The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, tried last Saturday to take the political reins of the DANA catastrophe that has claimed more than 200 lives and will cost millions of euros in repairs and compensation in the coming months and years. The head of the Consell is receiving harsh criticism from many affected people and the opposition for the delay in launching the emergency response and, above all, for the loss of vital time at key hours and the late launch. of the general alarm to the population on October 29 at 8:12 p.m. On Saturday morning, around 10:30 a.m., the President of the Government Pedro Sánchez made a public appearance in which he announced a battery of economic, political and logistical measures to combat the disaster and chaos that was being experienced in the municipalities. affected. The headline of Pedro Sánchez’s advertisements fell like a bomb in the Palau de la Generalitat and dismantled Mazón’s management. He presented dozens of measures, 7,000 soldiers and a frigate: “If you need more resources, let the Generalitat ask for them.” It was around 11 a.m. on Saturday.
After this appearance by Sánchez, all the forecasts in the engine room of disaster management, in the Emergency Coordination Center 112 building in L’Eliana, were blown up. After 11 in the morning, the Minister of Justice, Salomé Pradas, had called the first daily meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi). About twenty institutions attend this coordination meeting, from the affected councilors to the Government Delegation, including the emergency teams and the State Security Forces and Bodies. But with everyone ready to get started, the meeting was postponed by the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana for no reason.
Rumors began to spread. Carlos Mazón had locked himself with three of his most trusted people in an office of the Emergency Coordination Center. It was its hard core, the West Wing of the Palau de la Generalitat, according to the simile of the North American series. The West Wing of the White House. Outside of this meeting, among others, were the vice president of the Valencian Government, Susana Camarero; the Minister of Justice and legal person responsible for crisis management, Salomé Pradas; Marciano Gómez, Minister of Health, and the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicente Mompó, who in the first five days of the crisis had become a mainstay of Mazón in all his public interventions and who is appeasing the mayors who are critical of the president’s management. Especially from the PP. Emergency technicians, police, Civil Guard, firefighters and the Government itself were also left out of the summit.
Who are the three trusted men with whom Mazón locked himself in to give the most important press conference of his political life? These are three of its regional secretaries in the Presidency of the Generalitat. Those responsible for its engine room and its relations with the press and interest groups. Two professional journalists and an economist with a national qualification. His right-hand man, José Manuel Cuenca, regional secretary of the President’s Cabinet and who worked at COPE in the Valencian Community; Cayetano García Ramírez, regional secretary of the Presidency, who manages the data and has been the architect of its musical policy, and Santiago Lumbreras, regional secretary of Institutional Relations and Transparency. Lumbreras was the strong man when Mazón was president of the Alicante Provincial Council. The meeting began after Sánchez’s appearance and did not end until Mazón decided to come out to give his appearance, after 7 p.m.
Ministers, police officers and other institutions began to get nervous when they saw that at 2 p.m. – three hours later than planned – the Cecopi had not started and they began to protest. To quell the complaints, Mazón’s press team sent a message to journalists announcing the president’s appearance. “Good afternoon. We inform you that in a few moments the president of the Generalitat will appear at the L’Eliana Emergency Coordination Center.” It was 2:30 p.m. He politburo de Mazón was still meeting and the councilors were still outside.
The members of the emergency teams and the Security Forces and Corps returned to work quite upset with the lack of information due to the delay. The councilors and the president of the Provincial Council, faced with the obvious situation of lack of control and chaos and seeing that they were stopped, decided to leave the Emergency building and go visit affected areas. The Minister of Justice, who is on paper the one who manages the crisis, left in an Emergency vehicle. First to Utiel, where he walked the streets with the mayor, Ricardo Gabaldón, and later to Chiva, where he met the president of the Provincial Council, as can be seen on his personal social networks. It was 5 p.m. and Mazón was still locked up with his team.
This newspaper published information at 5:14 p.m. warning of the situation of Cecopi, postponed without any explanation and without news from Mazón. Until after 7 p.m., the president of the Generalitat did not appear before the media to announce his package of measures to confront the crisis. Alone, wearing a light blue Yves Saint Laurent shirt and without the red emergency vest that he had worn since the beginning of the crisis. In that appearance without questions, Mazón finally tried to take political command and position himself as the organizer of the response to the tragedy.
It has not gone unnoticed in his party or in Vox’s partners that he appeared alone in this appearance. Like Sánchez did. Until now, the president had always made his public appearances with the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, the Minister of Justice and the provincial chief of Firefighters, José Miguel Basset. “It was a communicative disaster, he appeared with an outfit that looked like it came from the movies, and not from fighting a crisis of the first magnitude,” explains a source who experienced the uncertainty in 112. There are already voices in the party that question the selection of the Carlos Mazón’s emergency team. After the closure on Saturday, also from its communication team.
The appearance at the 112 Emergency Center in Santiago Lumbreras this Saturday was striking. Lumbreras had not been seen in these facilities in the first days of the catastrophe, from Tuesday to Friday. Those who have been close to the president have been Cuenca and Cayetano García. García has been seen quite nervous during these days with moments, even, of obvious fuss. Screams are not strange in these days of tension in the engine room of crisis management. Cuenca, of a more serious character, has been in charge of being close to the president in the moments in which Pedro Sánchez or Minister Grande-Marlaska have been, as can be seen in the photograph that illustrates this news.
Three men are currently supporting the figure of Mazón. Neither the party, nor the Consell, nor its partners. Alone in the face of danger are the friends of the Alicante clan, as they are known in journalistic circles.
#hours #Mazón #locked #politburo #paralyzed #emergency #center #councilors #president #Provincial #Council
