▲ Hundreds of protesters gathered yesterday in front of the Parliament of Valencia to demand jail for the right-wing ruler Carlos Mazón, who appeared yesterday in the Legislature.Photo Afp

Armando G. Tejeda

Correspondent

La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, November 16, 2024, p. 21

Madrid. Neither the popular clamor in the streets nor the political pressures coming from all ideological fronts managed to get the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, the right-wing Carlos Mazón, to present his resignation from office during his first public appearance before the regional Parliament after the tragedy caused. by the DANA on October 29, which has caused 216 fatalities, 16 missing people 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 responsibilities, I have to be the firstsaid Mazón, while the local opposition and the Spanish government, chaired by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, demanded his resignation and the appointment of a president. technical to lead the reconstruction stage.

The day the tragedy began, on the 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.

However, 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 announced a remodeling in his government, adding a vice presidency for recovery and a Ministry of Emergencies and the Interior.

Furthermore, in his account of the events, Mazón noted: I kept my schedule knowing that the counselor had traveled to the affected areasand assured that he was late to the meeting at the Emergency Coordination Centerdue to vehicular traffic at that time.

From there, he told the CHJ that, according to him, It 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 and 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..

The Minister of Science and leader of Valencian socialism, Diana Morant, demanded that the Popular Party (PP) dismiss Mazón from office and that a high-profile president technical lead the reconstruction.

“There are those who ask for an electoral call, but now it’s time to remove mud from the schools, not the ballot boxes. (…) 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 ruler 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-wing 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 himself.