Anger in the streets of Valencia: "Assassins. Resign Mazon". Three arrests

Tens of thousands of people marched in Valencia today to express their anger at the authorities’ handling of deadly floods. “Murderers! Murderers!” shouted a crowd of around 130 thousand people, holding up placards denouncing the regional president of Valencia and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez: “The Valencian people have been abandoned to their fate for five days.” Three protesters were arrested and 30 police officers were injured in the clashes. As police sources told Efe, it seems that the perpetrators of the disturbances belong to the far left and have tried to disperse it since the beginning of the protest.

In the end, a group of violent protesters attacked the officers as they headed towards the Generalitat and they had to intervene. At the beginning of the demonstration, incidents occurred in front of the Town Hall, where a group of young people threw rockets and mud in an action that required the intervention of the riot police. Subsequently, at the end of the demonstration and near Plaza de la Virgen, mud, chairs and other objects were again thrown at the officers, who intervened again.

The region was hit hardest by last month’s floods, the worst in decades, which killed at least 220 people and left cities and towns submerged in mud. Locals are furious at the lack of warning, with some pointing out that official flood warnings had arrived on people’s phones when cars had already been swept away. But there is also anger over what critics say has been the authorities’ slow response following deadly flash floods that hit around 80 towns in the region.

Police and protesters faced each other in a tense atmosphere. Groups of young people from different backgrounds began scolding the officers and throwing plastic bottles, brooms and other objects. The police charged the gatherings to disperse them, also using truncheons according to reports in the Spanish press. The demonstration began in the square in front of the town hall before a march to the regional headquarters of Valencia. “Mazon’s management has been scandalous and he should resign,” Julian Garcia, 75, told AFP. “In the previous hours, they should have warned people to be alert, not to take their children to school, not to take the car to go to work,” he added.

Some of the protesters chanted what has become the refrain of recent weeks: “Solo el pueblo save el pueblo!” (Only the people save the people).
Of the 220 deaths confirmed so far, 212 have been recorded in the Valencia region. Clean-up operations in some villages, and the search for the bodies of dozens of missing people, are still ongoing. Demonstrators also marched in other cities in Spain, including Madrid and Alicante.