Next Tuesday, November 12 Therese Ribera She will be the last of the candidates to join the European Commission to take the exam before the European Parliament. Her approved This will depend on whether there is a new community government or not. And in the European Parliament, we are already wondering if he can be a commissioner “someone whose negligence meant that the population was not warned in time of the flood” by DANA in the Valencian Community.
At least this is the argument that has been circulating in recent days among the MEPs of the European People’s Party, on which there is a cross. The EPP will not slow down the second Von der Leyen Commission on this map alone, but the candidate for Executive Vice-President of Competition and Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition of the European Commission is the one who is most likely to fall if circumstances favor him.
The popular MEPs will appear before Ribera with the intention of holding him responsible for the Valencian tragedy, after it abstained from any explanation on the management of the central government and its ministry, which is the protagonist.. “Your responsibility lies with AEMET and the canals of the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar.”
The candidate for the position of first vice-president of the European Commission is still the third vice-president of the government of Pedro Sánchez. “And even though no one would say it these days, because She is hidden, she is Minister DANA“, declares a spokesperson for the Spanish PP.
Spanish Congress
Since the water and mud storm of Tuesday October 29 which left more than 200 dead and still undetermined missing people, the Minister of Ecological Transition He did not appear in the media or in Parliament. 48 hours ago, the Popular Party demanded his appearance in Congress. But this Wednesday, he was his Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Moranwho submitted to the control of the deputies “with evasion and obviousness”.
The ministry also did not respond to questions from this newspaper. And Morán found himself stuck when the PP deputy Joaquin Melgarejo He criticized Ribera’s “absolute negligence” in managing the channels. The PP spokesperson for the Environment criticized the vice-president “not having started preventive work priority in flood risk plans and not having cleaned the ravines“.
And above all, it reminded him number two from Ribera a response from his department to a written question from the Popular Group. “The criteria that you apply, you have specified, in the cleaning of the canals and, more precisely, in the dangerous demarcation of Júcar is that of “minimal intervention” in the beds of rivers.
The text of the Government’s response, to which this newspaper had access, specifies that “the notion of ‘canal cleaning’ does not appear in water legislation”. And that, therefore, the Hydrographic Confederations carry out simple channel conservation actions“. And that the objective is “to protect the current regime and its natural functioning”.
Outraged, Melgarejo concluded his argument by commenting “we see where this minimal intervention has taken us” and added that “many Valencians We wonder why Ribera didn’t even deign to set foot in Valencia“.
The exam
The European People’s Party (EPP) I already planned to make things very difficult in Ribera for his hearing next Tuesday at the European Parliament.
Instructed by members of the Spanish delegation, the second largest within the European Parliament’s large group, PP deputies planned to “press” Ribera for his mandate. “ideological dogmatism”. They also planned to question him about the possibility collusion of her position as competition commissioner with that of her husbandmember of the Securities Market Commission (and before that of Markets and Competition).
Due to his rejection of nuclear energy, it has already been reported that he had to resign even to run for office. But its environmental policies “against the interests of the Spanish primary sector”popular Europeans will now add responsibility for the Valencian tragedy.
According to a document circulating among MEPs in Brussels and to which this newspaper had access, Sánchez’s third vice-president must confirm that the destruction of DANA in Valencia “It’s not due to the rain”for which there are red alerts “permanently”, but for the “ravine overflow”, which are their competitors and “generated floods that devastated towns where it barely rained, like Paiporta.”
He must explain why the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation “held meetings throughout Tuesday, the day of the floods, with all state administrations.” without including the Generalitat Valenciana“. And why he kept “the overflow warning disabled practically all day”, until it was already late and the Barranco del Poyo had increased its flow 100 times.
Ribera will be asked for details, names and responsibilities regarding the two and a half hours of silence that occurred between 4:13 p.m., when the official information announced an interruption of the channel, confirmed up to three times. 6:43 p.m., when “it was already late”.
And why “this information on the risk of overflow” was sent “by email (not even by phone) to the Generalitat a few minutes after the risk of overflowing the Forata dam”.
According to this popular argument, “it was at that moment that the Generalitat launched the alert by cell phone (the first time in history that an alert of this type was launched in the Valencian Community and the second in the history of Spain). Because the problem we need to prevent is not the rain, it’s the ravine and the dam“.
The document describes the actions of the organizations of the Ministry of Ecological Transition as “absolute negligence” and points the finger at Teresa Ribera, implying that her lack of explanations in Spain seeks do not “spot” just before the hearing to be first vice-president of the Commission.
“The risk of overflow was not warned until too late, it is absolute negligence not to have cleaned the ravines which would have prevented the overflow and it is negligence on the part of the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar did not say anything to the Valencian authorities throughout the day about what could happen“.
