Some 600 people, according to Guàrdia Urbana, gathered this Thursday in front of the PP headquarters in Barcelona to show solidarity with the victims of the DANA in Valencia and to protest against the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón. “Mazón, in prison” was one of the most chanted cries of the demonstration, during which some participants threw mud on the ground floor where the offices of the conservative party are located in the Catalan capital .
The demonstration brought together Valencians residing in the Catalan capital, as well as Catalans who wanted to show their support for those affected. The gathering took place without incident in a solemn atmosphere (a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims), but also one of protest. The participants wanted to express their anger at the management by the Valencian Executive of a tragedy which has so far left more than 200 dead and dozens missing, in addition to entire villages devastated.
“In everything that happened, there is criminal responsibility of Carlos Mazón and his emergency team, who caused hundreds of deaths,” says Raul, a young person from Castelló and member of Espai País Valencià, one of the entities that organized the demonstration in collaboration with entities of the Catalan independence left such as the CUP or Arran. “I have friends in Chiva who lost their businesses, and in Catarroja and Alcúdia others who found themselves homeless,” he adds angrily.
“My uncles are from Catarroja and lost their home and now live in Valencia,” explains Gabriel Torregrossa, member of the Muixeranga de Barcelona. THE colla of Valencian popular culture was one of the protagonists of this demonstration, raising a castle with a black ribbon in memory of the victims.
A large banner with the slogan “Criminal Mazon” marked the progress of the protest, which finally gathered in front of the PP headquarters in Barcelona. Some demonstrators carried banners in their hands with messages such as “Justice for Valencia” or “these disasters are not natural, they are responsible for them”, among other slogans that expressed their discontent and demanded responsibility from the President of the Generalitat Valenciana for disaster management.
“We are angry, the negligence of the Valencian government seems to be deliberate and its incompetence even more so,” laments Iván Garnelo, in reference to the delay of the Valencian president, Tuesday October 29, in going to the crisis committee to manage the emergency .
Tània Ros, spokesperson for the Union of Students of the Catalan Countries (SEPC), one of the organizing entities of the protest, read a manifesto in which she demands “criminal responsibilities for all politicians who place performance economy before the security of citizens. population.”
Like many residents of the affected cities, the demonstrators in Barcelona did not understand why the Valencian executive only sent the alert at 8:12 p.m., when hundreds of people were already trapped or dead. Thursday’s protests in Barcelona and other cities in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands are the first to take place in Spain against Mazón, but demonstrations are planned this weekend in Valencia and several capitals.
