The general coordinator of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maíllo, predicted this Monday that the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, “will have to leave sooner or later” due to his government’s management of the dana. “We can all agree that natural disasters may not be predictable at the time they occur, but what is predictable are humanitarian disasters,” he defended during an informative breakfast organized by Nueva Economía Fórum, during which he assured that certain political decisions “have caused deaths”. “.
Maíllo thus deepened the idea that his party has been defending for several days to demand accountability from the government of the Valencian Community. “There was no collaboration between the governments because there was no will on the part of the Valencian government. The proof is that, while the central government is developing actions, the Valencian government is trying to justify its poor performance. There is nothing more corrosive than a message in which each administration seeks to create a story,” explained the IU leader.
Although his party requested, a few days after the tragedy began, that the government activate the state of alarm to take control of management, Maíllo considers that de facto Sánchez took command. “Ultimately, even if the state of alarm was not declared, the central government played a leading role in the actions,” he said, while regretting that in the first moments of the catastrophe, the political feeling of seeing who had the skills. “When a person finds himself in this situation, the least important thing is who has the competence for each thing. The actions have been accomplished,” he said.
Maíllo also defended the measures taken by the central government, while warning that they cannot be emergency instruments but must become structural tools. “The measures taken are going in the right direction but could prove insufficient depending on how events develop. They cannot be limited to urgent measures, they must continue to be supplemented by more structural measures because the damage will be long-term,” he declared.
He welcomes the decision of Sumar’s spokesperson but asks for “additional measures”
Maíllo also spoke about Sumar’s space and celebrated the evolution of the debate for the election of the new parliamentary spokesperson, Verónica Martínez Barbero. This way of doing things believes that it can be a good way for the new stage of the political space, in which IU requested a new, more democratic and horizontal relationship, after the “shock” due to the departure of Íñigo Errejón.
“We call that if we want to reconnect with people who have felt deeply disappointed, we must do so by making decisions related to that shock. Let all parts of the space that we now represent push to help and we believe that all organizations have a fundamental role,” he said.
In this sense, he does not consider it necessary to make changes, for example, in the structure of the government or in the role that Yolanda Díaz now represents as Minister of Labor, although he has criticized her management on other aspects. “Yolanda Díaz demonstrates today that she is a magnificent Minister of Labor. Nobody questions this. In other areas it needs to improve,” he said, drawing an analogy with academic performance.
