Ribera says he followed DANA to Brussels busy promoting his candidacy but his diary was empty

These same sources from his entourage assure that Ribera He also took care of “matters of his department” during his stay in Brussels. “He worked and was reachable at any time,” they say.

In fact, a Ribera spokesperson adds that: “worried,” she posted a tweet at 12:45 p.m. calling for “maximum caution” and continued his personal campaign. And “from 7:30 p.m., he called Carlos Mazón several times”although he was only able to contact him later.

In any case, the Poyo ravine, responsible for the tragedy, had already been destroyed. overwhelmed three quarters of an hour before.

Moreover, According to Mazón’s version, what Teresa Ribera says is “manipulation”. The president assures that he was “without coverage at CECOPI” and that the vice-president only contacted him at 8:20 p.m., “after sending the massive alert” on cell phones. PP sources assure that “Ribera lies to clean up her image, after being hidden for eleven days”since the tragedy.

The truth is that, that day, the official agenda of the head of AEMET and the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (CHJ) seemed empty. And that the only meetings held on October 29, according to his version, were the linked to the examination to which the European Parliament will submit it next Tuesday.

The sources of the third vice-president of the government (and candidate for the post of first vice-president of the Commission) add that at 4:15 p.m. she coincided with the popular MEP. Dolors Montserrat, with whom he “spoke for a few minutes”.

Denial

But the head of the PP delegation to the European Parliament also “firmly” denied this assertion. In statements to this newspaper, Montserrat assures that Ribera was not found “at that time”, but around 5:20 p.m.. “I found it very strange to meet her in Brussels and more at this time, during green week“, that is to say without activity in the European Parliament.

Additionally, Montserrat He denies having spoken “for a few minutes”. According to the PP MEP, “it was a brief and fortuitous greeting at the turnstile at the entrance to the European Parliament”, where they crossed paths. Ribera entered at that time and Montserrat left the facility.

The Minister of Ecological Transition, finally, He only returned to Spain the next dayalready October 30.

Although there was connected telematically to the crisis committee organized in Moncloa, according to information sent by the Secretary of State, already after 11:00 p.m. on Tuesday 29. A day later, in the afternoon, he went to the AEMET headquarters to follow the evolution of DANA, as shown in the image that illustrates this information.

“Minister DANA hidden”

Montserrat was particularly unworthyin his conversation with EL ESPAÑOL, for having served as an alibi for Ribera.

“If the vice president resides with such basic information because it is a simple greeting between two people who pass each other”, he adds, “especially in everything he will lie during his hearing next week in Parliament“.

In fact, Ribera was accused of being “Minister DANA” by the Popular Party opposition. And at the initiative of the PP, the deputies of the European People’s Group criticized her for being “hidden” since the day of the tragedy. Until this Friday evening, when he allowed himself to be interviewed on Ser.

But “even before that”, adds a PP source in Madrid: the third vice-president was absent from the government control sessions in Congress. since September 24. It was during the first weeks of autumn that the cross-negotiations for the confirmation of the elected commissioners intensified.

Ribera was already preparing a hearing difficult on November 12 in Brussels. For their six-year management in Spain, which they describe as “ideological dogmatism” and focused on the “devastating consequences for the primary sector”. But from now on, some of the questions will be diverted to topics such as policy of “minimum intervention” in the chains to preserve them “in their natural state”.

Several mayors, including that of Algemesí, have repeatedly asked the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (CHJ) “drainage”, “piping” and “cleaning” of the Magro river, beyond the Forata dam, and the Poyo ravine, the two tragic points of the last 29-O. All this is planned in the CHJ Flood Plan, but never attacked.

The People’s Party threatens to bring her down next Tuesday as vice-president of the European Commission. “Anyone who has pursued pernicious policies does not represent Spain worthily. And someone who lies like that will not have our support“.

It remains to be seen whether the Spanish People’s Party will exert the force necessary for the European PP, the majority group in the European Parliament, to force the blockade of the community executive.

Day in Brussels

According to the ministerial sources cited, after his tweet of 12:45 p.m.“concerned by AEMET alerts”, Ribera met at 2:30 p.m. with European parliamentarians. Although official sources do not provide further details.

After the meeting/conversation/greeting with Montserrat, Ribera maintained a meeting with a person from the Directorate General for Competitionwhich is part of his possible portfolio as future commissioner.

Finally, at 6:00 p.m. He met officials from the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the European trade union confederation. Although there is no evidence of this in official publications or on social media from the ETUC or its general secretary, Esther Lynch.

Explains the environment of the Minister of AEMET and CHJ who, based on the 7:30 p.m. He called President Mazón’s telephone number several times.“but he didn’t answer the calls.”

At that time, the Poyo ravine had already caused a huge tragedy. And at CECOPI there was a discussion on the advisability of sending the mass alert to cell phones, after the Secretary of State, Hugo Morancalled from Colombia to warn that another disaster was “imminent” due to the rupture of the Forata dam. Although the infrastructure held, there was consensus within the coordination center to issue the Es-Alert, which was sent at 8:11 p.m.

In this regard, Dolors Montserrat concludes his argument by emphasizing that if Mazón is accused of not having properly carried out his duties on a day of maximum alert, “Stronger” is that of Ribera, who spent the 48 hours preceding the tragedy outside Spain: On Monday the 28th, he was already in Paris on an official trip, on the 29th he went to Brussels and did not return until Wednesday.

AEMET had alerted, at least five days previously, of a particularly aggressive DANA.

And if this pushes the government and the PSOE to accuse the Valencian president of “negligence”, for Montserrat, this is still the case. more striking than “Ribera kept his trip to Brussels” to carry out his personal campaign, “being responsible for AEMET and flow control”. Or what “his secretary of state was in Colombia and president Sánchez in India”.

The call and the return

He finally managed to locate him using his chief of staff’s cell phone and “they spoke briefly”, according to the ministry’s version.

The conversation between Ribera and Mazón, if it took place, “was brief.” She moved it to president their “willingness to help” and their concern. And he apologized for not having answered her calls when, busy, quickly ended the conversation. “It had been agreed to recall her,” add ministerial sources, “but this no longer happened.”

After connecting by video call to the Moncloa emergency committee the next morning, Ribera advances his return to Madrid “on the first available flight on Wednesday 30 at 7:00 a.m.”

According to those around her, the vice-president “had a public agenda that day”. encounter with your team at the Ministry after landing at 9:30 a.m. Participation in the second meeting of the crisis committeein Moncloa. He assembled his team at the ministry. And in the afternoon, “visited the AEMET headquarters in Madrid, a meeting that was reflected on the ministry’s social networks.