As in many of the tragedies that occur in Spain, the 13 young people who lost their lives in the fire at the three nightclubs in Murcia at the weekend were not simply the victims of misfortune. Also present in the case is an attitude on the part of the political leaders, difficult to describe due to its enormous gravity, who allowed the clubs to continue operating, although two of them had closure orders dating from 2022 and their shutdown had been ordered. I know that this situation is not unique to the city of Murcia and that unfortunately it is very common. But sometimes carelessness or negligence - the courts will decide which - ends up turning into a great tragedy and then no one wants to be responsible. It is horrifying to think, in these circumstances, that there is no-one occupying a position on the city council, starting with the person at the top, who feels implicated in the disaster and has decided to step forward and, even though it wouldn't be much use at this stage, to go home.
As to why the closure orders had not been executed, we are going to hear all sorts of explanations, and will see how the responsibility for the misfortune goes irretrievably downward in the hierarchy, until it ends up at the weakest link in the chain. We saw this in the case of the Alvia train accident that took place in July 2013 in Angrois, Galicia, where 80 people died and 145 others suffered injuries of varying severity. In the end, after several years, the public prosecutors ended up signalling the driver as the only one responsible for the rail accident and demanded he be sent to prison for four years for serious professional negligence. It mattered little, or was not considered decisive, that several train drivers had conveyed to their superiors that the entrance to the Santiago station was complicated by the A Grandeira curve where the derailment occurred.
Nightlife, as you know, brings a lot of income into the municipal coffers and this gives it enormous strength when negotiating with the councils. It is estimated that in Spain the sector has a turnover of around 20 billion euros, which represents 1.8% of Spanish GDP, and employs more than 200,000 people, especially young people. No one is willing to give up that income, and I guess that's how they were buying time. Perhaps it was even someone smart who thought that it wasn't that much of a problem either and that with a few warnings they could stay open. But in the end, there were 13 deaths and someone has to be held responsible for the fire. Because if the closure order had been carried out, the victims would still be alive and nobody told them that the premises had not been licensed since January 2022 and, consequently, that the clubs had been illegal for about 20 months. Maybe all those young people wouldn't have been there on Saturday night and today everything would be different.
Too many times as citizens we find that we are not in good hands and that governments fail us more than they should. This needs to be remedied and, perhaps, it is not a question of setting more restrictive rules, but rather ensuring that the ones that exist end up being complied with. It seems very simple, but in reality it is not. There are too many loopholes, too little rigour and a lack of responsibility. Because some other premises belonging to the Murcia club owner caught fire in 2019 and continued to operate. A lot of things have been done very badly, starting with not physically blocking access to unlicensed premises. The city council says that it will act as a private prosecution after verifying the irregularities of the clubs. In short, this Spanish state is a strange breed, whose default position is to assume no responsibility. And from there, on it goes.