The president of the Generalitat Valenciana once again insists on the unpredictability of meteorological events and on attributing to the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation the delays in the communication of the warnings, which caused the alert to citizens during the DANA on October 29 after 20 hours. “Everything changed after 7 p.m.,” says the president to defend his management. The regional leader, who has not published his agenda for days, attended this Saturday the meeting of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi) in l’Eliana, the body that manages emergencies, from where he has avoided talking about the future of the Minister of Justice and the Interior, responsible for this matter.
Asked if he will dismiss Councilor Salomé Pradas, head of the branch, the leader of the Valencian PP said: “No, look, I believe that political responsibilities will come at the time because now what it is about is continuing to clean streets.” . The councilor has been in the spotlight for days for the inaction during the key hours of the tragedy, questioned by the members of the Emergency Center. In private, his ability to face the management is questioned and in recent days even his word has been questioned: he said in an interview that he did not know about the alert system until 8 p.m. and some audios reveal that it was discussed before. “The time for responsibilities will come, sure, but now to get into controversies… I believe that now the entire Valencian government and all the administrations are working,” insisted the popular baron, who refers to his next appearance in the Corts Valencianes for November 14.
The head of the Consell has assured “not wanting to get into controversies” and then insisted on the message sent by the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera: “If someone says that they were calling me all afternoon and I have no calls from that person until 8, or messages from 8, well that’s what I want to say,” he stated.
“The hydrological revolution”
Mazón talks about two different scenarios on the same day, a day that changes drastically at seven in the afternoon. Until that time, he defends, the alert was for storms. “But when it becomes a flood, when the confederation of the ministry tells us from seven o’clock onwards that this whole hydrological revolution, that whole riverbed had overflowed, that’s when everything changes,” he said upon entering the Cecopi. The Valencian leader insists on the idea of “two days in one” on October 29: “Before 7 and after, that was when everything changed, that was when the hydrological revolution devastated so much,” he maintains.
The Valencian president assures that since AEMET gave the red alert for rain, “everything was established here”, in reference to Cecopi. “Everything was organized, the councilor was there, the regional secretary was there, all the members of Cecopi were there, from all times. We punctually follow all information. Everything changes after seven,” he says. He also adds that there is “a situation of great lack of communication where the main telephone terminals were already beginning to collapse.” “The problem is the flood afterwards, what generates the flood afterwards, because this is what demonstrates the great hydrological revolution that there was,” continues the leader of the popular Valencians, who insists that “until that moment they were storms, they were rains, they were a red alert that we have had at other times”, but still “everyone was in their position, this is what happened, absolutely everything.”
In statements collected exclusively by public television À Punt, the Valencian president stated prior to the meeting that Minister Teresa Ribera “was not interested in DANA” until after 8 p.m. “Before 8 p.m. we did not have any reference from her, nor from any senior official,” says Mazón, which has been denied by the ministry. That message from Ribera came after he tried to call him without success on three occasions, between 7:35 p.m. and until 8:20 p.m. He did it through his secretary, Moncloa’s telegraphic office and his chief of staff, according to Ministry sources. At that moment, in the absence of a response, Ribera sent him that SMS. Later, his team manages to locate the president through the mobile phone of someone who was next to him and who physically passes it to him. In his tweet, Mazón does not make any reference to the vice president’s calls, but he does assure that he was “without coverage.”
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