Mazzone, in Les Corts dana committee: “Maybe they didn’t call me because I had little work to contribute in the emergency” | Spain

The acting President of the State of Valencia, Carlos Mazzone, will appear on Tuesday from 4 pm at the Investigative Committee of Dana in Valencian Cortes to present a report on the reconstruction work of the area affected by the October 2024 flood, which claimed 229 lives, and to answer questions from parliamentary groups. He did so a week after his resignation, on 3 November, and after his final public appearance at the plenary session of the Valencian government held the following day in Alicante.

Mazzone read his appearance after listening to the opposition. “I always thought that my political future was not important. My future was linked to reconstruction,” he said. “My mistakes helped to convey a remote picture of the emergency. My character remains the great political excuse for the causes of the tragedy and for evading government responsibility for the tragedy. The emergency center did everything it could.”

At the end of his speech, the President-designate listed the various state authorities that did not contact him on the day of the emergency, including the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Defense, “nor from UME, nor from Civil Protection, nor from the government representative (who was in Sekopi), nor from Emmet…”, pointing out: “Maybe they did not contact me because in practice I had little to contribute in the emergency.”

He pointed out that “emergency situations acted with the information available, not with what never arrived, and the regional system worked and carried out its mission, despite the size of the weather phenomenon and its unpredictability. There were special warnings with specific recommendations, hydrological alerts were activated, warnings were widely disseminated to municipalities, and more than 22,000 text messages and more than 6,000 emails were sent.” He did not mention the alert issued by the EsAlert system, which reached all mobile phones at 8:11 p.m., when the majority of the victims died.

He continued: “Neither my future nor my performance was important. I do not intend to.” “I have stopped being an excuse for those who have not participated for a long time. I have listened to the voices of experts and they all tell us that phenomena like Dana will happen again. It is up to you to find solutions. It is not the same to manage an emergency situation where 280 liters are expected to arrive and another situation where 780 liters fall. We Valencians deserve to be prepared.”

The president insisted that Valencians still could not continue without monitoring the schedules. “There is only one sensor left in the Puyo Valley after a year. How much money is needed to monetize it? We have a lot at stake. We Valencians must find unity to demand the monitoring of all canals. Hydraulic works save lives. Why have these works not been carried out?”

Mazzone stated that the Government of Spain did not wish to appear before the Les Cortés Commission. “The same people who promised a financing system that has not arrived. The government has a lot to explain.”

His appearance, which came at his request, comes amid complete secrecy on the part of the PP and Vox parties regarding contacts and negotiations regarding a possible replacement for him at the head of the government, with a deadline for presenting a candidate ending on November 19. After new discoveries, the department emphasized his actions that afternoon, such as the fact that he continued to have lunch with journalist Maribel Villaplana until at least 6:45 pm, when the then Minister of the Interior, Salome Pradas, had already informed him at 5:37 pm. About the “extreme seriousness” of what was happening at Yotel, as this newspaper revealed.

Minutes before the appearance, a hundred people gathered in front of the state headquarters. They chanted, “The Popular Party is guilty, and Fox is responsible.” Or “they did not die, but were killed,” referring to the 229 deaths on the day of the flood, Reported by Cristina Vasquez.

At the head of one of the banners was Marilu Gradoli, spokesman for the Association of Victims of Dana 29-O, who was so critical that the Presidium of the Valencian Parliament had sent them to a room on another floor, away from Mazzone, to follow up on their statement. “It’s Paris,” he said. “And to see it through plasma, we prefer to inform ourselves about it through the media.”