The anger has not disappeared in Valencia. A new demonstration is planned for this Sunday, December 29, exactly two months after the floods, on October 29, in the Valencia region. The demonstrators are once again demanding the resignation of the president of the region, Carlos Mazón, heavily criticized after his management of the disaster which left 223 victims and three missing.
In the town of Alfafar, among the most affected south of Valencia, life is slowly returning to normal. A few days ago, the ground signs were painted again on several streets.
Mud and parking lot cleaning
A detail that may seem insignificant but this newly found normality says a lot about the progress made over the past two months. It took many weeks to remove the mud that invaded the streets and houses. But the invisible enemy, humidity, on the walls does not go away so easily.
Juan Ramón Adsuara, mayor of Alfafar since 2011, still mentions small positive signs: “ today, we can walk on the sidewalks of the main avenues, sit in a few cafes to have a drink, so yes we can say that we are starting to have an atmosphere of Mediterranean life in the streets ».
But life before has not returned. Not all children in the affected municipalities can yet return to study in their usual schools awaiting disinfection. Middle school students are welcomed in other educational centers. The cleaning of parking lots, still in progress, fuels the anger of residents of the affected municipalities. According to the latest data from the regional government, only 542 garages have been cleaned out of the 894 recorded in the southern suburbs of Valencia. Faced with this slowness, some building residents call on private companies but often have to pay high prices.
Patience is experienced every day two months after this terrible disaster. “ Two months of nightmare “, summarizes Juan Ramón Adsuara, in his fifties, adding that “ life gradually resuming in the street » gives him a “ additional motivation and strength “. We had to endure the worst: “ the ransacks just after these floods, it was really painful », says this mayor.
However, he does not forget: great moments of mutual assistance » which are continuing, in particular with purchases of household appliances for disaster victims. The economic recovery will be difficult. “ I calculate that almost 20% of small businesses will not reopen in the towns south of Valencia, most of them self-employed people close to retirement », Explains the mayor of Alfafar.
An anger that does not subside
Labeled the Popular Party (PP, conservative right), he does not mince his words to criticize the political class, whatever it may be: “ I don’t understand how, in the middle of the 21st centurye century, politicians can pick trouble among themselves on television while we still had our cars stuck in garages and no one, a month later, came to give us a solution. It made everyone angry, it was sometimes desperate. »
Juan Ramón Adsuara also had to face the anger of his fellow citizens: as recently as this Thursday, during a very rowdy meeting at the town hall, where residents demanded his resignation. In other municipalities governed by another political color, fatigue and fed up also reflect a tired anger that does not subside.
