Óscar Puente reflected on the Autonomous State after seeing the management that DANA was created. The Transport Minister said it is important that powers are “widely distributed”.
“It’s not enough to have them and then say there’s something that’s not your responsibility. Hey, if the powers are distributed, let’s also distribute the responsibilities,” he said in an interview to ‘Onda Cero’.
Focusing on DANA, the minister admitted that he believed that “we will learn” from everything that happened, recognizing that he believes that there was no problem of “protocols”, but of “awareness of the importance of these phenomena”.
An aspect on which he admitted that he still does not want to comment because the main thing is to focus on the reality that the people concerned are experiencing. “There will be time to debate the protocols and to know if the autonomous state is well organized,” he underlined, admitting that he believes that we must see with what mentality “an autonomous state is addressed.”
“We live in a somewhat strange state in which taxes are not collected by the autonomous communities,” he explained, specifying that, although he considers it well structured, perhaps it is necessary reflect “with what mentality and philosophy it is successful.”
Puente analyzes the government’s response to the effects of DANA
The minister also analyzed the sending of resources and troops by the Government to Valencia. Óscar Puente made it clear that the resources “have been there” from the beginning, another question is whether or not they are incorporated based “on the decisions of those in charge”. In this case, the president of the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazon.
In this way he asked not to confuse “resources with coordination“, recalling that any disaster has an initial phase during which the needs it generates and the real resources available “do not adapt at the required speed”.
“Disasters don’t give six months’ notice, they give short notice and it’s not so easy to predict such a short-term response,” he explained, indicating that there is an initial phase which is inevitable. However, he believes that in this case, the resources necessary to deal with it were sized in a short time.
“The perception of citizens who do not see the troops arriving is undeniable, but scaling a response to this requires a lot of coordination, it’s very complex“, he stressed.
A moment which he took advantage of to clarify that he believes that in this case, there was no lack of understanding. due to “political disagreements”, emphasizing that he maintains good relations with Mazón.
“It is not a question of party but of people. There are times, for whatever reason, when there are those who believe that the best way to defend their territory is to understand each other; and others who understand that the best way is to spank me or spank the president, but this is not a partisan question but rather a question of the political intelligence of each leader,” he assured.
