More than ten days after the floods that caused more than 220 deaths in Spain, complaints about failures in warnings and assistance to populations remain, with the biggest target being, for now, the Valencian regional government.
Complaints and doubts rose in the first hours after the floods that hit eastern Spain on October 29th.
Despite there being criticism of both the central government, led by the socialists, and the autonomous conservative executive of the Popular Party (PP), it was against the latter that criticism intensified in recent days.
The outrage against public institutions had an unprecedented moment last Sunday in the democratic history of Spain, when the Kings, Felipe VI and Letizia, the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the regional government, Carlos Mazón, were received with mud and screams of "murderers" in one of the more than 70 locations affected by the floods, Paiporta.
Almost a week later, 40 social organizations and unions have called for a demonstration in Valencia today with the motto "Mazón dismissal".
The Valencia region was hit by a storm on October 29, in the late afternoon. It was 8:10 pm when a written alert reached cell phones, but at that moment there were already flooded cities and roads with thousands of cars stuck in the water.
The alert arrived at 8:10 pm, but there had been a red weather warning since 7:31 am. The responsibility for sending alerts lies with the autonomic authorities (the Valencian Community), while meteorological services are state-owned.
The actions of national and autonomous authorities on October 29th, in the hours before the floods, have filled the news and newspapers in recent days, with reports from one side and the other not always coinciding.
Central government sources revealed emails and telephone contacts "at the highest level" early in the morning, with the aim of alerting mayors and the executive of the Valencian Community to the danger and the need for action.
Regional government sources, without denying the contacts, guarantee that they did not have such a concrete or alarming content, which only happened around 8 pm, when a Secretary of State warned of the possibility of a dam bursting.
Several statements by Mazón and members of his government about October 29th have, however, been contradicted by documents and recordings made public, but also by military commands or ministers.
There were also contradictory and controversial statements, as happened with the advisor (equivalent to minister) who oversees civil protection, Salome Pradas, who went so far as to say that it was only at 8pm on the day of the floods that she learned from "a technician" that there was an alert system for cell phones.
As for Mazón, that day, according to his office, he had a "private working lunch" lasting several hours and it was only at 7pm that he arrived at the meeting of the emergency coordinating office which was convened for 5pm. This is the most recent official version, which contradicts previous ones, which guaranteed that he was in his office and always informed about the storm.
Government sources guarantee that the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, who oversees the rivers, tried to contact him several times without success, which she only managed to do late in the afternoon.
The late alert is one of the main complaints and questions raised since October 29th, but not the only one. There are also protests over the delay in providing assistance to the population after the floods.
Right now, around 15,000 military personnel and members of the state's security forces are on the ground, but they have arrived piecemeal, with the largest reinforcement only occurring over the weekend.
These resources are sent by the central government, but the regional executive must request them, as it is the autonomous authorities that are responsible for commanding operations.
However, the Government of Spain could unilaterally approve a declaration of "national emergency" and automatically take control, replacing the autonomic authorities.
This is exactly what left-wing political parties and other voices have asked of Sánchez, who argue that there is already proven incapacity and incompetence on the part of the Valencian regional government in managing the crisis.
This was also, and surprisingly, what the national leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, defended on Monday, when he considered that the scale of the catastrophe justifies the declaration of a "national emergency", in a statement seen as holding the executive accountable. of Sánchez, but also of disauthorization of Carlos Mazón.
Sánchez recalled on Tuesday that Spain is a decentralized country, completely organized in autonomies, in a system of "co-governance" that has already proven to work, even in extreme situations, such as the pandemic.
In this context, he said that he would not replace the Valencian Community in command of operations, invoking institutional respect, but also "effectiveness", because a change now would reduce the level of response to populations, as it is the regional and local administration that best knows the terrain and the situation in the affected areas.
"We are all State. And therefore, what we have to do is cooperate," he stated.
Sánchez and Mazón, in the public statements they have made so far, agree on one point: this is the time to manage the emergency; determining responsibilities for failures and errors is "another phase".
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