Flooding Hundreds of thousands protest in Valencia over flood disaster
One month after the flood disaster that left 230 people dead in south-eastern Spain, tens of thousands of people protested on Saturday in anger at the authorities' crisis management. According to the prefecture, almost one hundred thousand people marched through the city center of Valencia.
01.12.2024, 02:31
SDA
Many demanded the resignation of regional president Carlos Mazón or his imprisonment. "If people had been warned in time (...) this wouldn't have happened," said protester Juan Carlos Ribes, who lives around 50 kilometers south of Valencia, to the AFP news agency. "Everything else is just excuses," he added.
Mazón, but also the national government of Pedro Sánchez in Madrid, are accused of not informing the population in good time about the extent of the storm on October 29. In some affected communities, no state aid arrived for days.
At 8.11 p.m., demonstrators held up their cell phones and shouted "murderer, murderer" - at this point, the warning message from the regional authorities had arrived on people's phones on October 29, twelve hours after a severe weather warning from the National Meteorological Agency. In many places, water was already running through the streets at this time.
"What went wrong? Incompetence," said protester Raquel Ferrandis in Valencia. "We are here because there are many incompetent people who are still being paid," added the 55-year-old from the town of Paiporta, which was particularly badly affected by the floods.
Clean-up work continues
The clean-up work is continuing in many places more than a month after the disaster. Many of those affected have become very disgruntled. More than 100,000 people had already called for Mazón's resignation at a demonstration in Valencia on November 9.
In Spain, the regions are actually responsible for civil protection. Although Mazón apologized for "mistakes" after the flood, he refused to resign. The politician from the conservative People's Party said that he had only been informed insufficiently and too late by national authorities, and made serious accusations against the left-wing government in Madrid.
The Valencia region was the worst affected by the storm, where 222 of the 230 victims died. In addition, millions of euros worth of property damage was caused.
