Now we will see the PP deny its responsibility as in the Valencia Metro accident. As in the Madrid residences. They will tell us that they died of natural causes, that their deaths could not be avoided, that they were going to die anyway. But not. There are ideological and economic causes. There are political and business leaders.
Natural disasters cannot be avoided, but their consequences can. Or at least try. This has not been the case in the Valencian Community. On Tuesday at 7:30 in the morning, the State Meteorological Agency decreed the red level of extreme risk for DANA. At 11:50, the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation was already warning of overflows and considerable floods in its channels. State Emergencies launched a hydrological alert at 12:20. Still noon. But at 1 p.m., the president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón (PP), took advantage of an event, not even a specific appearance, to make light of the matter and announce that the forecast is that at 6 p.m. the storm will have subsided and passed long. The opposite happened. At that time all hell broke loose.
Mazón did not appear again. He did not consider it appropriate. Nor activate alerts on Valencians’ phones until 8 p.m. in Valencia capital and 9 p.m. in the most affected areas. When the chaos was total. When the roads were collapsed, cars and trucks were swept away by the floods, the flood flooded businesses and houses, hundreds of people fought to save their lives and dozens disappeared. The images we have seen are Dantesque. Elderly people in a residence parked in wheelchairs while the water covers them above their knees, drivers standing on the roofs of their cars to escape, workers sheltering on the roofs of their companies. Nobody warned them, nobody told them to go home. They were forced to continue working. Capitalism does not stop even in the face of the universal flood.
The Valencian Government does not ask for help from the Military Emergency Unit until after 8 p.m. The president does not appear until the morning when the death count is still around twenty. Soon the numbers skyrocket. First 50, then 62, then 70, at the time I write these lines, 95. It is feared that there are more, many more. The worst cold drop of the century and the Generalitat has not taken the necessary measures. Mazón deletes the tweet in which he said that at 6 p.m. the storm would subside. But he cannot delete the tweet in which the PP boasted of having suppressed the Valencian Emergency Unit, the service created to accelerate and coordinate the response to disasters. Just what would have been needed. It was a project in development and they closed it. The PP called it a “chiringuito” and Vox called it “an idea” of Ximo Puig. The occurrence could have saved lives.
It had a budget of nine million euros. Its elimination left 187 part-time firefighters on the streets. Meanwhile, Vox’s Culture Minister, former bullfighter Vicente Barrera, skyrockets spending on bullfighting and grants up to a subsidy of 300,000 euros to a bullfighting foundation in Madrid. Valencia becomes the community that spends the most on bull shows in all of Spain. I imagine they would think about putting out fires with hoods and fighting DANA with flags. Ole and ole. “He who sows cuttings, collects ashes,” said the Valencian forest firefighters in the last fire campaign. Today it is not ashes, it is corpses.
There are those responsible. The PP governs with Vox, which denies climate change and proposes ending some meteorological agencies. They did not pay attention to AEMET’s warnings. They ignored emergencies. They did not alert the population. They did not force the closure of the companies. Some forced their workers to continue. Among them, giants like Ikea and Mercadona. The video of a supermarket delivery truck driver saved by firefighters has gone around the country. Juan Roig’s company forced its workers to continue delivering during the storm. Today Mercadona has sent its condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives, yesterday it sent its workers to risk it.
Today the mayor of Valencia, the popular María José Catalá, thanked him for distributing food to those affected. Today the PP has also asked to close the session of the Congress of Deputies as a sign of mourning, but they are the ones who closed an Emergency service. Now comes the storm of hypocrisy. Now we will see the PP deny its responsibility as in the Valencia Metro accident. As in the Madrid residences. They will tell us that they died only from natural causes, that their deaths could not be avoided, that they were going to die anyway. But not. There are also ideological and economic causes. There are political and business leaders. We must demand responsibilities.
#die
