Faced with demonstrators demanding his resignation, Carlos Mazón, the regional president of Valencia, said he would not shirk his responsibilities in the crisis that has left 224 people dead.
The right-wing president of the Valencia region in southeastern Spain admitted on Friday that there had been “mistakes” in the management of last month’s dramatic floods and presented his “apologies” for delays in disaster relief. “I’m not going to deny (that there were) mistakes”said Carlos Mazón, in a speech to the regional parliament on his much-criticized response to the unprecedented crisis. provisional death toll on Friday was 224s. Most of the victims – 216 people – were in the Valencia region. There were also seven victims in the neighboring region of Castilla-La Mancha and one in Andalusia. Mr. Mazón confirmed that 16 people were still missing in his region of Valencia.
“I’m not going to shirk any responsibility”.added Mr. Mazón in total silence, while several dozen people were massed outside the building to listen to his speech. Cries of “liar” and “assassin” were hurled by this crowd during the speech by Mr. Mazón, whose attitude on October 29, the day of the floods, in particular the delay in sending an alert by his services to the inhabitants to warn them of the extreme danger of the torrential rains which had been falling since early morning, was much maligned. “This government doesn’t represent us”shouted the demonstrators, who once again called for his resignation. Mr. Mazón was attacked by an angry crowd in the town of Paiporta, near Valencia, on November 3, during a visit by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. Like the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, he had to leave the motorcade quickly to escape from the demonstrators, who insulted them profusely.
This appearance before the regional parliamentoriginally scheduled for Thursday, but was postponed due to the new red alert for heavy rain issued by the Aemet meteorological agency on Wednesday evening. Mr. Mazón began his speech by recalling that it had been a question of “the worst floods Spain has suffered since 1962”.. “Everyone understands that the scale of the tragedy and its consequences mean that there will be a before and after in our lives and that nothing will ever be the same again.”he said. A member of the right-wing People’s Party opposed to Pedro Sánchez’s central government, Mr. Mazón pointed out that his party’s parliamentary group had called for a commission of inquiry to be set up by the regional parliament.