To respond to the emergency that has been generated in the Valencian Community, it is not necessary to alter the constitutional framework of the State. It is not the replacement of the president of the Generalitat by the Minister of the Interior what should be done. It would complicate the answer even more.
Although the Valencian Community was established through article 143 and not through article 151 of the Constitution, in the first of the Autonomous Pacts, negotiated by the UCD Government, chaired by Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo and the PSOE and directed by Felipe González, it was agreed that the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands would be equated from a jurisdictional point of view with the four communities that had been established through article 151: the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalusia.
Formally, the Valencian Community has not had full autonomy since the moment of its constitution, but materially it has had it.
It means, therefore, that for the citizens of the autonomous community their relationship with the State has basically been their relationship with the Generalitat. They were born in hospitals managed by the regional government, they have been educated in all phases of the educational system in centers of the Autonomous Community, social assistance, territorial planning, urban policy, etc., has been defined by the Generalitat.
I remember the surprise of the students when I asked them what the State meant to them and how they had felt the presence of the State in their lives. They were disconcerted when they saw the omnipresence of the Autonomous Community in their lives and the meager presence of the State, of the Central Administration. At most some of them had had contact with the Civil Traffic Guard.
The State is the essential umbrella for the Autonomous Communities to operate, but the contact of public power with citizens is the territory of the Autonomous Community. From the Autonomous Communities of 151 plus the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands from the initial moment of their constitution. From the Communities of 143 since the Second Autonomous Pacts of 1992, negotiated by the Government chaired by Felipe González and the PP, chaired by José María Aznar.
This introduction is relevant to contextualize Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s request to declare the situation of “emergency of national interest”, provided for in Chapter VII of Law 17/2015, of July 9, of the National Civil Protection System .
The emergency of national interest is defined with three criteria:
1º Those that require the application of LO 4/1981, regulating states of alarm, exception and siege.
2º Those that require the coordination of various Administrations because they affect several Autonomous Communities.
3º Those that, due to their effective or foreseeable dimensions, require a national direction.
It does not seem that what has happened in Valencia fits into any of the assumptions provided for in the Law. It has been a catastrophe in which everything provided for in Chapter IV, “Immediate response to emergencies” and will have to be resorted to. in Chapter V, “Recovery.”
But to do so, not only is it not necessary to suspend the exercise of the right to autonomy, but it is counterproductive. The “immediate response” measures are already being activated with the collaboration of the State and, once it is understood that this phase has been put to an end, it will be necessary to move on to the “recovery” phase, which will also require the collaboration of the State. State, but it should not demand the suspension of the exercise of the right to autonomy, quite the opposite. The thousands of officials of the autonomous Administration will be the ones who will have to deal primarily with the “recovery” tasks. And their direction in that task must be done by the different departments. With the state aid they require, but administered by them. Anything other than that is contributing to the mess.
It must be the Generalitat itself that asks for the collaboration it needs to get out of the immediate emergency situation and that determines what the “recovery” should consist of, for which it will also need to have the collaboration of the State.
To respond to the emergency that has been generated in the Valencian Community, it is not necessary to alter the constitutional framework of the State. It is not the replacement of the president of the Generalitat by the Minister of the Interior what should be done. It would complicate the answer even more.
The problem remains that Carlos Mazón should not continue being president of the Generalitat, but not because he is president, but because he is Carlos Mazón.
It is clear that, with his conduct, he has disqualified himself from being able to continue serving as president. I should have resigned by now. It is an insult to the Valencian citizens that he continues to be president. His agenda for the day of the catastrophe is so eloquent that it is inexplicable that he himself did not make the decision. But nothing more.
The State of the Autonomies has to demonstrate that it is capable of facing emergencies such as the one caused by DANA. It must demonstrate that cooperation between the State and the Autonomous Community is possible, without the temporary suspension of the right to autonomy being necessary. That is one of the lessons that should be learned from the tragedy of these days.
#Managing #reconstruction #disaster
