On top of the feeling of abandonment among victims of the DANA, the natural disaster that occurred two weeks ago, far-right groups have infiltrated Spain and are repeating the same scaremongering as they did during the pandemic.
Unfounded rumours for political ends have spread like wildfire, including violence, while the drama continues in the Valencian Community, Spain, epicentre of the isolated high altitude depression, a meteorological phenomenon known in Spain as a DANA.
Although the government, with prime minister Pedro Sánchez at the forefront, has avoided entering into controversy and preferred to concentrate on measures to resolve the crisis resulting from last week’s catastrophe, the topic has served the far-right especially well. Not content with sharp attacks on the Sánchez administration, it orchestrated the throwing of mud and objects at the authorities’ party that visited the municipality of Paiporta, Valencia, one of the areas worst hit by the DANA.
Mazón, of the opposition People’s Party (PP), after maintaining apparent harmony with the executive, decided to change his narrative and attack the central government. However, he received immediate responses refuting his statements and clarifying the confusion he had created. Lieutenant General Francisco Javier Marcos, Head of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), emphasised that “it is the autonomous community that directs the emergency and decides where we go.
“The day the emergency unfolded, the UME went on alert early and deployed promptly. When the authorisation came, my soldiers took 15 minutes to arrive. We were among the few who were in Utiel-Requena”, he said.
Elsewhere, the People’s Party (PP) leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, proposed a ‘Plan Valencia’ for reconstruction and asked prime minister Sánchez to declare a national emergency.
He stated that it is time to set aside political differences and that with a “constructive spirit” he would like the government to take into account at its Council of Ministers meeting that it has the PP’s support “for actions that guarantee the best attention to all the DANA’s victims”. Likewise, the United Left’s federal co-ordinator, Antonio Maíllo, declared himself also in favour of “raising the state of alarm so the central government takes control” with respect to recovery after the DANA.
Maíllo considers that the “evaluation of the management of the catastrophe caused by the DANA is already being made by the people who are suffering it, who have condemned serious deficiencies when almost a week after the rain there is still uncollected rubbish, possibly corpses in garages and a lack of food and basic supplies.”
The health ministry, along with scientific societies and NGOs, has clarified that the contamination of water by human and animal corpses is not yet a public health problem in the affected areas. With a preliminary figure of near to 300 deaths and hundreds missing, the government deployed over seven thousand military personnel, civil guards and police officers in the province of Valencia. They make a total of 10,000 personnel who will join groups from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) and rescue and safety units. PL
(Translated by Philip Walker – Email: philipwalkertranslation@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay
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