Several days after the floods that left at least 220 dead in southeastern Spain, and as the country suffers new flooding, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Valencia on Saturday, November 9, to denounce the chaotic management of the floods. by the authorities. According to the Government delegation in Valencia, the demonstration brought together “130,000 people”.
The protesters gathered at the end of the day in the large square in front of Valencia City Hall to walk the kilometer that separates it from the headquarters of the regional government. In particular, they demanded “resignation” of its president, Carlos Mazón (Popular Party, right), but the president of the socialist Government, Pedro Sánchez, was not immune to criticism either. The two men are accused by the victims of having underestimated the risks and of having poorly coordinated aid after the floods of October 29, which devastated nearly eighty municipalities.
Demonstrations also took place in several other Spanish cities, such as Madrid and Alicante. In Valencia there were some clashes between protesters and the police, a journalist from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) confirmed. “Only the people save the people” (“Only the people save the people”): in Valencia, this slogan became popular in conversations after the spontaneous wave of solidarity that was organized to compensate for the alleged errors of the authorities.
Lack of preparation and slow reaction
In Valencia, the grievances focused on Carlos Mazón, who was attacked on Sunday in Paiporta, like the head of Government and the sovereigns Felipe VI and Letizia, with insults and throwing mud, unprecedented images that illustrate the exasperation in the devastated areas. Mazón, a 50-year-old lawyer and figure in the Popular Party, is accused of having been slow to react despite the fact that the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet) had issued a red alert on the morning of October 29.
He is also accused of having been absent for several hours when it was starting to rain and the emergency committee had met. Carlos Mazón defended himself by ensuring that he participated in “a working lunch” in a restaurant in Valencia with a journalist, according to Spanish media.
Among the victims’ accusations is also the fact that the entire population was only alerted via mobile phones at night, when many areas were already submerged. The region’s main emergency manager, Salomé Pradas, admitted on Thursday that she was unaware of the existence of this alert system, before retracting her statement.
Dozens of people are still missing
In Spain, a very decentralized country, disaster management is the responsibility of regional administrations, but the central government, in charge of issuing alerts through Aemet, can provide resources and even lend a hand in extreme cases. Precisely this last point motivates criticism from the right-wing opposition, which accuses the head of the socialist government of having allowed the region to sink through political calculations instead of regaining control. Pedro Sánchez acted “in bad faith”criticized Miguel Tellado, spokesperson for the PP in Parliament.
Sources close to the government assure for their part that they want to define in due time the possible responsibilities of each person and the possible failures in the management of the disaster, while affirming that the government has done everything possible within the current institutional framework. .
This Saturday, the authorities continued the search operations for the missing people, who are concentrated in Albufeira and the Valencia lagoon. According to the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community, dozens of people are still being sought.
