The majority of Spanish society is in another time, with another outlook and other emotions. The industry of hoax and hate can continue to function as if they were facing another business opportunity, but sooner or later the mud will be thrown at them too.
They throw objects and mud at the king, Sánchez and Mazón upon their arrival in Paiporta shouting “murderers!”
First it was the radio that same Tuesday night. You know you have to get everything you have when, one after another, calls come to SER telling how there is a group of people on the roof of a truck or a van running out of battery in the deluge, or a couple who cannot knows whether to get out of the car or hope that the current doesn’t carry it away, or a family that has been left isolated in a shopping center that should have closed six hours earlier. You do not need to be an emergency technician, nor do you need to receive a notice from the AEMET. There is something worse in a crisis than being late and that is insisting on continuing to be late.
Time does not pass the same in Valencia as in the rest of Spain. It is the first thing that should be understood. The second thing is that neither you nor I know from our mobile screen what, who, how and when is needed. It is public services and the efforts of their workers who have avoided an even greater tragedy. They need support and encouragement, not lessons or delegitimization of their work. Those who are there are in charge because they have the knowledge and the context. Changing the chain of command now would be as absurd as issuing an alert when people already have water under their feet. Victims have the right to be outraged, even without reason. You and me, no. It seems to all of us that the ambulance we wait for always arrives too late. That doesn’t mean it does.
This is no longer about my government, it does everything right and your government does everything wrong. DANA has also taken away the framework of polarization. Everything has changed, but nothing will remain the same. Whoever does not understand this will be swept away by a flood of rejection that no dam can contain. Ask my friend Alberto Núñez Feijóo if you don’t believe me. Felipe VI understood this when he gestured aside the umbrella that sought to protect him from the mud. Carlos Mazón is right to ask for help even if it is late and be careful. Pedro Sánchez is right to send it without requiring the form in triplicate and with a double policy. They do it well because it is what needs to be done and what most of us expect them to do.
Spain is facing the greatest tragedy it has experienced in decades. Another legislature begins. It’s 11M, but without brutal terrorists to blame. Either things will work again, or someone will take advantage of this to sneak in with the false promise of making them work. The “and you more” strategy only leads to another disaster for those who insist on continuing to practice it.
The majority of Spanish society is focused on something else today, in another time, with another perspective and other emotions. It’s true for politics and everything else. The next time you receive an alert on your cell phone, you will no longer be outraged or laugh. You will read it carefully. The hoax and hate industry can continue to function as if they were facing another business opportunity, but it is no longer “business as usual”; sooner or later the mud will be thrown at them too. The right-wing press, not content with dramatically making a fool of themselves on Wednesday morning by dedicating their covers to Begoña Gómez and ironicizing her photographs in Bollywood, now insists that DANA is also the fault of Pedro Sánchez. Since they were late, the others must have been late too. The State was there from the first night because the Generalitat is the State, the UME is the State, the Valencia Firefighters Consortium is the State, the Civil Guard and the police are the State.
These are the same public services that left and remain battered and exhausted after the pandemic, saving thousands of lives again. Electricity, drinking water, train tracks or coverage are not restored by the people, they are restored by the State, its workers and our taxes. Pay attention to them because they are the ones who know. They do their job. Let’s do ours.
#mud #reaches
