“This is going to be a fucking disaster, prez.”

The former president of the Valencian Generalitat Carlos Mazón exchanged ‘whastapps’ with the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, once the former’s meal in El Ventorro had finished. They were in occasional contact from 8:08 p.m. to 11:29 p.m. on October 29, 2024, the day of the tragic disaster in the province of Valencia that left 230 dead, in which they related the seriousness of the catastrophe. “This is going to be a fucking disaster,” stated the then regional leader. Feijóo has explained that it was he who initiated the first contact with Mazón at 7:59 p.m., which reveals that they did not maintain any communication during the hours that the former president was with the journalist Maribel Vilaplana in El Ventorro, which Mazón took a few minutes to answer and did so just three minutes before the Es-Alert was sent.

Feijóo has sent this Wednesday to the Catarroja Investigative Court, which is investigating the management of the dana, the ‘whatsapps’ that the former Valencian president sent him on the day of the tragedy, and not those that he sent, and has requested that the appearance scheduled for January 9 as a witness take place by telematic means.

The leader of the PP has sent a notarial record to the judge “that attests to each and every one of the messages received that day by the ‘former president’”, as well as a document with the context of the conversations that took place “for your better understanding”.

In the letter, to which Europa Press has had access, Feijóo explained that it was he who initiated the first contact with Mazón at 7:59 p.m. on the day of the dana after learning, “through the media”, the seriousness of the situation in Valencia. In that first ‘whatsapp’, the national leader of PP conveyed his solidarity and made himself available to the then ‘president’ for whatever “he might need.”

At 8:08 p.m., Mazón’s first response arrived. “Thank you Presi,” he responded. “I’ll tell you later. Every minute is getting screwed,” continued the Valencian leader who, around 8:15 p.m., sent him another message: “Long night ahead.”

According to the context provided by Feijóo to the court, at 9:44 p.m. he received another message from Mazón justifying that he had called to ask the former president of Telefónica, José María-Álvarez Pallete, for his mobile phone number. The leader of the PP indicated that he could not answer the call because he was at an institutional event, but he facilitated contact and was interested in the state of the population.

At 9:45 p.m., Mazón thanks Feijóo for his words and informs him: “We are overwhelmed, we don’t know what is really happening but we receive dozens of missing people and I cannot confirm them.” Feijóo, in the conversation that night, also asked him about the Government’s involvement in managing the tragedy and making aid and troops available.

It’s worthless

In another subsequent message, at 11:21 p.m., the former Valencian president told Feijóo that the Government “more or less is” available, although he assures that “they have set up a crisis cabinet that is worthless.” “Bah,” he adds about the crisis committee that the Executive organized that night, chaired by the first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero.

Mazón also informed him, at 11:23 p.m., that he spoke with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with Vice President Montero; in addition to the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, “so that they have possible troops on pre-alert for tomorrow.”

At that same time, Mazón elaborates on the seriousness of the situation. “The problem now is that we can’t even enter many towns with people on the roofs scared to death,” he underlines, and then tells Feijóo that at that time, through the Government Delegation, they had what they needed, which is the Military Emergency Unit (UME).

At 11:25 p.m., in another ‘whatsapp’ to Feijóo, Mazón told him that “dead people are already appearing in Utiel” but they have not made it public and that “more are going to appear.” “This is going to be a fucking disaster, presi,” he tells him. The last communication that day between the two was at 11:29 p.m.

On the other hand, Feijóo indicates that, from that day on, he received the same information that the institutions handled and that he learned about through the Generalitat, “since no other administration” conveyed “additional information” to him.

The leader of the PP also assumes as an “error” a phrase he said in his statement with Mazón on Thursday, October 31, two days after the tragedy. “I made it clear that ‘the president of the Generalitat, since last Monday, has been informing me in real time’. This was an error, since October 29, 2024 was a Tuesday and not a Monday,” explains Feijóo.