Journalist Maribel Vilaplana testified that during the nearly four-hour lunch with Carlos Mazón on October 29, 2024, the day of the DANA flood that killed 229 people, the president was constantly on the phone, including WhatsApp, but did not mention the emergency. Mazón stepped out for calls he described as 'for the photo,' and Vilaplana felt political manipulation after the controversy. Her testimony reveals details about the president's 37 unaccountable minutes.
On October 29, 2024, the day of the devastating DANA flood that left 229 dead in Valencia, Carlos Mazón, then president of the Generalitat Valenciana, had an unofficial lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana at El Ventorro restaurant, from around 15:00 to 18:45. The meeting, arranged two weeks earlier after a public event where Mazón proposed collaboration on oratory, took place in a private reserved room without visible escorts, as Vilaplana recounted in her November 3 declaration before Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra in Catarroja.
During the lunch, Mazón received and made eight calls, rejecting one from councilor Salomé Pradas at 16:29 and returning it at 17:37, when she reported the 'extreme gravity' in Utiel due to the Magro river overflow and possible Forata dam breach. Vilaplana, who did not hear the conversations, said Mazón was 'constantly on the phone,' WhatsApp-ing and writing undisclosed messages. When stepping out to talk, he justified it as 'the usual, for the photo,' which she interpreted as an event he chose to skip. He did not mention Pradas or the emergency, and Vilaplana distracted herself working on her laptop.
Vilaplana criticized Mazón's social media obsession, rebuking his 'influencer' side and quest for prominence. After the meal, they chatted outside about football – she is a Levante UD board member – and walked toward the Glorieta parking in Plaza Tetuán, coinciding with Mazón's 37 unaccountable minutes (18:57-19:34). She initially requested anonymity, but he said: 'I'm very sorry, but I will have to say with whom I was eating.' In panic over the controversy, she deleted messages and his number.
The journalist felt victimized by 'political manipulation' and 'atrocious sexism,' lamenting the 'bad luck' and her personal shock, including losing a friend. Her account, with prior varying versions, does not aim to cover up, she stated before the victims' lawyer.
