“Thanks to God and to the unspeakable Francisco Franco, who diverted the course of the Turia; Otherwise it would also have been the capital of Valencia. With these words, the former president of Madrid Esperanza Aguirre spoke about the tragedy of DANA in the Valencian Community. Aguirre believes that without the dictator, the floods would have been worse.
Aguirre also took advantage of his press statements this week to attack the government and explicitly demand the resignation of Defense Minister Margarita Robles. “I do not support violence at all, but the indignation of these people is understandable,” said the former “popular” president about the altercations and attacks against President Pedro Sánchez this weekend in Paiporta. “The Minister of Defense, in my opinion, had to resign immediately,” Aguirre emphasized, criticizing the actions of the executive in this crisis.
Esperanza Aguirre believes that the Valencian Community should have “sent the army and not the UME”. “Instead of JEMAD being in charge of all this, they put that of the UME, which does not need to have this knowledge,” launched the former leader. “The government, or its partners, do not want to see soldiers in uniform with the Spanish flag in the streets, and it is a shame, it is a national shame,” he criticized in statements to the media .
“It is the autonomous community which directs the emergency”
The general in chief of the Military Emergency Unit, Francisco Javier Marcos, came last week to explain the operation and the steps followed after the DANA crisis. “At alert level 2, the one who directs the emergency is the autonomous community, the one who decides where we go or where we do not go is the community. It is the emergency director who tells us where to act, and we did it with discipline. “I can deploy and mobilize my men but I cannot enter until the emergency director of the Generalitat authorizes me,” Marcos then emphasized.
The head of the UME explained that the battalions available in Valencia had been prepared since Tuesday October 29, the day of the floods. “The day the emergency broke out, the EMU was monitoring the situation. I have two legal tools: early warning and early deployment. When I saw what could happen, I used both of these tools. I ordered all soldiers of battalion number 3 located at the Jaime I base in Valencia to go to their posts. 500 perfectly equipped soldiers. I ordered the deployment so they would be ready. From the time I gave the order until they left it took 15 minutes. As soon as the Generalitat gave us the green light, we were in the emergency zone within minutes,” he explained.
“As soon as I saw what could happen, I alerted 1,000 soldiers and as soon as we had the green light to intervene in the rest of the province, 1,000 soldiers were deployed so that the people of Valencia could see on Wednesday At dawn we were there,” he continued. “It is true that we did not intervene quickly because the weather prevented us from doing so and for a question of order and discipline: we could not add chaos to a truly chaotic situation,” he stressed, referring to the fact that they were awaiting orders from the community chaired by Carlos Mazón.
In the last hours it has also been learned that Mazón’s team requested help from the UME during the fourth appeal of the government and after rejecting it three times on the day of the DANA; It was only after 2 p.m. that the Valencian Minister of Justice and Interior, Salomé Pradas, accepted the state resources, although initially limited to the Utiel area.
