The government redoubles its attacks against Mazón and puts pressure on the PP to lift Teresa Ribera’s veto to the EU

Then the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) took over. This organization, which depends on the ministry of Teresa Ribera, assured several media on Saturday that the Cecopi de la Generalitat had delayed by several hours the decision to inform the population, despite the fact that between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on October . On the 29th, they had already activated hydrological alerts due to the possible overflow of the Poyo ravine, the Magro river, the Júcar river and the Forata dam. Cecopi only sent the alert to cell phones at 8:11 p.m.

The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, admitted this Sunday, in an interview with The avant-gardethat the Government considered for 48 hours the possibility of declaring a state of national emergency, taking into account the “signs of confusion” which was issued by the Generalitat Valenciana.

Already before, in an interview with Cuatro, the mayor of Cullera, the socialist Jordi Mairehad suggested that Mazón had not fulfilled his obligations on the day of the tragedy. The mayor felt that he had to give explanations “which He wasn’t where he should have been on the most important day for the Valencians“, he said about the meal with a journalist that the President of the Generalitat had before going to Cecopi on October 29.

In response to these criticisms, President Carlos Mazón demanded this Sunday that “the hoaxes and lies” about his actions stop. He reminded Mayor Jordi Mayor that on the same day, October 29, he spoke with him by telephone. And he wonders why the government didn’t “take command” that same afternoon, if it really knew, through Aemet, that the situation was so serious.

The government announced this Sunday that President Pedro Sánchez would appear before the Congress of Deputies on the 27th, almost a month after the tragedy, to give explanations about his management of DANA.

He will do it “at his own request”, despite the fact that the PP has been demanding his appearance since the 12th. Before, this Wednesday, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, will do it in the same Chamber, including this one. his appointment as European commissioner is threatened due to the PP veto.

Despite the government’s offensive, the PP is ready to go through with its veto in Ribera. The end of the ratification process of candidates for the European Commission is a vote of the whole team during the plenary session of the European Parliament, scheduled for November 28, next week, in Strasbourg.

It is for this reason that the German Von der Leyen insists that “nothing has changed” in her efforts to have a college of commissioners “established and operational since December 1st”. This is their way of putting pressure on the people and the socialists to eliminate their cross vetoes.

The PPE of Manfred Weber blocked Ribera last Tuesday, and the socialists responded by blocking Raffaele Fitto. The Italian is a candidate for economic vice-president and comes from the government of Giorgia Melonileader of the conservatives of the ECR, to whom the PSOE (leader de facto of socialists in Europe) already believes the extreme right.

“15 days ago, all this was impossible,” explains a Spanish PPP source. “And now, not only We have internationalized Ribera’s ineptitude, but Pedro Sánchez’s criticism“And furthermore, what is already clear is that the Spanish president is using Fitto as a safe pass in relation to Ribera’s position.

The decision

“Don’t they reject the extreme right to this extent? Well, let them withdraw their candidate, who is rejected by the majority of the European Parliament…or to prove that your wall “He’s not as firm as he says he is when it suits him.”

This Monday, most likely, we will know what the European Parliament’s next steps will be to unblock the ratification of the six candidates for vice-president of the European Commission. The President of the European Parliament, the popular Roberta Metsola, will make the decision after meeting the coordinators of each of the parliamentary committees.

The three European PPs examining Ribera (Economy, Industry and Environment) are German and have publicly committed to voting against the Spanish candidate.

It is for this reason that the Spanish PP is confident in its ability to force Sánchez’s third vice-president to submit to a secret ballot and in the ballot boxes of the plenary session of these committees: around 250 deputies. “And in this forum, we have the votes,” adds this source, “because The European PP is with us and understands the problem“.

There are two problems, beyond the rejection of his policies. Firstly, Ribera did not give any explanations, which is why the EPP coordinators will ask Metsola that any decision taken be postponed until Thursday, or at most Wednesday afternoon, “when Ribera already responded to the Spanish Congress to all outstanding questions regarding its responsibility in the DANA disaster.

And secondly, she never obtained her MEP certificate and, as soon as she is ratified as commissioner, she will lose the quality she has as a minister of the Spanish government. SO the three complaints those who opposed her will leave the Supreme Court and They will go to the courts of first instance.

The legal protection of commissioners does not work for matters prior to their appointment, and Brussels would have elected a first vice-president on whom it would report. a trial for a poorly handled tragedy that left nearly 250 dead. “Everyone understands this in Brussels when we explain it,” says a Spanish PP source.

The leaders of Alberto Nuñez Feijóo In the European capital, they called, one by one, all week, their 188 colleagues from the Twenty-Seven.

In each telephone call they explain the works blocked by the Ribera ministry, the policy of “naturalization” of the channels that fed the fuel from the Poyo ravine on October 29 and the following 15 days during which Ribera “hid” and only showed his face until was forced to request this appearance on Wednesday.

Sources from the leadership of the Spanish Popular Party are shown “very confident” in achieving all of this. “It would be reaching the final of a World Cup when a week ago we were one Cinderella in the group stage.”

Loyalties

If Ribera is put to this vote by the plenary session of the three committees, it is possible that, even if the European PP claims to have sufficient support, it’s just a theory. And finally, the Spanish vice president manages to become vice president of the EU… for example, in exchange for Sánchez lifting Fitto’s veto.

In principle, with the certain rejection of the MEPs of the three extreme right and those of the EPP, this would be a done deal. But in the same way as Italian socialists announced their vote in favor of Meloni’s candidateHowever ultra-conservative he may be, it is possible that a popular MP from another country would want to secure the position of commissioner for his compatriot rather than reject a Spanish woman who neither suits nor suits him…

“Everything will remain in the hands of MEPs, the largest of whom voting discipline is done by country, and less by parliamentary group“, admits this source. “But we will continue to vote against for the sake of consistency, out of respect for our voters and, above all, out of respect for the victims of Valencia. And if we lose, we will have done what we had to do. »

Moreover, those from Feijóo are ready to maintain their rejection until the end, even during the vote of the plenary session of the European Chamber on the entire college of commissioners. “Not with Ribera” They want a Commission. And this same message that their bases once sang to Sánchez in Ferraz, they say they manage to send to Sánchez from Brussels. “His bigotry turns against him, and in Europe, where it hurts the mostThey already see it clearly.”