The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazóninsisted that the Minister of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Riberadid not take an interest in the situation until well after the beginning of the crisis because of the DANA of last October 29 and that has caused more than 200 deaths.
In addition, Carlos Mazón claims that he had “coverage” problems during the afternoon, so he could have had “some missed calls”, but “always after eight o’clock (in the evening)”.
“Before eight o’clock in the evening we do not have any reference from her, nor from any senior official. How can she say that she was trying to contact if until eight o’clock I do not have an SMS from her, maybe with a missed call, but never before eight o’clock“, said Mazón in particular.
“I want to avoid this type of controversy. Unfortunately the coverage was very bad and then I could see missed calls, here without coverage, from eight o’clock in the evening. The one who was out was her and the one who had half the Ministry out was her,” added the regional president.
Mazón said: “I would ask the minister: Did the flood warning have to come? Did the warning have to come?“In response to statements made last night by Ribera in which he said that it took him “up to four calls to locate Mr. Mazón”.
The Valencian president has insisted that Ribera contacted him “after the alert, after the flood warning“He added that it is “fundamental” to be able to “clarify” the conversations held with Ribera “throughout that day and during the previous days”.
Mazón has assured that “here everybody was doing their jobEveryone was where they needed to be.” “Everyone was chairing the CECOPI and I was promptly informed, as in any other storm warning.”
The regional president wanted to emphasize the “difference between a storm and a flood” and added that on the 29th “it wastwo completely different days”, “two days in one”, as the initial forecast was for storms, “red alerts at levels we have had on other days”.
“As many storm forecasts that unfortunately we have here,” added Mazón, who recalled that “the Aemet itself spoke of a maximum of 180 (liters per square meter). That would have been a normal storm.
Mazón has said that the CECOPI was in place “at all times” and he “followed punctually all the information”. “It’s not that it was an ordinary day, it was a day in which we were pending the evolution of the rains,” he said in statements to the media.
“Everything changes from seven o’clock onwards,” Mazón added, since that was when the storm “turns into a floodwhen the Ministry’s Confederation told us that from 7:00 p.m. onwards that the whole hydrological revolution, the whole riverbed had overflowed, that’s when everything changed”.
“Until that moment what we were was punctually informed, with a working lunch and then in the unit’s office“added the Valencian president.
Precisely about his controversial lunch, Mazón has affirmed that it was “a working day with a working agenda”. “In the morning there was a working agenda, there was a working lunch with people who have nothing to do with all this,” he said, and added that both “during” and “after” that “previously established lunch to discuss the future of television” was “informed of developments” in DANA.
“But it was impossible until seven o’clock, because until seven o’clock the Confederation of Government did not transfer to us what it was becoming. That revolution that changed everything so tremendously for us,” Mazón added.
According to the Valencian regional president, “what is important now” is “the reconstruction, with the roads, with the people, with the volunteers, with the food”. “This is what we have to be in and not in very low insinuations, very ugly, that are being heard probably because some people want to exonerate some blame or with some political interests that I think are really unacceptable,” he added.
“I had to deny that I was at a birthday party with a councilor of mine. I have read tremendous things about my situation. And I think it is not fair and it is even miserable to cast shadows of doubt on issues that have nothing to do with this,” he said, after recalling that “we should not go accusing people based on hoaxes”.
He insisted that on Tuesday he was “punctually informed”, despite being in “a situation of great incommunicado, because “they were already beginning to the main telephone terminals were already starting to go down“. “What I think does not make sense is to enter into such malicious hoaxes”, since “nobody deserves these things and people do not deserve them”.
Asked about the possible political responsibilities, Mazón has said that “the political responsibilities will come at the right time“, since now “it is a matter of rebuilding”.
“I don’t want to get into polemics with anyone, but if someone says that he was calling me all afternoon and I have no calls from that person or messages until eight o’clock, well, I do want to say that,” Mazón affirmed again.
“The moment of responsibilities will come for sure, but now to enter in polemics, I believe that now all the Valencian government and all the administrations what we are is working to improve at forced rhythms the recovery of people’s lives,” he added.
The Valencian president says that “there will be time for sure” to analyze “those two days in one of the 29th: before 7 p.m. and after, which was when everything changed, the hydrological revolution devastated so much”.
“There will be time for political responsibilities.” he insisted, while adding that now, in his opinion, “the responsibility is to exercise it, to work, to coordinate all the teams”.
Mazón has reminded that this Thursday he will appear in Les Corts at his own request and has defended that “it is not time to make politics, nor to continue with hoaxes, nor accusations”. “The focus has to be on recovery”.he concluded.