Maribel Vilaplana says that Mazón wasn't in a hurry to finish lunch at El Ventorro and that they talked about football.

ValenciaTaking their time at lunch, even talking about football, Valencian President Carlos Mazón received numerous calls and messages during the meal, quite understandably, about the severe flooding that had been affecting the Plana de Utiel-Requena region since 1 p.m., and which had already produced significant rainfall that morning. This is a summary of the "relaxed" atmosphere that, according to journalist Maribel Vilaplana, characterized her nearly four-hour working meeting with the head of the Valencian government on the day that 229 people died in the Valencian Community. This account was given to ARA by sources present at the journalist's testimony before the investigating magistrate in the DANA case, which took place this Monday in the Catarroja courthouse.

Regarding the information Mazón received, Vilaplana stated that she doesn't recall whether the Popular Party leader's phone was on silent or not, but she did confirm that she received many messages and phone calls, especially "from 5 p.m." onwards"—the president spoke for the first time with the former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas, on the phone on three occasions—but she asserted that she doesn't know their content. She also emphasized that at times the conservative leader "would step aside" to speak more discreetly, a behavior that prompted her to ask him if he wanted her to leave. But he replied that it wasn't necessary. Specifically, he told her: "Don't worry." She also detailed that other times he would get up from the table and leave the room where they were. "I have the impression that I heard him speak very little. He was listening more than speaking," she noted. "He doesn't say anything to me, nor do I hear words like..." dana, Cecopio either rains"I don't feel anything, and he doesn't transmit anything to me either," she summarized.

Regarding the video that the journalist received at 5:39 p.m. about the floods in Utiel, in a news report that was first reported by the ARAShe asserted that she received a link to a news report from À Punt—which included the images—from her ex-husband at a time when Mazón had gotten up to make a phone call, but that he didn't open it, only reacting with a surprised emoji, and that she didn't mention it to the PP leader. An important element, because it would demonstrate Mazón's nonchalance in a highly tense situation at the Cecopio, is that when the judge asked her if the president seemed relaxed, Vilaplana answered "yes," and gave as an example that upon leaving the restaurant they talked about football, and that she, as a board member of Levante, supports Elche. "We left [Ventorro] normally and walked normally [because] the parking lot was right next door," she recounted. She also stated that "she wasn't in a hurry" and that she "didn't sense any hurry from the other party," so "they continued talking about football."

Later in her statement, the journalist explained that she doesn't have the parking ticket from the day of the lunch, but that she will provide her car's license plate number so the company that manages it can look for it, and that she will also check her bank statements. Furthermore, she specified that Mazón paid for the meal, although she never saw him pay. In this regard, it should be noted that the Valencian PP has explained that it has an account at the restaurant.

Change of clothes at the restaurant

A key detail in Vilaplana's testimony came when the journalist explained that the Valencian president changed his clothes in the restaurant. Specifically, he took off a blazer and put on a sweater. This statement is important because it relates to the question of what the head of the Valencian government did after accompanying the journalist to the parking lot and, if so, before going to the Palau de la Generalitat at 8 p.m. went to his houseThis circumstance has been denied by the Presidency despite the publication of several news reports confirming it. It is one of the most significant moments of the afternoon of that fateful October 29th, when Mazón failed to answer two calls from Salomé Pradas, at 7:10 p.m. and 7:36 p.m., during a debate about deploying the ES-Alert system to the entire province of Valencia, not just to the municipalities along the riverbank where her town was flooding. During her testimony, Vilaplana explained that she called Mazón in the early hours of the morning to ask him not to make her name public, and that in that conversation he told her that what had happened was "very big, very serious" and assured her that he had known "nothing" about it beforehand. Regarding the phone calls, she recounted that two days later the president told her he was very sorry, but that her name should be released because she was under a lot of pressure, and that it was best to cut off all contact—words that triggered a panic attack. In this regard, she stated that she received no pressure or instructions to say or omit anything about her lunch with the president of the Generalitat on October 29. On a personal level, Maribel Vilaplana said she was devastated and maintained that she has neither friendship nor enmity with the head of the Consell. In fact, during several moments of her testimony, she claimed to feel she was the victim of unfair treatment by the media and began to cry, to the point that the judge proposed halting the testimony on three separate occasions, an offer the journalist rejected.

Maribel Vilaplana's testimony was met with great anticipation. The journalist arrived at the Catarroja courthouse at 9:03 a.m., visibly tense—she had required treatment for anxiety on Saturday—and surrounded by numerous television cameras. She had to endure shouts from some of the victims' relatives, demanding that she explain everything she knew about the food and not cover for Mazón. Legal sources consulted by ARA noted that the journalist's testimony did not provide significant legally relevant information, and emphasized that Vilaplana repeatedly stated that when Mazón was supposed to speak, he would retreat to a corner of the private room, taking advantage of its size. However, they did consider it crucial that it could be proven that the Valencian president was kept fully informed of everything that was happening and yet did not join the Cecopio (Emergency Coordination Center) until 8:28 p.m., nor did he cancel or shorten his lunch. It should be recalled that the investigating judge initially denied the journalist's summons, but the Provincial Court of Valencia overturned the decision, considering that she could "offer details or nuances" that might be of interest to the investigation, specifically regarding "the decision-making process followed on the afternoon of October 29." The lunch she had with Carlos Mazón at the El Ventorro restaurant in Valencia has been surrounded by controversy since it was made public ten days after the disaster, when it was reported that the meeting lasted until 5:45 p.m. and that the Valencian president arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat (the seat of the Valencian government) at 6:00 p.m. However, at the beginning of September Vilaplana published an open letter in which she set her departure from the restaurant between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m., and this past October it was learned that the president accompanied her at 6:45 p.m. to a parking lot located near the restaurant, where she had parked her car.