«Here bodies will not be delivered to families, relatives will not be allowed access to the area where we have all the deceased in custody, so they have to wait for the call from the court and the delivery of the relevant documentation. . “The best place for families to wait for news from their relatives is at home.” These words addressed to those closest to the DANA victims will mark the career of the until now Minister of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Generalitat Valenciana, Nuria Monteswhich this Monday was dismissed by the president Carlos Mazón as part of the extensive remodeling of his Government, from now on focused on the repair of the affected areas and the economic recovery of an entire region hit by a devastating storm.
Montes (Madrid, 1969) leaves the Valencian Executive after being appointed in July 2023 as head of some of the most important powers of an autonomous community whose economic engine is based mainly on the tertiary sector and the arrival of visitors. In fact, this Law graduate was general secretary of the Hotel and Tourism Business Association of the Valencian Community (Hosbec) for three decades and has held positions of special relevance in the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community, in the Valencian Tourism Agency and in the CEOE.
“Daughter of businessmen”, as defined in her resume published on the transparency portal of the Generalitat Valenciana, Nuria Montes has been one of the most notable councilors since the first days after the DANA of October 29. In your case, for the lack of empathy which he demonstrated in statements to the media in which he informed the families of the victims that they would not be able to access the pavilion where the bodies were located for their identification.
Hours later he apologized and justified those words in the concern that existed among the UME agents so that Fira Valencia, where the bodies from the tragedy were found, would not become an information point overwhelmed by relatives. «We decided to send a message so that the protocol was complied with. I regret that my words were lacking in empathy and sensitivity that we are all looking for in these hard times,” he apologized after receiving numerous criticisms on social networks and from other political formations, even from some voices from the Popular Party.
Although at first it was thought from those around her that the storm could be weathered, days later the case of Toñi García came to light, an official from the department that Montes until now directed, who reported after losing her husband and her 24-year-old daughter that the head of Tourism called her by phone a week later. In this conversation, according to this worker, she told her boss that she had to walk home from the funeral home after cremating her relatives, to which she alludes that the counselor responded: «Woman, if you had told me, I could have sent you an official car».
The Department of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism quickly issued a statement to explain that two of its workers had lost immediate family members in the flood, something that “was officially notified to the councilor a week later.” The next morning, according to her version, Nuria Montes called them to convey the condolences of the Ministry’s office and make herself available if they needed anything. «The counselor had never spoken to them before. During the conversation he limited himself to listening to them and conveying the regret of the entire team for the tragedy. At no time was any offer made beyond the support of the Department for whatever they needed,” they added.
A gesture towards the victims
Both situations that occurred in the last two weeks would have caused the dismissal of the aforementioned councilor, despite the fact that she and the president have maintained a solid relationship of friendship for decades, having been cemented as a kind of gesture towards the victims of the tragedy of the DANA and not so much because of its direct management about it, as is the case of the Minister of Justice and Interior, Salomé Pradas, in charge of Emergency actions and harassed by her errors and contradictions.
In parallel, in recent hours some statements by Montes from last March during a forum organized by the newspaper have also gone viral. Informationin which he pointed out that “if something good brings climate change It is precisely the extension of the tourist season”, noting that “the good weather seen in 2023 and 2024 practically dominates during all months of the year.”
In that sense, in addition, another message from Montes came to the fore on social networks in October 2018, when he was working for the Hosbec tourist association in a job unrelated to political activity, with an ironic comment related to a weather warning: «After “After an alarm in which two or three drops have fallen, it does not surprise me that within a few hours they will declare a tsunami alert if they see two or three waves in the sea.”
In short, a profile that Mazón’s management considers outdated and located outside the new direction of its Government focused entirely on recovery, despite the fact that multiple sources in the tourism sector define it as a great professional with extensive experience and that “it is a shame” that he has to leave the Executive due to insensitive statements in a tragedy without comparison.
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