Francisco Camps, former president of the Generalitat, has stepped up calls for a regional congress within the Partido Popular (PP) of the Comunitat Valenciana, warning that the party’s interim management body will automatically dissolve on July 14. Citing the party’s statutes, Camps argues that the end of the current caretaker committee’s six-month mandate could leave the regional PP without formal leadership or structure.
At a press conference in Valencia, Camps urged the national PP leadership not to leave the regional branch “defenseless and without organization.” He said he was confident that party president Alberto Núñez Feijóo and secretary general Miguel Tellado would follow internal rules and convene a congress instead of appointing a candidate for the regional presidency from Madrid. Camps said the party’s statutes require a congress to resolve leadership disputes, and that bypassing the process would deepen what he described as an “absolute anomaly.”
The national PP headquarters in Madrid has set July 18 as the date to announce candidates for mayoralties in provincial capitals, but decisions on regional presidential candidates, including for the Comunitat Valenciana, are expected only after the summer. The delay has fueled uncertainty and frustration among local party members, particularly with the next regional elections scheduled for May 2027.
Camps says he has secured the backing of 80% of potential delegates for a hypothetical congress. He stressed that he wants an open contest, not a direct nomination, and said he would accept defeat “with complete sportsmanship” if he lost a fair vote. He also questioned why some local leaders appear reluctant to face a vote, suggesting that avoiding a congress could signal a lack of confidence in grassroots support.
During his appearance, Camps presented results from a new poll he commissioned. They indicate that while the PP and Vox are gaining ground nationally, the PP in Valencia has been losing support since July 2023, with Vox making inroads. Describing himself as “deeply concerned” about the party’s trajectory in the region, he warned that further delays could weaken its position.
Despite repeated appeals, the national leadership has yet to set a date for the congress. Camps said he had gathered the required 300 endorsements from party members within 48 hours in May and expected the congress to be called by the end of June. With that deadline passed, he renewed his demand for “equal footing” with Juanfran Pérez Llorca, the caretaker committee’s current president and sitting president of the Generalitat, and reiterated his intention to stand as a candidate.
Asked about Camps’s challenge at an event in Benicàssim, Pérez Llorca said he respects Camps as a former president but declined to comment further on the internal contest or the timing of the congress.
Developments later in October sharpened the contrast between Camps’s call for an internal vote and the party’s focus on electoral organization. By late October, the national and regional leaderships had made clear that a PPCV congress would not take place, while Camps continued to demand one. The party leadership described his return to a leading role as effectively ruled out.
Meanwhile, the PP moved ahead with campaign appointments and candidate selection. Gerardo Camps, a senator and former vice-president of the Consell, was appointed spokesperson for the Valencian campaign and regional coordinator after the election timetable was brought forward. He joined meetings of the PPCV’s interim management body alongside Pérez Llorca, Carlos Gil and César Sánchez, giving the party an operational campaign structure while the regional leadership dispute remained unresolved.
Candidate speculation gave way to formal decisions. On October 23, at a rally attended by about 1,500 people at the Palau de les Arts in València, Feijóo appeared with Pérez Llorca, María José Catalá and Vicente Mompó. The PP designated Catalá to head its Congress list in Valencia, Elena Albalat in Castellón and Macarena Montesinos in Alicante. A day earlier, Susana Camarero, Gerardo Camps and Esteban González Pons had all been discussed as possible contenders for the Valencia ticket. Feijóo said at the rally that “the Comunitat will benefit most from a change in Spain’s government.”
The sequence shows the distinction between the unresolved question of regional party leadership and the candidate choices made by the national organization. While Camps continued to press for a congress and a membership-based contest, the PP leadership moved ahead with campaign coordination and provincial parliamentary lists.
The situation in Valencia reflects wider debates in Spanish politics about party democracy and candidate selection. Recent developments in the region have drawn attention, with other political figures, including Mónica Oltra, also calling for open platforms and broader coalitions in local politics. For example, Compromís’s recent endorsement of Oltra as a mayoral candidate highlights the shifting field and the importance of internal party processes ahead of the 2027 elections.
Regional congresses are a basic mechanism in Spanish party politics for resolving leadership disputes and giving members a say. In the PPCV, but, the late-October decisions showed the party moving ahead with electoral preparations without reopening the regional leadership question. Camps’s demand for an open contest remains at odds with a centrally managed approach to appointments and candidate selection, with consequences for party unity and its prospects in the Comunitat Valenciana.
