The Steering Committee of the People’s Party does not discuss and “fully supports” Carlos Mazonwhose management of the DANA crisis was “attacked from the first minute” by the government of Pedro Sanchezthat the crisis must now “be screwed up in Moncloa with the budgets”. According to official sources from the leadership of the Popular Party, “support for Mazón was explicit last Monday from the president of the party, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo“.
Furthermore, in Genoa it is emphasized that last Thursday, just 24 hours after the tragedy, “Feijóo defended him”. during his visit to the Emergency Coordination Center of L’Eliana, Valencia. What many saw as an attack on AEMET was not intended to be more than stop “a Manichean operation of the PSOE and the government” to hold the president of the Generalitat Valenciana responsible for the tragic consequences of the flood.
As this newspaper learned, Feijóo speaks every day with Mazón since the start of the emergency. Given the “total lack of communication” on the part of the nation’s government, these sources explain, the opposition leader can only be informed through his Valencian regional baron.
In Genoa, the ranks are closing, but there is no enthusiasm with the Valencian presidentnor with the image it has given since the start of the crisis. It is admitted that the closed and public defense of management is impossible, because there could be mistakes in the management of “an unprecedented disaster”.
But yes, the leaders refuse to enter into this political analysis “while there are still deaths to be discovered”. Yes indeed, responsibilities will be refined later and the Valencian baron will probably be asked to make changes to his Government or to deliver heads.
Disavowals?
In these daily conversations, Mazón and Feijóo coordinate messages and even responses to possible questions from the press to maintain a coherent discourse. “So much so,” explains another PP source, “that last Monday, before the institutional declaration, Feijóo explained to Mazón their reasons for publicly demanding that Sánchez declare a national emergency.
This request sounded like a veiled disavowal from the Valencian leader, because if the government did so would remove Mazón’s exclusive command.
During the meeting of the Steering Committee preceding this statement to the press, some of those present reported this circumstance to Feijóo. But the Galician politician replied: “It’s possible, but I have to say what I thinkwhich I think would have been the right thing to do from day one.”
This Wednesday, it was the general secretary of the PP who also fueled the doubts around Mazón with her silence. We asked it up to three times Cuca Gamarra for the support of the regional president:
¿The leadership of the Popular Party supports its Valencian baron in the management of DANA? “President Mazón He gave everything from the first moment“.
Should Mazon I already asked for help to the government? “The emergency has affected five autonomous communities and the Valencian president has assumed his responsibilities, not like the President of the Government who worked at the request“.
¿Feijóo spoke with Mazón before publicly requesting the declaration of a national emergency? “It’s a topic perfectly addressed between the two. The discussions about jurisdiction that the government has put us into these days are absurd and harmful.“.
Total distrust
Another senior member of the PP explains that what Génova cannot do is “fuel the talk show debate with a support that can weaken itlike a football coach who is confirmed by the president when things go wrong.” As seen within the People’s Party, “the PSOE acts like in 11-M”.
And if Feijóo gave the order “out of institutional respect not to oppose Sánchez” to the DANA disaster, “we are going to oppose ourselves even less.”
Furthermore, in the PP it is understood that “the management that calls into question is that of the Government”for not having deployed all the resources from day one under the pretext that “if the Valencian Community needs more resources, it should ask for them”. This sentence, pronounced on Saturday by Sánchez in La Moncloa and that of “I’m fine”, during his press conference on Tuesday, “are so abject that They will haunt you forever“.
An official party spokesperson sums it up this way: “Mazón was in the mud from the first minute, he stayed next to the king so that the cries fell on him, and He always acted as he thought.“.
And another member of the management explains his view on the media controversy: “The media most concerned are much more demanding of us than those close to them, but With a PSOE in this attitude, we will not be the ones to point out our own mistakes.“.
Finally, it is admitted that the deep mistrust between the two major parties was an additional factor in aggravating the crisis. “Between one saying ‘let them ask me’ and the other saying ‘let them take it away from me’…this lack of communication isn’t just bad institutionally. A bad day, Sánchez’s wall, the good and the bad, has made management difficult of immense tragedy.”
