The president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, asked this Monday to “avoid the political noise” in this “especially hard” week where the first anniversary of the Valencia flood is commemorated, and has suggested that each administration think about how it can help to continue collaborating in favor of the victims of the great flood.
In a conference at the V Economic Forum of Alicante, organized by El Español, Mazón stated that he keeps “the door open” for the central government to join in the constitution of a mixed commission of the Dana of Valencia to streamline and accelerate the economic allocations and aid to the victims of the great flood.
In reference to the statements this Sunday in León by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in which he blames him for his “negligence” causing “a real tragedy”, he has indicated that he has been “surprised by both the statements of the President of the Government and the ministers”, he assures that he does not share them although he prefers not to qualify them “in a week especially like the one we are experiencing” in memory of the victims.
At an event held at Casa Mediterráneo in Alicante where he took advantage of his intervention to emphasize that this is “the week of respect” for the victims of the crime, Mazón has been asked upon entering and leaving by numerous journalists about the latest news of what happened on October 29 of last year but he has limited himself to answering that he is not going to make statements today.
According to the head of the Consell in his speech, it is “a particularly hard and sensitive week” that “should lead everyone to think about what we, each administration, can do to continue collaborating,” despite the “very unpleasant political disagreements” experienced in recent times.
“It is the week of respect, of trying to achieve the highest level of collaboration possible” since, in the words of the president, “there has been and will be time for many other things, even for the discrepancy and the statements that are being made by the Government of Spain, which we try to avoid” in a week “so hard due to a tragedy suffered by my land, which it does not deserve.”
“It is the week of respect, it is the week of trying to seek the highest level of collaboration among everyone possible and that is the focus with which I, as president of Genitat, start this week”; He also added that “there has been time and surely there will be time for many other things, even for disagreement.” At this point he pointed out the statements of President Pedro Sánchez during the weekend, thus demanding “to avoid the lack of respect that such a very hard week, which is the first anniversary of a tragedy as extraordinarily cruel as the one my land has suffered, does not deserve.”
Despite this call for “respect,” Mazón has not spared his attacks on state institutions such as Aemet and the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation, which he has accused of making “fatal errors” and being “miserable.”
Mompó: “Mazón has made a responsible effort”
For his part, the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicent Mompó, has stated that Valencian voters do not decide when a president of the Generalitat “resigns”, but rather which president they want, and has considered that Carlos Mazón has made “a responsible effort” by linking his continuity to the post-dana reconstruction.
“He must decide what he wants to do in the future,” he indicated this Monday at the Forum Europa Tribuna Mediterránea when asked if Mazón should resign for his management of the dana, and he also stated: “if it were up to me, other presidents would fall first.”
Regarding whether he sees himself as the next PP candidate for the Presidency of the Generalitat, he has stated that, today, “the most beautiful position” that he will have as a politician is that of mayor of his town, Gavarda, and “the second most beautiful position” is that of president of the Provincial Council, which is “like the mayor of the province.”
“From there, what will happen in the future? I have no idea. Where I will be? I don't know, but wherever I am, I will be defending the interests of Valencians,” said the also president of the PP of the province of Valencia, who has committed to working “with passion, humility and courage”, because “true power is neither inherited nor imposed, it is earned every day.”
Asked if a government of his would be possible with the PSPV-PSOE, he stated: “of course he could govern with the PSPV”, but with one who “would think more about the Valencians and less about Pedro Sánchez”, and he defended that, as long as socialists and popular parties are not able to sit down and talk, nothing will be fixed.
Dana judicial process “slow”
The judicial process on the dana “is slower than we would like,” said Mompó, who said that it seems that there is like “a line already drawn trying to mark” what we want to be believed and added: on October 29, “the worst catastrophe in our history passed us by without expecting it” and many people try to “take advantage” of that instead of helping.
Asked why on the day of the dana he went to Cecopi, the coordinating body of the emergency, if he is not part of it, he indicated that that day the “mayor's intuition” prevailed, and he reiterated his “feeling” that the then Minister of the Interior, Salomé Pradas, was not “directing the emergency, far from it.”
Regarding the delay in sending the alert to the population, he stated that that day, “incredible as it may seem,” they did not have the information they have today, and he defended that the message sent at 8:11 p.m. was due to the risk that the Forata dam would collapse at 9 p.m., which ultimately did not occur.
Mompó was grateful that every time he has gone to ground zero they have received him “always exquisitely in all the towns, and that is a source of pride,” and he has assured that what they convey to him is that they are “tired of politicization.”