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The regional president concedes response to the disaster, which killed at least 216 people, was ’not enough’
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Carlos Mazón, president of Valencia, has apologised for his government’s inadequate response to the flash floods that devastated the region after it emerged he had a three-hour lunch with a journalist on the day of the disaster.
The regional leader said the “response was not enough” to the floods which killed at least 216 people, with a further 16 still missing, in a speech to Valencia’s parliament.
Offering his “apologies”, the president from the conservative People’s Party (PP) detailed what measures the government took but offered no information about his whereabouts between midday and 7pm, when he joined an ongoing session of Valencia’s emergency committee.
Mr Mazón said he was compelled to “face his responsibilities”, but also criticised what he termed “fake news” about his government’s response to “the worst flash flood in Spain since 1962 and one of Europe’s worst natural disasters”.
Mr Mazón did not cancel his engagements on Oct 29, despite the red alert for torrential rains and possible flooding.
In the morning he made a speech after accepting an award for sustainable tourism in which he said the storm was moving away from Valencia.
The emergency committee began sitting at 5pm but Mr Mazón did not join until after 7pm. At first he said he had been working in his office and kept up to date with developments by phone, nipping out for “a snack” at an establishment near the government headquarters.
But it later emerged that he had lunch with a journalist in a restaurant between 3pm and at least 6pm. Sources close to Mr Mazón confirmed this, saying he used the lunch to offer the journalist the position of director at the regional public TV station.
With some opposition parties demanding his resignation after 130,000 people joined a protest against Mr Mazón in central Valencia last weekend, the conservative leader announced that an investigative commission would be set up in the regional parliament.
“There were things that were not done well so we must detect what mistakes were made and develop measures to ensure this never happens again,” the regional president said.
But Mr Mazón said that institutions dependent on the national government led by Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s socialist prime minister, must also share in the blame, taking particular aim at the water authority which, he claimed, “did not provide sufficient information”.
He blamed the local Júcar water board for what he called a two-and-a-half hour “information blackout” between 4.13pm and 6.43pm on water levels in the Poyo Canal, which eventually burst its banks and caused the worst destruction and loss of life in towns and districts south of Valencia’s city centre.
Mr Mazón said that all the information from the water board at that critical time was focused on a dam on another river, the Magro, which was considered to be at risk of breaking.
Valencia’s government has been ridiculed for issuing a mobile phone alert to citizens warning of flood risk after 8pm, when thousands were already fighting for their lives after the Poyo started flooding at around 6.30pm.
But Mr Mazón said the mobile phone alert telling citizens to stay indoors was issued at 8pm because of fears surrounding the dam, which eventually held firm.
Spain’s network of watercourse confederations are overseen by the national ministry of climate change. Teresa Ribera, climate change minister, is under pressure from the European People’s Party to withdraw her candidacy as vice-president in the new European Commission (EC) team proposed by EC President Ursula von der Leyen.
Mr Mazón announced a reshuffling of his government in order to tackle the rebuilding effort in the affected areas of the region.
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