While rescue teams, civil guards and soldiers continue to search in the rubble and waters for dozens of missing people, and new floods occur from Catalonia to Andalusia, the disaster of the floods in Valencia of 29 October which left 227 victims also occupies the political terrain. In the Valencian Parliament, regional president Carlos Mazón, in the hot seat, refused to resign and pointed to the responsibility of other administrations in the natural disaster.
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With our correspondent in Madrid, Francois Musseau
The president of the Valencia region in the southSpainadmitted this Friday, November 15 “ errors ” during the response to last month’s dramatic floods and presented ” apologies » for delays in aid to disaster victims.
“ Certainly, there were dysfunctions in my executive on the fateful day of October 29, when around fifteen municipalities in the Valencia region were flooded by the terrible Cold drop », an episode of particularly violent rain. This is what the liberal Carlos Mazón recognized, without going into further detail.
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Responsibilities placed on state services
The right-wing leader, who by law has all the powers in the event of a natural disaster, mainly placed the blame on others, in particular on state administrations. His criticisms targeted the hydrographic confederation, which nevertheless said it had sent him around a hundred emails. Carlos Mazon also attacked the Spanish meteorological agency, which nevertheless advised people, from the morning of the disaster, not to leave their homes.
Carlos Mazón, on the other hand, did not say a word about his meal with a journalist on the fateful day, which lasted three hours, nor about his arrival two hours late at the crisis committee at 7:30 p.m., when most communities were under water.
No question of resigning
Clearly, Carlos Mazón not only refuses to resign, but he counterattacks by reshuffling his executive. Which was endowed with a new Ministry of Reconstruction. He also promises the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the disastrous management of the worst natural disaster in half a century in Spain.
Cries of “ liar ” And ” assassin » were launched by the crowd during the speech of Carlos Mazón, whose attitude on October 29, in particular the delay in sending by his services an alert to residents to warn them of the extreme danger of the torrential rains which had been falling since the beginning of the morning, was pointed out.
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