“Your negligence is our misfortune.” A new demonstration of several thousand people, to protest against the authorities' management of the floods at the end of October in Spain which left 230 dead, took place on Saturday evening in Valencia, AFP noted on site.
With cries of “Mazón, resignation”, in reference to the conservative president of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, the march left from the Town Hall square. “Valencia is all of us”, we could read on the banners of this demonstration called by local and union organizations.
VideoSpain: there were “errors” in flood management, admits the president of the Valencia region
“What went wrong?” Incompetence. This is why we are here, because there are a lot of incompetent people who continue to be paid,” Raquel Ferrandis, a 55-year-old professor from Paiporta, the town considered to be the epicenter, told AFP. of the disaster.
The torrential rains of October 29 left a total of 230 dead, including 222 in the Valencia region alone, and four missing, in addition to material damage estimated at several million euros. A few days later, 130,000 people demonstrated on November 9 in Spain's third largest city to demand the resignation of Carlos Mazón, and denounce the management of the emergency by the central government of socialist Pedro Sánchez.
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.
