The president of the Spanish region of Valencia, Carlos Mazón, has announced his resignation after months of criticism for his management of the flash floods that killed more than 200 people a year ago.
“I know that I made mistakes, I acknowledge it and I will live with them for the rest of my life,” Mr Mazón said, reading a statement in the regional government headquarters.
“I can’t go on,” he said.
On October 29th, 2024, torrential rain caused flooding in eastern Spain, trapping many people in ground-floor flats, basement garages and in their cars on the roads. A total of 229 people died in the Valencia region, with another eight deaths in neighbouring regions.
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Afterwards, it emerged that Mr Mazón had not attended emergency meetings or been in his office for much of that day because he was having a nearly four-hour lunch with a journalist in a restaurant, during which time the floodwater was already causing enormous damage. His administration did not issue an emergency alarm to the phones of Valencia residents until after 8pm, by which time dozens of people had died.
Those revelations drove monthly protests demanding Mr Mazón’s resignation. Opposition parties also called for Mr Mazón, of the conservative People’s Party (PP), to step down.
Meanwhile, a judge has been investigating to decide whether charges of negligence can be brought against public officials for the handling of the floods.
On the same day that Mr Mazón resigned, Maribel Vilaplana, the journalist with who he had lunch on the day of the floods, was called to testify as part of the judicial inquiry. When questioned about the meal, she told the magistrate that Mr Mazón received a large number of phone calls during it, but that he did not mention the flood situation to her.
For a year, Mr Mazón had resisted the pressure and refused to resign, insisting he would oversee the region’s recovery.
However, a state memorial service held last week, on the first anniversary of the tragedy, for those who died in the disaster appeared to mark a turning point. Relatives of victims had asked Mr Mazón not to attend, and when he arrived some shouted abuse at him. Afterwards, he said he needed “time to reflect”, prompting speculation that he was considering his position.
Despite his contrition in announcing his resignation, Mr Mazón continued to attack the central government of Pedro Sánchez, which he has frequently blamed for mishandling the floods.
He said the government has “denied us tools for reconstruction, purely to cause us political damage [and] it has tried to use victims as a weapon”.
“I hope, once all the noise has died down a bit, that society will be able to differentiate between a man who has made a mistake and a bad person,” he said, in an apparent reference to Mr Sánchez.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, welcomed the resignation decision, describing Mr Mazón as “a colleague who has suffered a witch hunt – he is not a murderer”.
Mr Mazón’s lack of popularity has been a growing headache for the PP and Mr Feijóo spoke at length with him on Sunday about his future. The party hopes that a consensus candidate from its ranks will be able to succeed him, although they will need the backing of the far-right Vox whose parliamentary support the PP relies on in the region.
Meanwhile, Mr Mazón will maintain his immunity from prosecution as a member of the Valencia parliament.
Relatives of victims were unimpressed by Mr Mazón’s resignation.
“What we want is justice and reparation and for that man to go to prison,” Saray Ruiz, whose father died in the floods, told El País newspaper.
“Resigning now doesn’t mean a thing, it’s a fudge.”
