The Japan Times - Thousands protest on 1st anniversay of Spain's deadly floods

Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional leader Carlos Mazon to resign over what they say was the slow response to one of Europe's deadliest natural disasters in decades.

"People are still really angry," said Rosa Cerros 42-year-old public servant who took part with her husband and two young daughters.

"Why weren't people evacuated? Its incomprehensible," she added.

Mazon's administration has been heavily criticised for not sending out flood alerts to cellphones until 8:11 pm on October 29, 2024, when flooding had already started in some places.

That was more than 12 hours after the national weather agency had issued its highest alert level for torrential rains.

Residents told Spanish media that by the time they received the alert, muddy water was already surrounding their cars, submerging streets and pouring into their homes.

The floods hit 78 municipalities, mostly in the southern outskirts of the city of Valencia, killing 229 people in the region. One body was found as recently as Tuesday.

Despite the warning signs, Mazon went ahead with an hours-long lunch with a journalist on the day of the floods, also appearing in photos tweeted by his staff receiving a sustainable tourism certification.

- Pressure to resign -

"Mazon wasn't where he should have been that day, he wasn't up to the task," said protester Gonzalo Bosch, a 38-year-old accountant from Paiporta, one of the towns worst hit by the floods.

Demonstrators held signs with messages calling on Mazon t resign or even be imprisoned as they made their way through the streets of Spain's third-largest city.

Under Spain's highly decentralised system, disaster management is the regional administration's responsibility.

But Mazon, a member of the conservative Popular Party (PP) which sits in opposition to the Socialist-led national government, has argued his administration did not have the information needed to warn people sooner.

In a poll published earlier this month in the national daily El Pais, 71 percent of residents of Valencia said they felt Mazon should resign.

Almost half of the people who died in last year's catastrophic floods in Valencia were 70 or older, a fact highlighted by some protesters.

They accuse the authorities of having failed to protect the region's most vulnerable residents.

- 'Deaths were preventable' -

Rosa Alvarez, who heads an association representing victims of the floods and was among those leading the march, blames the regional government's inaction for her 80-year-old father's death.

By the time it issued the mobile phone alert, he was already drowning after floodwaters knocked down one of the walls of his home in Catarroja, she said.

"Every minute counted that day. When the alarm sounded people had already drowned or were in real danger," the 51-year-old social worker told AFP.

"All those deaths were completely preventable," she added.

Campaigners have staged regular demonstrations against Mazon often on or near the monthly anniversaries of the disaster.

The PP's national leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, has stood by Mazon despite his unpopularity because "he has no other choice", Anton Losada, a politics professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, told AFP.

Mazon's resignation would trigger early elections in Valencia, which would likely be "catastrophic" for both the PP and Feijoo's leadership, Losada told AFP.

The party is hoping a successful reconstruction effort will help restore its standing, he added.

A state memorial ceremony will take place on the first anniversary of the tragedy Wednesday in Valencia, attended by King Felipe and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

K.Hashimoto--JT