- Some demonstrators throw mud at the Queen of Spain.
- Residents believe that the authorities gave late warnings.
- Possible negligence will be investigated later: PM.
Bayporta: Hundreds of residents of a Valencia suburb hard hit by last week’s deadly floods protested Sunday during a visit by Spanish King Felipe, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, with some throwing mud at them.
They chanted “Murderers, murderers!” They expressed pent-up anger at what locals widely saw as late alerts from authorities about Tuesday’s flood risks, and then a delayed response by emergency services when disaster struck.
“It was known and no one did anything to avoid it,” a young man told the king, who insisted on staying to talk to people despite the unrest, while the prime minister quickly withdrew.
Spain is a parliamentary monarchy in which the king is the head of state.
At one point during his visit to the stricken suburb of Bayporta, Felipe, wearing a dark raincoat and recognizable from a distance with his tall, gray hair, carried a man who was crying on his shoulder.
Video footage on the Internet showed his wife, Letizia, crying as she hugged some residents. She had mud marks on her hair and face, and one of her bodyguards had blood on his face, apparently from an object being thrown.
Bodyguards opened umbrellas to try to protect members of the royal family.
Blame game
The central government said that issuing alerts to residents is the responsibility of regional authorities. Valencia authorities said they acted as best they could given the information available to them.
Sanchez said on Saturday that any possible negligence would be investigated later and called for political unity in the face of the tragedy.
Valencia regional leader Carlos Mazzone, who also visited Bayporta to boos and insults from protesters, posted on X: “I understand the public anger and of course I will stay to receive it. It is my political and moral obligation. The King’s position this morning.” “It was perfect.”
The death toll from the country’s worst flash floods in modern history rose to 217 on Sunday – almost all of them in the Valencia region and more than 60 of them in Bayporta alone.
Officials said that dozens of people are still missing, while electricity remains cut off for about 3,000 families.
Thousands of additional troops and police joined disaster relief efforts over the weekend in the largest peacetime operation of its kind in Spain.
The floods swept through the streets and basements of buildings, sweeping away cars and parts of buildings amid waves of mud.
The tragedy is already Europe’s worst flood-related disaster in a single country since 1967 when at least 500 people died in Portugal.
Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe and elsewhere due to climate change. Meteorologists believe that the rising temperature of the Mediterranean Sea, which increases water evaporation, plays a major role in increasing the intensity of heavy rains.