A fourth demonstration took to the streets of Valencia on Saturday to demand the resignation of the regional president, Carlos Mazón, and his government for how they handled deadly flooding last October.
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Thousands took to the streets of Valencia on Saturday to demand the resignation of the regional president Carlos Mazón and his government for their response to devastating flooding which killed hundreds.
The protest was organised by more than 200 civic, social and trade union organisations in the Valencia region. It was the fourth time protesters took to the streets of Valencia for this cause.
Though smaller than the three previous protests in the Spanish city, officials say the march drew around 25,000 people.
Mazón is under immense pressure after his administration failed to issue flood alerts to citizens’ cellphones until hours after the flooding started last October.
Mazón, of the conservative Popular Party, is also being criticized for what people perceive as the slow and chaotic response to the natural disaster. Thousands of volunteers were the first boots on the ground in many of the hardest hit areas on Valencia’s southern outskirts. It took days for officials to mobilize the thousands of police reinforcements and soldiers that the regional government asked central authorities to send in.
Residents, who face a long, costly rebuilding process, say the government has also been slow to deliver aid.
Mazón has defended his handling of the crisis saying that its magnitude was unforeseeable and that his administration didn’t receive sufficient warnings from central authorities.
224 people were killed by the flooding. Thousands more lost their homes.