I regret betraying reader expectations by directing this article toward a reflection I consider inevitable: the collective need to turn the page on some of the most dramatic afternoons in our modern history. Episodes, despite their undoubted media importance, cannot continue to monopolize current affairs, beyond what the “judicial” truth ultimately determines. I believe that the “imminent” inauguration provides a favorable opportunity to vent and create new time among everyone, which is increasingly necessary if we want to take care of the interests of the people of Valencia with the diligence and professionalism they deserve.
I just saw the documentary production Last call Movistar Plus+ devotes it to the “personal and political journeys” of those who came to power embodying the hope of change and then had to make decisive decisions that marked the course of Spanish politics. It is a revelatory initiative that leads me to think about the enormous value that would accrue from implementing a similar process on a regional basis. It would be useful to know what the President of the Independent Council, Josep Luis Albinana, was going through when he had to give up his institutional leadership due to a lack of support from his party, as a result of the paralysis of the independent commitment assumed for years. Or what Joan Lerma felt when he sacrificed those in his closest circle (Guardiola, Blasco…) in order to preserve his political survival, which the experience of the first coalition government in the communes would put an end to.
It would also be useful to know the intimate balance that led Eduardo Zablana to give up his comfortable – and comfortable – independent mandate in exchange for a secret ministerial portfolio that did not satisfy his insatiable political ambition. Or recall the reflections of Francisco Campes when he had to endure the wrath of President José María Aznar because he dared to open the watermelon of the institutional use of the Valencian language in the administration of the Council (“Declaration of Ares del Maestre”); Or the details of those legal negotiations that, in addition to reaching a consensus with the Socialist People’s Party, had to overcome organic resistance to many of its contents considered unacceptable for the first major regional reform of the 2000s.
Recently, the justification of the strategy that prompted Zemo Puig to advance the date of the regional elections in his first term as President of Botanique was valuable, even at the cost of breaking the confidence of his partner in the government “internally.” Or reconstruct the most complex moments in the management of the pandemic that abuse the fundamental rights of Valencians. Out of respect, I will not ask the state’s hired representative, as he is interrogated daily about his disappearance during the most difficult moments of the Aldana drama and its fatal consequences. Surely we all have these and many other questions to ask those who have been champions of our self-government.
In general, our presidents were “unordained,” unlike their state counterparts. However, some have left a vital mark through dialogue with journalists and media professionals. Eduardo Zaplana did just that with his successful literary show Liberal for change (Ediciones B, 1995) Written by journalist from counties, Rava Mari, who inaugurated political hagiography as a narrative method in society. In other cases, we had to wait for their removal from power: Lerma (Villa Ediciones, 2006), by communications consultant Vicente Lavora Minguet, describes the first president as “Suarez of Valencia,” seizing on the momentum of the transition as a myth; Josep Luis Albiñana, President of the country (Editor El Petit, 2018), by journalist Carles Senso, coordinator of the prestigious foundation Alphonse El Magneim, Notice to Sailors for the Heroes of an Entire Age; also Refocus on Spain (Libros Libres, 2024), by RACV historian and academic Javier Mas, which returns former President Paco Campes to the public scene after his acquittal and the lengthy criminal process he has faced since leaving the State General with the aim of “offering” new glories to Spain.
Among these works Zimo Puig, Morella look (Onada Editions, 2019), by journalist and former politician Manuel Melian Mestre, published at the height of Botànic II and eventually turned into an introduction to the more intimate reflection of the “President Press”: The idea of hope (Terrant Humanidades, 2024), was conceived as a “message of urgency” in the face of what he felt was coming.
So all the former presidents chose the conversational filter of the journalist to relate, in the third person, their visions about the past, present and future of the people of Valencia, as well as assessing the features that characterize their political paths.
It would be desirable, in due course, to be able to bring together all the chiefs of the Valencia region to introduce an exercise in honesty similar to that practiced by their counterparts in the state. It will undoubtedly be a critical analysis of our independence and its true potential, as well as an opportunity to reveal untold secrets that go beyond the well-known “black” hole of El Venturo.
Mariano Vivancos He is Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Valencia.