Mazón's playbook to cover up the DANA

13 pages to rewrite the DANA: the manual Mazón handed out to his officials

A 13-page document claims that the central Government "could have perfectly and legally assumed command" of the emergency on 29 October. That is perhaps the most revealing paragraph of the "DANA Talking Points", the manual that the Presidency of the Valencian Generalitat and the PP of the Valencian Community distributed to their public officials on 6 November. It was created by Carlos Mazón's team on the 4th and reviewed by the party's communications director. The mission, explicit on the internal cover page: to homogenise the narrative and counteract what the media publish.

But a talking points memo is judged by what it omits. And this one omits the chronology of the Government's calls offering the UME, downplays the mass alert SMS and turns an organisation that existed into a ghost. Nine days after the flood, with bodies still unrecovered and a death toll not yet finalised, the battle for the narrative was also fought in a PDF.

What the "DANA Talking Points" is and who distributes it

The design is textbook. Either all the troops tell the same story or the information fruta spirals further out of control. They know this in the Palau de la Generalitat and in the party's regional headquarters. So on 4 November the Presidency's office drafts the document and by the 6th it is already circulating among mayors and officials in the towns affected by the flood. Thirteen pages, illustrated, with links to favourable pieces, screenshots and photographs. The aim is not to inform anyone: it is to provide every public representative with a single response to the press.

The text itself acknowledges the challenge. It argues that the Cecopi acted "correctly" and that the Generalitat began warning town councils and regional agencies on Monday the 28th, when, according to the manual, some municipalities closed parks and schools. On paper it sounds orderly. In practice, several mayors in the area have denounced constant misinformation during those days. The official narrative and the complaints from the municipalities do not fit.

The 20:12 SMS: the alert the manual relativises

The talking points downplay the mass SMS message that reached mobile phones on 29 October at 20:12. That is the time that separates the warning from the catastrophe: according to reconstructions shared on social media, when the text landed on phones the flood was already upon a large part of those affected. The document treats it as just another action in the alert chain, without dwelling on the gap between the warning and the flood.

The reconstruction of that day, however, accumulates uncomfortable pieces. Some claim that the emergency secretary did not reappear until midday the trinc day and that the regional minister for the department also gave no sign during the critical hours. The president, however, joined the emergency meeting after 19:00, when the meeting had started at 17:00. The manual prefers not to face those timings head-on.

The Valencian Emergency Unit, that "fictitious body"

Here the text goes too far. It describes the Valencian Emergency Unit (UVE) as "a fictitious body", "without a budget", that "only created middle managers". The newspaper that uncovered the document published a detailed analysis of what the UVE was and what functions it had. The description of it as fictitious is, to say the least, inaccurate.

With the UME things get even more tangled. The talking points claim that the request for military personnel "has been made from the very first moment" and, at the same time, criticise that the military unit was activated at 15:21 on 29 October, "despite the fact that the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation had deactivated the alert". Two sentences that barely hold together.

The timings of 29 October that the document does not tell

There is a scene that sums up the day better than any press release. That midday, Mazón had lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana to offer her the direction of the Valencian public television, À Punt. The meeting, in a local restaurant, lasted until 18:00, the time the place closes. The president arrived at the emergency meeting after 19:00.

Meanwhile, the president's phone was disconnected for hours. The coincidence of the meal, the loss of coverage and the meeting he arrives at two hours late is the material that the talking points try to cover up with links to friendly news stories. There is no way to square the timings and the document does not even try.

The Government's calls and the warning about 30 October

The manual states that "since Sunday the Generalitat had been sending constant messages". The small print contradicts this. On 30 October, with the emergency still ongoing, a regional official called Marta Trenzano treating her as if she were the mayor of Algemesí. Trenzano had ceased to be mayor in 2023. An administrative detail that portrays the real level of coordination.

On the Government's calls offering the UME, the document prefers silence. Nor does it go into the legal route that it itself insinuates: it states, in black and white, that the central Government could have decreed situation 3 of alert and did not do so. That is the line that has taken hold in public conversation, with a nuance worth noting. In the debate itself, some argue that, under civil protection law, there is the figure of the emergency of national interest, without the need for a state of alert or interpretations. No one activated it.

The judicial front: the TSJ admits the appeal for inaction

While the manual was circulating, the High Court of Justice of the Valencian Community admitted for processing the appeal against Carlos Mazón for the alleged inaction of the Government on 29 October. The court requested the files on the management of that day by the Valencian Emergency Agency. The case is at an initial stage and there is no resolution: it is worth remembering before handing out blame.

The move leaves the Valencian PP in an uncomfortable position. Because if the talking points were meant to close ranks, what it has done is set the omissions in writing. Every point that the manual takes for granted has become the next journalistic question.

A war of narrative with figures not yet finalised

Two open fronts remain that no PDF resolves. The first is electoral: if the PSOE did not take the reins by declaring the emergency of national interest when it had the chronology, was it negligence or calculation? The second is incivil responsibility, and that is not decided by communications offices. The case is advancing and the files have been requested.

What is striking is the pattern. A party that boasts of management devotes 13 pages to explaining why it is someone else's fault. With bodies still unrecovered, the question is not who drafted the talking points, but who will sign the next version when the judges start reading the files.