King Felipe VI of Spain called on Tuesday, December 25 to “learn the necessary lessons” to “grow” after deadly floods which affected the south-east of the country in October, during his traditional Christmas speech.
The disaster is “a difficult fact to accept, but from which we should all be able to draw the necessary lessons to strengthen ourselves as a society and help us grow,” declared the 56-year-old monarch during his speech at the Royal Palace in Madrid and broadcast on television in the evening.
The tragic floods of October 29 left 231 dead, according to the latest report from the authorities, including 223 in the Valencia region alone.
Four people are also still missingalmost two months after the disaster.
Spain's King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and their two daughters made a surprise visit to a flood-ravaged town in the southern suburbs of Valencia two days before Christmas Eve.
A royal outing in serenity
This royal outing took place calmly unlike a stormy first visit on November 3, five days after the tragedy, in the company of the head of government Pedro Sánchez, and the president of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón.
This visit was marked by boos and mud throwing, which forced the Prime Minister and then Carlos Mazón to leave the premises. The royal couple remained there, their clothes stained with mud, but cut their visit short.
“We have seen – and understood – the frustration, the pain, the impatience, the demands for greater and more effective coordination of administrations“, declared Felipe VI, in an allusion to these incidents. He also mentioned in his speech the deleterious climate which reigns within the Spanish political class and launched a message of appeasement. “It is necessary that the political conflict , legitimate but sometimes deafening, does not prevent us from hearing an even more resounding demand: a demand for serenity,” he said.
Felipe VI returned at length to the subject of immigration, at a time when it is gaining importance in the Spanish political debate. “Being a daily reality, migration can lead – without appropriate management – to tensions that erode social cohesion,” said the monarch.
The year 2024 marks ten years since the accession to the throne of Felipe VIafter the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I, due to scandals surrounding his fortune.
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