The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded this Monday that the government assume command of the management of the tragedy caused last week in Valencia by a DANA and whose deaths exceed 200. “For a declaration of national emergency , “You have our support,” said the opposition leader during a media appearance during which he did not admit questions from the journalists present. The measure, which the PP is not developing, would mean withdrawing command from the president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, who last week contradicted his leader by thanking the central government for its collaboration with the regional government.
“We continue to request, as we have from day one, the declaration of a national emergency,” Feijóo said. In other words, the central government takes control and removes Mazón, from whom it also distances itself. The President of the Valencian Generalitat attacked this morning the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, while Feijóo reversed what he said a week ago and assured that now “it is time to repair and rebuild”, and not to “confront”.
Feijóo put himself on the sidelines of the management of the crisis, in which he declared that there were “errors”, although he preferred not to specify them. “It is not the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. It’s not the People’s Party. It’s not the rest of the political parties, it’s not the Spanish government or the Generalitat of Valencia. He is not the President of the Government, nor of the Generalitat, and of course neither am I. It is the Spanish people. They are our fellow Valencians. It is for this reason that I am not going to launch into further criticism of the government today,” he declared.
Immediately afterwards, the leader of the PP once again disavowed the Executive for not having given him information, even though he has no executive capacity. “My differences with the President of the Government are obvious and have not been abbreviated these days. But it is time to focus only on repairing what can still be repaired and rebuilding everything that has been destroyed,” he said.
The PP leader assumed in his speech that the “indignation” of citizens at what happened before, during and after the floods should be addressed to everyone equally, and that the slow and poor reaction of authorities (without specifying) explains what happened. Sunday during the visit of the kings, the president of the government and Mazón himself, and where Pedro Sánchez was attacked. Feijóo did not expressly condemn this attack.
“I am fully aware of the broken relationship of trust between the Spanish people and their politicians. “I am aware that there must be a before and an after to all of this,” he said. “Expressions of violence do not represent us. They never did it and they are not doing it now, and we reject it,” he said again vaguely. “They must address their majesties the kings, the president of the Government or the president of the Generalitat,” he added.
But he immediately asked not to “isolate” the “citizens”. “Of course we are not going to be mistaken about who the victims of all this tragedy and the feeling shared by the vast majority of Spaniards really are,” he said. “No one expects us to participate in a partisan story that accuses citizens of telling the truth. Enough of this story with the reality that we are suffering,” he concluded.
