“No one was aware of the severity of what was going to happen.” “We did what we could with the information we had.” “It exceeded all forecasts.” Pedro Sánchez on the Ceuta crisis? No, Carlos Mazón on the dana in Valencia.
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But what the president of the Government has been saying these days bears a surprising parallel to the narrative built by the former president of the Generalitat to try to save himself politically and justify his executive’s delayed response to a disaster with 232 deaths. If for Mazón no one was able to predict the dimensions of a never-before-seen dana, Sánchez also said that “with the information that existed, no one could anticipate the Ceuta crisis.”
No report from the Security Forces and Corps or the CNI “predicted either the scale or the probability of what finally happened,” Sánchez assured in the Congress of Deputies. Moreover, he even said that all institutions were aware of the increase in swimming entries into Ceuta in the days prior to the crisis: “It was a significant uptick, but by no means unprecedented or exceptional, especially and particularly at the times when it occurred.”
The thesis that the signs were there, although apparently they were somewhat usual, is the same one Mazón used before being forced to resign. “In the last ten years in the Valencian Community there have been thirty red alerts,” he recalled to explain why he underestimated the warning issued early on by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
Both politicians have copied their exculpatory narrative practically from minute one. Also, for example, when pointing to those who apparently failed in their calculations. Mazón concluded that “a torrential rain episode is not the same as a flash flood that exceeded Aemet’s forecasts.” After all, “Aemet’s predictions were what they were: 180 liters and not 800.” Sánchez has also spoken of different things – and figures: “One thing is to detect that swimming crossings were increasing and quite another to anticipate, within hours, the arrival of 70,000 people.”
According to Sánchez, no one neglected the situation because the social media campaign to jump to Ceuta “was being monitored.” But even Mazón dismissed his long lunch at El Ventorro with this argument: “I kept my schedule knowing that the counselor Pradas had traveled to the affected areas.”
There is even more in these analogous strategies: the blame, on the messenger. Mazón got tired of questioning that the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation warned by email – and, indeed, late – about the overflow of the Poyo. Sánchez, that the CNI barely made a “brief phone call” to the Government Delegation. But the end of the story is missing. The first ended: “I can’t take it anymore.” The second continues: “We are going to make it.”
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