The suspense surrounding the appointment of Juanfran Pérez Llorca as the PP candidate for the Generalitat may not be due to Génova’s reservations about the former mayor of Finestrat, which it undoubtedly has. And not because he does not fit the anthropomorphic profile of a dryland shark or fierce panther, which are so prevalent in the party. Nor is it due to the dossiers that have circulated with his name regarding some ugly matter (photovoltaic or not) that could explode in the middle of the campaign or compromise his position if he obtains it. Not even the organic caution to keep Paco Camps inactive and without room for maneuver until it is irreversible. Nor the many interpretations to which the score of this operetta lends itself. Perhaps it was just what it seemed: an end in itself, suspense to keep the audience in suspense in the absence of a play. That is, not to transform the passive spectator into a participant in the play, but to turn intrigue into the plot, since there was no other play than the suspense itself nor a better electoral poster. Because, after all, the PP (with María José Catalá entrenched on the town hall balcony to resist the siege of Mónica Oltra and Pilar Bernabé) has no replacement piece.
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So Pérez Llorca is the problem and the solution. Or he is the least problematic solution for an organization with all its parameters and expectations dragged through the mud and the 232 victims of the dana and that bets its survival on exogenous causes. Another thing is whether the former mayor, with his rustic charm (due to his ability to exude the inherited thermal bad vibes from Carlos Mazón and create cooled sensations), can guarantee the party’s victory at the polls and retain the Generalitat. Going in tow behind the Génova and Bambú demolition and wrecking joint venture when your public services are chipping away and the treasury hits rock bottom may give the impression of uniformly accelerated movement, but at the back you swallow a lot of dust, you remain a lump, and uncertainty becomes thicker. And it would seem that Pérez Llorca is not entirely confident either, judging by the gravitational waves emanating from the Generalitat and its surroundings in recent days. A candidate convinced of his abilities and the certainty of his victory does not need to resort to knife fights in the final stretch of the legislature. No, unless the tailwind fails and the polls do not share his expectations.
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In one week, the Valencian PP has put all its classic resources on the agenda and under the spotlight to erode the opposition and has raised the tone. While turning its back on other victims, it pulled out of the hat the first Day of Victims of Terrorism in the Valencian Community, digging into the retroactive well of pain caused by ETA, but with a sidelong glance at EH Bildu’s support for the PSOE. Or, while putting obstacles in the teaching of the native language and disregarding its co-official status, it pulled out of the hat an alleged campaign by Compromís against the Fallas and Valencian, and has put all its talkers to chew once again the insipid and over-chewed gum of anti-Catalanism. And since in politics coincidences are never unforeseen, the Anti-Fraud Agency, led by Eduardo Beut (it seems he was not appointed to “dynamite the institution,” as the opposition feared, but to sharpen it), began to spread hints after its investigations into the years of the Botànic. All this while a provincial bigwig resorted to insults (crude, not like those of Cicero or the Spanish Golden Age) and the regional radio gave free rein to its most fetid and offensive hyperventilators to question the mental health of the President of the Government of Spain. And, with that, discredit the regional radio itself. What’s the point of so much suspense if in the end it is despair that is taking control?