Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in the eastern city of Valencia on Saturday to demand the resignation of the regional president in charge of the emergency response to last week’s catastrophic floods that left more than 200 dead and others missing.
A group of protesters clashed with riot police in front of Valencia’s city hall, where the protestors started their march to the seat of the regional government. Police used batons to beat them back.
Regional leader Carlos Mazon is under immense pressure after his administration failed to issue flood alerts to citizens’ cellphones until hours after the flooding started on the night of Oct. 29.
Photo: Reuters
Many marchers held up homemade signs or chanted: “Mazon resign.”
Others carried signs with messages such as: “You killed us.”
Upon arrival at the regional government seat, some protesters slung mud at the building and left handprints of the muck on its facade.
Earlier on Saturday, Mazon told regional broadcaster A Punt that “there will be time to hold officials accountable,” but that now “is time to keep cleaning our streets, helping people and rebuilding.”
He said that he “respected” the march.
Mazon, of the conservative People’s Party, is also being criticized for what people perceive as the slow and chaotic response to the natural disaster. It took days for officials to mobilize the thousands of police reinforcements and soldiers that the regional government asked central authorities to send in.
In Spain, regional governments are charged with handling civil protection and can ask the national government in Madrid, led by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, for extra resources.
Mazon has defended his handling of the crisis saying that its magnitude was unforeseeable and that his administration did not receive sufficient warnings from central authorities.
However, Spain’s weather agency issued a red alert, the highest level of warning, for bad weather as early as 7:30am on Oct. 29 as the disaster loomed.
Some communities were flooded by 6pm. It took until after 8pm for Mazon’s administration to send out alerts to people’s cellphones.
Mazon was with Spain’s royals and Socialist prime minister when they were pelted with mud by enraged residents during their first visit to a devastated area last weekend.
Sara Sanchez Gurillo attended the protest, because she had lost her brother-in-law, 62-year-old Candido Molina Pulgarin.
She wanted Mazon to go, but also had harsh words for the country’s leaders.
“It’s shameful what has happened,” Sanchez said. “They knew that the sky was going to fall and yet they didn’t warn anyone. They didn’t evacuate the people. We want them to resign.”
The death toll stood at 220 victims on Saturday as the search for bodies goes on.
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