The Senate investigation committee on the Aldana administration will meet again on Thursday to amend its action plan and call for new statements, as the PP plans to summon it to appear in the same week that former Justice and Interior Minister Salome Pradas goes to Congress, parliamentary sources told Europa Press.
Specifically, the Board of the Investigation Committee, the body responsible for organizing the work of this forum and in which the People’s Party has an absolute majority, will meet next Thursday to summon more speakers before the end of the year.
As parliamentary sources told Europa Press, the People’s Party intends to schedule the appearance in the week of December 15, the same date on which Salome Pradas will attend the counterpart committee of the House of Representatives.
In any case, the Board of Inquiry will have to decide tomorrow who will be summoned on the following dates and whether the list of people who will attend will be expanded.
More than a month without a meeting and without political responsibilities
The last time a session of the Senate Investigative Committee on Dana was held was on October 20, when it hosted the appearance of the head of the Automatic Hydrological Information System (SAIH) area of the Júcar Hydrographic Union, Ignacio Valero Garcés; and the head of the Public Water and Canals Police Department of the Water Commission of the Jocar Hydrographic Union, Ricardo Domínguez Lillo.
Nearly eleven months after its establishment, the People’s Party has not yet summoned any political leader to this investigation committee, and has focused more on technical files, which has slowed the pace of emergence.
Since its formation in January, the investigation committee has only welcomed the presence of 18 people, including engineering professors, civil law professors, and architects.
In any case, the PP has included the head of government, Pedro Sánchez, several ministers and Carlos Mazón himself in the list of people being represented, although it has not yet set a date for these interrogations.
PP officers wonder what their chances are
In this context, some sectors within the Popular Group in the Senate questioned the appropriateness of this investigation committee, taking into account that there is a parallel judicial procedure.
The intention of the People’s Party when it decided to create a Senate investigation commission into Aldana was to neutralize the commission that had been planned in the House of Representatives and to use its majority in the Senate to focus on the government’s responsibility in the tragedy that struck Valencia County and left more than 225 people dead.
Although a few months have passed since its launch, some PP senators and Senate officials have expressed to Europe Press their concerns that this investigative committee might harm the party.
As they explain, every time a commission session is held, the administration of the dana is discussed again, simultaneously also with judicial investigations that, as some officials point out, focus more on the public responsibility of the state of Valencia.
For their part, socialist sources criticized several months ago the People’s Party’s decision to limit themselves to technical files, and accused the “Popular” of trying to build a story that, in their opinion, is being dismantled by Judge Al-Dana and through the facts themselves.