Amid all the sadness and indignation of last week, the Royal visit to the Valencian town of Pairporta – perhaps the worst affected by the flash floods of 29-30 October – delivered a moment of patent comedy.
Wading through the baying crowds, the Royal Guard saw fit to protect King Felipe VI with a single umbrella. Like an unpopular Mary Poppins, the sovereign walked defenceless through an Old Testament mob of furious Spanish teenagers. He even looked surprised when the volley of rocks, debris and other missiles occasionally found their target.
Local disgust at the Spanish state is certainly merited. Over 215 lost their lives in southeastern Spain between 29 and 30 October, while 74,000 were displaced across the region. Valencia’s regional leader, Carlos Mazón, took more than 12 hours to respond to a red weather warning by Aemet, the national meteorological office.
Some report his siesta ran over; others blame the Madrid hydrographic agency, CHJ, who inexplicably deactivated the alert on the day in question. Mazón went on to throw blame just about anywhere; the military, the Prime Minister, and Aemet all stood accused. The locals should have seen it coming, he’ll probably soon add.
The tragedy exposes the spiteful relationship between national and local government, an old story in Spain. The leader of the People’s Party – the conservative opposition to Prime Minister Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party – called for a national state of emergency, which would’ve referred management of the crisis to Madrid.
Ever economising their workload, the central government washed their hands of such a task. Instead, Sánchez – announcing an aid package of €10.6 billion and told the nation that “What Spaniards want is to see their institutions, not fighting with each other, but working shoulder to shoulder.” Precisely to the contrary, the floods of last week betrayed Spain’s impudent and belligerent bureaucracy. With so many proud institutions, someone else is always to blame when things go wrong.
“Hemicicle de les Corts Valencianes” by Joanbanjo is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.