The sovereigns of Spain Felipe VI and Letizia with the victims. The royal couple will return next week to the Valencia region, devastated by deadly floods, we learned on Tuesday from a source close to the royal family. It will come after a very tense first visit just a few days after the disaster.
“The sovereigns will return at the beginning of next week” to the Valencia region, this source told AFP, without specifying either the day or the place where they will make this trip.
« Assassins ! »
On November 3, five days after the torrential rains that devastated the southeast of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, the socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the head of the regional executive Carlos Mazón, went to Paiporta , epicenter of the disaster which left 222 dead and dozens missing, according to a latest report. Greeted with cries of “Assassins!” “, they had been targeted by jets of mud and objects, images which had gone around the world.
The tension on the spot had forced MM. Mazón and Sánchez, who received a blow, left the scene quickly. Only the royal couple, clothes and faces stained with mud, continued the visit by exchanging a few words with locals, protected by their bodyguards. But the sovereigns ultimately canceled another planned trip to Chiva, a city also ravaged by floods.
Demonstrations
The announcement of this new trip by the royal couple comes as King Felipe VI is due to go during the day to Bétera, in the Valencia region, to meet soldiers deployed in the disaster areas. French and Portuguese relief is also expected in the Valencia region as part of the European civil protection mechanism.
The anger of the victims is mainly directed against the boss of the region Carlos Mazón (Popular Party, right), accused of having reacted late in the management of the disaster, even if the central government of Pedro Sánchez is not spared from the reviews. Around 130,000 people demonstrated in Valencia on Saturday to criticize the authorities' management of the disaster.
Pedro Sánchez assured Monday that the time for “political debate” on possible responsibilities for flood management would come, while recalling that the priority was reconstruction.
