Carlos Mazón is set to return to the courtroom in two months. The opening general assembly session of 2024, featuring the president’s first control session, recalls the debate held at the same headquarters nearly nine years ago on February 26, 2015. Back then, Alberto Fabra, serving as president of the Generalitat, presided over a moment when all the interrogators and debaters around the president were men. That same dynamic is anticipated this Wednesday.
The regional parliament resumes its duties after a January break, and it does so with a midweek checkout session instead of the usual Thursday schedule. Two new faces, José Muñoz and José María Llanos, will participate in a discussion with Mazón, representing the PSPV and Vox respectively.
Muñoz and Llanos’ debut
Both leaders have led their groups for more than a month, but no check-in sessions have taken place yet. Their debut before the president is now anticipated for this Wednesday.
Muñoz and Llanos will step into the roles previously occupied by Rebeca Torro and Ana Vega during the November 30 debate. In the past, the PP and the Compromís representatives Miguel Barrachina and Joan Baldoví served as ombudsmen. Since 2015, women have not spoken from the podium in the control session, and this session will mirror that historical pattern with female voices asking questions from the floor while the chair remains male.
In Fabra’s last control session, Jorge Bellver represented the PP, Anthony Torres spoke for the PSPV, Enric Morera for Compromís, and Ignacio Blanco served as the ombudsman for Esquerra Unida after a recent replacement, Marga Sanz. The former EU coordinator was the only woman to hold a trustee role during this legislature and the preceding one.
Another notable shift in the first control session of 2024 is that the PP will not present questions to Mazón. Since the legislature began, Popular Party members have used their speaking slots to initiate debates during plenary sessions. They will not do so in this instance. The party stated that such interventions will occur only on very rare or exceptional occasions, and that the next one will not be this case. Consequently, no questions were recorded.
Other groups will raise questions. The Socialists will query the president about the PSPV and Vox’s assessment of the government’s policies in the first six months. Compromís will ask about the non-payment of teachers and civil servants, and whether there was a significant computer error in regional management. Vox will inquire why the Generalitat recommended an audit of instrumental control in the public sector. A single Generalitat call would be unlikely to alter the stance of its partners.
President to meet with Catalan businessmen in March
The president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, will embark on his first business mission to Catalonia. On March 13, the major Catalan employers’ association will host an event organized by Foment del Treball at the Generalitat’s request, with Mazón meeting various Catalan business leaders in a format yet to be finalized. This trip comes amid reports that Catalonia could access water from the Sagunto desalination plant to cope with a severe drought.
Opposition leaves PP and Vox alone ahead of Israeli embassy video
The video was eventually shown to a partisan audience, notably one aligned with the political right. PSPV and Compromís left PP and Vox to proceed without their opposition during the Israeli embassy’s video on Hamas attacks on October 7. The president of the regional parliament, Llanos Massó of Vox, allowed Israel’s diplomacy presence in the hall for a special session of a video deemed propaganda by the opposition. Massó did not participate. Five PP MPs joined, along with Vox ombudsman José María Llanos and his deputy Joaquín Alés, all without using cell phones in the chamber.
Attribution: information gathered from regional parliamentary proceedings and public statements by the parties involved. (Source: Valencian Government and corresponding party records.)