The Valencian government acknowledges that it was the Minister of Emergencies who was responsible for raising the alarm about the DANA

Valencia"The direction was exercised by the then Minister of Justice and Interior [Salomé Pradas], within a steering committee formed by the Minister and the delegate of the government [Spanish, Pilar Bernabé]." This has been the new response of the Generalitat Valenciana to the judge of Catarroja who is investigating the complaints about the management of the DANA. The recognition is a bittersweet moment for a Consell that until now had defended that the management of the emergency committee and the sending of the alarm on October 29 was "collegial", in a position with which the autonomous executive hopes to share responsibilities with the Spanish government.

Despite the partial step back that the response has meant, the answer has not pleased the PSPV, which, through its spokesman in the Corts, José Muñoz, has accused the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, of being "a coward who, instead of assuming his responsibility, blames the former council of the Spanish government." Nor has it satisfied the delegation of the Spanish government, who have stressed that the minister had "sole command" of the emergency committee as established by the regulations.

The response to the judge has closed another uncomfortable week for a Consell that has suffered the boomerang effect of its attempts to modify the story about which institution was responsible for the lack of warnings to the population on October 29, when the Magro river overflowed, of the deceased from Poio2 and others. To reverse the situation, Mazón and the PP have been trying for some time to shift the blame to the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHX) and the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet). These attempts, as has happened this week, have turned against them and instead of favouring the position of the politician from Alicante and the Generalitat, they have ended up weakening him.

The strategy of the popular party has once again been based on echoing the leak of part of an audio. In this case, a call from the Aemet to the Emergency Coordination Centre in which only a meteorological technician could be heard saying "We are not going to bother you with more warnings". In the full version, released the following day, it can be seen how the worker informed Emergencies that at three in the afternoon the worst part of the storm would begin, and that it would last until six, to which the Emergencies interlocutor responded: "Now we have to deal with the consequences of the rain". In other words, it certifies that the Generalitat was aware of the situation.

This week's call is the second time that an incomplete audio has been made public about communications during the DANA that ends up being denied when its full version is published. A few days ago it happened with the supposed information blackout of CHX. In the shortened recording, it seemed that the president of the Confederation, Miguel Polo, acknowledged that no alert emails were sent for two hours on the 29th. The information was true but incomplete. In the full recording, one can hear how Polo immediately reports that all emergency agencies received the information in real time through other systems.

The interest of the head of the Consell and the PP in spreading the news that incomplete audios would provide contrasts with the new refusal of the Generalitat to facilitate the call log of the Alicante politician and his team on the day of the catastrophe. What, despite his wishes, Mazón will not be able to avoid will be the vote next Thursday, February 20, on a non-law proposal by Compromís that calls for his resignation. Despite not being binding, it will surely be a session that will reopen the debate on whether the conservative leader should leave office, and even more so when the recently formed Association of Victims of the DANA of October 29, 2024 has announced that it will gather at the doors of the Corts to ask the deputies to vote in favor. The new association has also announced that it will join the various complaints being investigated by the Catarroja court and which already has seven private accusations from relatives of victims.