Spain’s political leaders turn on each other over flood catastrophe

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Leaders in Spain have begun a blame game over the country’s deadly flood disaster a day after angry survivors hurled mud and insults at politicians and the king as they visited the afflicted area.

Carlos Mazón, head of the Valencia regional government, went on the offensive on Monday by accusing a body run by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s central government of failing to send flood alerts.

Sánchez’s Socialist-led administration hit back, saying Mazón was spreading lies following flash floods that hit Valencia and other parts of southern and eastern Spain last Tuesday.

The row broke out less than 24 hours after both men were pelted with mud as they visited the town of Paiporta in the disaster zone with King Felipe.

Rescuers are still searching for victims in underground car parks inundated with water. Distraught residents, meanwhile, are pleading for help to clean sludge-filled towns that remain strewn with crumpled vehicles and belongings ripped from people’s homes by the deluge.

Mazón, whose conservative People’s party (PP) government is in charge of disaster prevention and relief in Valencia, is under pressure after his civil protection agency failed to send an alert to residents’ phones until after 8pm last Tuesday, when many streets were already under water and some people had perished.

But he sought to turn the tables on the central government on Monday as the confirmed death toll rose to 217, making the floods Spain’s deadliest disaster in decades and one that scientists have linked to climate change.

Mazón said that “no doubt we would have sent the alarm message earlier” if the Valencia government had received an alert from the public body that manages the region’s river basins, which is overseen by the central government. “It would have been done immediately,” he said.

He noted that the public water authority was part of the environment ministry headed by Teresa Ribera, who is likely to become the top Socialist in the European Commission after being nominated as a new competition and environment chief. 

Spanish government officials said Mazón’s comments made no sense and rejected his claim that the water authority had sent three alerts about rivers bursting their banks and then deactivated them.

“The water authorities do not issue warnings. Warnings are issued by the regional emergency services,” said one official. “If the water authorities do not issue alerts, they cannot deactivate them either.”

The role of the public water bodies is to provide information on rainfall and the level of watercourses. Last week’s intense downpours caused rivers to overflow and generated flash floods in a string of towns and villages close to the city of Valencia.

The PP’s national leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo had offered tempered support to Mazón since the floods and on Monday said the disaster should be declared a “national emergency”, which would put central government in charge of the relief effort.

Some of Sánchez’s opponents have accused the Socialists of mismanaging Spain’s dams and reservoirs, a charge the government denies. One news story suggested a Socialist government in 2005 had blocked the construction of a dam that could have protected the disaster zone. Iolanda Mármol, Ribera’s communications director, responded: “This is false and delusional. Stop instrumentalising pain.”

The European People’s party, the EU parliamentary group that includes the PP, has said it will demand answers on the floods.

Sánchez was evacuated from the town of Paiporta in the disaster zone on Sunday amid “attacks and insults” that his office blamed on members of far-right groups. Spain’s interior minister said the premier had been hit in the back by a large stick thrown his way. One government official said those responsible would be brought to justice.

King Felipe continued the visit for more than an hour after Sánchez left. Later the sovereign said: ‘We have to understand the anger and frustration of many people because of the awful time they have had and because of the difficulty of understanding how emergency response mechanisms work.”

One tearful Paiporta resident told Telecinco TV on Monday that the dozens of security officials travelling with the king and political leaders on Sunday “should have come with a damn shovel to help out”.

Barcelona, meanwhile, became the centre of a new bout of torrential rain, with the Catalan regional government issuing a red alert warning people to “exercise extreme caution”.

Dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled as Barcelona airport received a quarter of the rain it normally gets in a year in just four hours, according to the state weather agency.

Additional reporting by Andrew Bounds in Brussels

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