“The emergency protocols of the Valencian Community are very clear.” This is how strongly Carlos Mazón spoke in 2022, when he led the opposition to the regional president at the time, the socialist Ximo Puig. Although, after the catastrophic DANA of October 29, the Valencian PP categorically questioned the emergency protocols due to the late sending of the massive alert to cell phones in the affected areas, Mazón said ago just two years exactly the opposite. The general secretary of the Valencian PP and spokesperson for the popular parties in the regional Parliament, Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, interviewed in In Punt this Tuesday the “alert protocols” and declared that “perhaps they are not enough to prevent” a phenomenon of the magnitude of the DANA of October 29.
On August 16, 2022, a Renfe medium-distance train traveling between València and Zaragoza found itself stuck near Bejís, a municipality in the Alto Palancia region of Castellón, in the middle of a fire. Despite the fire, the departure of the train from Valencia North Station at 4:23 p.m. towards Zaragoza was not prevented. The convoy was trapped in flames at 5:54 p.m. shortly after Caudiel, creating a tense situation which resulted in more than a dozen injuries (three of them seriously), and which could have ended in tragedy without the intervention of the convoy. action of the engineers, who managed to reverse the progress of the convoy and get it out of the fire.
Mazón, during a press appearance 17 days after the events, clearly indicated that the competence of the Emergencies is autonomous. The opposition leader at the time attacked Ximo Puig: “We are very disappointed with the lack of responsibility, decorum and exercise of the powers he has. [el president de la Generalitat]“, he said.
He also stated that “fire protocols [y] The emergency protocols of the Valencian Community are clear and the responsibility for preventing the departure of this train and for warning (…) falls on the Generalitat Valenciana, whose highest official remains silent in response.”
Carlos Mazón appeared on September 1, 2022, supported by Cuca Gamarra, then spokesperson for the PP in Congress, to assess the Bejís fire. The leader of the opposition at the time assured: according to the Efe and Cadena Ser agencywho did not exclude requesting a transcription of the conversation with the command post and demanding that jurists and administrators confirm that “maximum responsibility” for the emergency plan in the Valencian Community lies with the Generalitat, which should have notified so that the train did not leave Valencia.
“What does not suit us, and it certainly does not suit us, is that on such a serious matter the President of the Generalitat remains silent. The first responsibility is what the president of the Generalitat thinks, whether he is going to apologize or not, whether he is going to ratify us or not, that the maximum responsibility for notification lies with the Generalitat Valenciana,” added Mazón in an appearance collected by the Europa Press agency.
During this appearance, Mazón did not rule out going to court until he knows “the truth” about the Bejís fire and “political responsibilities” have been assumed. And he finished by asking, regarding Puig: “What is the reason why we cannot know what he thinks, what is his competence, what is his responsibility and if the president of the Generalitat has any political responsibility?
