The President of Spain’s Valencia Region, Carlos Mazón, has resigned after months of pressure over his handling of last year’s flash floods.
Around 229 people died in the cities of the Valencia Region on 29 October 2024, with an additional eight deaths in neighboring regions over the decades.
Many in Valencia blamed Mazón for the scale of the tragedy because of how he and his government responded that day.
It emerged that the president of the region spent four hours in a restaurant with a journalist, Maribel Vilaplana, while the flood was flooding and he did not attend emergency meetings for most of the day.
Mazón’s government also failed to issue an emergency alert on the phones of Valencia residents warning them of flooding and after 20:00, at which time people have died.
“I can no longer go … I know that I have made mistakes, I recognize them and I will live with his decision,” he added that he should have announced his schedule for his schedule for the day to manage the crisis.
“I said sorry and I’ll say it again, but none of the (mistakes) were due to political calculation or bad faith.”
Polls show that the majority of people in Valencia want Mazón, of the conservative People’s Party (PP), to step down because of his handling of the floods.
The monthly protest was held demanding his launch, most recently on 25 October, when an estimated 50,000 people took to the streets of Valencia. Mazón has made few public appearances in recent months because of the abuse he has received from members of the public.
However, his insistence on attending the Memorial Service for the victims of the first anniversary of the tragedy last week angered those who died at the ceremony.
Mazón seemed shaken by the experience, which appears to have prompted his decision to resign.
His announcement came on the same day that Maribel Vilaplana, the journalist who had lunch on the day of the flooding, testified before a verdict investigating possible negligence.
According to Spanish media reports, Vilaplana told the magistrate that Mazón “constantly texts on his phone” and at one point he received “many calls”.
Mazón will continue as a member of the regional Parliament, which means he has immunity from prosecution.
During his resignation announcement, Mazón criticized the left-wing government of Pedro Sánchez, accusing him of helping his region “to cause political damage”.
Mazón has become a very problematic figure for the PP in the past year, with concerns that his non-team is threatening to bring the Party to the Party but the whole country.
However, his replacement is complicated by the fact that the PP relies on the regional parliamentary support of the distant VOX. That party, which gained ground on the PP in the polls there, must agree on its successor.