Overview
- The Diari Oficial de la Generalitat Valenciana published the appointment on Thursday, July 30, naming Simeón (David) Vercher Bravo as a personal eventual driver for Ximo Puig with a reported annual salary of about €40,000–€43,000.
- Puig currently serves as Spain’s ambassador to the OECD in Paris and already has an official car there, which critics say increases the optics problem of funding a driver in Valencia for an ex‑president who lives and works abroad.
- Opposition parties PP, Vox and Compromís publicly denounced the hire as nepotistic while the PSPV defended it as a lawful, freely designated post and pointed to similar practices across parties.
- The appointment rests on a 2002 statute that grants former Valencian presidents a lifelong office, two advisers, a driver and an official car paid by the regional administration, a law that critics say lacks clear rules on duties and oversight.
- Reporting has highlighted related costs—the ex‑president office’s 2025 outlays were reported at about €187,073—and the case has prompted renewed calls to review the statute and improve transparency even though no legal challenge or administrative reversal has been reported.