BarcelonaThe political bickering over the management of DANA that confronts the PP and the PSOE already splashes even the army. After the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, abdicated his responsibilities in the management of the emergency in his appearance at the Valencian Courts this Friday, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has gone one step further. In a party event, the leader of the PP suggested this Saturday that the State intentionally delayed the deployment of the army on October 29 in the Valencian Country, where the death toll from DANA has already reached 217. “I don’t know if they didn’t want to send the army in time so that what they call the Catalan Countries don’t see that they have a great institution next to them like the Spanish army, which is always there when you need it” , he said
The Military Emergency Unit (UME) has quickly come out to deny these statements. In a press conference, Chief General Javier Marcos has guaranteed that the army was activated in the province of Valencia on October 29 at 3:41 p.m., when they became aware of the first floods, before even receiving “official orders”. Alongside the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, Marcos has shared images that show that the UME was in the Valencian Country “from minute zero”, where some 8,500 military personnel continue to work to advance the reconstruction of the municipalities devastated by the floods. For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has denied that there was any “information blackout” by the State on the flood situation in the Valencian Country, as Mazón maintained this Friday .
Another one of those pointed out by Mazón, the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet), has also come out to deny the thesis of the Valencian president that the Generalitat did not have information about the seriousness of the situation to be able to launch the alerts, which are their competence autonomic According to Aemet, between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on October 29, the possibility that the Forata dam would not hold up was discussed at the integrated operational coordination center. But it wasn’t until three hours later that the Generalitat Valenciana sent massive messages to the population warning them of the serious danger they ran for this reason. This is one of the delays for which the Valencian opposition has demanded Mazón’s resignation; the Valencian socialists have even offered their votes to the PP to invest in a new president apart from Vox who can form a technical council to lead the reconstruction and then call new elections.
The strategy of the PP
Turning a deaf ear to the criticism of Mazón, the populists continue to look for a vein in the crisis in Valencia to wear down the government of Pedro Sánchez, now that they have managed to score a point by jeopardizing the appointment of Spanish Vice President Teresa Ribera as a new European commissioner. This Saturday, Ayuso assured that the PSOE and Sumar executive “is never there when you need him”, which, in his opinion, was already seen with the covid pandemic. “We will never know what would have happened if the Valencian government was of another sign. I’m sorry that people are leaving”, he said. The deputy secretary of regional and local coordination of the PP, Elías Bendodo, has sought to attack the socialists on the side of corruption, which had been the PP’s main line of attack against Sánchez before the DANA crisis broke out. According to Bendodo, Sánchez is “totally disqualified for the corruption” of the Koldo case, but also for the investigation into his wife, Begoña Gómez, who this week appeared before the Assembly of Madrid for her relationship with Complutense.
Source: www.ara.cat
