On Friday, officials from the Valencian Community government (Comunitat Valenciana) declined to comment on messages that former head of the region Carlos Mazón (Carlos Mazón) sent to People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo (Alberto Núñez Feijóo) during the height of a devastating dana. The disaster claimed 230 lives in the province of Valencia. Government spokesperson Miguel Barrachina (Miguel Barrachina) stated he would not discuss the ongoing legal proceedings or individual court decisions, emphasizing that he would not comment on every step of the investigation.
Barrachina also criticized the socialists from PSPV-PSOE for demanding the court be given the full correspondence between Mazón and Feijóo. According to him, the opposition is too fixated on details, trying to determine the whereabouts of each official at the time of the tragedy. He noted that on the day of the disaster, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (Pedro Sánchez) was in India, Deputy Prime Minister Teresa Ribera (Teresa Ribera) was in Brussels, and Secretary of State Hugo Morán (Hugo Morán) was in Colombia. Barrachina called on opponents to show restraint and pointed out that no one is interested in the locations of members of their own party.
Judicial investigation
When asked why Mazón’s words in the correspondence differ from his official version of events, Barrachina again refused to comment. The spokesperson stressed that he has no intention of discussing every court ruling, so as not to emulate the central government, which, in his words, criticizes the Supreme Court for politicized decisions.
Shortly after the tragedy, Feijóo submitted to the court notarized messages he had received from Mazón, but did not provide his own messages, explaining that the judge had not requested them. As part of the investigation, the judge summoned Feijóo to testify as a witness on January 9. The politician requested to participate remotely.
Timeline of the correspondence
According to the notarial record, the exchange between Mazón and Feijóo began at 20:08 with a brief “Gracias Presi” in response to a message of support that Feijóo had sent at 19:59. Just three minutes later, the first ES Alert emergency signal was sent out to the population. This means Mazón was replying to Feijóo while the disaster was already unfolding and most victims had already been recorded. This fact contradicts Feijóo’s claim that he was receiving real-time information from Mazón since the previous day.
In the correspondence, Mazón admitted that the situation was out of control, dozens of reports of missing people were coming in, but none could be confirmed yet. Feijóo asked how actively the central government was participating in the response. Mazón initially replied that the Spanish government had joined in “more or less,” but added that the crisis team was ineffective. He later reported he had contacted the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the defense minister, and the interior minister. At that point, according to Mazón, all necessary resources had been made available through the government delegation, including UME military rescue units.
Ministries respond and new details emerge
On Friday, Spain’s Ministry of Defense issued a statement demanding that Feijóo and Mazón publicly apologize for distorting the facts. The ministry emphasized that military rescue teams were ready for action from the very beginning, which is supported by Mazón’s own messages.
In one message, Mazón tells Feijóo that there are already fatalities in the city of Utiel, though the information has not yet been made public and the number of victims may rise. However, during his speech in Congress on November 17, Mazón claimed he only learned about the deaths late at night. In their exchange, he calls the situation a “real disaster” and admits it is spiraling out of control.
Political fallout
On Friday morning, government spokesperson Elma Saiz called for Feijóo’s resignation, accusing him of lying and exploiting the tragedy for political gain. She suggested that such actions only deepen the pain of the affected families. Saiz also questioned why Feijóo has yet to release his own messages and speculated that their content might be equally controversial.
Compromís lawmaker Alberto Ibáñez demanded that Feijóo urgently testify before the parliamentary committee investigating the tragedy. He also called on the opposition leader to resign, claiming Feijóo misled the public about Mazón’s communications and attempted to hide the regional authorities’ ineffective response.
