The PP called Sánchez's appearance in the Senate for the day after the anniversary of the Dana of Valencia and the state funeral. It was a trick, the kind of tricks common in politics. Let's see if Sánchez's mess stopped talking about Valencia and Carlos Mazón as soon as possible. Which is an impossible mission, because it is impossible to stop talking about Mazón, about his lies, about the 229 deaths who did not receive the necessary notices, about the Valencians' demand for him to resign. –as surveys prove–, of his plans for his party to elect him as a candidate for re-election. As well as the PP's constant attempt to accuse the central government of what happened on October 29, 2024 when all powers in an emergency situation correspond to the regional governments.
The PSOE responded on Wednesday with another trick in the control session. Pedro Sánchez did not want to respond to the attacks launched by the Popular Party with their questions. “Today is not the day. Today is the day of the victims,” he said. It was a way to get rid of the problem and surprise his rival. He had no problems responding to other groups, such as the PNV or Podemos. It seems that “the day of the victims” accepted exceptions.
The paradox tells itself. A year ago, the PP demanded that the control session the day after the disaster be suspended. The PSOE initially opposed it, which in a way was a political error because the plenary session could have been moved to the following week. The PP suffered a stroke. I was already afraid that people would start talking about what the Valencian Government had or had not done. This Wednesday, he recalled it again with the argument that the PSOE used that plenary session to carry out “an assault on RTVE.”
Alberto Núñez Feijóo had an achievement that he can always boast about. He dedicated himself to politicizing dana while denouncing the politicization of dana. A double somersault: “I wish all the energy that is dedicated to politicizing this tragedy would be used for reconstruction.” It is like assuming that others politicize the tragedy while poor Mazón strives to save the poor Valencians. And forget that the PP politicized the dana from the first minute of the control session a year ago to demand its suspension and not run the risk of Mazón being talked about.
The PP leader came to talk about his book, that is, Sánchez's appearance on Thursday in the Senate. He reviewed seventeen lies that he attributed to Sánchez, some of dubious veracity as they were not proven in court, such as the one that referred to the PSOE's “B accounting.” The PP aspired to reach this week with the headline that the Supreme Court is investigating the financing of the socialists. His last attempt through the popular prosecution that he directs ran aground before the investigating judge, who now refused to request all PSOE invoices since 2017.
The PP has never been shy about using ETA victims to attack the Zapatero and Sánchez governments. With dana victims it is different. If they are mentioned, the tragedy is being “politicized.” Ester Muñoz declared herself scandalized that Sánchez “has used the victims of the dana to not respond to the opposition.” For this reason, he called the president “indecent” and “phony.” It is already known that Congress is a place where insults fly every day. Then he said: “Do you know what futility is in politics?” A socialist deputy responded from the bench: “Mazón!” It is not known what Muñoz heard, because he said: “Why are you insulting?” You may be right and there is no worse word with which to address someone than the surname of the leader of the PP of the Valencian Community.
The man in question could not think of anything other than to bare his chest, a few days after more information became known about the time he spent on the day of the dana in his personal or party affairs, while the community he presides approached the abyss.
On the day of the state funeral for the victims, Mazón called a morning event to read a statement. It was not enough for him to have his Government present and he demanded the presence of up to 160 senior officials from the community and the PP. All to limit himself to saying that “there were things that should have worked better.” The message was clear: if I sink, you also sink with me. Although it may seem unprecedented, those in attendance applauded for more than thirty seconds. Maybe they watched each other to see who stopped applauding first. They were protecting 160 payrolls.
It was a show of strength not against the opposition, but against his own party. Locked in his bubble, of which three advisors are part, he wants to make Genoa believe that it has no alternative but to present him as a candidate again. “The debate that should “Resigning is out of date,” sources from his Government told El Mundo. They have seen Miguel Tellado approach Valencia so many times to confirm the PP's support for its president that they cannot conceive of any other alternative.
In the afternoon, the state funeral confirmed why the victims had insisted that Mazón not attend the event. A group of them met with the king and queen in a nearby room, with Sánchez also present. In the main room where the secular funeral was to be held, many women insulted and shouted at Mazón, undaunted in his chair in the third row of authorities.
He had to hear them call him a rat and a murderer. And a phrase that represents everything the victims think of him: “You for food and collecting prizes and my sister drowning.” That's exactly what happened. On the morning of October 29, he received an irrelevant prize and in the afternoon he spent four hours at lunch killing time. While people died.
There is no president or mayor in Spain with an image as destroyed as Mazón's. Each order from the Catarroja judge plunges him deeper into shame. The words “glaring absence of warnings to the population” on one of those records summarize what happened that day. For now, the PP continues to flee from those seven words and pretends that it knows nothing about them. There will be a day when you will have to mark the message as received.