Would the response to the floods caused by DANA in several Valencian regions have been better if emergency powers were in charge, as in the old days, of the central government and its delegates (previously civil governors)? Under the impact of the enormous tragedy, in view of the fact that the emergency system for which Carlos Mazón, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, is responsible, reacted late, in a failure that will go down in history, there is a temptation to consider that possibility . And, in coherence, the temptation arises for the Government to apply the mechanisms provided for by law to separate the autonomous administration and directly assume disaster management.
But there are many reasons not to give in to that temptation. The most important thing is that it wouldn’t solve anything. The second, and no less, that it would be a type of movement that has no turning back and that would have an impact on the structure of the autonomous State as a whole. For this reason, by the way, it is an eventuality so much to the liking of the involutionist extreme right. A senior official of the Generalitat Valenciana in the previous administration of the Botanical Pact, very critical of the way in which the current PP Council has managed the emergency, explained to me that “recentralization” would make us go back to outdated, structurally more inoperative models. . “The problem is not the distribution of powers, but the incompetence of those in charge,” he added.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has been aware that removing the Valencian president from the operation would open an institutional crisis when it is least convenient and would fuel a type of political victimhood that is in no way compatible with the real victims who have lost family and friends and They have seen their lives devastated. Normally, the response of the central Executive must be complemented by that of the regional Executive. This is how the mechanism is designed. Right now, the feeling is that the Government must supply part of the functions that the Consell de la Generalitat Valenciana has not been able to organize. Maintaining cooperation, allocating all resources and reinforcing an emergency structure weakened by those responsible seems the most responsible thing to do.
Given the new challenges that climate change poses in terms of risks, it is essential to strengthen local response mechanisms as well as those of a broader nature. Unifying provincial fire departments into a single autonomous body, for example, was one of the measures pursued by the creation of the Valencian Emergency Unit that the PP and Vox so frivolously discarded in the first months of government in the Generalitat Valenciana. Can anyone imagine what would happen if, in the event of a catastrophe, the firefighters, local police, members of Civil Protection and other emergency personnel, in addition to the national police, the civil guards and the soldiers, were directed from Madrid, to the outside the autonomous government? What kind of dysfunction would be creating?
The State has three levels, local, regional and central. Any adequate response in the field of emergencies requires multilevel cooperation to work, here and anywhere else on the planet. President Sánchez has insisted that we have to respond to the tragedy together. That statement has not been an obstacle for him to mention, in passing, that there will be time to settle responsibilities and clarify “negligence.” In the Valencian misfortune we must know how to distinguish the aptitude of the institution, the command and management capacity of the means and the protocols. Come on, the problem is Mazón, not the Generalitat Valenciana.
#problem #Mazón #Generalitat #Valenciana
