Feijóo's impossible balance in the face of the victims of the DANA
It could have been a gesture that would have honored him, to receive the victims of the DANA before Carlos Mazón, but in the end it has exposed all the weaknesses that Alberto Núñez Feijóo carries with him as president of the PP. Feijóo has attempted an impossible balance: to please the victims and support Mazón, but as expected, he has completely failed. Because the very fact that he receives one of the three main victims' associations before the president of the Generalitat is completely irregular. In this context, and despite acknowledging to the families of the deceased that the management of the Generalitat "was not successful," Feijóo has made it clear that he "does not want nor can" remove Mazón.
This response, evidently, outrages the thousands of victims' families who cannot understand how the president of the Generalitat remains in office after his government's disastrous management on the day of the tragedy. In reality, what Feijóo is saying is that he "cannot" dismiss him because that would force him to negotiate a replacement with Vox, since the PP doesn't have a majority in the Catalan Parliament. And since he "cannot," he adds that he "doesn't want to." But the reality is that if Feijóo were a leader who didn't hesitate when it came to making decisions, he should have forced Mazón's resignation even if that would have meant early elections and losing the Generalitat. This is, in any case, one of the dead weights Feijóo will be carrying in the next elections.
On the same day that this meeting took place in Madrid, the judge leading the DANA investigation issued a very forceful ruling against the Civil Guard's attempt to change its account of events and point to the responsibility of state-owned agencies, such as the Generalitat's HidroX Confederation. It is an "erroneous" and "incomplete" report, according to the judge, since it does not take into account the statements of witnesses or experts, nor what happened at the Cecopio. Therefore, it rules out charging the president of the CHX, Miguel Polo.
What is highly disturbing, however, is that the Civil Guard has drafted a 220-page report that goes against everything the judge has been outlining in her investigation and that adopts the account of the PP and the right-wing media. If we add to this other controversial actions by the UCO recently, in cases like that of Montoro, where they were so slow that they drew criticism from the prosecutor, or errors in the investigation of the Cerdán case, the result is that there may be reason to believe that this body is working with a predetermined political orientation. And now it would no longer be a matter of going against the Catalan independence movement, as in the Proceso, but against a legitimately constituted government.
Be that as it may, the examples of judges like those in Catarroja or Tarragona show that there is still hope, at least in the task of clarifying the facts. Whether those responsible will ever face the consequences is another matter.
