Spain's DANA floods exposed the regional pact: no 24-hour fix, no solution
The promise to handle the DANA emergency within 24 hours failed. Two weeks on, criminal complaints against Sánchez, Marlaska and Mazón for failure to render aid. The debate over…
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Spain's DANA floods exposed the regional pact: no 24-hour fix, no solution
On 30 October 2023, the DANA — a cut-off low-pressure storm — devastated eastern Spain. Twenty-four hours later, the government was boasting it had the situation under control. Two weeks later, complaints for failure to render aid had already reached the Supreme Court. The handling of the disaster peine the debate over the division of powers: who is in charge in an emergency? The central state, the regional government, both? While Sánchez, Marlaska and Mazón traded blame (and lawyers gathered evidence), the public watched a display of discoordination as costly as it was predictable.
Powers that don't add up
The recurring argument of defenders of the current model is that Spain's autonomous communities took over emergency powers when the state devolved authority in the 1990s — with the blessing of Aznar and González. Those who bring this up do so to exonerate the central government: now the ball is in the regions' court. The problem is that, in practice, neither the central government nor the Generalitat (Catalonia's regional government) activated all available means in time. The complaint by Iustitia Europa claims there was a "total lack of response". The unsettling figure: not a single senior official has resigned.
On 30 October 2023, the DANA — a cut-off low-pressure storm — devastated eastern Spain. Twenty-four hours later, the government was boasting it had the situation under control. Two weeks later, complaints for failure to render aid had already reached the Supreme Court. The handling of the disaster peine the debate over the division of powers: who is in charge in an emergency? The central state, the regional government, both? While Sánchez, Marlaska and Mazón traded blame (and lawyers gathered evidence), the public watched a display of discoordination as costly as it was predictable.
Powers that don't add up
The recurring argument of defenders of the current model is that Spain's autonomous communities took over emergency powers when the state devolved authority in the 1990s — with the blessing of Aznar and González. Those who bring this up do so to exonerate the central government: now the ball is in the regions' court. The problem is that, in practice, neither the central government nor the Generalitat (Catalonia's regional government) activated all available means in time. The complaint by Iustitia Europa claims there was a "total lack of response". The unsettling figure: not a single senior official has resigned.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (24 replies).
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