And in the end Carlos Mazón resigned as president of the Valencian Community, holding out for a year after the terrible flood that devastated Valencia in November 2024, causing 229 victims. Mazón and his administration (Partido Popular) were and are accused of having handled the alert badly, activating the public alert system, Es-Alert, which sends an alert message on smartphones to the inhabitants, with extreme delay. Even though the national meteorological agency had announced extreme events since early morning, and even though the first rains were beginning to swell the waterways, the alert on residents’ phones arrived just before 8pm, when there was practically nothing left to do and the houses were already invaded by mud.
The governor had become one of the most hated politicians in Spain for a large part of public opinion, strongly attacked by the press who had elected him as a symbol of inefficiency during the emergency of those days.
On 29 October 2024, 229 people died in the floods in the suburbs of Valencia with 17 billion euros in damage
“The natural disaster could not have been avoided, but the human tragedy could, the population was not warned and by not warning them there were 229 victims”, declared the president of the Dana victims’ association Marilò Gradolì. “The sky fell on us without a single drop of water falling and a sea of water and mud and destruction left an indelible mark on our lives.”
For a year in Valencia, the families of the victims had periodically organized large demonstrations in which the target was always him and his team of leaders. Carlos Mazón, who received constant death threats, took part in the commemorations a few days ago, on the anniversary of the Danas, arousing the anger of the relatives of the 229 dead overwhelmed by one of the most devastating natural disasters to ever hit Spain.
On October 29 of one year, in the space of a few hours, the Barranco del Poyo and other waterways invaded the streets and homes of dozens of densely populated urban areas on the outskirts of Valencia. Localities such as Pacanya, Paiporta, Catarroja, Massanassa, Alfafar were overwhelmed by the fury of a sea of water and mud, while the central areas of the city were miraculously saved, remaining dry. The causes of the disaster date back to the massive hydraulic engineering intervention carried out in 1957 with the diversion and canalization of rainwater precisely to protect Valencia, but not the peripheral suburbs of the city inhabited mostly by workers, farmers and immigrants. Damage exceeded 17 billion.
In the first hours of the flood, the public alarm system was activated very late: only in the evening, when many victims had already been counted, and Mazón had remained unavailable for hours (he had spent time having lunch with a journalist), did he arrive late at the Integrated Operational Coordination Center which was managing the emergency. Then, the governor was heavily criticized for preventing hundreds of volunteers from joining the aid teams, saying they were slowing down relief efforts.
And after a year on the gridiron, Mazòn left: last Monday, calling a press conference, he said: “There is no longer any reason to continue this government”, but did not call early elections, explaining that his successor will be chosen with an agreement between the Popolari and Vox, i.e. the same majority that had supported him and led him to win the elections in 2023. In the conference, he recognized that he had made a mistake in not changing his programs on 29 October but maintained that he would not was in bad faith, accusing, however, the central government of the socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez: according to Mazòn it would have hindered the relief efforts out of political calculation, doing a terrible job in the reconstruction. Now the most hated governor in Spain will become a simple member of the regional parliament.
Mazòn had become a problem for the Spanish Popular Party. On Sunday he had a long phone call with the PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo who had always defended him publicly, unlike the party leaders who now believed him indefensible as the investigations into the flood brought Mazòn’s responsibilities to light.
Now among Mazón’s possible successors, according to the Spanish media, are the mayor of Finestrat, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, and that of Valencia, María José Catalá, both from the Popular Party.