The judge in the DANA case summons Feijóo as a witness to explain what he discussed with Mazón.

ValenciaAlberto Núñez Feijóo will have to explain what he discussed with Carlos Mazón on the day of the DANA storm. The judge in Catarroja, who is investigating the case of the torrential rains, decided this Friday to summon him as a witness. The magistrate thus granted the request of the Association of Victims of the October 29th DANA storm, which believes that the Galician politician must explain what the former president of the Valencian Generalitat told him about the management of the catastrophe, given that Feijóo stated that the former head of the Valencian government had informed him of the measures that "have been reported in the DANA storm." Furthermore, the magistrate has asked the Popular Party leader to voluntarily submit, within five days, the list of calls, messages, emails, and WhatsApps that Mazón sent him that day. The PP president reacted to the summons by defending his role as leader of the opposition, stating that it was limited to demanding that the Spanish government declare a national emergency. Furthermore, at a campaign event in Badajoz, the PP leader again accused Spanish President Pedro Sánchez of having abandoned the citizens affected by the disaster.

The judge made this decision on the same day that Carlos Mazón's former chief of staff, José Manuel Cuenca, testified again. Cuenca denied having given any orders on the day of the storm to the then Minister of Justice and the Interior, Salomé Pradas. The former high-ranking official asserted that in the WhatsApp messages he exchanged with Pradas—in which he asked the former head of Emergency Services not to confine the population under any circumstances—he merely expressed legal doubts. According to José Manuel Cuenca, the messages were taken out of context. This information has been obtained by ARA from sources present at his appearance as a witness before the judge in Catarroja.

Cuenca has been called to testify again to clarify the contradictions between what he said on November 26 in his first statement and what is recorded in the messages added to the case file a week ago. During his first appearance, he stated that he had "no idea" about lockdowns and that he referred Pradas's inquiry to Cayetano García, the then Regional Secretary of the Presidency – who is scheduled to testify on January 22 – because he was the person who, advised by the Generalitat's legal services, could resolve the former councilor's legal doubts. This appears in the transcript of the statement made by the former chief of staff, which ARA has accessed.

Now, in the WhatsApp messages that Pradas forwarded, it can be seen how the head of Emergencies explained to him that the situation was very complicated and that they were going to send an alert to the population. She even detailed that they were considering the idea of confining the entire population of the province of Valencia, an option that Cuenca asked her not to approve under any circumstances. "Salo [Salomé Pradas], no confinement," she told him at 7:54 p.m. "Get your head around it," she insisted at 8:15 p.m., despite the pleas of the former councilor, who pointed out that the emergency law would allow her to make this decision. Furthermore, Mazón's former chief of staff also said that he did not discuss "the possibility of sending the ES-Alert," a statement contradicted by the messages between him and Pradas, which reveal that the former councilor did warn him.

Despite the information provided by the messages, José Manuel Cuenca stood firm in his initial statement this Friday – otherwise, he would have admitted to perjury – and in response to the judge's questions, he denied giving any orders and also denied acting on behalf of Carlos Mazón while the latter was having lunch. "No one instructed me to give orders to anyone, least of all to the regional minister," he said.

The judge decides not to charge Cuenca

Cuenca's statement included a brief debate about the need to indict José Manuel Cuenca, as some plaintiffs, including the Association of Victims of the October 29th DANA storm, have demanded. However, the investigating judge, with the support of the public prosecutor, decided against it because Mazón's chief of staff "lacked regulatory authority" and was indeed "not authorized to act."

Was he out of Valencia for personal or party reasons?

The testimony of Mazón's former right-hand man also comes the day after the release of messages submitted to the case by Pilar Montes, the then-secretary of the Valencian president's cabinet. These messages reveal that José Manuel Cuenca was out of the city of Valencia all afternoon on the day of the storm to attend to "a party matter." In one message, the former high-ranking official explains to Montes his difficulties returning to Valencia. When she asks him who his driver is, the chief of staff replies that he had gone to Xàtiva "on a party matter" and had to take a taxi because he couldn't catch a train back. Until now, Cuenca had always maintained that his absence was due to a "personal matter."