Thousands of volunteers and members of the security forces from all over Spain visited the areas affected by DANA last weekend, November 9 and 10, helping with clean-up and reconstruction work, especially in the neighborhoods of La Torre, Forn d’Alcedo and Castellar-Oliveral, in Valencia, where there have been at least 13 deaths.
In addition, officials from the government team, in this case the PP, such as the mayor herself, María José Catalá, or the spokesperson for the popular municipal group, Juan Carlos Caballero, were at the command post on Sunday advanced to supervise various matters. linked, for example, to the reopening of the Padre Manjón public school. The spokesperson for the socialist municipal group, Borja Sanjuan, collaborated in the distribution of materials with the Nueva Opción association, according to PSPV sources, while the spokesperson for Compromís, Papi Robles, assures that he was in the process of to remove mud in the Parque Alcosa area, in Alfafar.
The municipal spokesperson for Vox and councilor for Parks and Gardens, Employment and Training, Juan Manuel Badenas, however opted for a getaway with his partner, the councilor for Agriculture and Entrepreneurship Cecilia Herrero, also of the far-right party, in a town in the interior of Castellón, more precisely Morella. The day before, Friday November 8, he had not attended for the third time a meeting with Catalá to inform the opposition of the situation in the districts of Albufera and the measures adopted to improve the situation in these areas.
As confirmed by eyewitnesses to elDiario.es, both stayed in a central hotel where they arrived on Saturday November 9 at noon and were seen in its streets until Sunday, when they left the accommodation at a critical time when thousands of people continued to clean their homes and streets. This newspaper contacted the municipal group Vox for its explanations without having received a response.
According to the Valencia City Hall transparency portal, Badenas receives gross annual remuneration as Vox spokesperson of 91,288 euros and Herrero of 82,976 euros. Both were denounced by the Valencia public prosecutor’s office for alleged hate crimes.
As this newspaper reports, the municipal group Vox of the Valencia City Council, government partner of the PP, did not participate in any of the face-to-face meetings with the spokespersons of the municipal groups that the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, demanded accountability for the measures adopted after the DANA which devastated the municipalities surrounding the Poyo ravine, seriously affecting the neighborhoods of La Torre, Castellar-Oliveral and Forn. of Alcedo.
Badenas was not present as spokesperson, and none of the far-right group’s advisors attended the meetings on October 31, November 4, nor the last one last Friday, November 8.
