Valencia woke up this Thursday among the remains of the disaster. With the emergency services deployed in the rescue efforts of the missing, the number of official fatalities did not stop growing throughout the day. The residents of the affected regions worked hard to clear the streets of their towns of the mud accumulated between hundreds of stacked cars and destroyed houses and businesses. And then the politicians landed.
The first to do so, even before the president, was the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who traveled to some of the affected areas with the aim of supporting his colleague, the Valencian president Carlos Mazón, whose management of This catastrophe has been called into question by the delay in activating the alerts last Tuesday. And, incidentally, Feijóo took advantage of his visit to attack the central government while the rescue services continued to search for victims and missing people.
“I have no information from the central government. At all. “No one has informed me of anything, I have been the one who has had to inform myself about what is happening in my country,” criticized the leader of the PP in an appearance before the press accompanied by the Valencian president. Just a couple of hours later, Mazón himself radically distanced himself from the words of his leader and explicitly thanked Pedro Sánchez for his presence and collaboration. “Thank you very much, dear president, for your quick presence and for your closeness,” he told Sánchez.
Nor has the Government wanted to get involved in the opposition’s attacks when the dead have not even been counted yet. After visiting the Integrated Operational Coordination Center of the Valencian Community and meeting with the high command of the rescue device, Pedro Sánchez himself avoided any type of reference or criticism, neither express nor veiled, either of Mazón’s management or of the attitude of the opposition.
“We send a message of absolute collaboration and cooperation. Any more resources you need, the Government of Spain is here. We are not going to leave the Valencians alone. The priority is to find the missing, first, and put all the resources for reconstruction, later,” said Sánchez together with the Valencian president.
The closest thing to a reproach to the Government of the Generalitat came from the Ministry of the Interior. After Feijóo pointed to the AEMET forecasts and denounced “the loneliness” of the regional presidents, Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska recalled that the powers in managing this type of disasters fall to the Autonomous Communities.
“The regional Civil Protection authorities are responsible for managing and activating the corresponding alerts, which may involve the activation of different plans depending on the type of risk: forest fires, seismic movements, floods, adverse meteorological phenomena, etc.,” he noted. the minister
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who participates in the Monitoring Committee as the head of the Military Emergency Unit, also avoided the crash. Asked about the opposition’s criticism and doubts about Mazón’s management during the first hours of DANA, Robles avoided the confrontation.
“Everyone knows perfectly well what they have done well and what they have not done well and each one has to make a self-criticism,” Robles simply replied during an interview on Telecinco in which he stressed that citizens “would not understand” that the political leaders now enter into any type of “controversy.”
After learning that the Valencian Generalitat did not activate the citizen alert systems until Tuesday night, when there were already hundreds of citizens trapped by water and after hours of intense rain, the Minister of Territorial Policy limited himself in his appearance on Wednesday to remember the chronology of the actions carried out without evaluating them.
“Since Thursday the 24th, alerts have been declared by the AEMET. On Tuesday the 29th, the AEMET declares a red alert at 7:31 in the morning for the province of Valencia. At 3:00 p.m. the Generalitat announces level two for the Utiel-Requena region. At 5:39 p.m. the Generalitat activates level two for the province of Valencia. At 8:00 p.m. the Generalitat issues alert SMS to the population and at 8:36 p.m. the Government receives the request for action by the UME from the Valencian Community,” he narrated.
Differences between Feijóo and Mazón
The national strategy of the PP was clear from the first moment: put all responsibility on the Government. It began Wednesday morning in Congress as the DANA death toll began to climb. “I do not understand the selective respect for the victims,” he said regarding the decision of the parliamentary majority to maintain legislative activity in Congress. The control session was suspended at the request of the opposition led by Feijóo.
The PP’s top leader described the “attitude” of the Government and its partners as “despicable.” “They are not aware of the seriousness of the decision they have made,” he stated, to insist: “I have seen many things in politics, I have witnessed many moments of moral turpitude, but I think none like this.”
Feijóo announced his intention to visit the areas affected by the storm. That same afternoon, Albacete, accompanied by the regional president, Emiliano García-Page. And, this Thursday, Valencia. The PP announced after ten o’clock on Wednesday night that its leader would be with the president, Carlos Mazón, from the first hour.
But the unity of action that Feijóo wanted to stage was not such. Not just with Page, not even with his own baron.
The PP leader took advantage of his visit to the Generalitat Emergency Center to attack the central government, which he accused of ignoring the management of DANA and its consequences. Feijóo also attacked the AEMET forecasts and the decisions of the hydrographic confederation, both dependent on the general administration.
With almost 100 deaths already confirmed at that time, Feijóo demanded that a “national emergency” be declared so that coordination, and therefore responsibility, passes to the central government. There was no hesitation in his words. He regretted that the Generalitat has to assume the management “with the information of another public administration”, in reference to the Government. “No one can make decisions based on information that can be exact, inaccurate, or improvable,” he said.
The leader of the PP turned to his past as president of Galicia: “I have been regional president for a long time and I know the loneliness of a regional president who does not have all the tools and, yet, citizens demand additional responsibility from him.”
Feijóo became the spokesperson for all the regional presidents, his own and those of others: “The twelve regional presidents of the PP and those of the PSOE are a group.”
But Emiliano García-Page stressed after these statements that the warnings “arrived in a timely manner”, in such a way that “the services were practically mobilized before the water fell because we were warned.” “I ask people to help, some have to help by keeping quiet,” he concluded, in reference to the regional leader of the PP, Paco Núñez.
More contradictory with his boss in the party was Carlos Mazón. The president of the Generalitat silently attended Feijóo’s press conference, and immediately went to receive Pedro Sánchez. Together with the President of the Government, Mazón took the microphone to thank him for his prompt reaction and “coordination.” Minutes before, Feijóo had said: “I would not ask the central government for greater collaboration. “I would ask for some collaboration.”
But Mazón expressly thanked Sánchez for the “contacts from the beginning, with you [por el presidente del Gobierno] by wasap, with the vice president, with the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Defense, with the Government delegate here.” “This collaboration and this communication are fundamental, necessary. “We are going to continue with it,” he concluded.
In the afternoon, the president of the Generalitat formally requested the participation of the Armed Forces in the rescue and reconstruction work. Immediately, the UME announced that it will begin collaborating with the regional authorities starting this Friday.
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