With cries of “They are not dead, they were murdered”, some 100,000 people again took to the streets of Valencia on Saturday to denounce the authorities’ management of the deadly floods at the end of October.
Behind a huge sign reading “Mazón, resignation”, in reference to the conservative president of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, “nearly 100,000 people” marched in the city center, according to the Delegation of the Spanish government (prefecture) in Valencia.
“Your negligence is our misfortune” or even “only the people save the people”, could we read on the banners of this demonstration organized at the call of local and union organizations in the region by far the most affected by the floods destructive attacks of October 29, which left a total of 230 dead.
On November 9, some 130,000 people had already demonstrated in Valencia, Spain’s third largest city, to demand the resignation of Mr. Mazón, and to denounce the management of the emergency by the central government of socialist Pedro Sánchez.
“What went wrong? Incompetence. That’s why we are here, because there are a lot of incompetent people who continue to be paid,” says Raquel Ferrandis, a 55-year-old professor. , originally from the town of Paiporta, the epicenter of the disaster.
The torrential rains left 222 dead in the Valencia region alone, and four missing, in addition to material damage estimated at several million euros.
Maribel Peralta, a 62-year-old teacher from Valencia, held up a banner against the region’s president. “I’m totally outraged,” she said. “People who have lost everything, see how they live. People who have lost their businesses, see how they live. Help is not coming.”
She was already on the street on November 9.
“These politicians are killing the people”, could we read on another sign at the demonstration which took place peacefully.
– “Assassins!” –
In Spain, a very decentralized country, disaster management is a responsibility of the regions, but the central government can provide resources and even assume emergency responsibility in extreme cases.
The victims criticize the regional executive for not having warned residents sufficiently in advance of the danger of the torrential rains which had started on the morning of the fateful Tuesday. And for having delayed deploying relief in more than 70 municipalities.
“If people had been warned in time, with the means they have, this would not have happened. The rest are just excuses,” said Juan Carlos Ribes, a 58-year-old civil servant, who lives in his fifties. kilometers south of Valencia.
At 8:11 p.m. on Saturday, demonstrators rang their cell phones again, shouting “murderers, assassins!” This is the time when the Valencian authorities sent the alert to the population to warn of the danger, more than 12 hours after the red alert issued by the National Meteorological Agency and when floods were already inundating many areas .
Friday evening, one month to the day after the floods, rallies took place in several of the affected municipalities, at the call of local organizations, unions and associations.
“The disaster was immense, it will be very difficult” to recover from it, said Jordi Cervera, a 62-year-old technician from a village north of Valencia.
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