ABC Editorial: Mazón must leave now

The decision of the Catarroja judge investigating the responsibilities for the 228 deaths that occurred in the DANA of October 29 in Valencia to impute the then Minister of Interior and Justice, Salome Pradas, and his number two of emergencies, Emilio Argüeso, as well as the forcefulness of the relationship of facts contained in his car make the continuity of Carlos Mazón to the front of the Valencian Community. Although the instructor has not proceeded against the president of the Generalitat because it is afrado, which would slow down an investigation that seems to march at a good pace four months after the facts, has offered to declare voluntarily, which could do at any time.

The car, dictated in an initial phase of the instruction, already concludes sharply that the responsibilities for the delay in the notice to the population are concentrated in the regional executive. A very illustrative element are the examples that it collects from other institutions that did adopt prevention measures, such as the University of Valencia, which decided to suspend the classes, and ensures that there was “plenty” information to proceed. And neither he doubts that this “patent inactivity”, which resulted in the delay in giving the alarm, deprived the victims of the Dana of the possibility of being safe. They are very sharp assessments, even if they are dictated in an initial phase of the instruction and, therefore, can be modified in any sense if new evidence or new assessments arise at another procedural time. Judicial investigation, as progress, offers conclusions that evidence, regardless of their criminal translation and the possible and future involvement of other administrations, the bad catastrophe management by the Generalitat led by Carlos Mazón.

It is true that the car inadmits a complaint against the president of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, which is very striking and debatable, especially because obvious the objective involvement of this institution in the informative blackout on what was happening in the Poyo ravine. However, it should be noted that, although other administrations have had responsibility in what happened, and it must be investigated with the same exhaustivity as to the Valencian Government, that does not relieve an apex the level of negligence exhibited by the Generalitat and its president, Carlos Mazón, whose figure has become politically mortgaged forever by this lucid episode. The mere imputation by the judge of the person he designated for the Ministry of Justice and Interior, which he later dismissed to initially substantiate the political responsibilities of this case, place him in an unsustainable political position.

The Popular Party says that “the car has not changed anything” and it is true, everyone knows that, since the day after the tragedy, Mazón is an assisted president, who plays the minutes of the garbage of the party and to which only the inability of the popular to agree with Vox a substitute holds it. The passage of time and the evidence that the Generalitat himself has had to contribute demonstrates that his notion of the times is interested and questionable: first he said he arrived at the Cecopi after 19.30 and later pointed out that at 20.28, nothing less than almost an hour difference.

His recent attempt to appear in Madrid to take a second air was a real failure and was not surrounded by any relevant figure of his party. Despite that, in private, the direction of the PP has been hiding that it does not have a solution for the crisis or that it would bother him and self -deception believing that Mazón may be able to “lead the reconstruction.” The problem is that the surveys indicate that Carlos Mazón’s mortgage is heavier and more extensive than a Feijóo can intuit that it is true that he does not like to enter the field of his barons. But it has a left that is rearming thanks to its long experience in politically taking advantage of this type’s misfortunes, as demonstrated by the metro tragedy in Valencia or the ‘prestige’ in Galicia. Perhaps removing Mazón does not fix the situation in the Valencian Community, but keeping it in power is certainly a serious mistake and leads to a deepening of the crisis with a weak leader.