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

ValenciaTaking their time at lunch, they even talked about football, although during the meal, the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, understandably received numerous phone calls and messages about the severe flooding that had been affecting the Plana de Utiel-Requena region since 1 p.m., and which had already caused significant problems 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 5:00 p.m." onwards—the president spoke for the first time with the former Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas—on seven occasions. However, she asserted that she doesn't know their content. She also noted that at times, the conservative leader would "step aside" to speak more privately, a behavior that prompted her to ask 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 at other times he would get up from the table and leave the room. "I get the impression that I heard him speak very little. He was listening more than speaking," she remarked. "He doesn't tell me anything, I don't hear words like 'DANA,' 'CECOPIO,' or 'rain.' I don't hear anything, and he doesn't tell me anything 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 talk on the phone, but that he didn't open it, only reacting with a surprised emoji, and that she didn't mention it to the PP leader. A striking detail, because it would demonstrate Mazón's nonchalance in a highly tense situation at the Cecopio, is that when the judge asked 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, 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" either, and that's why "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.

Changing clothes at the restaurant

A key detail revealed by Vilaplana's witness was that the Valencian president changed his clothes at the restaurant. Specifically, he took off a jacket 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. It was 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 sending the ES-Alert system to the entire province of Valencia after the mayor of Paiporta had reported the situation. 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. In that conversation, he told her that what had happened was "very big, very serious," and when she questioned him, he assured her that he had known "nothing" beforehand. Regarding the phone calls, she explained 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 it was best to cut off all contact," words that triggered "a panic attack" in her. In this regard, she stated that she had received no pressure or instructions to say or omit anything about her lunch with the President of the Generalitat on October 29th. 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.

The journalist arrived at the Catarroja courthouse at 9:03 a.m., looking visibly tense, and made no statements to the media. She had to endure shouts from some relatives of the victims, demanding that she reveal everything she knew about the food. Her testimony comes after Vilaplana required medical attention on Saturday for an anxiety attack. Her summons was initially denied by the investigating judge, but the Provincial Court of Valencia overturned the decision, ruling that she could "offer details or nuances" that might be relevant to the investigation, specifically regarding "the decision-making process on the afternoon of October 29th." The lunch she had with Mazón at the El Ventorro restaurant was shrouded in controversy from the moment it became public ten days after the disaster, when it was reported that the meeting had lasted until 5:45 p.m. and that the Valencian president had arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat at 6:00 p.m. However, in early September, Vilaplana published an open letter stating that she left the restaurant between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m., and this past October it was revealed that the president accompanied her at 6:45 p.m. to a parking lot near the restaurant, where she had parked her car.