The Popular Party finally broke its official silence a week after the DANA attack which has already provoked more than 200 dead and a still unknown number of missing. And he did it through a short press conference by his secretary general, Cuca Gamarra. The PP “will support the validation of the first royal decree” approved this Tuesday by the Government. But he refuses to “propose votes for the budgets” and demands no more decrees “for urgent needs that cannot wait”.
The first part, that of “Government has the votes of the PP for all urgent measures aimed at helping the recovery and revitalization of the affected areas”, was already announced on Monday. Alberto Nuñez Feijóoin an institutional statement without questions. The second part, the categorical and express “no”, to deliver its 137 deputies in favor of budgets which bring “well-being, comfort or survival to a Government”.
Gamarra attacked against Pedro Sánchez: “The government should have fulfilled its duty and responsibility, which was to provide all resources at the first moment in the face of a national emergency. And it failed to do so.”
But up to three times, the number two of PP did not want to expressly support Carlos Mazón:
¿The leadership of the Popular Party supports its Valencian baron in the management of DANA?, he was asked. “President Mazón He gave everything from the first moment“.
Should Mazon I already asked for help to the government? “The emergency was supra-autonomous, it affected five autonomous communities, and the Valencian president assumed his responsibility, not like the President of the Government who worked at the request“.
¿Feijóo spoke with Mazón before publicly requesting on Monday the declaration of a state of national emergency, since this meant withdrawing management control from the Generalitat? “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.“.
End of the “communicative duel”
Feijóo said on Monday, in his institutional statement in the same Genoa press room, that the Steering Committee of the PP would continue to meet after his appearance, to face “this national emergency”. It is obviously impossible that the popular leadership has been sitting at the table for 72 hours, but this Gamarra press conference can be considered as the end of the communicative duel who has kept the party going in recent days.
This week there has been no criticism, at least publicly, of Pedro Sanchez for having “fled” Paiporta “abandoning the kings and Carlos Mazon“. Nobody wanted to put pressure on the minister either Angel Victor Torres for information that links it to Koldo Field or even for his “Manichean management” of the migration crisis. Nor did the PP shed blood with the culmination of the “assault against RTVE” in Congress.
“The boss ordered us don’t go into battleand form an opposition that does not enter into the controversies that the government and the president himself are trying to fuel,” a management source explained these days. “The Spaniards do not expect that from politicians , and we want Let them see that the PP is not like the PSOEwho, in the middle of a tragedy, cares more about attacking RTVE or presenting motions of censure in one of the cities most affected by DANA.
It’s over. Because Gamarra was merciless with Sánchez, even if he left a slight touch of self-criticism: “Citizens and public services have been an exciting example these days, but Unfortunately, what fell short was the politics.“.
But this sentence, in which it can be understood that the PP assumes part of the legitimate indignation at the mismanagement of the consequences of the floods, was later developed by the popular general secretary with pushes in only one direction.
The “first decree”
According to the most popular, the Council of Ministers left many questions unanswered, with the urgent decree that the BOE published this Wednesday. “Of these 10 billion announced, we can only talk about 5,000because the rest are ICO credits”, criticized Gamarra. “And what’s more, on January 1, 2025, everything will not be solved by magic, help can’t wait, but it must stay“.
According to Gamarra, in its “first decree”, the government did not address issues such as “the provision of housing for those who have lost their homesthere are relocations which are urgent.” They also do not believe that the decree responds to the “immediate reconstruction of educational centers, health centers or infrastructure internal needs that the province of Valencia or the Autonomous Community needs”.
The PP also demands “more decrees that are approved today rather than tomorrow and validated in extraordinary plenary session this week rather than next” so that the Executive can help “replenishment of the vehicle fleet”. The most popular ones say that “what the insurance compensation consortium covers is insufficient to purchase a vehicle”.
Gamarra even responded this morning to Minister Torres’ statements. The head of Territorial Policy insisted on the idea that The PP must support government budgets by 2025. Because, faced with the “colossal scale” of the reconstruction challenge, the public accounts will be “conditioned by DANA”.
“I hope your government is more agile in this case than in the emergency due to the La Palma volcano“, when Torres was president of the Canary Islands and Sánchez was already there, “where many affected people are still waiting for the promised housing.”
THE number two of the PP was even explicit, comparing the amounts offered by Moncloa, “a little more than 10 billion, half of which in credits“and those claimed by the Valencian Consell, “which amount to 31.402 million in direct aid“. And he allowed himself proposes these ideas to Sánchez: “There are 136 points in the Valencia Plan presented by Mazón, which constitutes the first phase of urgent measures.”
Because the population demands that government contributions be direct aid. “That’s the appropriate mechanism, not the funding avenues.” And that’s it “The Valencians have lost everything and the Government must be aware of this”.
