Carlos Mazón refuses to resign; recognizes errors in DANA management

Madrid. Neither the popular clamor in the streets nor the political pressures coming from all ideological fronts made the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, the right-wing Carlos Mazón, present his resignation from office during his first public appearance before the regional Parliament after the tragedy caused due to the DANA on October 29, which caused 216 fatalities, there are still 16 missing and hundreds of thousands of victims. “I do not hide the errors of the Generalitat, I recognize them, I assume them and I even apologize and I am not going to avoid the responsibilities that I have to assume, I have to be the first,” said Mazón, while the local opposition and the Spanish government, chaired by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, they demanded his resignation and the appointment of a “technical” president to lead the reconstruction stage of the area.

The day the tragedy began, that afternoon of October 29, Mazón was at a meal with a journalist while the crisis committee was meeting and did not join the command and surveillance area of ​​the situation until after seven in the morning. late, practically when several rivers had already overflowed and some towns in the area were crying out for help. But the Valencian president attributed the failures in crisis management to a series of errors by various organizations; from the specialized teams of his government to those responsible for the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), which belongs to the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the central government and which is chaired by the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, in addition to those responsible for the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET).

In his appearance, Mazón explained that “the response was not as effective as it needed and we must apologize,” in addition to announcing a remodeling of his government in which there will be a new vice presidency for recovery and a Ministry of Emergencies and the Interior. . Furthermore, in his account of the events, Mazón indicated that “I kept my agenda knowing that the counselor had traveled to the affected areas” and that if he arrived late to the meeting at the Emergency Coordination Center it was, as he said, due to “traffic”. And from there he told the CHJ that, according to him, “he neither warns nor alerts the Generalitat’s Emergencies of the risk of overflowing the Poyo ravine,” which was the origin of the tragedy. “We do not have enough information in time. The catastrophe exceeded our protocols. An episode of torrential rains, which was what everything was planned for, is not the same as a ravine that exceeded Aemet’s forecasts.”

After her appearance, the Minister of Science and leader of Valencian socialism, Diana Morant, demanded that the Popular Party (PP) “remove” Mazón from office and elect a president with a “technical” profile to lead the reconstruction of the area. . “There are those who ask for an electoral call, but now it’s time to remove mud from the schools, not the ballot boxes. Others ask Mazón to resign, but that does not solve the problem, which is the coalition with Vox, which eliminates science and the public and which the first time it faces an emergency fails miserably. And that wouldn’t end without Mazón. In the face of this extraordinary situation, we must give a responsible response. We cannot continue to be governed by a negligent president. For this reason, we address the PP with a demand and a proposal: that it dismiss Mazón and elect a president with technical capacity and management experience, who does not put his survival before the needs of the Valencians,” said the Spanish minister.

For the Valencian nationalist left party, Compromís, Mazón’s appearance was “absolutely disappointing” and “he did not provide information about the most important hours, the hours in which he was missing and the hours in which that notice could have been sent that would have saved many lives. Where were you that afternoon? What did you do? And why was that alert sent at 8:11 p.m., when many Valencians already had water up to their necks?” leader Joan Baldoví asked.