When Carlos Mazon He appeared last Friday before the Cortes of Valencia, his 69-page speech included “apologies” and “a hypothesis of errors”, without however specifying which ones. He only specified as a failure “not having had better information on the sudden flooding of the Poyo ravine”. An absurdity, which was in reality attributable to the Ministry of Therese Riberathe other major political party responsible for the DANA disaster. But this Wednesday, she didn’t even admit it.
The third vice-president and minister of ecological transition devoted all of Wednesday to appearing, first, in Congress, then in the Senate. In neither chamber has he taken any responsibility for what happened. Actually, did not dispel any doubt nor did he deny the information that this newspaper and others published on the work not undertakenTHE alerts not issued or the reason why the government did not declare a national emergency.
He didn’t say anything about AEMET predictions missedwhich predicted 150 liters per square meter when, ultimately, more than 600 fell. “information blackout” of the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar, in the key two and a half hours, verbally declared that “there was none”, although in reality he recognized it.
His version is as follows between 4:13 p.m. and 6:43 p.m.in which the Poyo ravine began to lose its flow three times in a row, multiplying it almost by 100 and already flooding Paiporta, the epicenter of the disaster, the CHJ “issued nine emails”. But these emailsas she herself admitted, they talked precipitation in the form of rain, does not flow in the form of tsunami.
Why was there this silence in communications? He didn’t answer it.
Since EL ESPAÑOL revealed this circumstance, two weeks ago, sources from the CHJ and the Ecological Transition have disclosed that “in words”, we warned in CECOPI of this circumstance. A week ago, this version was nuanced, admitting the same sources as They didn’t remember who said it or to whom. He did not communicate it to her, neither at what time nor in what circumstances.
This Wednesday, the vice president didn’t even talk about it.
The people present at CECOPI were focused on the risk of rupture of the Forata damgiven that there was only old and reassuring information from Poyo. But Ribera also didn’t know how to explain why the 6:04 p.m. Their technicians gave this infrastructure 13 hours of leeway before it overflowed and yet it happened in just 89 minutes.
Not even why yes At 7:33 p.m., “Scenario 3” was already completed.that is, of an imminent or already begun failure, this has never been officially declared. Regarding the version of the Generalitat according to which the officials of the Confederation present at CECOPI warned it “orally” during the meeting, the vice president also made no mention.
And finally, regarding his decision to stop the “adaptation and drainage” works of the Poyo ravine in 2021 for a “new cost-benefit vision”, he even tried to blame the popular government Mariano Rajoy. “It was Secretary of State Teresa Ribera,” she said in the third person, “who approved the environmental impact study of this work in 2011and you let it expire.”
Minister Óscar López applauds Teresa Ribera, after her speech before the Senate for the management of her ministry at DANA.
Later, the spokesperson for the PP in the Lower House, Ester Munozthe excuse made him ugly. Ribera has been in government for six years in the same portfolio, Rajoy’s executive left her with this job also accomplished and, above all, it is she who, three years later, ordered not to undertake work “which would have mitigated the effects of DANA” of 29-O.
Thus, Ribera was unable to answer two key questions that concern his ministry. Why was this work not carried out? She herself described them as “priorities” when she was Secretary of State in the governments of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. What responsibility does your department assume for all this contradictory information from the CHJ during the critical hours of the afternoon of October 29 in Valencia.
Explanations in Brussels
When Mazón appeared before the Valencian Courts last Friday, some criticized him it took a long time to do itmore than 15 days after DANA. Teresa Ribera took three weeks. And he only did it once he saw forced by the imposition of the European People’s Partywho refused to give her authorization to be commissioner if she did not give “satisfactory explanations where she should give them”, that is to say in the Spanish Parliament.
When he asked to appear on Monday evening, November 11, he hoped that this would help him force the success of his hearing in the European Parliament. But, after a video call between Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Manfred Weberleader of the EPP, the next day, popular Europeans vetoed it.
Yesterday evening, the crisis in Brussels was closed, after Pedro Sanchez negotiate with the neofascist Italian Giorgia Meloni and the Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban. EPP sources point out that European Socialists have promised to vote in favor of the EU commissioners “this far-right international” To save Ribera’s position, Weber decided to accept the pact “despite the fact that Ribera did not answer key questions” from the Spanish Cortes.
Furthermore, the three EPP commissioners present at a meeting of the parliamentary group held this Wednesday after 3 p.m. readily accepted Feijóo’s decision: The 22 deputies of the Spanish PP will vote against the Von der Leyen Commission “for the presence of Ribera” next Wednesday 27 at the plenary session in Strasbourg.
In any case, the EPP will only support her on the condition that she commits to resign. “when she is accused by a judge for her actions as a minister in Spain”.
The very imprecise wording of the official note from the European People’s Party is due to a new warning from the Spaniards. The PP reminded his colleagues that in addition to the complaints already filed against him for the management of DANA“THE Hydrocarbons affair“, who keeps in prison Victor de Aldama. It was his ministry that granted the license to the companies described by the judges as a “corrupting link” to the plots affecting the Sánchez government.
Two facts, two doubts
In addition to a long hourly account of 29-O, an analysis of its policy and a defense which “we must trust science, technicians and institutions” To deal with natural disasters that “will be more recurrent due to climate change”, Teresa Ribera provided only two important pieces of information. And both raise serious doubts.
During his two appearances this Wednesday in Congress and the Senate, he defended “the system worked” because the CHJ “gave all the alerts”and that the problem was that “it is useless to have all the information if the one who has to decide does not know how to do it”.
The other was absolutely new information: between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., “there was a black screen” at CECOPI, which prevented the Confederation, AEMET and the Government Delegation from participating in the crisis meeting.
The first was explained above. Automated notifications via e-mail They do not seem to be the most effective in a crisis “so exceptional that technicians describe it as having a return period of 5,000 to 10,000 years”as the Vice President herself declared to Congress. Even less if it is rain, when “the danger is in the boulevards, and in the effects of overflows, especially if the banks are urbanized”.
And the “suppression” of CECOPI was even fueled a few hours later by RNE, which even accused the Generalitat of having “disconnected with premeditation” to these organizations, all dependent on the central government, none of them being present in the room throughout the afternoon of the crisis.
Not only does it seem strange May this version appear three weeks later and that neither the AEMET, nor the CHJ, nor the supposedly disconnected Government delegate have denounced it until now. The thing is The government of Carlos Mazón categorically denied Ribera and immediately.
Official sources from the Generalitat published a very harsh note in which They call the statement “false” of the vice president. And although they admit that there was “a brief break”, they maintain that “the connection by the video conference is never interrupted“.
