for leadership.

Be that as it may, Bielsa has not yet closed the command rod of the corporation. Ens Uneix, a formation that claims to be on the left, has started a round of contacts with the PSPV and the PP to decide who it supports. As a starting minimum, it requires being part of the Government with a vice-presidency and important commitments with its region, the Vall d'Albaida, in terms of investments.

Rodríguez comes from the socialist ranks. He was forced to resign as president of the Provincial Council and suspended from militancy after the Alquería case broke out. He always claimed his innocence, and remained in charge of the Ontinyent mayor's office, where he has revalidated the position with an absolute majority both in 2019 and on May 28. His independent party has also achieved six other mayoralties in the region, which has shielded the provincial deputy, a position that Natalia Enguix will occupy. If the comparative analysis is made with the regional ones that were voted on the same day, Rodríguez has united the vote of the left and the right, but the left won widely in Ontinyent in the Generalitat ballot box, with Compromís ahead of the PSPV. In other words, the mayor governs a city of just over 35,000 inhabitants based on a local sociology of a progressive nature..

But Rodríguez, who has been acquitted of embezzlement and prevarication by the Justice (although the Prosecutor's Office has appealed the sentence), has the thorn in his expulsion from the party and believes that, before sealing the agreement to hand over the presidency of the Diputación de Valencia, the regional leadership of Ximo Puig “should apologize and express some gesture of regret”, something that has not happened so far. Rodríguez, whose mother committed suicide three months after the police operation in Alquería, has come to state publicly that the way in which he was separated has led him to question whether Puig “is a good person”.

In that raft of reproaches the Popular Party tries to fish. Its provincial president, Vicente Mompó, met last Tuesday with the Ens Uneix negotiating delegation and came to offer investment commitments from the Generalitat, which will be chaired by the conservative Carlos Mazón, in exchange for not supporting the Socialists. Mompó has also promised that Vox would not have management responsibilities either, one of the red lines of Ens Uneix. The PP would not need the ultra-conservatives to obtain the presidency, because without Rodríguez giving the PSPV an absolute majority with his vote in a coalition with Compromís, the popular ones would obtain the rod of command as they are the list with the most votes, as established by Loreg for corporations local.

In the surroundings of Bielsa, where they defend the good harmony of the mayor of Mislata with the mayor of Ontinyent, they separate their relationship from that of the ximismo, they see in the round of contacts with the PP a “staging” that will lead to nothing and they even open the door to the return of Rodríguez to the ranks of the PSOE. “I do not see Jorge giving the government to the PP. I would be wrong if it is the other way around. I don't see any sign of that”, assures a source very close to Bielsa, who believes that the bases have already been laid “for a horizon of mutual trust”. “We believe that a progress agreement is possible in which they share all those things that unite us, such as municipalism, equality, policies for the people, which we have always defended”. The resolution to the unknown, before the week of July 17, when the constitution of the Provincial Council of Valencia and its president is elected.