Twelve days after the tragedy, with the urban landscape still painted with the brown of mudwith corpses in the morgue waiting to be buried, with doctors performing autopsies, with dozens of missing people to save…
Twelve days later, with hundreds of people temporary accommodation after their homes were razed, with dozens of buildings without drinking water and without electricity, with thousands of professionals and volunteers covered in mud since sunrise to save time and facilitate the return to a certain normality.. .
Only twelve days later, with a country of mourningthere was a demonstration in Valencia.
It was a massive demonstration. We said it would be a silent demonstrationout of consideration for the victims. Many came with this spirit. They wanted to show solidarity with the victims and respectfully express their discomfort with the management of the disaster.
But there were also those who wanted to settle scores. “Massassins” was shouted. Which shows that there are already those who have judged and condemned without us knowing it, to this day, more than interested versions of each other. When a judicial investigation into complex events has not yet been opened. When, in any case, only twelve days have passed.
The syllogism is easy for some. If the culprits of the 11-M attacks were not, in essence, the terrorists, but rather Aznar, due to his foreign policy, why is it not Mazón who is responsible for the nearly 250 deaths caused by the floods, and not an avalanche of water greater than the flow of the Nile suddenly descend the Poyo ravine?
The same left that blames the right for introducing the ETA murders into the political debate is ruthless when it comes to throw the dead in his face.
Saturday’s demonstration was a demonstration fake. The goal of those who capitalized on it was not to support the victims, but to transform the pain and social outrage – which are real and need to be purged of responsibilities – into fuel against PPand ensure that in the public debate we stop talking about the Valencia problem and start talking about the Feijóo problem.
They took these hostages They came with a different mind to concentration.
In their manifesto, organizers accuse Mazón of putting “the lives of workers” in danger for “not compromise the interests of business and the profits of capital“If there were no more than two hundred dead this statement would be laughable, but in these circumstances it is contemptible.
After Saturday’s demonstration, there are also those who argue that it must be heard the voice of the people. This sudden interest in the hustle and bustle of the street is surprising. Where were your exegetes all these years?
What is the real city? The one who forced Sánchez to take refuge in Paiporta, or the one who attacked thirty agents at the gates of Valencia City Hall and vandalized the facade of the Palau de la Generalitat?
What if it was “perfectly organized ultra groups” who, in Paiporta, received the delegation of authorities with sticks and mud, right?How the President of the Government defines the violent demonstrators in Valencia? Will he also do everything possible to stop her?
In the enormous catastrophe that Valencia suffered, it appeared a glimmer of hope. People come together despite their differences. We see it every day in the streets of Paiporta, Catarroja, Massanassa, Benetússer, Alfafar, Chiva, Utiel…
Whose trade was swept away by the flood We don’t ask them for their beliefs or ideology to lend a hand.. Anyone who arrives with a rake or shovel from anywhere in Spain is not asked to explain who they are voting for. It seems unnecessary to have to say it, but we have reached such a level of deterioration of coexistence.
This feeling of brotherhood It is dangerous for those who need and live from confrontation.
The most corrosive aspect of Saturday’s demonstration is therefore its trying to polarize and divide even in the worst of misfortunes. It is no coincidence that one of the promoters was a pro-independence entity. Faced with the defense of “the State in its fullness” demanded by the King, there are still those who would prefer the taifa in its withdrawal into itself.
Then there is the fight for history. Criticisms of the Mazón government, logical and deserved in some cases, have intensified since Saturday, even in a press that could be considered close to the right.
It is not the aim of this article to go into detail to defend or criticize the decisions of politicians, nor to determine where the responsibilities of regional authorities begin and those of the central government end. But some things stand out.
Mazón has been at the head of the Generalitat for a little over a year. If a natural disaster like the one we have just experienced was in the specialists’ calculations, as we see today, What have previous governments done?
It is regrettable that the works that helped avoid a major tragedy in Valencia were built in the 60s and 70s of the last century, such as the new bed of the Turia river or the Forata dam. This doesn’t speak well of Franco, as some nostalgic people are quick to point out – at the time too, most of the flood zones that were flooded were urbanized – but speaks very poorly of leaders who have done nothing for half a century.
In 2004, Zapatero paralyzed work to build a reservoir in Cheste that could have minimized the tsunami that engulfed the Valencia metropolitan area. During the almost seven years of Sánchez’s government, and despite the warnings of mayors, the prevailing thesis that there is no need to undertake cleaning of the canals of boulevards and ravinesconsidering it a harsh and anti-ecological intervention. Let them explain it now to those affected by the flood.
Mazón’s delay in joining the DANA crisis cabinet, his confusing explanations and his contradictions are called into question. Also its poor management of resources. Let’s assume these criticisms are true. ¿Where was the sector minister in the face of the biggest natural disaster in recent Spanish history? It took him ten days to speak publicly. Ten days during which she prepares for her landing in Brussels as vice-president of the European Commission.
The Valencian government is criticized for having informed the population late thanks to the mobile phone alert system. Since the devastating effects on buildings and infrastructure could not be avoided, warning citizens in advance could have saved lives. This is the big question to clarify.
But there are two questions here that the Sánchez government has not yet clarified and which are essential. Why did the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, telephone the advise of the Interior to warn him of the high risk of rupture of the Forata dam and did not call him to warn him of the mass of water that was rushing from the interior of the province towards the coast? Actually, The cell phone alarm was sent because of the risk of the dam collapsing and not because of the flooding..
The other crucial question is why the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar He only gave information to the Emergency Department about the situation in the Poyo ravine at 6:46 p.m.despite the fact that it had data since 5 p.m. indicating a risk of overflow.
Valencians are already looking with suspicion at other precedents of natural disasters, such as the Lorca earthquake or the eruption of the La Palma volcano, for which help has not yet arrived. The state continues to drag its feet after years of complaints. We now find ourselves in a case where the territory and especially the population affected are much larger.
Sixty kilometers from Valencia, on the banks of the Júcar River, is the Cofrentes nuclear power plant, which houses the most powerful reactor in Spain for producing electricity. I hope this never happens, but in the event of an accident, would it be too much to ask the president of the country not to tell the Valencian president that “he is ready to help” and that “If you need more resources, ask for them.“?
