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Spain: back in the flood-stricken areas, the king and queen warmly welcomed
Fifteen days after a previous extremely tense visit, the King and Queen of Spain were greeted Tuesday with applause and cheers for their return, under high protection, to the areas affected by the deadly floods of October 29. “We are very aware of the enormous need that still exists for recovery, for reconstruction, for solving the particular problems of many people who have lost everything, and this is what we must work on day by day, and all together,” said King Felipe VI to journalists in Utiel, the second town that the royal couple visited. Arriving at the end of the morning in front of the town hall of Chiva, another town in the Valencia region among the most affected by the disaster, Felipe VI and Letizia met offered a walkabout in the company of the head of the regional executive Carlos Mazón, much criticized for his management of bad weather. “Long live the king!” and “long live the queen!”, greeted the crowd as they passed, supervised by a large police force, according to AFP journalists on site. Behind the sovereigns, Mr. Mazón was the target of new calls for resignation: “Assassin!”, shouted a passerby. The problems will not fade “in a few days”, believes the AFP Elena Tortajada, a 49-year-old self-entrepreneur who came to urge the royal couple to “not forget” over time “the affected people and all the difficulties” they face. After seeing the scars of the floods, between walls landslides and gutted houses, the king and queen therefore continued their visit to Utiel, a town of 10,000 inhabitants 80 km from Valencia, before joining Letur, in Castile-la-Mancha, also hit by the floods. Their visit, although expected and announced by the king himself last week during a meeting with soldiers deployed in the disaster areas, was very discreetly organized by the royal house, which did not never officially disseminated the outline and the precise stages.- Mud throws -On November 3, five days after the disaster, Felipe VI and Letizia went to Paiporta, a town considered the epicenter of the tragedy, in the company socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Carlos Mazón, figure of the Popular Party (PP, right). The situation on the spot quickly got out of hand and, beside themselves, demonstrators booed the official procession, which was greeted with shouts “assassins” and by throwing stones and mud. The tension forced Mr. Sánchez then Mr. Mazón, the main targets of this outburst of anger, to leave the scene. Only the royal couple remained there, their clothes and faces stained with mud, to exchange a few words with the inhabitants, protected by their bodyguards. The second part of the visit, planned for Chiva, had to be canceled , even if the royal house had immediately promised that Felipe VI and Letizia would return. – “Political legitimation” -With this new move, the sovereigns first of all wanted to “keep their promise”, in a climate more conducive to such visit, analysis with AFP Vicente Garrido, professor of constitutional law at the University of Valencia. According to him, the image of the monarchy could “emerge strengthened” from this entire episode. “The fact that the king and queen remained present” on November 3 and “that they withstood the pouring rain and the mud that was thrown in their faces” was “much appreciated,” he said. he.What the sovereigns are looking for, “ultimately, is political legitimation”, adds David San Narciso, professor of contemporary history at the Complutense University of Madrid: they want to show “their proximity” to “the people”, which guarantees “the sustainability of the institution”. Since the floods which left 227 dead, the authorities have been under fire from critics, in particular Carlos Mazón, who on Tuesday appointed a retired general to lead reconstruction operations, four days after having presented his “apologies” to the residents. Currently in Brazil for the G20 summit, Pedro Sánchez will report on his handling of the tragedy before Parliament in the coming days.bur-mdm/dsa
