The European PP fears that the protests on the Dana tarnish their Congress in Valencia: « doing it there has been a big mistake » | Spain

Despite having planned it as a boost to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Congress of the European Popular Party (PPE) held in Valencia next week has become an uncomfortable convention and full of risk to the PP. The PP leader is hosting the popular European in the Mediterranean city at a time of maximum tension in the EU for the Donald Trump’s tariff war and the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. But it is not those large -scale challenges, but a domestic issue that threatens to tarnish Congress. The event runs the risk of being overshadowed by protests by the victims of the Dana in which 228 people died just six months ago and for the cumbersome presence of the emergency chillion, the president Carlos Mazón. The bewilderment travels to the PPE, where some leaders believe that having maintained Congress in Valencia has been « a big mistake. »

Eurodiputados of that group of other countries ask their Spanish colleagues in Brussels these days: « But why are we going to Valencia? And why do you think there may be problems? Didn’t you say that the head of the Dana had been Teresa Ribera? » In the community capital everyone learned of the catastrophe because the Spanish PP was responsible for raising it to a European issue. Last November, shortly after the cold drop, Feijóo gave order to veto the appointment of the former ecological transition vice president, Teresa Ribera, as the first vice president of the European Commission. The PP sought to hold the socialist policy of floods responsible for the argument that the state supervision agencies did not provide sufficient information to the Generalitat Valenciana, something that has later dismantled the judge of Catarroja (Valencia) that instructs the judicial case.

Feijóo brought the challenge to the end and voted against the team of Ursula von der Leyen, of the PPE himself, very angry with the German because she had granted a lot of political weight to Ribera, which she chose as number two. The tension was maximum at that time within the PPE. But the socialist was chosen.

Now, with the story of the PP unbalanced by the judge of Catarroja, the shadow of the Dana will be very present in the Congress of the Popular European. The appointment coincides with the anniversary of the sixth month of the tragedy and with the inevitable participation of Carlos Mazón, president of the Generalitat Valenciana, whom Feijóo has been avoiding months, although he has maintained support in front of the Government.

As the highest local authority, Genoa will allow Mazón to intervene in the welcome greeting of Congress – not more than two minutes – but has diluted its presence by appearing at the same level as the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, who will also make the initial greeting. The governor is for most in the PP the next successor of the President, andaccording to the work plan that the country has accessed, also intervenes in a round table on the regions in Europe, something that does not do Mazón. « It is a disaster. It is best to solve the presence of Mazón in the most natural way possible, because if not yet worse, » says a popular leader who reveals the discomfort that travels to the party for the annoying presence of his regional baron.

The main risk of Congress is the manifestations of those affected by the DANA, which are expected in the surroundings of the conclave. Genoa is confident that the Government Delegation (in the hands of the PSOE) has designed a device that preserves a security distance between the European protests and leaders who attend, such as the president of the European Commission and other European prime ministers, including German Foreign Minister Friedrich Merz. « The left is very good filling the streets and very badly putting votes at the polls, » they ironize in the direction of the PP, where they emphasize that, according to the surveys, the PSOE is not collecting the wear of the Mazón crisis.

The problem splashes also European leaders. The associations of victims of the Dana have sent a letter to von der Leyen in which they ask that, taking advantage of their presence in Valencia, expresses a public conviction against the « negligent » Mazón management and claims to Feijóo to dismiss it. « It is very difficult to go to a city in which people have lost their lives and houses in some floods to celebrate our political victories. It is a big mistake, » regrets a PPE leader. Several prime ministers of the popular political family have canceled their assistance, including one of the most relevant, the Polish Donald Tusk, who has argued medical reasons.

González Pons, weakened

The Congress of the popular European will also imply organic movements in the Spanish PP, in which, according to internal reading, Esteban González Pons will be weakened. Dolors Montserrat, main adversary of the Valencian politician, with whom it is barely spoken, will be elected general secretary of the PPE, the main position below the president of the party, Manfred Webber. In compensation with that rise of Montserrat, in the PP it is expected that González Pons replaces it as head of the Spanish PP delegation in Brussels, which would also make him the spokesman. However, popular sources estimate that it will be Montserrat and not González Pons who intervenes in the important debates in the Eurocamara.

González Pons would still lose more gallons with the following movement that is considered in the PP. The fact that, according to different popular sources, loses shortly after the Deputy Secretary of Institutional Policy in the Directorate of Feijóo, with the argument that it must focus on the tasks of Brussels. The remodeling is expected in the Executive Committee of the PP convened for May 12.

González Pons has been losing Comba in the PP, among other reasons, due to the strategic error that the European Congress is celebrated in Valencia, a personal effort of his as a Valencian. In the European PP they still wonder why the Spaniards did not want to change the location when the tragedy happened. The debate opened in Brussels, a few days after the floods, but the popular Spanish then rejected a transfer, trusting that, by the end of April, the political crisis would have loved.

It was not so, already early March, just seven weeks from Congress, the Spanish PP tried in extremis Move the conclave to Madrid. González Pons was in charge of asking for it at an internal meeting, in which he recognized before his party colleagues: « We have to take out the Congress of Valencia and take it to Madrid because we have a problem with Mazón, we do not know where the day of the Dana was, and apparently it was where it had to be. »

The transfer was then tried, but with all the reserves already paid, the extra cost of the change amounted to more than 300,000 euros, as estimated from inside doors, which was requested to pay the Spanish PP. Genoa refused to pay the European penataries and the leaders will land, despite all the inconveniences, this Tuesday, April 29 in Valencia, just the same day that at least 227 people lost their lives in the worst natural catastrophe in the history of the community.