Raúl Mérida, the Recognition of a Tireless Environmentalist

Raúl Mérida will be the new commissioner of the Valencian Government for recovery, a newly created position, with which President Pérez Llorca certifies the intention to open a new chapter in everything related to the flood that on October 29, 2024, devastated half of the province of Valencia and left 230 dead. Mérida was until now the regional secretary of Environment and Territory, one of the pillars supporting the management of Vice President Vicente Martínez Mus, probably the Valencian leader who best represented the reconstruction after the disaster over the past year.

Pérez Llorca chooses Mérida, one of the key figures of that department. And he does so to reward him with a task, it is true, that will require him to modify the technical profile with which he arrived in 2023 to that department. Naturalist and Environmentalist, member of the Spanish Association of Environmental Information Journalists, writer, lecturer, educator, and communicator. Specialised in Environment, Zoology, Animal Law, Veterinary Medicine, the fight against Illegal Wildlife Trade, and the Management and Direction of actions and Centres for Animal Protection, Environment, Sustainability, and Biodiversity Conservation.

Mérida, a tireless worker, who has known how to use social networks to spread the action of the Consell precisely when it had the least impact in traditional media, will now have to adopt a more political profile. Because the responsibility he assumes places him at the forefront of the new Consell leader's approach regarding the storm. From the change of profile announced by Pérez Llorca – Mérida perfectly embodies this call for reconciliation and dialogue verbalised by the president – to the need to demand and denounce the central government's attitude concerning the recovery of the areas affected by the flood.

Because the new commissioner for recovery will have to negotiate, dialogue, and if necessary confront, his counterpart in the central government, Zulima Pérez. To date, the central government has not only been stingy with the arrival of aid to the Valencian Community to address the damage caused by the flood. It has also not wanted to convene the joint commission between the two administrations to coordinate reconstruction efforts. The central government has seemed more focused during this time on fostering the fall of Mazón than on speeding up reconstruction.

As regional secretary of Environment, Mérida was the protagonist of that renowned appearance in which he railed against the central government's lack of investment, with that forceful "zero euros" that reflected the stinginess of Sánchez's Executive. Also the promoter of the pact for La Albufera that has ensured the arrival of water to the park. Author of the waste shock plan, of the recovery plans for natural parks and floodable parks, one of the flagship initiatives of the second vice-presidency with which to transform much of the territory affected by the flood and at the same time reinforce security measures against future floods.

A defender of public-private collaboration, Mérida has been responsible for coordinating in record time the removal of flood debris, the recovery of Serra Grosa, and the creation of a new natural park, Escalona.

Pérez Llorca responds with a commissioner to the figure of the same name that the central government has. For Mérida, it is the recognition of immense management. A few weeks before being appointed to a high position, Mérida starred in a viral video, in which he appears sprawled after being attacked by a wild boar. The new position will probably not require him to suffer such mishaps. Perhaps others.