The spokesman of the Consell, Miguel Barrachina, has harshly criticized the Minister of Science and Universities and leader of the PSPV, Diana Morant, for her "fierce defense" of the "three times indicted" former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. At the same time, he has demanded her resignation for having mentioned Hitler in statements this week when assessing a hypothetical future Executive led by the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, alongside Vox.
Barrachina has spoken this way in the appearance after the plenary of the Valencian government, after Morant clarified this Friday that she did not equate Hitler with Feijóo —as she explained, she made "a parallelism" to question the "racist policies" of the PP and Vox— and reiterated her "respect" for Zapatero, considering that in his first interview after being indicted in the Plus Ultra case he was "very brave, clear, and categorical." The socialist leader has also denounced the "public mockery" that, in her opinion, the former president has suffered since the investigation was opened.
In that television interview last Wednesday, the Minister of Science stated that Feijóo "is drawing" a future coalition Government of PP-Vox that resembles "more and more those criminal governments like that of Hitler." For Barrachina (PP), these are "statements that qualify themselves" and for which Morant "should apologize to the victims of Nazism" and resign from her position.
The also councilor of Agriculture has accused the minister of "trivialization and frivolization" by "comparing Hitler with a president," referring to Feijóo, "beloved and voted in the Comunitat Valenciana and in Spain as is Alberto Núñez Feijóo." Therefore, he has demanded that, if President Pedro Sánchez "is not capable of dismissing Diana Morant, she, logically, must submit her resignation."
Barrachina has gone further and has assured that the leader of the PSPV "is incapable of representing even" the Valencians who supported the PP in the last general elections. "Morant has demonstrated as much accuracy in choosing her phrases as in her collaborators," he pointed out, to again attack her for having placed the "imprisoned" José Luis Ábalos as 'number two' on her list in 2023, for appointing the "indicted" José Mª Ángel as president of the PSPV and the also "indicted" Vicent Mascarell as Secretary of Organization, as well as for "choosing the three times indicted Zapatero as her political father."
In relation to Morant's support for the former president, the spokesman for the Consell has considered that "this staunch defense of his self-appointed political father is inexplicable from the point of view of honesty." "How is it possible to defend someone who boasts of having 1.3 million in undeclared jewelry?" he has raised, emphasizing that the Treasury "would act against any Valencian" who had "jewels of unknown origin."
Barrachina has attributed Morant's support for Zapatero to the "level of servility" of the minister towards Sánchez, which, he said, would have led to her being "designated as a candidate." He also recalled that she reached the general secretariat of the PSPV thanks to the mediation of "the prisoner Santos Cerdán" and Ferraz, when it was initially planned that she would compete in primaries against Carlos Fernández Bielsa and Alejandro Soler.