King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited southeastern Spain on Sunday, where new heavy rains were expected after floods of unprecedented violence. They faced Spaniards still traumatized by the tragedy that occurred Tuesday evening, a meeting which gave rise to scenes of near-riots in Paiporta. They are explained by the fact that on the ground, the population remains faced with a dramatic situation, with infrastructure destroyed or out of service and piles of cars and debris on the road.
“It feels like the end of the world,” said Helena Danna Daniella, owner of a bar-restaurant in Chiva. People trapped 'were asking for help and there was nothing we could do' […] It drives you crazy. We look for answers and we don’t find them.” 20 Minutes gives you the recap of this significant day.
Fact of the day
Spain's king and queen, along with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, were forced by angry and threatening crowds to cut short their visit to the country's flood-devastated southeastern region. The visit of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, accompanied by the socialist Pedro Sánchez and the right-wing president of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, to Paiporta, a town in the suburbs of Valencia among the most bereaved by the floods, even almost turned into a riot. “Assassins!” Assassins! », shouted the crowd at the arrival of the royal procession, especially against MM. Sánchez and Mazón.
In the midst of extreme tension, which required the intervention of mounted police to push back the most violent protesters, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia even received mud on their faces and on their clothes, a undoubtedly unprecedented episode in the history of the Spanish monarchy. Visibly very moved, but impassive throughout this astonishing sequence, they nevertheless stayed for about an hour to talk to the residents and try to calm their anger before leaving. Their visit to another location was then canceled.
The regional government of Valencia is accused of having sent a telephone alert message to residents very late on Tuesday, even though the meteorological services had placed the region on “red alert” in the morning. As for Sánchez, the victims, who feel abandoned by the State, blame him for the slow delivery of aid.
The last assessment
According to a latest report, at least 217 people died in these floods, namely 213 in the Valencia region alone, three in Castile-la-Mancha, where the lifeless body of a septuagenarian who went missing on Tuesday was discovered on Sunday morning. , and one in Andalusia.
Among the victims of these floods are also two Chinese nationals, according to the Chinese embassy in Madrid. Two others are missing.
Sentence of the day
« There are still flooded ground floors or garages, basements and parking lots to be cleared and it is foreseeable that deceased people are in these spaces. » »
These are the words of the Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente, who suggested that the toll from these insane floods is set to rise.
to come
Residents of Valencia were called at the end of the day by the authorities to return home due to the danger of further intense precipitation in the evening. The call, launched by the police by megaphone, followed the issue by the National Meteorological Agency (Aemet) of a so-called “red” alert (extreme danger) concerning the southern coast of Valencia and the risk of strong precipitation (90 liters/m2, or 9 cm) between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
As the rain began to fall at the end of the day in Valencia and the sky became increasingly cloudy, further north, the authorities of Catalonia decided as a precaution to restrict traffic and close schools in several localities in south of this region.
