This Sunday, the King and Queen of Spain went to Paiporta, near Valencia, devastated by floods.
They were notably violently insulted and attacked with mud and plastic bottles.
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Deadly floods in Spain
Never had the Spanish monarchy been at the heart of such popular vindictiveness. This Sunday, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were greeted by angry demonstrators in Paiporta, in the province of Valencia. “Assassins, assasins !”chanted the crowd, bruised by the violent floods which left at least 217 dead in the south-east of the country. The inhabitants of this region led by the right-wing Popular Party, allied to the far-right Vox movement, took a dim view of the arrival of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, as well as that of the president of the Valencia region. They quickly left the scene.
Keeping his cool, Felipe VI decided to brave the crowd who threw mud and plastic bottles in his face, as we can see in the video at the top of the article. The insults fly. “There are dead people here and they know it very well”shouts a man whom the firefighters try to control. “But why was no one there? Four days later!”angrily asks a young man of the sovereign. “It's not possible, we knew what was going to happen. Nothing was done to prevent it. It's a shame!”he laments
Since they are here, let them take a shovel and clean up!
An angry disaster victim
Queen Latizia, for her part, is in tears. Behind her, her bodyguard is injured in the face and bleeding. “You have something to drink, there is water at home! You don’t lack anything”a desperate woman shouts at him. A man tries to comfort her: “My queen, all this is not against you”. Letizia finally manages to talk to a student. “She asked me to stay calm and assured me that reinforcements would arrive. She gave me strength and courage. But we need hands to work and specialists from all over the world to help us help”she insists on our microphone.
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By the way, the police tried to disperse the crowd. “The police are coming to protect the king, but I've been cleaning all week. They come here, there are dead people everywhere. Since they're here, let them take a shovel and clean up!”says an angry young man. Although the king and queen managed to leave the area peacefully, they canceled their second planned visit to the city of Chiva.
