There is not a day without new news being published about what happened on October 29, the day of DANA which cost the lives of 214 people in Valencia. Each of them leaves people with a feeling that oscillates between bewilderment and fury. The company that manages telephone 112 was informed shortly after 6 p.m. that an alarm was going to be sent to all cell phones, according to this newspaper. It took over two hours to send it. Members of the emergency committee spent this time debating how to formulate this message, when the flood was already endangering the lives of many Valencians. At that time, a source present at the Cecopi meeting said that some asked that the alert not be “excessively alarming”. What is the point of a warning except that it is alarming, that is, it encourages people to act accordingly?
Carlos Mazón committed an unusual act this Monday. He answered several questions from journalists during a tour of the CV-33 highway works. The Valencian president refused to grant interviews to À Punt, regional television, and to TVE. He preferred to choose more placid appointments. The evening that the Telediario presenter announced on screen that she had rejected several interview offers from TVE, it turns out that Mazón had planned to grant one to Trece, a national channel with low audience and ownership of the Episcopal Conference. Imagine having to explain in detail what you did on the afternoon of the 29th, including your three-hour lunch with a journalist to whom you wanted to offer the management of regional radio and television.
In an interview with a local private network with a trusted journalist last Saturday, Mazón claimed that he was focused on “recovering electricity, water and telephone services” and that he was not spending time time to explain what he had done nor to enter into controversies. “I say this because it seems morally irresponsible to me to respond or defend myself or the Generalitat with such enormous and powerful work, truly urgent and important,” he said with that twisted syntax that characterizes him Today. He may have forgotten it, but not the others. Since the start of the crisis, he has successively targeted the central government with his criticisms or his versions (after having praised their collaboration in front of Pedro Sánchez), the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar, the AEMET, the UME and Teresa Ribera.
Now he suddenly declares that he is not responding to criticism like that sparked by his meal on the 29th because of a question of moral responsibility suddenly posed to him. He has seen the light of day and will not give detailed explanations before his appearance on Thursday in the Valencian Parliament.
Even this Monday, we could see that moral irresponsibility is only a failed trick of a magician whose cards fall from the sleeve of his jacket, to the amazement of the public. “We are all obliged to review the mistakes that might have been made. There is a clear one: not having paid more attention to the Rambla del Poyo, not having had information, which is not the responsibility of the autonomous community,” he said .
First of all, he says that there were errors that will have to be taken into account. But in the next sentence he gives an example of something that wouldn’t be his fault. This is a matter for which the Hydrographic Confederation would be responsible, even if it updates its data for all to see on its website. Once again, Mazón presents himself as the victim. Almost like those 214 people who perished in the flood.
The Popular Party resigned itself to the idea of publicly supporting Mazón. All your alternatives are bad. He cannot disavow him or force his resignation as soon as possible, because that would open the way to a new nomination debate where he is not guaranteed Vox’s support. The possibility of early elections would be suicide in the coming months.
The support for Mazón is real, but without going into details. The party already knew that the behavior of the Valencian president on the day of DANA was going to blow up in its face. It is for this reason that Miguel Tellado declared a few days ago that it was he who had to answer questions about “the agenda of this day”. It was radioactive material that the PP wanted to keep in a box.
Borja Sémper’s press conference on Monday lasted twenty minutes, much less than usual. The national spokesperson had a crazy desire to get it over with as quickly as possible. They asked him about the PP’s direct support for Mazón and Sémper did not make the mistake of insisting too much on that. “We are not going to contribute to confusing Spanish politics,” he said. PP deputies will apply the third degree in Brussels during the interrogation of Teresa Ribera for her exam as European commissioner. This Wednesday in the control session, PP deputies plan to ask ten questions that mention DANA or indirectly refer to it.
If Valencia needs more trucks to remove the sludge from the sewers, it would be good to reserve one to go to Congress that day, because there will be a double ration of sludge.
The response of the Valencian PP on its Twitter account during Saturday’s demonstration shows the extent of the party’s nervousness. The default reaction was to agitate the rejection of the Catalans: “The Catalan entities of the “Països Catalans” are coming to sow trouble and collapse the city of Valencia. » Immediately, they began to blame the Hydrographic Confederation, because “it had warned too late, the ravine was already overflowing”.
To see how out of touch the party leaders were with reality, it is enough to examine the contrast of these messages with the Sunday front page of Las Provincias, the reference newspaper of the Valencian right for decades. “Absolute indignation”, headlined the front page with a photo of the Town Hall Square full of people. If even Las Provincias doesn’t follow you with the accusation internal enemy This is because you are completely lost with your own social support base.
They have to throw someone to the wild beasts to see if it saves Mazón. He keeps walking away. On Monday he declared that “the president of the Generalitat is not a member” of Cecopi, a way of minimizing his absence during decisive hours. The political corpse chosen is that of Salomé Pradas, the Minister of Justice who chaired the Cecopi meeting that day. Las Provincias announced on Saturday that it was “on the exit ramp”. This Monday, he suggested that Pradas refused to be a scapegoat. “Mazón increases pressure on Minister Pradas to resign,” the newspaper said.
At this stage, it is not realistic to hope that the immolation of Pradas, which that day showed several signs of overcoming events, would carry enough weight to make the survival of its boss possible. In the end, it all comes back to Mazón. The president considered the University of Valencia’s decision to suspend classes the day before the floods due to forecasts of heavy rain to be exaggerated. This is a measure that could have saved lives – although it is impossible to know for sure – which is more than can be said of Mazón’s leadership.
People don’t forget that easily. Mazón went to Torrent to announce the circulation of a shuttle bus with which people will be able to get to their work centers. The people who were in the street went to criticize him in front of the cameras for everything he did and especially everything he didn’t do. “People die and you eat,” one man told him. The visit lasted five minutes.
