To respond to the emergency generated in the Valencian Community, it is not necessary to modify the constitutional framework of the State. It is not the replacement of the President of the Generalitat by the Minister of the Interior that must be done. This would complicate the answer even more.
Although the Valencian Community was created by article 143 and not article 151 of the Constitution, in the first of the Autonomy Pacts, negotiated by the UCD government, chaired by Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo and the PSOE and led by Felipe González, it was agreed that the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands would be assimilated, from a jurisdictional point of view, to the four communities created by article 151: the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia.
Formally, the Valencian Community has not enjoyed full autonomy since its constitution, but materially it has had it.
This therefore means that for citizens of the autonomous community, their relationship with the State is essentially their relationship with the Generalitat. They were born in hospitals managed by the regional government, were schooled in all phases of the educational system in the centers of the Autonomous Community, social assistance, territorial planning, urban policy, etc., were defined by the Generalitat.
I remember the students’ surprise when I asked them what the state meant to them and how they felt the state’s presence in their lives. They were disconcerted when they saw the omnipresence of the Autonomous Community in their lives and the weak presence of the State, of the Central Administration. At most some of them had had contact with the Civil Traffic Guard.
The State is the essential framework for the functioning of the Autonomous Communities, but the contact of public power with citizens falls within the territory of the Autonomous Community. Autonomous communities of 151 plus the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands since the initial moment of their constitution. Communities of 143 since the second autonomous pacts of 1992, negotiated by the government chaired by Felipe González and the PP, chaired by José María Aznar.
This introduction is relevant to contextualize Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s request to declare the situation of “emergency of national interest”, provided for in Chapter VII of Law 17/2015 of July 9 of the National Civil Protection System.
The emergency of national interest is defined according to three criteria:
1º Those which require the application of LO 4/1981, regulating states of alarm, exception and siege.
2º Those that require the coordination of various Administrations because they affect several Autonomous Communities.
3º Those which, due to their actual or foreseeable dimensions, require national guidance.
It does not seem that what happened in Valencia corresponds to any of the hypotheses provided for by law. This is a disaster in which it will be necessary to resort to everything provided for in Chapter IV, “Immediate response to emergencies”. in Chapter V, “Recovery”.
But to do this, not only is it not necessary to suspend the exercise of the right to autonomy, but it is counterproductive. The “immediate response” measures are already activated with the collaboration of the State and, once it is understood that this phase is over, it will be necessary to move on to the “recovery” phase, which will also require the collaboration of the State, but it must not demand the suspension of the exercise of the right to autonomy, quite the contrary. The thousands of civil servants of the Autonomous Administration will be those who will have to deal mainly with “recovery” tasks. And their direction in this task must be ensured by the different departments. With the state aid they need, but administered by them. Anything else contributes to the disorder.
It must be the Generalitat itself that requests the collaboration it needs to emerge from the immediate emergency situation and that determines what the “relaunch” should consist of, for which it will also need the collaboration of the State .
To respond to the emergency generated in the Valencian Community, it is not necessary to modify the constitutional framework of the State. It is not the replacement of the President of the Generalitat by the Minister of the Interior that must be done. This would complicate the answer even more.
The problem remains that Carlos Mazón must not continue to be president of the Generalitat, not because he is president, but because he is Carlos Mazón.
It is clear that, through his conduct, he has disqualified himself from continuing to serve as President. I should have resigned now. It is an insult to the citizens of Valencia that he continues to be president. His agenda for the day of the disaster is so eloquent that it is inexplicable that he did not make the decision himself. But nothing more.
The State of Autonomies must demonstrate that it is capable of dealing with emergency situations like the one caused by DANA. It must demonstrate that cooperation between the State and the Autonomous Community is possible, without a temporary suspension of the right to autonomy being necessary. This is one of the lessons that must be learned from the tragedy of these days.
