Juanfran Pérez Llorca, candidate of the PP for the presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana, revealed this Friday before the judge of Catarroja (Valencia), who investigates the damage, that on the afternoon of October 29, 2024 – when the catastrophe that caused 229 deaths occurred – he called Carlos Mazón to ask him about the situation in Utiel, which was hit by floods in the middle of the afternoon, and that the president responded to him in a different tone. area, the La Ribera region. This is what sources present in their statement told El PAÍS. The leader appears as a witness, a condition that forces him to tell the truth.
Pérez Llorca recalled that, on the day of the dana, he called Mazón at 6.57pm. after seeing some images of Utiel, a municipality devastated by the overflowing of the Magro river starting at 4.40 pm. “It was a very quick conversation. The president told me that there had been a problem in the La Ribera region. I decided to call to inform the mayors of our area,” explained the leader, who is the first mayor of the Alicante municipality of Finestrat.
The PP candidate said that, on the afternoon of the accident, he could barely speak to the then Minister of Justice and the Interior, who is the main defendant in the case, Salomé Pradas. “I called (Pradas). She didn’t answer me. We exchanged calls. And I was able to talk to her. She told me she couldn’t answer me because she had a lot of work,” he said.
When communication was established between Pérez Llorca and Pradas, the former councilor was at Cecopi – the body convened by the Generalitat to coordinate the crisis – in L’Eliana (Valencia). The call was recorded while the emergency device was sending the mass message to cell phones, the Es Alert. A notification arrived on phones at 8.11pm, when most of the missing were dead. And this is what the magistrate’s investigations are focused on.
The general secretary of the Valencian PP also explained that he maintains good relations with former councilor Pradas and with the other high-ranking Mazón official accused in the case, the former secretary of Emergencies, Emilio Argüeso. Even with the head of the Consell in office, he specified, the treatment is “cordial”.
The appearance of the popular man was scheduled by the judge together with that of six other high-ranking officials of the Mazón Executive. The judge considered the declaration of the successor of the presidentwho had three conversations on the afternoon of the flood with the former councilor responsible for the crisis. The communications were recorded at 6.57 pm. (when a missed call occurred), at 6.58pm (a 14-second communication) and at 6.59pm (nine seconds). At that time the Poyo ravine had already overflowed, the genesis of the catastrophe.
The popular candidate appeared after the declaration of Alejandro Romero, owner of the El Ventorro restaurant, where Mazón and the journalist Maribel Vilaplana ate for almost four hours (3pm-6.45pm) on the day of the tragedy, while part of the province of Valencia was flooded.
