The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, tried last Saturday to take the political reins of the DANA disaster which cost more than 200 lives and will cost millions of euros in repairs and compensation in the months and years to come . The head of the Consell receives strong criticism from many people involved and the opposition for the delay in launching the emergency intervention and, above all, for the loss of vital time in key hours and the late launch general alarm among the population. October 29 at 8:12 p.m. Saturday morning, around 10:30 a.m., the President of the Government Pedro Sánchez made a public appearance during which he announced a battery of economic, political and logistical measures to combat the disaster and chaos that the municipalities were experiencing affected. The title of Pedro Sánchez’s announcements had the effect of a bomb at the Palau de la Generalitat and dismantled Mazón’s leadership. He presents dozens of measures, 7,000 soldiers and a frigate: “If you need more resources, let the Generalitat ask for them. » It was around 11 a.m. Saturday.
After this appearance by Sánchez, all the predictions in the engine room of disaster management, in the building of the Emergency Coordination Center 112 of L’Eliana, exploded. After 11 a.m., the Minister of Justice, Salomé Pradas, convened the first daily meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi). Around twenty institutions participate in this coordination meeting, from the advisors concerned to the Government Delegation, including emergency teams and State Security Forces and Organs. But when everyone was ready to set off, the meeting was postponed for no reason by the presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana.
Rumors started to spread. Carlos Mazón had locked himself with three of his trusted people in an office of the Emergency Coordination Center. This was its core, the west wing of the Palau de la Generalitat, according to the comparison of the North American series. The West Wing of the White House. Outside this meeting were, among others, the vice-president of the Valencian government, Susana Camarero; the Minister of Justice and legal entity responsible for crisis management, Salomé Pradas; Marciano Gómez, Minister of Health, and the president of the Provincial Delegation of Valencia, Vicente Mompó, who, during the first five days of the crisis, had become a pillar of Mazón in all his public interventions and who appeased the critical mayors with regard to the management of the president. Mostly PP. Emergency technicians, police, Civil Guard, firefighters and the government itself were also excluded from the summit.
Who are the three trusted men with whom Mazón locked himself up to give the most important press conference of his political life? These are three of his regional secretaries at the Presidency of the Generalitat. Those responsible for its engine room and its relations with the press and interest groups. Two professional journalists and an economist holding a national diploma. His right-hand man, José Manuel Cuenca, regional secretary of the Office of the President and who worked at COPE in the Valencian Community; Cayetano García Ramírez, regional secretary of the Presidency, who manages the data and was the architect of its music policy, and Santiago Lumbreras, regional secretary of Institutional Relations and Transparency. Lumbreras was the strongman when Mazón was president of the Provincial Council of Alicante. The meeting began after Sánchez’s appearance and only ended when Mazón decided to go out to appear, after 7 p.m.
Ministers, police officers and other institutions began to worry when they saw that at 2 p.m. – three hours later than expected – the Cecopi had not started and they began to protest. To quell the complaints, Mazón’s press team sent a message to reporters announcing the president’s appearance. “Good afternoon. We inform you that in a few moments the President of the Generalitat will appear at the Emergency Coordination Center of L’Eliana. It was 2:30 p.m. politburo de Mazón was still in meetings and the councilors were still outside.
Members of the emergency teams and security forces returned to work very unhappy with the lack of information due to the delay. The councilors and the president of the Provincial Council, faced with the obvious situation of lack of control and chaos and seeing that they were arrested, decided to leave the emergency building and go visit the affected areas. The Minister of Justice, who on paper is the one managing the crisis, left in an emergency vehicle. First in Utiel, where he walked the streets with the mayor, Ricardo Gabaldón, and then in Chiva, where he met the president of the Foral Deputation, as can be seen on his personal social networks. It was 5 p.m. and Mazón was still locked up with his team.
This newspaper published information at 5:14 p.m. warning of the situation in Cecopi, reported without any explanation and without news from Mazón. It was only after 7 p.m. that the President of the Generalitat appeared before the media to announce his package of measures to deal with the crisis. Alone, wearing a light blue Yves Saint Laurent shirt and without the red emergency vest he had worn since the start of the crisis. In this appearance without questions, Mazón finally attempted to take political command and position himself as the organizer of the response to the tragedy.
It did not go unnoticed in his party or among Vox partners that he appeared alone during this appearance. Like Sánchez did. Until now, the president had always made his public appearances with the president of the Provincial Deputation of Valencia, the Minister of Justice and the provincial fire chief, José Miguel Basset. “It was a communicative disaster, he appeared with an outfit that seemed to come from the cinema and not from a crisis of the first magnitude,” explains a source who experienced the uncertainty of 112. There are already voices in the party. who call into question the selection of Carlos Mazón’s emergency team. After closing on Saturday, also from its communications team.
The appearance at the 112 emergency center in Santiago Lumbreras this Saturday was striking. Lumbreras had not been seen in these facilities in the first days of the disaster, from Tuesday to Friday. Those who were close to the president were Cuenca and Cayetano García. García has been seen quite nervous these days, with even moments of obvious agitation. The cries are not strange in these tense days in the crisis management engine room. Cuenca, of a more serious character, took charge of being close to the president in the moments when Pedro Sánchez or Minister Grande-Marlaska were, as can be seen in the photograph that illustrates this news.
Currently, three men support the figure of Mazón. Neither the party, nor the Consell, nor its partners. Alone facing danger are the friends of the Alicante clan, as they are called in journalistic circles.
