Interior distances itself from responsibility: "Civil Protection plans management is the exclusive competence of the communities"

The Ministry of Interior distances itself from any responsibility for the alleged late activation of Civil Protection plans last Tuesday afternoon in Valencia during the DANA. Specifically, it disassociates itself from the delay of the "mass alert" to mobiles in the affected areas, which was only issued at 20:10 on Tuesday, when the rains and floods were already devastating several municipalities around the city of Valencia. The central government concludes that the responsibility for this late warning was solely that of the Generalitat Valenciana.

The department led by Fernando Grande-Marlaska issued a statement early this Thursday to refute "certain erroneous information" and to remind that "the activation of territorial civil protection plans in the face of any type of emergency and their subsequent management is the exclusive responsibility of the regional authorities, who are competent in the matter according to current legislation."

Interior explained in its note that there are different "competent bodies" to detect "possible natural risks that may affect the population, property, infrastructure, cultural heritage, and similar" and that these institutions can indeed depend on different administrations. However, all of them are obliged to issue "warnings to the regional Civil Protection bodies," which receive these alerts and are responsible for conducting a "risk analysis" and "evaluating their possible consequences."

Based on these analyses, the Ministry of Interior elaborated, it is always the "regional Civil Protection authorities" who activate the "corresponding alerts," which may involve the activation of different plans depending on the type of risk, such as forest fires, seismic movements, floods, or adverse weather phenomena as in this case.

Depending on the territorial scope of the threat, it is always the "regional authorities" who decree: the "operational situation 1" (Municipal and/or regional scope), which may affect one or several municipalities, and the management of the emergency is the responsibility of the autonomous community. Or the "operational situation 2" (Regional scope), when the emergency may affect more than one municipality or province within the same autonomous community. In this second case, "the operational management is exercised by the regional Civil Protection authority, which activates the necessary regional personnel and material resources."

And in this second operational situation, which occurred on Tuesday afternoon in Valencia, "it is up to the regional Civil Protection authorities to manage the ES-Alert protocol to send alerts to the population in an area affected by imminent emergencies or disasters," Interior added.

"In the case of the DANA that affected the Valencian Community, the sending of this mass alert to the population was the responsibility of the Generalitat, as the governments of the autonomous communities of Madrid and Andalusia have already done in past emergencies of similar characteristics," explained the department led by Grande-Marlaska, referring to the activation of these warnings in September 2023 to alert of heavy rains in the Community of Madrid or this past Wednesday for the DANA in the Cadiz countryside by the Junta de Andalucía.

Also in this operational situation, the competent Civil Protection authority can, depending on the severity of the emergency and the availability of resources, request the Directorate General of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of Interior to activate extraordinary state resources, such as the Military Emergency Unit (UME).

"The Ministry of Interior calls on all regional and local administrations concerned with responding to the consequences of the DANA that has been affecting several autonomous communities since this Tuesday to join efforts to protect the affected population and face a rapid reconstruction of the damaged regions," concluded the central government's statement.