Tens of thousands of people, called by pro-independence and left-wing entities, demonstrated this Saturday in the streets of Valencia to demand the resignation of the President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, whom they designate as the main person responsible for mismanagement floods which left more than 200 dead.
The march ended with accusations and altercations with police, when a small group of radicals They threw mud, stones and flares against the facade and door of the town hall.. One of the incendiary devices fell on the main balcony, so that the smoke entered the interior of the Town Hall.
The Government Delegation in Valencia estimated 130,000 people participation in the march. For their part, the city’s local police do not offer any alternative estimate, because they do not usually do so, explain municipal sources consulted by this newspaper.
Alterations and blows to the Valencia City Hall, during the demonstration organized this Saturday against Mazón.
The manifesto read by the organizers accuses Mazón of having delayed sending the alert message to DANA until October 29 at 8 p.m. (that is, once the work day was over), thus putting ” endangering the lives of workers”, so as to “not compromise” the interests of business and the advantages of capital“.
The organizers demand not only Mazón’s resignation, but also that “judicial proceedings be opened ex officio to determine and clarify responsibilities for the avoidable consequences of the disaster.”
The manifesto designates the Generalitat as solely responsible for what happened, and makes no mention of possible negligence on the part of other administrations such as the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (dependent on the Ministry of Ecological Transition) , who did not warn of the serious risk until seven o’clock in the afternoon of October 29, the date on which many towns were already floodeds.
It also claims that the Generalitat refused to request aid and did not allow “the forces of other territories (such as Catalonia and the Basque Country) which had requested to be present immediately after the events”.
State in which the entrance to Valencia Town Hall was left during this Saturday’s demonstration.
The text only refers once to the central government, which, according to it, “should have forcefully and immediately put pressure on the Valencian executive, in the face of its inaction, to intervene with all available troops” –
Among other measures, the organizers demand that taxes are increased on “high incomes”that construction be prohibited in flood zones, that “illegitimate debts be canceled and reinvested in health, education, social services and emergency infrastructure”.
Likewise, they ask to reconvert tourist apartments in the province to use them for families affected by the floods, as well as the real estate stock of Sareb, thanks to the saved bank and funds. vultureas well as rental housing from large landlords.
During the demonstration, shouts were heard such as The president at Picassentin reference to the Valencia prison.
Some participants unfurled banners with slogans such as We are stained with mud, you with blood, Neither forgetting nor forgiveness, Uncontrolled urban planning, guaranteed disaster, The one who warns is not Mazón And Mazón goes to Eurovision.
The call for this demonstration was registered with the Government Delegation by Cultural Action of the Valencian Country (ACPV)a pro-independence entity which, during the last regional legislature, received 3.7 million euros from the administrations governed by the PSOE, Compromís and ERC.
The largest amount goes to the Generalitat of Catalonia, which, under the presidency of Father Aragonès (ERC), injected 2.9 million euros into the ACPV during the same period, although it is an association based in Valencia.
Acció Cultural partners with Òmnium (the entity chaired by Jordi Cuixart) and, between 2017 and 2019, organized several events of support for “political prisoners”as he calls the former leaders of the Generalitat of Catalonia prosecuted by the Supreme Court for the coup d’état of 1-O.
Entities such as the CNT union, the Coordinator of democratic memory associations in the region and others from the independence orbit, such as Arran, Endavant, (both linked to CUP) and the Platform for the Right to Decide of the Valencian Country.
The PP criticized the ideological bias of the march called against Mazón: “Today it is a politicized demonstration”, indicate the popular in a message published on social networks, “the Catalan entities of the ‘Països Catalans’ come cause trouble and collapse. the city of Valencia. They don’t care about the victims, only about politics.“.
For her part, the mayor of Valencia, María José Catalá, warned that “Confrontation and vandalism will never be the solution“, he wrote on the X network in reference to the altercations with which the march concluded.
“It is time to work together to move forward the neighborhoods and municipalities affected by this terrible tragedy, as we are already doing,” indicated the popular city councilor, “the city of Valencia is also an affected municipality and symbol of solidarity of an entire people. “This is the Valencia we want and need.”
