Valencia needs the best, from Spain and Europe, and it needs them now. Assuming command and taking it away from autonomy is associated with risks and controversies. But not assuming command in the face of the biblical proportion of this catastrophe carries other risks, and Valencia is seething with rage these days. We must remove the dead, care for the living and provide running water to avoid diseases
Chronicle – I took a bus and in seven stops I was at the gates of hell
Valencia has been the center of the worst natural disaster in Europe. That unfortunately has already happened and later we will be able to delve into the political and judicial responsibilities, although by taking a look at the Twitter chronology we can already intuit them. We are on another screen. Get out of the mud. Fina, from Chiva, has food left for a couple of days. Vicente, from Catarroja, has not showered for five years and has had seven sips of water since Tuesday. Antonia, from Paiporta, cannot find her husband or her daughter. In l’Horta Sud, Utiel, La Ribera and Chiva no one works and no one sleeps. Almost all of them also share something else: they live 20 minutes from the third capital of Spain and the best place to live, according to Forbes magazine.
That the Generalitat government, led by Carlos Mazón, has done almost everything wrong is evidence that this is not the time to spend more money. The disheartening thing is that he continues to be in charge, not only not improving the situation, but making it worse. They asked for few soldiers because they were unable to see the magnitude of the tragedy. They were placed in only three locations. They have made a massive call for thousands of Valencians to go help areas where there is sludge and bacteria with decomposing bodies. A UME captain told TVE that more soldiers did not come because in addition to having troops, they must be organized, something that is not happening. Two helicopters that the Andalusian Government sent to help have turned back because no one has told them what to do. The roads have been blocked without aid being able to get through because they have not restricted their use to the population until Friday night.
Given this, and that the Generalitat Valenciana considers that we are still at emergency level 2 out of a maximum of 3 (2 is the one that allows the autonomy to continue with control), the Government of Pedro Sánchez has the moral and political obligation to take command without waiting to see how much you can screw up. It can be done within the channels provided by law, declaring a national emergency that allows for a more professional logistics organization. Isn’t this a level 3? We must urgently care for the living and rescue the dead, fix infrastructure and broken bridges so that we can move in the coming months, provide running water to avoid public health risks, manage aid and housing. All of that, all the time, everywhere.
Just because the person who screwed up is one, does not mean that the person who is in front and saw it cannot help him get it out of the sewer until he first “asks” it. Valencia needs the best, from Spain and Europe, and it needs them now. Assuming command and taking it away from autonomy, of course, is associated with risks and controversies. If the two administrations had been from the same party, it is likely that Fina de Chiva would already have a full refrigerator by now. But not assuming command in a situation of this magnitude carries other risks, and Valencia is seething with rage these days. Mazón’s incompetence cannot last forever because it happened to him, because he was at the worst moment in the wrong place. Nor can it last forever because Sánchez does not want to take charge of something that has biblical dimensions, because he does not dare, does not want to or does not want to generate a reputational crisis or media mud. Not as long as the real mud continues to muddy the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. If we continue like this, there will not be enough places to accommodate the protesters.
#Letter #Mazón #Sánchez
