Pradas accuses Mazón of lying and using her as a "scapegoat"

BarcelonaSalomé Pradas, former Valencian Minister of Emergencies, has decided to speak frankly about the afternoon the torrential rains hit and has put the former president of the Valencian Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, in the spotlight. Pradas has accused him of lying and underestimating the severity of the storm. In fact, she has blamed Mazón for using her as a scapegoat when he dismissed her as minister to cover up his mismanagement. "With my dismissal, he was looking for a scapegoat to pay for or cover up whatever he thought needed to be covered up," she stated in an interview on the program. SavedFrom La Sexta. Pradas explained that when the former Valencian president informed her of her dismissal—summoning her to his home—she retorted that he was being "unfair" to her: "He was pointing the finger at me, blaming me, when I had been where I should have been from the beginning," she asserted. Pradas recalled all the calls the former president didn't answer on the afternoon of the storm and defended Mazón's presence at the Cecopio (the regional emergency response center) given the gravity of the situation. "It would have been necessary for Mazón, as the highest-ranking representative, to have been there with us," she asserted. The former councilor was also explicit in describing Mazón's absence during the critical hours of the storm: "The Forata dam was about to burst, which could have affected 80,000 people, and I couldn't get in touch with the president." "I'm still struggling to process what happened that afternoon with the president. I empathize deeply with the victims," Pradas added. However, the former councilor denied that the ES-Alert was delayed so that Carlos Mazón wouldn't answer her calls. "I didn't wait for him at all, nor did I follow any instructions from him. It would have been absurd if he wasn't answering my calls," she pointed out. Pradas reiterated that it was during the 7:43 p.m. call that Mazón answered her phone and informed her of the "seriousness" of the situation and that they were preparing to send the ES-Alert. It was then, she said, that the president became active, and within minutes he informed her that he was already on his way to the Cecopio (Emergency Coordination Center). "When he arrived at the Cecopio, he wanted to take charge of the communication. There wasn't much communication between the president's team and mine in those days," she lamented. According to Pradas, Mazón's first press conference on the night of October 29th "clearly revealed who had been under pressure to manage the situation" and who hadn't, referring to Mazón.

The meal at El Ventorro

The former regional minister has admitted that Mazón never explained to her where he was on the afternoon of the storm: "He has never told me what he did that afternoon," she stated. In fact, Pradas asserted that she only learned that Mazón had lunch with Maribel Vilaplana at El Ventorro on November 8th, when it became public, and that a member of his team explained it to her: "I couldn't believe it." The former minister also explained that she asked the former Valencian president to tell the truth about what he did that afternoon, but Mazón's response was that he already had. In the interview, Pradas also criticized the Spanish government, especially its president, Pedro Sánchez. The former minister condemned the head of the national government for saying that if the Valencian regional government needed more resources, "it should ask them." "It's a completely inhumane demonstration, unworthy of a president of the Spanish government. We needed them all, and they were given to us in dribs and drabs," he snapped.

Pradas also took the opportunity during the interview to apologize to the victims, although he maintained that there was no "criminal liability" for the Valencian regional government's handling of the DANA storm. However, he admitted that he will "never get over" everything that happened. "The biggest mistake was not telling Mazón to come [to the Cecopio]. I think he should have been there. And his mistake was also not being there," he concluded.

"Theater and manipulation"

But for the victims, Pradas has engaged in "a public charade" and "manipulation." They believe that the former councilor's statements are, "at best, biased interpretations and, in many cases, accusations that shift the focus." Therefore, they complain that the versions she has presented "do not help the victims," and that certain statements about Mazón fall "within the realm of the PP's legal defense and political interpretation." They also point to a "trivialization" of the public office he held and, for this reason, encourage all those whom Pradas accuses in her statements to publicly "deny the facts she attributed to them."