Spain PM Sánchez faces backlash over Valencia DANA response

Sánchez criticized for handling of Valencia DANA

Is Pedro Sánchez politically finished? This question has lingered through every catastrophe, crisis, and institutional slight for years. The DANA (flash flood) that devastated parts of Valencia province left more than two hundred dead and a trail of mutual recriminations between administrations. On paper, emergency responsibility lay with the Generalitat (Valencian regional government), led by Carlos Mazón. In practice, crossfire reached Moncloa (the Spanish presidency) over its management of international aid and what some interpret as passivity toward the disaster. The debate over who should declare the state of alarm became the battlefield.

Who had to request the state of alarm

Article 4 of Organic Law 4/1981 allows declaring a state of alarm for public disasters, including floods. This is the argument used to demand central government intervention. However, the sequence of events suggests it was Mazón who took two days to formally request state intervention, according to those tracking protocols. The UME (Military Emergency Unit), the Army, National Police, Civil Guard, AEMet (meteorological agency), and river basins depend on the central executive, fueling the thesis that state machinery could have been activated sooner.

The opposing argument also circulates strongly: if the Government declares the state of alarm and limits itself to mitigating disaster effects, no one would object. The problem, others argue, is that in the previous instance, measures were taken that courts overturned for exceeding legal limits. That precedent weighs heavily in any discussion about activating the mechanism.

International aid and the 'fachocomodín' narrative

The initial message pointed in two directions: the alleged refusal to accept international aid and the use of the term fachocomodín (a derogatory slang for opportunistic right-wingers) to discredit those protesting the management. The visit by the King and Queen and the Prime Minister to Paiporta ended with mud and objects being thrown, an episode Sánchez himself condemned as "all forms of violence." From there, the narrative split: some saw a legitimate popular reaction to institutional inaction; others, an attempt to incivil protest.

Some maintain that the central government is also responsible because, in a natural disaster where citizen safety cannot be guaranteed, the law requires declaring a state of alarm and activating the Army. Counter-arguments state that protocols exist but are not trinc if the competent administration does not activate them. The political battle is fought on ground where the dead are no longer a debatable figure.

The wear that never arrives

The refrain of the political corpse has repeated since Sánchez arrived at Moncloa. Every month, punctually, forecasts of his imminent departure appear. And he remains. The most circulating explanation is a loyal electoral base that votes for the party like a football team, indifferent to scandals and management crises. Abstention, according to some analyses, would be the true arbiter of any change.

The most optimistic calculation for his critics assumes the wear is irreversible; the pessimistic scenario starts from the premise that there is no real alternative capable of capitalizing on it. Meanwhile, the discussion on the DANA mixes with theories about off-agenda meetings and the suspicion, never proven, that the president is backed by opaque instances. None of this has moved a single seat.

The figures left by the disaster

More than two hundred dead, a flooded shopping center, and a missing persons count revised downward after inspecting the Bonaire parking lot. Reviewing 99% of that space found no bodies, disproving the worst predictions. Emergency management, however, still lacks a clear responsible party: regional and state competencies overlap in a limbo neither side wants to assume.

The question of whether Sánchez is a political corpse has, given the data, an uncomfortable answer: political corpses rarely survive seven years of death predictions.

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Who should have declared the state of alarm for the DANA?

Organic Law 4/1981 allows the Government to declare it for floods. Emergency competence lay with the Generalitat, which took two days to request state intervention, according to protocols. The central government could have activated it, but the precedent of measures overturned by courts conditions the decision.

What peine during the royal visit to Paiporta?

King Felipe VI and Pedro Sánchez were met with thrown mud and objects in Paiporta, one of the devastated towns. The prime minister later condemned "all forms of violence." The episode peine the debate on disaster management and the citizen response to institutional presence.

Why is Sánchez said to be a political corpse?

It is a recurring expression for years, repeated whenever he faces a crisis. Critics use it to anticipate his exit; defenders cite it as proof the prediction never comes true. The lack of a consolidated electoral alternative keeps the forecast hanging.