Despite the media deployment that has been taking place in recent days, three weeks after the catastrophic DANA that devastated the province of Valencia, leaving more than two hundred dead, the residents of the affected towns continue to feel abandoned by the administrations.
Some streets still show the extent of the flood and 600 garages and basements remain buried in mud. «Today, the extraction of mud and cleaning of garages continues to be a priority, with special attention to schools and commercial premises. These efforts are key to recovering normality and reactivating the economy,” the Ministry of Defense explained this Friday in its X profile.
Minister Margarita Robles visited several towns to check the Army’s work at ground zero, where she had a confrontation with the owners of a flooded garage in Paiporta. Two victims reproached Robles, who was accompanied by members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), that this body was not participating in the drainage and cleaning of their parking lots.
«The military is working and I tell you that whoever has to give the instructions, which is not us, has said that private garages are subsidiary. I’m not to blame», stated the minister.
Questioned then about who has responsibility, Robles pointed out that “the mayors and the Cecopi – Integrated Operational Coordination Center – have said that they are secondary.” “First the public garages and then the private ones,” he added. “I come because I have 8,000 people working,” she responded after being criticized for her presence. “I don’t break the law,” he stressed, referring to the fact that he follows orders from those directing the emergency.
I don’t know if it’s the accumulated hours or days, but this is unbearable. With that attitude, the best thing would be to stay at home, so as not to send her where any Valencian with a minimum of “trellat” would send her.
Holding mayors accountable to citizens is very cowardly.… pic.twitter.com/WkgfjTGeVo
— Vicente Mompó Aledo (@Vicente_Mompo_) November 23, 2024
Criticism of Margarita Robles for the harsh tone used with the victims of the catastrophe has not been long in coming, after the video with the tense face-to-face went viral on social networks. The president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicente Mompó, has criticized the head of Defense for her lack of empathy with the residents of Paiporta, one of the towns hardest hit by the tragedy.
«I don’t know if it’s the accumulated hours or days, but this is unbearable. With that attitude, the best thing would be to stay at home, so as not to send her where any Valencian with a minimum of ‘trellat’ would send her. Holding mayors accountable to citizens is very cowardly», says Mompó.
«The 8,000 soldiers are not their workers, they are soldiers at the service of all Spaniards. “Close the door when you leave!” he says.
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