The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, traveled this Thursday to the Valencian Community to defend the management of the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, and attack the central government during the DANA which cost the lives of 95 people in the last hours. 92 of them in the community of Mazón. Feijóo described the storm as a “national emergency” which, in the case of the Valencian Community, “is managed with information from another public administration”, in reference to the central government. The opposition leader established himself as coordinator of the regional presidents of the PP and PSOE, questioned the information from AEMET and highlighted the work of the regional authorities: “Pride in the way they worked will last us forever.”
Feijóo visited the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat Valenciana with Mazón and then spoke to the media. From the beginning, he tried to reduce the responsibility of regional presidents, including his party colleague. “DANA has affected a good part of Spain, from the east to the west of Andalusia, from Cuenca to Albacete and probably other communities,” he began.
“We are facing a national emergency,” he added. A declaration which is not insignificant since, according to El País, the government considered declaring a state of emergency, which would have meant withdrawing the powers of the regional president and taking command.
Feijóo dedicated his entire appearance before the media to limiting the responsibilities of regional presidents. “They bore the weight of this national emergency,” he insisted, and he cited himself as an example: “I have been regional president for a long time and I know the loneliness of a regional president who doesn’t have all the tools. and yet, citizens demand additional responsibilities from him.” And if it is “additional”, it escapes its powers.
Against the Government, AEMET and the Hydrographic Confederation
The opposition leader questioned the management of the central government and the organizations that depend on it. Feijóo specifically cited the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) and the Hydrographic Confederation.
“I assure you that a regional president manages according to the information he receives, and the information received depends on organizations with exclusive competence of the central government, see the AEMET or the Hydrographic Confederation,” he said. declared.
Feijóo questioned the information coming from these public organizations: “No one can make decisions based on information that may be accurate, inaccurate or improvable. Decisions are made based on the information provided to you at all times,” he insisted.
According to the timeline of Tuesday’s events, AEMET placed the entire coast of Valencia and the northern interior of the province on red alert at 9:48 a.m., and the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat Valenciana issued a level red alert. alert for this entire area, just 12 minutes later. At one in the afternoon, Carlos Mazón himself declared that the intensity of DANA would decrease after 6 p.m. Information that he himself published on his official Twitter account and which he then deleted due to the events.
Coordinator of regional presidents
The leader of the PP, without any executive responsibility in any area, regretted that the central government does not transmit information to him in the first person. “I have no information from the central government. At all. “No one informed me of anything, it was me who had to inform myself about what was happening in my country,” he said. Feijóo said he himself had to “pick up the phone to speak” with Castilian-Manchego president Emiliano García-Page, “answer calls with Mazón” or “find out with Moreno how the community as a whole is doing “. in reference to Andalusia.
Despite his insistence, Feijóo said he did not go to Valencia “to do a report or a political assessment.” He immediately added: “The protocols were respected. »
Furthermore, Feijóo boasted of having “warned” the presidents of Murcia, Fernando López Miras; Aragon, Jorge Azcon; Extremadura, María Guardiola; Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso; or in Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, in case their collaboration is required: “This is my role, what I have worked on. »
Feijóo also became the representative of all regional presidents outside his party. “We will continue to collaborate,” he said in the first person. “The 12 regional presidents of the PP and those of the PSOE form a group,” he added. “No one is going to distract us, we know our responsibilities and our limits,” he concluded.
