1 Year After Hundreds Died Before Flood Warnings Went Out, 50,000 March In Valencia To Demand Regional President Resign
The endless, sticky mud that coated the streets of Valencia, sucking at the boots of survivors and residents, is gone now. As are the jumbles of wrecked cars and the mountains of sodden, ruined belongings that had begun to stink in the humid coastal air. But one year on, lingering evidence of the worst natural disaster to befall Spain this century is everywhere. Walk through the gaping, still-doorless entrance to a block of flats in the Benetússer neighbourhood, on the southern outskirts of the city, and there is a small sign on the wall, positioned 2.5 metres (8ft) above the floor. It reads: “The flood waters rose this high on 29 October 2024.” A sticker on the front of the building, one of many around here and beyond, shows the regional president, Carlos Mazón, smiling and holding out his bloodstained hands.
As parts of the wider Valencia region were flooded by the torrential rains that in some areas brought a year’s worth of rainfall in eight hours, and as people were drowning in their cars, homes and garages, Mazón, a member of the conservative People’s party (PP), was having a four-hour lunch with a journalist. By the time his administration sent an emergency alert to mobile phones at 8.11pm that day, most of the disaster’s victims were already dead. All told, it killed 229 people in Valencia, seven in neighbouring Castilla-La Mancha and one person in Andalucía. According to government figures, nearly 60,000 homes, about 105,000 cars and more than 10,000 shops were damaged or destroyed.
The fury many feel towards Mazón is evident in the sticker’s caption: “Mud on our [hands]. Blood on his.” The two words beneath that slogan require no translation: “Mazón criminal”. That rage was apparent on Saturday night, when more than 50,000 people marched through Valencia in the latest of a series of protests demanding his resignation. A recent survey found that 75% of Valencians believe Mazón should quit.
If the catastrophe has unleashed familiar political squabbles and prompted judicial and parliamentary investigations, it has also laid bare Spain’s excruciating vulnerability to the climate emergency. Like the wildfires of recent summers, the floods have shown just how quickly and mercilessly the environment is changing across the Iberian peninsula. “If we don’t want to bequeath our children a Spain that’s grey from fire and flames, or a Spain that’s brown from floods, then we need a Spain that’s greener,” the country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said last month as he announced a 10-point plan to prepare the country for the climate emergency.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/28/spain-deadly-floods-valencia-one-year-after-survivors-carlos-mazon