Together and the partners condemn Isla's presence in Madrid on October 12th despite the forecast of a storm in Catalonia.
Presidential sources emphasize that the president was in Catalonia from 5:20 p.m. on Sunday to monitor the weather situation.
BarcelonaGiven the forecast of downpours, and with the spectre of the catastrophic flood in the Valencian Country a year ago, the president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, the Valencian Carlos Mazón and the Murcian Fernando López Miras cancelled their attendance at the Hispanic Day events in Madrid to follow the storm. Alice from their territories. The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, did not do the same. He was in the Spanish capital for the second consecutive year to commemorate the anniversary with Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, despite the weather forecast for southern Catalonia. Juntos took advantage of the situation to attack the Catalan leader for not changing his agenda due to the downpours. which, on the Ebro, have forced a thousand people to spend the night in pavilionsHowever, criticism hasn't only come from the main opposition party. Isla's two investiture partners, Esquerra and the Comuns, have also criticized him for his actions.
"Seriously, while anguish and suffering grew in much of the country, President Isla went to Madrid to celebrate.""what unites us"?", asked the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont in a message to X. The leader of Junts has also questioned "where President Isla really was" in the telematic connection in which he participated in the meeting of the Operational Coordination Center of Catalonia (Cecat). However, sources from the Presidency consulted by ARA deny that.
According to them, the head of the Catalan executive connected from his home, in Roca del Vallès, after landing in Barcelona at 5:20 p.m. Catalonia. In the morning, when he was in Madrid, it was 3 out of 6.
This Monday, Illa chaired the advisory council of the Inuncat Plan from Tortosa, with the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, and the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon, among the mayors. Cecat meeting, after having canceled the rest of your agenda.
From his official profile, Illa released images of this meeting of the Cecat (Cecat), the highest coordination center for Civil Protection in Catalonia. It is the equivalent body to the Valencian Cecopio (Cecopio), which caused so much controversy due to its handling of the emergency, now under judicial investigation, and the time at which Mazón arrived. One of the questions surrounding this case is whether this It conditioned the sending of mass alerts to the population and was able to prevent deaths—there were 228.
Given these precedents, the spokesperson for Junts in the Parliament, Mònica Sales, asked for explanations this Monday about the times at which the warnings were launched: "Why did the first alert received by the Ebro residents arrive at 6 p.m. in Montsià and at 8 p.m. in Baix Ebre, when the presidents were already overwhelmed? In Cecat, but from where?" she asked in statements to the media.
Criticisms from the Left and Commons
Beyond the explanations given by the Catalan government, Esquerra believes Illa should have been in Catalonia. "Yesterday he should have been at the Palau de la Generalitat, attending to and thinking about the south of the country, not paying homage to the monarchy," criticized ERC spokesperson Isaac Albert at a press conference. In fact, he added that Isla should have done the same as Prohens, Mazón, and López Miras and stayed in Catalonia to manage the weather situation. "The president wasn't where he should have been; he was in Madrid, not in Catalonia, attending to what was happening in the south of the country," he stated.
From the Comunes party, Isla has also received some other criticism, albeit more lukewarm. "Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to have monitored the situation from here," admitted Comunes co-coordinator Candela López at a press conference on Monday. However, he also argued that the important thing is that "the warnings arrived in time" and that it is now necessary to respond to those affected. In this regard, he offered the Catalan government to work together on a "shock plan" with "concrete measures" to address the devastation of the downpours, including a review of territorial and urban planning in flood-prone areas. This review should include a study of possible demolitions of buildings in these areas, López added.
The PSC defends itself.
The criticism hasn't moved the PSC, which believes that following the emergency response was compatible with being in Madrid representing Catalonia "at an institutional event." "The president of the Catalan government is always where he's needed (...) He was aware of the situation at all times," claimed party spokesperson Lluïsa Moret. She also emphasized that Minister Parlon and her team were "focused" on managing the emergency from the very beginning. Despite not wanting to get into a head-to-head confrontation on this issue, Moret did not spare the opposition a dig at the general policy debate: she accused them of being "out of place" and putting partisan interests above those of the country. The PSC saw its fall. its flagship proposal to promote the construction of 214,000 apartments with the private sector when ERC and Comuns abstained.
