Vox saves Mazón and guarantees his continuity at the head of the Valencian government

ValenciaCarlos Mazón can breathe easy because Vox will not let him down, at least for now. This was made clear on Thursday by the far-right party, which voted against a non-law proposal by Compromís that asked the Valencian president to leave office for the management of a DANA that resulted in 227 fatalities.

In a controversial vote, given that it was initially supposed to take place by show of hands, but which was finally carried out electronically, the 52 PP and Vox deputies present in the chamber prevailed over the 41 from the PSPV and Compromís. The formula, demanded by the far-right, has avoided the image of Vox representatives supporting a president as questioned as Mazón.

In the control session prior to the vote on the proposal, the head of the Consell has avoided answering the questions of the opposition, who have asked him to confirm whether he asked the former Minister of Justice and Interior Salomé Pradas to wait for him before sending the alert to the citizens that they were flooded. He has also not explained why he does not provide the record of telephone calls from October 29 once it has been confirmed that the company that provides the telephone service of the Generalitat does have this information and can give it freely. In his answer, Mazón limited himself to blaming an alleged lack of information on the day of the catastrophe on the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHX) and the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) and reiterated that he is not resigning because he is "focused on reconstruction."

After hearing the PP leader's responses, the PSPV spokesperson, José Muñoz, called the head of the Council a "lie-maker" and "audio manipulator" - in reference to the dissemination of partial recordings of the CHX and the Aemet. For his part, the Compromís spokesperson, Joan Baldoví, accused him of not assuming responsibility for his management. In addition, he reproached him for not having "either the decency or the humanity to apologize" to the families of the fatal victims or to the people who suffered damage, with whom he has not yet met. In the case of Vox, its co-spokesperson, Ana Vega, already made it clear yesterday that while the far-right party is in the Corts "no socialist or any Compromís leader will govern" and that the party chaired by Santiago Abascal will prioritize that objective over disagreements with the management of the Popular Party and Mazón.

"Send the fucking alert already!"

The vote on the Compromís initiative, which was not binding, has taken place when there is increasing information questioning the actions of the head of the Council. The latest, which reveals that the judge in charge of the case on the management of the DANA considers that the Valencian government could have avoided deaths if it had sent an alert in time and that she describes the warning transmitted as "remarkably late" and "erroneous in content".

It has also been learned that technicians from the emergency centre demanded that the alert be sent to the population on several occasions between 6pm and 7pm and that the request would have been stopped by the then councillor Pradas, who would have delayed it until the arrival of the Valencian president. "Send out the alert already!" said the president of the Valencia Provincial Council, Vicent Mompó, to the now ex-councillor at a moment of maximum tension, as Mompó himself acknowledged today. Despite this insistence, the alert was not sent until 20:12.

Protest by the families of the victims

The debate in Les Corts has shared media attention with the rally carried out by hundreds of people at the gates of Les Corts to demand the resignation of the head of the Consell. The demonstrators have shouted slogans against the popular leader and have demanded his imprisonment. They have also displayed banners with messages such as The entire PP government is guilty either Our relatives have died because of your incompetence. Speaking to the media early in the morning, the president of the Association of Victims DANA 29 October 2024, Mariló Gradolí, had asked "please" the 99 deputies of the Parliament to support the motion of Compromís and take into account "the pain that the families are suffering". "On the 29th Mazón was not where he should have been, which was sending an alert that he would not have prevented the damage, but the victims would have," Gradolí summarised.