A year later, the motto does not change. The scream does not stop. Tens of thousands of people have once again toured the center of Valencia to demand the resignation of the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, who they hold responsible for the disastrous management of the dana of October 29, 2024, which claimed the lives of 229 people in the Valencian regions. According to the Government Delegation, “more than 50,000” protesters have once again filled the streets of the Valencian capital, in memory of the fatalities and all those affected.
Although the president of the Valencian PP is not accused in the case being investigated by magistrate Nuria Ruiz Tobarra in Catarroja, focused from the epicenter of the catastrophe on the action (rather, the lack of) by the Valencian Government, the victims point to him as politically responsible for their losses; All information about October 29 points to poor management that already has as its symbol 8:11 p.m., the time at which the massive alert is sent about the rains that had been hitting the province for hours. Late and bad, according to the instructions.
The protesters sounded the alarm on their phones again at 8:11 p.m., the time the SMS Es-Alert arrived on October 29, 2024, when there were already dozens of deaths and hundreds of streets and homes were flooded.
The victims' groups insist that a year later their main demands are still valid: truth, justice and reparation. “We victims continue to need help, and it would be unfair if what happened on October 29, 2024 were forgotten,” they expressed in the morning from L'Associació Victimes DANA 29 d'octubre, one of the majority groups. “We trust that the Valencian people will continue to accompany us in our fight,” they stated in a tribute ceremony.
The march is one of the largest in memory of the city, equivalent in both attendance and spirit to the second great mobilization. Already in the moments before the demonstration, the number of people gathered exceeded 10,000 people in the Plaza de San Agustín and shouts such as “Mazón, resignation”, “to Picassent” or “Camarero is taking us to the slaughterhouse” could be heard, in reference to the vice president of the Consell, Susana Camarero, also Minister of Housing and Social Welfare, responsible for public residences.
The massive march has advanced through the center of Valencia more than half an hour later than expected due to the large influx of people. An hour after the scheduled start, the headwaters had only traveled a few hundred meters. At 8 p.m., two hours after the formal call, there were still protesters gathered in the city's Bullring, one kilometer from where the header banner was located, which is always carried by relatives of the fatal victims.
The Government Delegation in the Valencian Community has estimated attendance at more than 50,000 people, while the Local Police, under the PP and Vox City Council, has once again reduced the figure, this time to 32,000 people. It is the second time that the municipal body gives a different figure than the Government Delegation, where the count depends on the National Police.
The bulk of the march, led by associations of victims, firefighters and 112 personnel, has focused their proclamations against Carlos Mazón. There have barely been any mentions of Salomé Pradas, the counselor responsible for emergencies on October 29 and accused in the case. Despite this, some of the banners have recalled their responsibility in the first hours of the tragedy. The detail shows the discomfort of a good part of the citizens with the leader of the PP Executive; It has not helped to sacrifice the councilor to avoid political responsibilities.
Dozens of people were waiting shortly before 7:30 p.m. on the sides of Calle Colón, the commercial artery of the city, the main crossing with the victims, to join the march. They chanted “Mazón resignation” and applauded while the muixeranga took place or when they glimpsed the arrival of the victims' associations. The Valencian citizens try to protect their neighbors affected by the catastrophe, where a year later it still smells of mud, the mud has left an indelible mark.
Social organizations have been demanding for twelve months incessantly the departure of the leader of the Valencian PP and that of the other senior officials who were in charge of the emergencies during the strong episode of torrential rains, of which the state agencies had been warning for days. With this there are now twelve marches led by relatives of the fatal victims, supported by social movements and a significant part of the citizens.
The victims reject Mazón's silence
The president of the Dana Victims Association, Mariló Gradolí, lamented before the media prior to the start of the march that, a year after the tragedy, “we continue not knowing what Carlos Mazón was doing” that afternoon and they continue to “demand truth for all the victims” and “for the people who had a bad time that day.” “We need to know that truth; we need justice that will come from the judge, but we also need that justice that is political and social. That is why we are here, to demand that truth, that justice and that memory for the victims who still cannot rest in peace because they still do not know what happened that day,” he said. He has also demanded “political responsibilities” for the resignation of “the entire Consell” because “a year later they do not give us security.”
Another of the relatives of victims of the dana, Rosa Álvarez, has said that these acts are “of vindication” and in which the people “have the opportunity to show us every month their support and also their rejection of the 'president' of the Generalitat and the Consell.” “We do not recognize or legitimize Mazón as president of the Generalitat because on the 29th he was not where his position corresponded, so if he was absent that day, we can spare any day and at any time.”
“We not only ask for his resignation, but also for his imprisonment,” he said, and he wants him to serve “as many years as there are lives he has taken.” For Álvarez, there are “two and a half investigated” in the case, in reference to the head of the Consell, who is accused of not letting them begin the “mourning” for their victims.
Toñi García, who lost her husband Miguel, 64, and her daughter Sara, 23, on the day of the dana, has insisted that they vindicate Mazón's resignation “due to his negligence and incompetence in his management.” “All of Europe and all of Spain know that it is unacceptable and unaffordable for a president of the Generalitat to continue in his job when more than 80 of his Valencian people do not want him; they want his resignation and are demanding it and the citizens have had to take to the streets to demand it,” he said, and criticized that “he has not been up to the task” because “while his people were drowning, he was on a red alert eating in a luxury restaurant with a journalist and went to Cecopi late.” At the same time, he criticized that the alarm “arrived late and poorly written.”
“For twelve months we have only known what happened on October 29, 2024 due to a judicial order and thanks to the investigative work of the press committed to the truth,” the groups point out in a manifesto that they read during the march and which also spoke of “mistreatment of the victims.” “The Consell, in its shameless flight forward, has left behind any trace of solidarity, empathy, understanding and attention to the victims and affected people.”
“They wanted us to remain silent and they have found a decent town”
More than 200 civic, social and union entities of the Valencian Community, together with the associations of victims of dana, the local emergency and reconstruction committees (CLER) and the Acord Social Valencià, a citizen commitment that arises from the tragedy; All of them have taken thousands of people to the streets with a unanimous rejection of the management of the Generalitat Valenciana on October 29 and have remained vigilant in the so-called reconstruction. They question the emergency public contracts awarded to companies linked to corrupt schemes, the plans sold with great fanfare by the 'popular' president, the slowness in the repair of infrastructure.
The convening entities have adopted the motto “El poble ve crescut” (the town has grown), in reference to the work He grew upthe novel with which Maria Beneyto won the 1959 Valencia Prize for Literature and perhaps the best known about the flood of 1949, which devastated the most vulnerable population of the city: those who lived in substandard housing on the bed of the Túria River. Many of the victims see parallels in the oblivion that the flood entailed and adapt their motto.
In the manifesto, the convening entities recall: “This government continues to promote climate change denial policies, speculation and excessive construction that have been carried out for decades, and that have only served economic interests to the detriment of the needs of the territory. They put power and capital before life,” they denounce.
“But faced with their ignominy, for a year now, the organized Valencian people have been taking to the streets of Valencia and the affected areas to demand the resignation of Mazón and his Consell and that responsibilities be assumed. We have promoted judicial processes so that justice is done and to be able to know the whole truth; we have dismantled the story of Mazón and his intoxicants minute by minute; we have called a general strike because the Government and the business community endangered the lives of thousands of workers; we have organized resistance boxes, donations, cleaning and reconstruction work; and we have accompanied the victims at all times. They wanted us to remain silent, they wanted an obedient and submissive people, and they have found a worthy and brave people,” concludes the manifesto, read before a citizenry that does not give up demanding political responsibilities. The strategy of exhaustion does not work with it.