Of the errors that the Valencian Government recognizes having made in the management of the devastating DANA on October 29, in which 220 people died and 8 are still missing, the president Carlos Mazón has completed the obligatory purging of responsibilities – three weeks later – with the dismissal of the Minister of Justice and Interior and person in charge of Emergencies, Salome Pradas. She leaves the position marked by her contradictions, as well as her lack of leadership and experience in a key area that was assigned to her last July after the departure of Vox from the regional Executive, leaving behind her direction of the Environment, Water, Infrastructure and Territory.
Salomé Pradas (Castellón de la Plana, 1978) graduated in Law from the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, where she worked as a lawyer and professor in parallel with a political career linked to the Popular Party as a councilor, senator and regional deputy, eventually occupying the General Directorate of Natural Environment of the Generalitat, before landing at the Consell with the help of Carlos Mazón. When the president formed his first Executive after winning the 28M elections, the government pact signed with Vox handed over to those of Santiago Abascal the Department of Justice and Interior, of which Emergency management depends. Once, this past July, they left the Valencian Government by order of the national leadership, these powers were transferred to Pradas, given its legal profile, although there were always doubts about its figure.
Sources from her own party and the regional Executive point out that the DANA tragedy has completely surpassed her and they place special emphasis on her «inaction» during the first hours of the administration, in which she did not make the appropriate decisions on time despite being Mazón’s delegate to represent the Generalitat in the constitution of the Integrated Operational Coordination Center (Cecopi), convened at five in the morning afternoon of October 29 after the Requena and Utiel area had already suffered significant episodes of rain and flooding.
One of the main criticisms directed at the determining role of Salomé Pradas during the most critical moments of the flood was the delay in launching the shipping system. mass alert Es-Alert to the mobile phones of citizens of the province of Valencia, a device that, according to what he confessed in statements to public television À Punt, It was known because a technician reminded them of its existence and possible use in this type of emergency in accordance with a protocol approved in 2022.
The counselor assured in the midst of the commotion that all the measures adopted on the fateful day, including that alert, were taken by “unanimous decision” of the Cecopi, in which the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ) was present, which was disgraced by not notifying of the flooding of the Rambla del Poyo until 6:43 p.m., when “it was already too late” because it had overflowed after quadrupling the flow of the Ebro. Despite everything, he defended that in those hours other means were used to warn the population of the risk of flooding due to DANA. Nevertheless, The notice reached the citizens at 8:11 p.m.when the torrent of water had already reached many towns in Horta Sud.
They also blame him for meeting his team at noon on October 29, but not calling the members of Cecopi until five in the afternoon. Furthermore, Pradas denied that the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, had offered to activate the agents of the Military Emergency Unit (EMU) – something he requested after two in the afternoon, only for the Utiel area – in several telephone conversations that morning. However, in images recorded by Spanish Television at 12:45 p.m., the councilor could be heard telling her collaborators that they had offered to activate the military corps.
All of this caused the Mazón Government to gradually remove it from public interventions related to DANA, putting the general director of Forest Fire Prevention, Rosa Touris, in focus, with a more technical profile and demonstrable experience. in emergency situations, given his career in the Civil Guard. Thus, together with the Minister of Tourism, Nuria Montesis left out of the new Valencian Executive that from now on focuses on a third stage linked from all its areas to the recovery after the catastrophe.
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