The trouble of almost all parties due to the poor management of the cold drop in Spain

There are certain circumstances in which those who talk and shout the most are those who should be the most silent, for their own good.

A violent demonstration by the left to protect Pedro Sánchez from all criticism
For the government it was more 'urgent' to assault RTVE than to send the Army to save lives

The left tries to blame Mazón for everything

Regarding the cold drop catastrophe in Spain, this past weekend the left and the separatists of Compromís launched themselves into trying to take political advantage of the tragedy with the violent demonstration on Saturday in Valencia, which focused its criticism on Carlos Mazón, from the Popular Party and president of the Valencian Community, in an attempt to protect Pedro Sánchez and his government.

In addition to this, last week, the PSOE launched a campaign on social networks against Mazón, with the aim of "winning the narrative" on the political management of this disaster. Likewise, the Popular Party has put the spotlight on Sánchez's government, stating that it has left the Valencian Generalitat "very alone and abandoned."

The poor management of Pedro Sánchez's government

Certainly, here almost all the parties in the Valencian Parliament are in a bind, so they should think very carefully before trying to use this tragedy against their rivals.

Starting from the top, the negligence of the Sánchez government (PSOE and Sumar) was evident, giving priority to the assault on RTVE to take control of the state television council and delaying up to 4 days the large deployment of the Armed Forces in the affected area, perhaps believing that the desperation of the Valencians was would only turn against Mazón. The anger of the people of Paiporta against Sánchez on November 3 was the clearest demonstration that the socialists miscalculated their strategy.

The pitiful management of the government of Carlos Mazón

In addition, the Valencian government has acted in a pitiful manner, with a succession of incompetences that aggravated the effects of the cold snap disaster and which, in addition, destroyed the political strategy of the Popular Party, which consisted of fleeing the battle of ideas and focusing all its discourse on offering good management. In addition, the PP can hardly criticise the PSOE, since on 31 October, Mazón thanked Sánchez for his "closeness" and "coordination", a completely absurd thank you which also contradicted the criticism of the government by his party's leadership.

If the government saw that Mazón was incapable, why didn't he take command?

It is difficult for the PSOE to criticize Mazón without shooting itself in the foot. If the Valencian government was incompetent, why didn't the central government take over? It had legal mechanisms to do so (for example, by declaring a national emergency, which is logical given that several regions were affected), but it did not do so because it prioritized its political strategy over the lives of those affected by the cold snap.

If Mazón believes that the government left him alone, why did he not hand over command?

Similarly, if the Valencian government found itself alone, it could have given up control of the management to leave it in the hands of the central government, but it did not want to do so. Perhaps this decision was due to the fact that if it gave up control, the PP would have lost its trump card of presenting itself as a good manager, an asset that it ended up losing anyway due to the incompetence of the Valencian government.

Compromís is an ally of Sánchez's government: that is why it protects him

On the other hand, the separatists of Compromís and their partners in Sumar cannot pretend that none of this concerns them, as if they were a free verse in Valencian regional politics and in Spanish national politics. Sumar is Sánchez's government partner. The far-left party has five ministries, as well as the second vice-presidency of the government. In addition, Compromís is in the Sumar parliamentary group and is an ally of Sánchez: without its support it would not continue in the government. They have no choice but to protect Sánchez, as we saw on Saturday at the aforementioned demonstration, because he is their ally.

Vox's strategic success in abandoning governments with the PP

I have said before that almost all parties are in a bind, and I have not talked about Vox. That "almost" refers precisely to the party led by Santiago Abascal. Although many media outlets close to the PP criticised this, Vox's decision to abandon the regional coalition governments with the PP last July was not only an act of coherence with the commitments made to its voters on the subject of illegal immigration, but it has also ended up being a strategic success, which now allows Vox to criticise the PSOE and the PP with complete freedom.

Vox sees two of its ideological lines endorsed

To this success we must add the fact that Vox is the only parliamentary party that criticizes the State of the Autonomies, which has demonstrated its worst consequences in this disaster, with a central government that speaks of the Valencian Community as if it were speaking of a foreign country from which it has to ask permission to enter its territory, and with an autonomous government that refuses to give up command despite recognizing itself as abandoned by the central government.

Let's add to that that Vox is also the only party that criticizes ecological nonsense that has influenced this disaster, such as the refusal to build dams, the determination not to clean up riverbeds and the demolition of water infrastructure. The promoters of progressive thought can put all their effort into ensuring that their propaganda hides the facts, but when something like this happens, the facts are impossible to hide and in the end, as we see now, the ideological dogmas of the left, also assumed by the PP, have ended up totally muddied.

---

Photo: Europa Press. The president of the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, with the president of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, at a joint press conference on October 31, 2024.