Lesson from the victims in the face of a finished Mazón

The state ceremony to honor the victims of the DANA storm achieved what rarely happens at such an event: the victims themselves set the tone and delivered the messages they wished to convey. First, with shouts against the presence of Carlos Mazón, which could be clearly heard and which, before the entire Spanish public, signaled the end of the Valencian president's political career. And second, with moving speeches from three relatives of the victims that perfectly captured the magnitude of the tragedy.

What Mazón—and Alberto Núñez Feijóo—seems unable to grasp is that his mere presence, as the person ultimately responsible for a security operation that failed spectacularly that day, is an open wound that prevents the victims from moving on and beginning to grieve in a normal way. The victims' anger is understandable, given that they must wake up each day to new information about their president's actions on that fateful October 29, 2024, and witness, day after day, the Valencian government's explicit intention to conceal relevant information.

The lesson in dignity offered by the victims this Sunday stands in stark contrast to the maneuvers of the Valencian authorities to obstruct the investigation by the judge in Catarroja, who is looking into the case, in clarifying the facts. This includes hiding compromising videos and simply refusing to appear voluntarily as a witness. Clearly, the Spanish government also bears responsibility for the sense of abandonment felt by those affected in the days following the storm, but it is evident that Mazón's resignation is a prerequisite. sine qua non of the victims in order to recover some semblance of normality.

On the other hand, Mazón's insistence on clinging to power and pretending that nothing that happened that day was his responsibility is an insult to the citizens and to the very idea of democracy. The judge will have to clarify whether there has been criminal liability in the handling of the DANA storm, but Mazón must personally bear the political responsibility. He himself admitted in an official statement that "things could have been done better." Of course, they could have been done better! For example, if the President of the Generalitat had been in charge of the corresponding crisis management teams from the very beginning of the morning, when the red alert was declared in areas of the province of Valencia, instead of continuing with his schedule as if nothing were amiss. Because if anything has become clear from the judge's investigation, it is that the majority of victims could have been saved with an alert and a general shutdown of activity in the early afternoon.

The death of a loved one is always traumatic, but it's very difficult to overcome the ordeal when you think that perhaps it was a preventable death. And that those who could have prevented it are right there, occupying the same offices as that day.