The last time a president of the Generalitat Valenciana set foot in the Palace of Moncloa was on October 4, 2024. Carlos Mazón had been at the head of the Regional Executive for more than a year and met there for the first and last time. … with the highest representative of the central government, Pedro Sanchezas part of a series of bilateral meetings with their regional counterparts.
Mazón then presented Sánchez with a long list of demands. There were still three weeks before a historic catastrophe, with 230 dead and a multitude of devastated villages in the province of Valencia, would also explode relations between the two administrations, with crossed accusations of their responsibility for the tragedy.
With Mazón out of the picture, his successor at the head of the Consell, Juanfran Pérez Llorcawill once again convey many of these demands to the socialist leader this Wednesday during a meeting planned on the same stage.
Sánchez, in his worst political moment, will receive Llorca after being sworn in as president of the Generalitat. The government emphasizes that this is a protocolary and usual meeting when a change of this type occurs, which is why it separates it from any specific issue. Despite this, this represents progress.
In one year, Sánchez didn’t want to sit down and talk to Mazón -who requested it by letter- despite the fact that both shared other forums, such as the Conference of Presidents, or were 600 meters away, the distance that separates the Palau de la Generalitat from the headquarters of the Government Delegation in Valencia, which the socialist leader visited several times from the ravine. This did not happen with the Ground Zero municipalities, which have not been seen since the altercations in Paiporta a few days after the floods.
The Valencian executive is not very optimistic about the results that can be obtained from this event, which will begin at ten in the morning, but he hopes that it will serve to build bridges. After the meeting, around 11:30 a.m., Pérez Llorca and the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, will appear before the media.
Financing and infrastructure
Juanfran Pérez Llorca will demand from Pedro Sánchez “real and effective cooperation and collaboration” to accelerate post-Dana reconstruction. In this sense, it will affect the need to activate a joint commission -like the one that was launched after the eruption of the La Palma volcano- between the Government, the Generalitat, the town halls, the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FVMP) and the Provincial Deputation of Valencia to coordinate recovery tasks and respond to the requests of the affected municipalities.
Likewise, it will require the reform of the regional financing system – which has expired since 2014 and which places the Valencian Community as the least well financed in Spain – and the establishment of a leveling fund until this takes place.
The head of the Consell will also request a water pact and will put on the table that the Central Executive “does not address historical economic demands in the area of dependency and health of displaced people, in addition to recalling strategic infrastructures such as the Mediterranean Corridor and the rail connection of the Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández airport with the cities of Alicante and Benidorm.
In the same vein, Llorca wants to take advantage of his visit to Moncloa to ask Sánchez to “respect” the laws approved by PP and Vox in the Valencian Cortes to which the government has appealed.
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