The first appearance of a member of the Government in parliament after the crisis of the DANA has been defended by the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres. After thanking the public employees and the volunteers for their work and praising “the efforts of the Administrations”.Torres has been keen to make it clear that the Government, through the AEMET, did its job of sending warnings to the population and to the competent Administrations, and that decreeing the “alerts” corresponded to the Generalitat Valenciana. In this regard, Torres has remarked that the Executive of Carlos Mazón requested the Military Emergency Unit (UME) for the whole territory and issued the alert to the population when the situation “was already objectively dramatic”..
Torres has divided his speech in three blocks: first he has made a chronology of the first moments of the catastrophe, then he has reviewed the means deployed and finally he has advanced the actions that have been taken and will be taken for the reconstruction. In the first part of the appearance, the Minister emphasized that the competences in the management of the crisis belong to the Valencian Community and he defended both the action of the Aemet and of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar, which “reported the increase of the flow in the Rambla del Poyo”, but in no case “activated or deactivated the alert” because it is not its competence..
In addition, he has also stressed that the request for the intervention of the UME by the Valencian Community was made “always under the command and competence” of Mazón. Likewise, he emphasized that the President of the Government was in “permanent contact” with the President of the Generalitat and, in fact, he was in “permanent contact” with the President of the Valencian Government, Carlos Mazón praised the “collaboration and coordination” with the Government. and “thanked the closeness and presence” of Sánchez, which he “described as quick and adequate”, Torres recalled in reference to Sánchez’s first visits to the affected areas.
But the minister has also asked for “responsibility” both to the Administrations and to the parties. “This tragedy cannot be turned into a partisan instrument.”he warned, after denying that the government has concealed the figures of the number of deaths or missing at some point. “We are talking about people who have lost their lives and their relatives had hopes that their loved one could be alive, and that demands full responsibility from the Administrations and the parties,” he reflected.
In this regard, he also wanted to make a plea against violence. “The way forward is not physical and verbal violence. The drama should not be used by anyone to fuel any kind of violence or to go against the public authorities.“He pointed out regarding the visit of the President of the Government, the King and Queen and Mazón to Paiporta. After insisting that this is not a time for blame but for collaboration, he has praised the work of the State when “you lose everything”. “The State is all of us”he affirmed. “We are facing a huge challenge, so there is no room for complacency, and the first example is the Government. There will be mistakes and actions that can be improved, but we are going to help each other. Let us be up to the task“Torres concluded.
As for the resources deployed, after reviewing them and the measures that the government has adopted to help the reconstruction, the revival and redefinition of the area, Torres has asserted that the DANA has been “the largest deployment of means in peacetime”. that the State has ever carried out. And he has made several announcements of the actions that Sánchez’s Executive wants to carry out: he has assured that this very Friday he will make a proposal so that part of the resources of the European funds to be destined to “palliate the damages caused by catastrophes”.and, next Tuesday, the Council of Ministers will approve a new “specific and reinforced” senior civil servants structure. to speed up the response to citizens.