"Mazón resigned yesterday, but my father's death hurts me today just as much as it did yesterday."

Madrid / BarcelonaRosa María Álvarez Gil lost her father during the DANA floods. From Congress, she recounted the last phone call she had with him before he drowned. This took place within the framework of the DANA investigation committee, which began this Tuesday with the appearance of representatives of victims of last year's torrential rains. Álvarez once again criticized the handling of the situation by the Valencian government, presided over by Carlos Mazón, just the day after the Popular Party leader submitted his resignation. "Yesterday Mazón submitted his resignation, but my father's death pains me today just as much as it did yesterday," Álvarez stated. However, she did acknowledge that the Valencian president's resignation represents "moral relief and a social victory," but called for "prison" for the head of the regional government: "Mazón in prison. We are closer."

Álvarez recalled how her father died, but also how several other victims perished on the afternoon of October 29th of last year. "I cannot fathom that those responsible for this gross and negligent management—and I'm not the only one saying this, though I think so too, but Judge Núria Ruiz Tobarra said it too—sleep soundly," said the president of the Association of Victims of the October 29th Deaths. "It was a DANA (isolated high-altitude depression) that couldn't be avoided; rain doesn't know how to rain, but what we didn't know is that our managers didn't know how to manage either," she lamented. Álvarez criticized the Valencian government for not issuing the alert in time to warn the population. "It was so easy to give a warning, a timely warning. Not on the 29th, but on the 28th or the 27th," she pointed out. In this regard, she again pointed to Carlos Mazón as ultimately responsible and stated: "It doesn't matter if it's Ximo Puig, Carlos Mazón, or if his name is Pérez Llorca or María José Catalá." With the last two names, Álvarez was referring to the Names that are on the table to replace MazónShe exonerated the Spanish government from responsibility for the handling of the DANA storm: "They had nothing to do with the deaths." However, she did admit that the management of the days that followed "could be improved." In this regard, she called for measures "to improve all of this."

After Álvarez's appearance, the next to speak was Carmina Gil, vice president of the Association, who lost her mother-in-law on that fateful day. The organization's number two also didn't mince words when criticizing Mazón's administration. "The victims were abandoned to their fate while the institutions that should have protected them looked the other way," she declared. "The planning failed, the coordination failed, the response failed, and above all, the responsibility of a regional government failed, whose delayed and disorganized action cost suffering and 229 lives," she denounced. Gil has refuted Mazón, who initially spoke of a "meteorological revolution" and, during his resignation, of an "unimaginable tsunami," reminding everyone that the meteorological services had already issued warnings, but the emergency services were activated too late: "The institution took crucial hours to send an official alert, clear instructions on how to protect oneself, and no logistical support, neither in time nor in the proper manner. The DANA storm was a natural phenomenon, but the social and human catastrophe it unleashed was a consequence of improvisation and political inaction." Gil, who explained that his mother-in-law lived in a house managed by the Generalitat as a day center, pointed out that elderly people living in publicly owned apartments should have been notified by a general alert, by a specific protocol, and by the telecare service. "This structural negligence is institutional abandonment," she asserted before demanding "memory and justice" and that regional leaders assume "responsibility." "These vulnerable people died alone, trapped, and in the most terrible way," she said, visibly moved.

"Mazón didn't resign; the people ousted him."

Gil reiterated her criticism that the Generalitat (Valencian regional government) has never responded to their requests and made it clear that they cannot find closure because the very officials who managed the natural disaster remain in power. She pointed to the Vice President and Minister of Social Services, Susana Camarero, who is responsible for the telecare service and remains in the government. Regarding Mazón's resignation, she emphasized that it was due to public outcry: "He didn't resign, his party leader didn't force him out; we, the people who elected him, the same people who now reject him for being a liar, incompetent, and a bad person, forced him out." In this regard, she criticized the People's Party (PP) for keeping him in power until now, as well as their partners in Vox.

"What failed was not the weather, nor the rain, nor the storm; the system failed, the management, the political responsibility of those in charge. And the climate change deniers. Today we are here to remember them, because memory is the only way to prevent history from repeating itself, to ensure justice is served. As long as we have a voice, we will continue to call their names, so that no one else has to cry out in pain," he concluded at the end of his speech, which was applauded by all political parties except the PP and Vox.

Ernesto Martínez, who lost his sister Elvira and his niece Elisabeth, one of the two people who are still missing, has also lashed out at Mazón's administration: "That day, 229 people didn't have to die if things had been done properly, ... "It's activated on time and properly, it works," he said. In fact, he recalled that it was activated six years ago, and it worked: "The protocols work, what doesn't work are the people, and here what failed was the person," he pointed out. "I care very little about where he was. What I do know is where he wasn't, and that's at the forefront of an emergency, and the first and only person responsible for these matters is the president of each region," he added, criticizing Mazón for trying to shirk responsibility. "This must end up in court, and the murderer in prison," he asserted.