Socialists consider Juste’s attitude toward the firefighters, who are staging an indefinite strike, “incompatible with the responsibility he must have to represent an entire province.” They have also called on the president of the People’s Party in Aragon, Jorge Azcón, to publicly disavow both his attitude and his statements.
TERUEL SOCIALISTS CRITICIZE HIS ATTITUDE
“You cannot thank and applaud firefighters when they respond to wildfires and then, when those same personnel demand improvements in their working conditions and the services they provide, respond to them with contempt and disrespect,” said María Ariño, deputy secretary-general and spokesperson for the PSOE in Teruel.
Ariño said the “tension” and “bad manners” displayed by Juste reflect a way of exercising the presidency of the DPT that is “entirely inappropriate.” The Socialist leader also pointed out that behind what happened lies “a much deeper problem: Joaquín Juste’s inability to resolve a conflict that did not begin yesterday.”
“We have been talking for far too long about legal disputes, staff shortages and the organization of resources in the fire prevention and extinguishing service, and none of these issues has received an answer to date,” Ariño explained, again highlighting Juste’s “inability” to resolve the conflict with the firefighters. “And yesterday, far from solving it, he confirmed through his attitude all our concerns about how he is managing this situation,” she added.
PSOE DEMANDS EXPLANATIONS FROM AZCÓN
The PSOE’s deputy secretary and spokesperson in Teruel did not want to confine what happened to the sphere of the Teruel Provincial Council. “The People’s Party has serious problems when someone tells it things to its face, when it hears what it does not want to hear,” she said.
“We are seeing this way of doing politics by the People’s Party in Aragon far too often: arguments, confrontation, disqualification, that feeling that anyone who disagrees is a nuisance in institutions… We see it repeatedly in Aragonese politics, and yesterday a line was crossed at the DPT,” she argued, before asking herself “how long the people of Teruel and Aragon will have to put up with this conduct.”
Ariño addressed the president of Aragon and top leader of the People’s Party in Aragon directly, asking whether he agreed with Joaquín Juste’s words and attitude. “If he does not, when will he publicly disavow them? Silence also requires a political explanation. He will have to explain whether this is how he wants institutional leaders to treat public workers when they demand improvements,” she said.
Sonia Palacio, the PSOE spokesperson at the Teruel Provincial Council, also took part in the press conference. She stressed that, after more than three years at the institution, “she had never seen anything so deplorable.” “Firefighters serve the public, risk their lives for us, and the very least they deserve is recognition and respect,” she said.
“They cannot be treated with the contempt Joaquín Juste showed them yesterday, much less threatened by the presidency of the institution they work for. The person who should listen to them and seek a solution to their demands is using his position of power to scorn and belittle the work they do. He fell short of the standards expected of the presidency,” she said.
