The journalist leads two specials of the ‘Salvados’ program with unpublished testimonials about the ‘Prestige’ disaster 20 years ago
Twenty years after Spain’s worst environmental disaster, journalist Fernando González Gonzo (Vigo, Pontevedra, age 45) returns to the Galician coast to commemorate the ‘Prestige’ accident. The two special chapters of ‘Salvados’, the first episode of which airs tonight at 9.25 pm on La Sexta, contain unpublished testimonials from members of the crew who feel the poor condition of the ship and the discussions between Captain Mangouras and the representatives of the Spanish merchant navy.
– Are there any open wounds on the ‘Prestige’?
-It is not a closed case as it is still pending a trial in London. Time heals a lot, but what happened, why it happened and how it was managed as a result of the accident is not forgotten. No one has forgotten what happened. That is why we found it interesting to go deeper than looking back on an event from twenty years ago. We interviewed people who never spoke, but who were protagonists at the time.
What was that management’s biggest mistake?
We did not start from preconceived ideas. This topic has been reviewed, it has been written and spoken. The mistake, apart from the decision to take the ship away or put it in port, was the decision a politician makes and executes his subordinate without listening to another voice of experts or anyone else. The mistake was to follow political and not technical criteria. In the program we see that all this is confirmed; people who then carried out the orders without protest and now, two decades later, are saying that it was not the right decision. Or experts who tell you not to enter the offices because they knew they wouldn’t like what they were going to say to the minister on duty.
– Were you able to interview the leaders of the Aznar government who made these decisions?
-We asked for interviews with the ministers who were responsible. We have someone who was the Minister of Fisheries in the Xunta who tells us that it was not the intention to lie and that whoever is not wrong is the one who does not speak. Why did they lie? I would like to know. You can lie in many ways, but when you do it in a rude and rude way to people who see reality, there is something that eludes me. What is clear is that they didn’t want social discontent to grow and they wanted to hold the government responsible for the disaster, but we should ask them why they lied so blatantly.
-What is the feeling of the compatriots twenty years after the ‘Prestige’?
– Depends on who you talk to. They remind you of indignation and anger; or that they received a lot of money from the compensation and that they could move on with their lives. The general feeling is that they saw that they were treated like children. They saw what was happening, but were told that something else was going on.
-How do you remember the ‘Prestige’? What was he doing?
-I worked at Radio Nacional de España in Lugo and occasionally had to report on ‘Prestige’. I remember feeling like, ‘Again?’ In the 70’s and 80’s I remember a lot of accidents of the style and I thought something similar. Later I was furious because I did not understand how they could walk the ship all along the coast.
-Saved turns 15 next year. Have you had rope for a while?
-If I didn’t believe it, I wouldn’t have agreed to present it and would have stayed with ‘El Intermedio’. I still believe this kind of content has its place on television, much more so on a channel like La Sexta, whose pillar is information. I think there is still a lot of life left in this format. It still has influence.
Is there something special to celebrate?
-There is that feeling in the team to do something special in the last program of the season as we turn 15. If there’s a good idea that’s executable as a program, we’ll see. If not, there are many things to talk about. I’ve never really liked these reels of autombombo shows, but I do like to party. We sit down and talk to see what ideas can come up.
-Do you see ‘Salvados’ on Sundays to become self-critical?
-At 9:25 pm in my house we do nothing but watch ‘Salvados’. When it airs, I’ve already seen it. I see them all the time because it’s part of my job.
-Are there any guests who resist you?
– Always. If we say that we have not been able to do such a program or that a guest has antagonized us, it will be the day that ‘Salvados’ ends, which I hope will be many years from now. As long as I have life, we will insist on the people who tell us no. There are no topics that we say we are definitely not going to cover. I refuse to accept that.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
