The majority of Spanish society lives in another era, with another outlook and other emotions. The hoax and hate industry can continue to operate as if faced with another business opportunity, but sooner or later the mud will be thrown at them too.
They threw objects and mud at the king, Sánchez and Mazón as soon as they arrived in Paiporta, shouting “assassins!”
It was first on the radio that same Tuesday evening. You know you have to grab everything you have when, one after the other, calls come into the SER saying that there is a group of people on the roof of a truck or van running out of battery in the flood, or a couple who cannot know. whether it’s getting out of the car or hoping the power doesn’t take them away, or a family left stranded in a mall that should have closed six hours earlier. You do not need to be an emergency technician, nor do you need to receive a notice from AEMET. There’s something worse in a crisis than being late, and that’s insisting on continuing to be late.
Time does not pass in the same way in Valencia as in the rest of Spain. This is the first thing you need to understand. The second thing is that neither you nor I know from our mobile screen what, who, how and when. It was public services and the efforts of their workers that prevented an even greater tragedy. They need support and encouragement, not lessons or delegitimization of their work. Those who are there are in charge because they have the knowledge and the context. Changing the chain of command now would be as absurd as issuing an alert when people already have water under their feet. Victims have the right to be outraged, even without reason. You and me, no. It seems to all of us that the ambulance we are waiting for always arrives too late. That doesn’t mean that’s the case.
It’s no longer about my government, it does everything right and your government does everything wrong. DANA also removed the polarization frame. Everything has changed, but nothing will stay the same. Anyone who does not understand this will be swept away by a flood of rejection that no dam can contain. Ask my friend Alberto Núñez Feijóo if you don’t believe me. Felipe VI understood this by removing the umbrella which sought to protect him from the mud. Carlos Mazón is right to ask for help even if it is late and to be careful. Pedro Sánchez is right to send it without requiring the form in triplicate and with a double policy. They do it well because it’s what needs to be done and it’s what most of us expect of them.
Spain is facing the greatest tragedy it has seen in decades. Another legislature begins. That’s 11 million, but with no brutal terrorists to blame. Either things will work again, or someone will take the opportunity to sneak in with the false promise of making them work. The “and you plus” strategy only leads to another disaster for those who insist on continuing to practice it.
The majority of Spanish society today is focused on something else, in another time, with another perspective and other emotions. This is true for politics and everything else. The next time you receive an alert on your cell phone, you will no longer be outraged or laughed. You will read it carefully. The hoax and hate industry may continue to operate as if faced with yet another business opportunity, but it is no longer “business as usual”; sooner or later, mud will be thrown at them too. The right-wing press, not content with making a fool of itself on Wednesday morning by devoting its coverage to Begoña Gómez and ironizing her Bollywood photographs, now insists on the fact that DANA is also Pedro Sánchez’s fault. Since they were late, the others must have been late too. The State was there from the first night because the Generalitat is the State, the UME is the State, the Valencia Fire Consortium is the State, the Civil Guard and the Police are the State.
These are the same public services that left and remain battered and exhausted after the pandemic, once again saving thousands of lives. Electricity, drinking water, railways or the distribution network are not restored by the people, they are restored by the State, its workers and our taxes. Pay attention to them because they are the ones who know. They do their job. Let’s make our own.
