Carlos Mazón is president of the Generalitat Valenciana, president of the Valencian PP, lawyer and “runner”. This is, at least, how the top Valencian leader defines himself on his social networks, where he merges his political, institutional and citizen profiles. The use that the Valencian president makes of his profiles on Instagram and TikTok, two powerful spaces for young people, the target most coveted by the parties, generates debate every time he makes a publication. The head of the Consell shows everything from how he prepares a paella to how he drinks an horchata, including the control sessions he stars in and the events he presides over as head of the regional government. With DANA, the Valencian leader has intensified propaganda efforts, bordering the limits set by the ethical codes of the Generalitat Valenciana and the institutional advertising law.
The opposition has recently criticized the promotional videos of the president of the Generalitat, especially in the last batch: an audiovisual series that accompanies him on his visit to a block of public housing that is made available to those affected by the floods. The president has broadcast two videos on TikTok and on Instagram in which he shows the apartments and speaks with an affected neighbor, accompanied by the vice president of the Consell and head of Housing, Susana Camarero, and the communication team of the Presidency of the Generalitat. In the video, Mazón says: “We have come to check that everything is fine,” he highlights that the apartment has “a little terrace too,” while the vice president comments “look, everything is fixed.”
The handing over of the keys, in a more formal tone, was announced through a statement from his press office, with photographs and a note posted on the Valencian Administration website. The press release says: “The president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has highlighted that the Valencian Executive, through the Valencian Housing and Land Entity (EVha), has delivered the first 21 homes in the building it has in the Tower (València) to families who lost their home in the flood of October 29″, with which with these properties “there are already 114 families who have been offered a home in the public park of the Generalitat”“.
The dissemination of these actions is prohibited by the institutional advertising law, which affects all acts financed with public money, and also conflicts with the code of good governance of the Generalitat Valenciana, an ethical standard that is mandatory for all senior officials. The law affects advertising carried out by institutions and administrations, but also has as its subjective scope “any advertising campaign or institutional publication financed, in whole or in part, with public money.”
The good government code of the Generalitat indicates that the members of the Executive “will also refrain from organizing public events for the delivery of keys to real estate or similar property by themselves, and these deliveries must be carried out by competent public employees and without public performances.” The law on institutional advertising does not allow advertising “that has as its sole purpose the creation, dissemination or improvement of the notoriety and image of government institutions and public administrations, that is not linked to a specific right, service or activity.” It also indicates that this “must have the purpose of making the rights and services known to citizens.” The institutional canvas, awarded for 17,000 euros to a businessman friend of the president, does not seem to fulfill this purpose either.
The issue is the thin line between person and position, which is constantly mixed in Carlos Mazón’s profile. The act of handing over the keys that citizen Mazón publishes is carried out by the president Mazón. Although she says in the TikTok video “I am here with Susana”, Susana Camarero is the vice president of the Consell and head of Housing, in an act that they carry out as institutional representatives, and they are accompanied by the communication team of the Presidency of the Generalitat, as shown. seen in separate videos broadcast on their profiles.
The question is: Did Mazón employ the Presidency team; that is, public media and resources, for content broadcast on your personal profile? Are the networks of a president those of a president or those of an ordinary citizen? Do you manage your accounts personally or as a team? Is it a team from the Presidency or the Valencian PP? The same dilemma arose in the raffles that the president held in Fallas and in Nou d’Octubre, where Mazón held a raffle with data that citizens had delivered to the Administration, as stated in his privacy policy, for events paid for with money. public.
This Monday, asked about the publications, the vice president of the Consell, head of Housing and spokesperson, denied that it was an act of handing over the keys – which can be seen in the photographs released. Camarero explains that they ran into the neighbor by chance and shared with her “that moment of happiness at having a decent home again.” “The homes were awarded, the homes have not been delivered. “I’m not dedicated to handing out keys,” he said. In the images released by the Presidency, one of the neighbors who has received public housing, who is identified in the video of Mazón’s profile by name and surname, is seen very grateful for the property and happy to meet the president. In the comment that accompanies the president’s publication, he says: “Today we delivered 21 homes.”
The opposition demands that the person in charge of Communication give explanations
The opposition in the Cortes has been blunt with the videos released. The spokesperson for the socialists, José Muñoz, has once again requested the appearance of Mazón’s chief of staff, the regional secretary José Manuel Cuenca, who appears in the images, for a video that is “repugnant from an ethical point of view.” “In addition to being illegal, it cannot be done in accordance with the institutional advertising law, the only thing they demonstrate is Mazón’s moral level and lack of scruples,” says Muñoz, who insists: “We want to denounce that Mazón is using the resources public of all Valencians to try to clean up their image.”
On behalf of Compromís, its spokesperson, Joan Baldoví has reproached Mazón for making “TikToks in an absolutely unworthy, obscene and shameful manner”, when this type of measure “should be done with complete discretion” and has agreed that it violates the Institutional Advertising Law and has indicated that his group in the Cortes will study whether it may have “any consequences.” The PP defends that it was not a public event.
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