There is not a day in which new news does not come out about what happened on October 29, the day of the DANA that claimed the lives of 214 people in Valencia. Each of them leaves people with a feeling that ranges between bewilderment and fury. The company that manages telephone 112 was notified shortly after 6:00 p.m. that an alarm was going to be sent to all mobile phones, according to this newspaper. It took more than two hours to send it. The members of the emergency committee meeting spent that time arguing about how that message should be worded, while the flood was already endangering the lives of many Valencians. At that time, a source present at the Cecopi meeting stated that there were those who asked that the alert not be “excessively alarming.” What is the point of an alarm warning if it is not that it is alarming, that is, that it causes people to act accordingly?
Carlos Mazón carried out an unusual act this Monday. He answered several questions from journalists during a visit to the works on the CV-33 highway. The Valencian president has refused to grant interviews to À Punt, the regional television, and to TVE. He preferred to choose more placid dates. The night that the Telediario presenter announced on screen that she had rejected several offers from TVE for an interview, it turns out that Mazón had planned to give one to Trece, a national network with a low audience and owned by the Episcopal Conference. Imagine that you have to explain in detail what you did on the afternoon of the 29th, including your three-hour lunch with a journalist to whom you wanted to offer the direction of the regional radio and television station.
In an interview with a local private network with a journalist he trusts last Saturday, Mazón alleged that he is focused on “recovering electricity, water and telephone services” and that he does not spend time explaining what he did or going into controversies. “I say this because it seems morally irresponsible to me to be responding or defending myself or the Generalitat with such enormous and powerful work that is truly urgent and important,” he said with that twisted syntax that characterizes him these days. He may have forgotten it, but not the others. Since the beginning of the crisis, he has successively targeted the central government with his criticisms or his versions (after having praised their collaboration in front of Pedro Sánchez), the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, the AEMET, the UME and Teresa Ribera.
Now he suddenly says that he does not respond to criticism such as that caused by his meal on the 29th due to a question of moral responsibility that has suddenly come upon him. He has seen the light and will not give detailed explanations until his appearance on Thursday in the Valencian Parliament.
Even this Monday it has been seen that moral irresponsibility is just the failed trick of a magician whose cards fall out of his jacket sleeve to the stupor of the public. “We are all obliged to review the mistakes that could have been made. There is a clear one: not having paid more attention to the Rambla del Poyo, not having had information, which is not the responsibility of the autonomous community,” he said.
First of all, he says that there have been errors that will have to be accounted for. But in the next sentence he gives an example of something that would not be his fault. It is a matter for which the Hydrographic Confederation would be responsible, although it updates its data for everyone to see on its website. Once again, Mazón presents himself as the victim. Almost like those 214 people who perished in the flood.
The Popular Party has resigned itself to the idea of publicly supporting Mazón. All your alternatives are bad. He cannot disavow him or force his resignation as soon as possible, because that would open the way to a new investiture debate where he is not guaranteed the support of Vox. The possibility of early elections would be suicide in the coming months.
The support for Mazón is real, but without going into details. The party already knew that the behavior of the Valencian president on DANA day was going to blow up in his face. For this reason, Miguel Tellado said a few days ago that he was the one who had to answer questions about “that day’s agenda.” It was radioactive material that the PP wanted to remain inside a box.
Borja Sémper’s Monday press conference lasted twenty minutes, much less than usual. The national spokesperson had a crazy desire to finish it as soon as possible. They asked him about the PP’s direct support for Mazón and Sémper did not make the mistake of insisting too much on that. “We are not going to contribute to muddying Spanish politics,” he said. The PP MEPs are going to apply the third degree in Brussels in the interrogation of Teresa Ribera for her exam to be a European commissioner. This Wednesday in the control session, the PP deputies plan to ask ten questions that mention DANA or refer to it indirectly.
If Valencia needs more trucks to remove the mud from the sewers, it would be good if they reserved one to go to Congress that day, because there will be a double ration of mud.
The response of the Valencian PP on its Twitter account during Saturday’s demonstration shows the extent of the party’s nervousness. The default reaction was to agitate the rejection of the Catalans: “The Catalan entities of the ‘Països Catalans’ are coming to make trouble and collapse the city of Valencia.” Immediately, they began to blame the Hydrographic Confederation, because “it warned too late, with the ravine already overflowing.”
To see to what extent those responsible for the party were out of touch with reality, you only have to examine the contrast of these messages with the Sunday front page of Las Provincias, a reference newspaper for the Valencian right for decades. “Absolute outrage” was the headline on the front page with a photo of the Town Hall square packed with people. If not even Las Provincias follows you with the accusation inner enemy It’s that you are very lost with your own social support base.
They have to throw someone to the wild beasts to see if that saves Mazón. He doesn’t stop slipping away. On Monday, he said that “the president of the Generalitat is not a member” of Cecopi, a way of downplaying his absence during decisive hours. The political corpse chosen is that of Salomé Pradas, the Minister of Justice who led the Cecopi meeting that day. Las Provincias announced on Saturday that it was “on the exit ramp.” This Monday, he hinted that Pradas refuses to be a scapegoat. “Mazón increases pressure on Minister Pradas to resign,” says the newspaper.
At this point, it is unrealistic to expect that the immolation of Pradas, which showed several signs that day of being overcome by events, will have enough weight to make the survival of its boss possible. In the end, everything comes back to Mazón. The president considered the decision of the University of Valencia to suspend classes the day before the flood due to the forecast of heavy rains as exaggerated. It was a measure that could have saved lives – although it is impossible to know with complete certainty – which is more than can be said for Mazón’s management.
People don’t forget so easily. Mazón traveled to Torrent to announce the circulation of a bus shuttle with which people can go to their work centers. People who were on the street went to reproach him in front of the cameras for everything he did and especially for everything he did not do. “People dying and you eating,” a man told him. The visit lasted five minutes.
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