MADRID
\nSpain\u2019s under-fire ecological transition minister, a candidate for a top European Commission post, on Wednesday said questioning the role of state agencies during the country\u2019s devastating floods was \u201cdangerous.\u201d
\nThe state weather and environment services have faced intense scrutiny over their response to the October 29 disaster that wreaked widespread destruction and killed 227 people.
\nThe European Parliament has blocked Teresa Ribera\u2019s appointment to an influential EU commission role encompassing environment and competition, with opponents accusing her of neglecting her duties during the floods.
\nRegions are in charge of disaster management in Spain\u2019s decentralized political system, but the hardest-hit Valencia region\u2019s conservative leader Carlos Mazon said he received \u201cinsufficient, inaccurate and late\u201d information.
\nDoubting state agencies was \u201cdeeply unfair and deeply dangerous,\u201d Ribera told parliament, in a veiled retort to the conservative opposition.
\n\u201cI would like to thank the work and dedication of the public servants who issued the information as was their duty,\u201d she added.
\nMazon defended his handling of the catastrophe last week, citing an \u201cinformation blackout\u201d and criticizing a government agency responsible for monitoring river levels.
\nBut Ribera said \u201cthere was never an information blackout\u201d and enumerated a lengthy list of warnings issued by public bodies to the regional authorities.
\nAlthough the national weather agency issued the highest red alert in the morning of October 29, Valencia residents in many cases only received telephone warnings when water was already gushing through towns.
\nThe socialist-led central government has argued Mazon bore responsibility for the late issuing of the emergency alert.
\n\u201cHaving all the necessary information is of little use if the one who must respond does not know how,\u201d Ribera added.
\nThe right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP) has accused the government of abandoning the Valencia region before and after the floods for political gain.
\nAnger has coursed through Spain over the authorities\u2019 perceived mishandling of the country\u2019s deadliest floods in decades and the ensuing political polarization has spilled over at EU level.
\nThe conservative EPP parliamentary group to which the PP belongs refused to approve Spain\u2019s nomination for the commission until she reported to the Spanish parliament.
\n\u201cThe European Commission does not deserve to come into existence with a candidate under suspicion,\u201d PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo wrote on X.
\nThe Socialists and Democrats group have complained that the Spanish right was trying to make Ribera \u201cthe scapegoat\u201d for its own failure to manage the floods in Valencia.
\nBy doing so, it was \u201cpushing the entire European Union to the brink in the most irresponsible way,\u201d it said.
\nSocialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday said his party always backed PP candidates for the commission and urged \u201creciprocity\u201d from them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MADRID Spain\u2019s under-fire ecological transition minister, a candidate for a top European Commission post, on Wednesday said questioning the role of state agencies during the country\u2019s devastating floods was \u201cdangerous.\u201d The state weather and environment services have faced intense scrutiny over their response to the October 29 disaster that wreaked widespread destruction and killed 227 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-444781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n