Spanish regional leader quits over deadly floods
The leader of Spain’s eastern Valencia region is resigning under pressure over his handling of devastating floods a year ago.
Carlos Mazon has faced calls to resign, including from relatives of the victims, since a downpour on October 29, 2024 killed 229 people and caused billions of euros in damage, especially in the southern suburbs of Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city.
“I can’t go on any longer,” Mazon of the opposition conservative People’s Party (PP) told reporters on Monday.
“I know I made mistakes, I accept that, and I know I will have to live with them for the rest of my life.”
In an earlier speech, he condemned what he described as inadequate support from the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Sanchez’s office did not immediately comment.
Mazon also accused the national weather agency AEMET and the agency that regulates the regional hydrological network of the Spanish Ministry of Energy of not adequately warning of the impending disaster.
The ministry said it would make a statement later.
Rosa Alvarez, president of the main association of flood victims, called Mazon’s speech “painful and worthless.”
“He is still repeating lies and making it seem like he is the victim,” he told radio station SER.
Mazon did not say whether he would call for early elections, nor did he say whether he would give up his seat in the regional parliament, which would end his parliamentary immunity, or who his interim successor would be.
He previously said he would resign but had failed in his duty to lead the restructuring.
Residents of affected areas accuse the regional government of issuing warnings too late as buildings were submerged and many people drowned in the worst floods in Europe since 1967.
Experts say repeated failures to carry out river flood mitigation, better protect homes, educate people and quickly warn residents contributed to the deaths.
Mazon’s resignation came on the same day that journalist Maribel Vilaplana, with whom he had lunch when the floods began, was set to testify as a witness before a judge investigating the authorities’ potential criminal liability for the deaths.
When Vilaplana arrived at the court, relatives of the victims shouted: “Tell the whole truth for their sake.”
The PP said its national leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo will hold a media conference later Monday.
