The agenda of the President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, remained unchanged on October 29 from 8:00 a.m. until 6:45 p.m., when he received a call from the former Minister of Justice and Interior Salomé Pradas asking him to act urgently at the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) because the Forata dam was on the verge of overflowing. At first, and after it became clear that Mazón was not where he should be, the version was that the president was “working” at the Palau de la Generalitat since he finished his last scheduled meeting with employers and unions at 2 p.m. 7:30 p.m. until arriving in Cecopi after 7:30 p.m. But it was a big lie. The confirmation of the meal with journalist Maribel Vilaplana exploded his team’s strategy of hiding a spectacle that hurt Valencian society and is censored even by his own party.
elDiario.es has reconstructed the movements of Carlos Mazón on the day of DANA, from his first public event to Cecopi where, at 10 p.m., he received the message from the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. The only gap that remains to be confirmed and that no one in the presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana clarifies is the period that goes from 6:00 p.m., when he leaves the Ventorro restaurant with Maribel Vilaplana, until 6:28 p.m., when he calls for a minute and eight seconds to the mayor of Cullera, Jordi Mayor, and his arrival at the Palau de la Generalitat after 6:30 p.m.
Who was Mazón with this half hour? Who spoke about the mayor of Cullera and forced Mazón to call? A friend of both, a businessman with interests in the municipality of Cullera? What is clear and that Mazón did not deny is that they did not talk about the rupture of the Forata dam which could have flooded Cullera. Why didn’t Mazón call any other mayor? Only the mayor of Torrent, Amparo Folgado, admitted to Cadena SER that she had received a call from the president.
After hearing first-hand the version of Maribel Vilaplana, Jordi Mayor, the Presidency team, the owner of Ventorro and other witnesses of the time, elDiario.es was able to locate the President of the Generalitat at any time . Except the blind half hour.
At 8:58 a.m. on October 29the president of the Generalitat asked in his account X for “caution on the roads” and “particular attention to the instructions of the authorities”. HAS 9:00 a.m.Mazón chaired the plenary session of the Consell. The province of Valencia was on red alert and In Punt, the regional channel, as well as social networks, began to broadcast images of the problems that had already started in Utiel the previous night. At 10:45 a.m.Mazón chaired the ceremony of handing over to the Generalitat the certification of the tourism sustainability strategy by Aenor. It was there that Mazón took the now historic photo, biting the prize with a completely carefree face. The event, which took place at the Palau de la Generalitat, was also attended by the former Minister of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Nuria Montes, and the CEO of Aenor, Rafael García .
Around noon, Mazón left the Palau de la Generalitat and headed towards Catalunya Avenue, to the headquarters of the General Directorate of Public Health, located at the northern exit of the city. Over there, after 12:00in collaboration with the Minister of Health, Marciano Gómez, presented the Digital Health Strategy of the Valencian Community, a document aimed at strengthening the health system with new technologies. Back at the Palau de la Generalitat, shortly before 1:00 p.m.the head of the Consell seemed to assure: “For the moment, there is no evidence of bodily injuries at this time of the morning”, according to a teletype from the Europa Press agency. posted at 12:59 p.m..
In statements published on the “president”’s X account at 1:14 p.m. On Tuesday, October 29, Carlos Mazón said: “According to forecasts, the storm is heading towards the Serranía de Cuenca, so it is expected that around 6 p.m. it will decrease in intensity in the rest of the Valencian Community . The message in X was later deleted. At 1:45 p.m.the head of the Regional Executive met with the general secretaries of the UGT unions and Workers’ Commissions, Ismael Saez and Ana García Alcolea, as well as the president of the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community, Salvador Navarro, to discuss the next 2025 budgets of the Generalitat. Nothing was said about DANA.
The meeting ended at 2:30 p.m. and Mazón left in the direction of the Ventorro restaurant, where he arrived 2:45 p.m. eat at a stand with journalist Maribel Vilaplana. The meeting went from non-existent to a meeting with Salvador Navarro, then to a private meal, according to successive versions of the Palau de la Generalitat. Under pressure from the media, the presidency had to explain that it was a “private working lunch”. In statements to elDiario.es, an authorized spokesperson for Vilaplana explained that the meal ended around 6:00 p.m. and that the president headed towards “the parking lot”, more precisely that of the Plaza de la Reina, which is located between the Ventorro and the Palau de la Generalitat. At 6:28 p.m.the president calls the mayor of Cullera and tells him, again according to Jordi Mayor’s version: “I am here at a meeting and your name has been mentioned.” Who was the president of the Generalitat with?
After conversations with the mayor of Cullera and other Palau-related sources, this meeting or chance meeting is believed to have to do with people interested in projects in Cullera. Neither Mazón previously knew the mayor nor did the president inform him of the critical situation of the Júcar River. The mayor himself and his team confirmed that the mayor’s name would not have been mentioned during the meal with Vilaplana, because they do not know each other and Vilaplana does not have projects in Cullera. “It was a very strange call,” the mayor recalled. Something happened in those 28 minutes for Mazón to decide to connect with Jordi Mayor and not with other mayors who were also affected by DANA.
After the call to the mayor and after the 6:30 p.m.the president arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat. At 6:45 p.m.According to Mazón himself, he received a call from Salomé Pradas about a possible overflow of the Forata dam, and he then decided to quickly go to the emergency center 112 of the Eliana, where he did not arrived only after 7:30. 6:00 p.m. due to traffic jams, as he said during his appearance in Parliament.
With Mazón already in the Cecopi and without coverage, among the 7:35 p.m. and 8:20 p.m.the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, tried to contact the president of the Generalitat Valenciana through three telephone calls that went unanswered. HAS 20.11 The massive alert was sent to cell phones, when hundreds of citizens were already trapped.
went to 8:20 p.m. when the vice-president of the government and next vice-president of the European Commission sent him an SMS in which he suggested: “Tell me everything we can do to help you. » Previously, Ribera’s team sent messages to Mazón’s chief of staff, journalist José Manuel Cuenca, while the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, spoke to Minister Salomé Pradas. Already after 10:00 p.m.It was the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who sent a message from India to Mazón to offer his collaboration.
