Alex Trelinski
UNDERFIRE Valencia president, Carlos Mazon, has been warned by his party boss that ‘there’s no more room for mistakes’ in his handling of the region’s flood disaster that has so far claimed 219 lives.
The Partido Popular(PP) leader, Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, asked for ‘humility’ on Monday and urged the continuance of ‘recognising mistakes and assuming responsibility’- a message he directed at both the Valencian and national governments.
Feijoo also agreed with a comment made by Carlos Mazon on Friday where he declared he would not stand for re-election in 2027 if he did not have the confidence of Valencians.
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In a Madrid meeting attended by all regional PP presidents- barring Mazon- Feijoo also gave some advice to the Valencian leader and the PP in the region.
“You have to continue to show your face, help the people, listen to them, because anger and disappointment must be understood,” Feijoo encouraged.
“Continue to give explanations, recognise mistakes, assume responsibilities, and make reconstruction an obligation in which there is no room for mistakes.” he added.
“Confidence, when it has suffered, must be regained,” Feijoo urged.
The El Pais newspaper reported that the PP is unhappy about the fallout of the Valencia disaster with mainly public silence from senior party figures over Mazon’s handling of what happened on and after October 29.
Just two regional PP presidents came out after Monday’s Madrid meeting to offer some kind of comment, namely Murcia’s Fernando Lopez Miras and Paco Nuñez from Castilla-La Mancha.
Neither gave unfettered backing to the Valencia leader.
Lopez Miras said that Mazon had at least given ‘explanations’, in reference to his six-hour appearance at the Valencia parliament on Friday, where he did not mention his lunch with a journalist on the day when the DANA struck,
“There is talk of who has to resign, what time the Jucar water authority gave the alert, what time the emergency board Cecopi met… Yes, yes, that will have to be talked about,” said Lopez Miras.
“Now the important thing is that Valencians return to normality,” he added.
