The PP has known for several days that the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, does not intend to resign to assume political responsibilities in the floods that caused more than 200 deaths two weeks ago in the province of Valencia . “He will resist”, they say within the national leadership, where they ironically follow in the wake of Pedro Sánchez and his “Resistance Manual”. Alberto Núñez Feijóo therefore chose to close ranks with his baron and place the responsibility for the entire catastrophe exclusively on the central government. The party leader hopes that the president’s explanations to the Valencian Courts (in principle scheduled for this Thursday but which were postponed due to the storm shaking the community) will help him in the new offensive.
This is what Feijóo himself expressed this Wednesday in Congress after the long appearance of the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Torres, to explain the management of the government during DANA. “After his appearance [de Mazón]many will feel, at least partially, comforted by the political class. I hope and wish that this is the case,” he said at a press conference.
Feijóo briefly addressed the media after nearly five hours of parliamentary debate during which the opposition leader was absent. The PP criticized the absence of Pedro Sánchez, who was traveling to Azerbaijan to attend the Climate Summit, while the seat of its own leader was empty all morning.
According to his team’s explanations, the PP leader had remained in his congressional office all morning. After Torres’ appearance, which he did not attend, he spoke to the media in a room adjoining the hemicycle and sent some messages about what he hopes will happen in the Valencian Parliament when Mazón finally appears .
Feijóo said that “public authorities have not been up to the task in managing the floods.” But he wanted to very clearly differentiate the responsibility of Mazón and his people from that of the government, which is why he added: “And they continue to fall short in the central government in managing the expectations of victims.”
These “expectations” of citizens who suffered the ravages of the worst floods in memory in the region are those that Feijóo hopes that Mazón will be able to fulfill tomorrow with his explanations at the headquarters of the Valencian Parliament.
“Let’s pay attention to what he’s going to say, to the commitments he’s going to make,” declared the leader of the PP from the capital. “And let us also be attentive to each of the explanations that must be given”, a sentence that seems more like a demand than a certainty about what can happen in Les Corts.
After the setbacks of the last two weeks, the PP has succeeded, at least in appearance, in unifying its strategy with its Valencian baron. If Mazón is not going to assume his responsibilities in person and immediately, despite the multitude of information that indicates his prolonged absence at key moments of October 29 and the failures in communications to the population, now is the time to justify why. And Feijóo returns to his initial thesis: the information provided by the Government, via AEMET and the hydrographic confederations, was erroneous, insufficient and arrived late.
Feijóo expressly cited the appearance in which, together with Mazón, he attacked the zero “collaboration of the Government” and where he already pointed out that the Generalitat never had the information in a timely manner to be able to make the appropriate decisions.
This lack of reliable information is the burning nail that clings to Mazón, who, on the same day, contradicted his boss and thanked Sánchez and his ministers for their collaboration, as well as his team. The president went from thanking Sánchez for his “collaboration” and “communication” to claiming that he had no idea what was happening in his own territory and that the mayors of his own party had indicated to their neighbors, a few hours before the floods, that they should do it. not leave their homes due to the risk of flooding. The day before, on the 28th, the University of Valencia chose to cancel classes on the 29th, a decision that Mazón criticized just before going to eat for hours with a journalist, according to the official version, to offer her management regional. television station.
Feijóo’s support for Mazón comes alongside a major offensive by the PP in Brussels to boycott the election of Teresa Ribera as vice-president of competition of the European Commission. The third vice-president of Spain was precisely in the community capital on October 29, DANA day, and connected by videoconference with the crisis committee created in Moncloa.
But Feijóo chose it as the target to beat, and to do so, he took advantage of the complex balance of power within the European institutions and the need for Ursula von der Leyen to obtain the support of her college of commissioners, among including the ultra-Italian Raffaele. Fitto. The European PP established itself as the maximum defender of the vice president proposed by Giorgia Meloni and used Ribera’s veto to impose a common vote guaranteeing that the Social Democrats support the entry of the Italian. The vote has no date at the moment while the parliamentary groups negotiate, even if the German maintains her confidence in the Spanish vice-president.
Feijóo on Wednesday asked Sánchez to resign from Ribera and propose another candidate. At its head is the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, with whom the PP has always shown much more affinity than with the Minister of Ecological Transition. The opposition leader didn’t leave much to the imagination in calling for Ribera to be replaced by a minister with experience in Brussels and knowledge of Spanish agriculture. He didn’t give the name, but that wasn’t necessary either.
The movements carried out by Mazón in the Valencian Community will determine the virulence of the PP’s attacks against Ribera. The words of the national spokesperson, Borja Sémper, who affirmed last Monday that his party would flee “the mud” (sic) and the “poisoning” of political life, are now far away. A day later, his own leader was already opposing him and attacking the government. But the intensity increased. This Wednesday, MEP Esteban González Pons said in the European Parliament about Ribera: “Will the competent minister be rewarded while there are still unfound bodies under the mud?” Pons is deputy secretary for institutional policy of the PP and one of Feijóo’s most trusted people.
Mazón can help raise the bar during his appearance, for which there is still no date. In recent days there has been speculation about the possibility that he will reshape the regional government, and even that he will dismiss, with him, the most prominent figures in the management of DANA: the Minister of Justice and Interior and head of emergencies, Salomé Pradas, and Tourism, Nuria Montes. The first was the only senior leader of the Generalitat present within the crisis committee (Cecopi). The second made unfortunate statements after the disaster.
But the advisors, notably Pradas, theoretically had the same information as Mazón. And Feijóo spoke this Wednesday a sentence to save the president of the Generalitat which, in reality, can be applied to his subordinates: “It does not seem fair to me to try to transfer responsibilities to those who have made decisions on the basis of information which is the responsibility of others.”
Feijóo and Mazón have spoken intensely in recent hours, as revealed by sources in the national leadership of the PP. It seems clear that the leader of the PP participated in the decisions that Mazón will announce. This is why, this Wednesday, he dared to utter a sentence halfway between affirmation and plea: “After his appearance, there will be many people who will feel, at least partially, comforted by the political class. I hope and pray that it will be so. The doubts will be resolved during an appearance scheduled for this Thursday which does not currently have a date.
