When Valence It was already devastated by DANA, Pedro Sanchez contacted the Valencian regional president, Carlos Mazonthrough a simple WhatsApp. This message was only sent by Sánchez 10:50 p.m. Tuesday October 29that is to say when the tragedy was already a reality, as OKDIARIO learned. The socialist leader took advantage of a technical stopover in Oman during his flight from India to contact the President of the Generalitat, while Valencia had been suffering for several hours. one of the worst tragedies in its history. Sánchez avoided canceling his India agenda even though he knew about the red alert from 1 p.m. before board the Airbus with which he returned to Madrid after his tour in this Asian country.
“I contacted all the regional presidents of the areas affected by DANA, as well as the president of the Valencian Community, by WhatsApp in this case, without any difficulty. “He answered me and the tone was cordial,” Sánchez limited himself to saying this Monday, when questioned at the press conference after the Council of Ministers. Neither he nor his team specified the time of said communication.. However, according to the sources consulted, this did not happen until late in the evening of Tuesday October 29.
As OKDIARIO learned, the President of the Government informed Mazón that he was returning from his trip to India and that he remained “at his disposal”. Shortly before, Vice President María Jesús Montero also spoke with the Valencian leader. “The key is maximum coordination,” Mazón stressed to Sánchez.
The trip to India prevented the President of the Government from attending the first meeting of the crisis committee convened in La Moncloa to monitor the catastrophic effects of DANA, and which was chaired in his place by Montero. The Minister of Ecological Transition, Therese Riberanor did she go in person because she was in Brussels to deal with matters related to her candidacy for European commissioner.
Government passivity
The time of Sánchez’s communication with Mazón shows the passivity of the government during the crisis. The message was not sent until more than half past two after the massive alert from the Generalitat on cell phones warning of the emergency.
Likewise, and as this newspaper revealed, the government did not warn of the seriousness until 8:00 p.m.when the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morantelephoned the Minister of the Interior and responsible for Emergencies, Salomé Pradas, and admitted the high risk of rupture of the Forata dam. Eleven minutes later, and after having obtained a consensus within CECOPI – Integrated Operational Coordination Center – the Valencian Generalitat sent the alert to the population.
Vice-President Ribera – focused on her community interests – did not contact Mazón until after this notice, as the Valencian president himself stated, showing the SMS that Ribera sent him at 8:20 p.m. Previously, the minister assured that it had cost her “four calls”, a statement that the Valencian president denied.
Four hours without an agenda
Despite the worrying situation due to DANA in the Valencian Community, Pedro Sánchez avoided using the emergency Falcon to return from India as quickly as possible.
HAS 7:31 a.m. On October 29, the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet), dependent on the Ministry of Ribera, had already warned of the red alert due to the storm for the entire province of Valencia. Despite this warning and faced with the worsening situation, Sánchez refused to take the Falcon who accompanied him to India after finishing his press conference on Tuesday around 4:00 p.m. Spanish time. It was their last official activity of the trip.
The socialist remained four hours without an agenda in India until taking the return flight, at 8:30 p.m. Spanish timefrom Bombay International Airport, India. Back in Spain, Sánchez’s Airbus, the government delegation and the press stopped in Muscat (Oman) for a period of about three hours. Specifically, this scale was extended from 1:35 a.m. to 4:42 a.m. (i.e. from 10:35 p.m. to 1:42 a.m. Spanish time). It was on this scale, precisely at 10:50 p.m. Spanish time, that Sánchez sent the WhatsApp to Mazón.
At that time, the situation in Valencia was already dramatic, with torrents overflowing and villages completely devastated. The government He did not give any explanations for what the socialist leader did in India, accompanied by his wife, Begoña Gomezin the four hours following his press conference. It was not until Wednesday, at 11:30 a.m., with around fifty deaths confirmed, that he spoke to the media.
The chief executive also did not visit any of the affected territories throughout the day on Wednesday. Yes, the leader of the PP did it, Alberto Nuñez Feijóowho visited the ground zero of the most affected municipality of Castile-La Mancha, that is, Letur, in Albacete, in the company of the president of this region, the socialist Emiliano García-Page.
