Valencia needs the best, from Spain and from Europe, and it needs it now. Assuming command and removing it from autonomy is associated with risk and controversy. But failing to assume command carries other risks, and Valencia is seething with rage these days. We must evacuate the dead, care for the living and provide running water to prevent disease.
Chronicle – I took a bus and in seven stops I was at the gates of hell
Valencia was the center of Europe’s worst natural disaster. Unfortunately, this has already happened and later we can delve deeper into the political and judicial responsibilities, although by taking a look at the Twitter timeline we can already guess them. We are on another screen. Get out of the mud. Fina, from Chiva, still has food for a few days. Vicente, from Catarroja, hasn’t showered in five years and has had seven sips of water since Tuesday. Antonia, from Paiporta, cannot find her husband or her daughter. In Horta Sud, Utiel, La Ribera and Chiva, no one works and no one sleeps. Almost all of them also have something else in common: they live 20 minutes from Spain’s third capital and the best place to live, according to Forbes magazine.
The fact that the Generalitat government, led by Carlos Mazón, has done almost everything wrong proves that now is not the time to spend more money. What is discouraging is that he continues to be in charge, not only not improving the situation, but even making it worse. They asked for few soldiers because they did not see the scale of the tragedy. They were placed in only three places. They launched a massive appeal for 100,000 Valencians to help areas where there is sludge and bacteria with decomposing bodies. A UME captain told TVE that more soldiers did not come because in addition to having troops, you have to organize them, which is not the case. Two helicopters sent by the Andalusian government to help turned back because no one told them what to do. The roads were blocked without emergency services being able to pass, because their use was only restricted to the population on Friday evening.
Taking this into account, and the fact that the Generalitat Valenciana considers that we are still at emergency level 2 out of a maximum of 3 (2 is the one that allows autonomy to continue with control), the government of Pedro Sánchez has the moral and political obligation to take command without waiting to see how badly you can screw up. This can be done according to the channels provided by law, by declaring a national emergency which allows for a more professional logistical organization. Isn’t that a level 3? We urgently need to care for the living and rescue the dead, repair broken infrastructure and bridges so we can move in the months to come, provide running water to avoid public health risks, manage aid and housing. All this, all the time, everywhere.
Just because the person who made a mistake is a mistake doesn’t mean the one in front who saw it can’t help them get it out of the sewers until they “ask” for it. First of all. Valencia needs the best, from Spain and from Europe, and it needs it now. Assuming command and removing it from autonomy is of course associated with risk and controversy. If the two administrations had been from the same party, it is likely that Fina de Chiva would already have a full refrigerator. But failing to assume command carries other risks, and Valencia is seething with rage these days. Mazón’s incompetence cannot last forever because it happened to him, because he was in the wrong place at the worst time. Nor can it last forever because Sánchez does not want to take matters into his own hands, does not dare, does not want to generate a reputational crisis or media mud. Not as long as real mud continues to confuse the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. If we continue like this, there will not be enough places to accommodate the demonstrators.
