MADRID (AP) — Spain’s regional leader, under immense pressure over his handling of the catastrophic floods in Valencia last month, defied calls to resign Friday but admitted authorities had made mistakes in their response to the disaster .
More than 220 people died as a result of powerful storms on October 29 that brought tsunami-like waves to parts of eastern and central Spain, destroying scores of homes and leaving entire towns covered in mud.
Carlos Mazón of the conservative Popular Party addressed regional lawmakers in Valencia more than two weeks later, saying he “would not deny the shortcomings” as anger continues to grow over what people see as a slow and chaotic response.
The storm, he said, “demonstrated that there are cracks in our detection and warning systems.”
His comments Friday were the first detailed public comments he has made on his government’s disaster response, six days after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the city of Valencia calling for his resignation.
Criticism increased after local authorities failed to send emergency alerts to mobile phones earlier on October 29, despite Spain’s national weather forecaster having already issued the highest alert level at 7:30 am that day.
Spaniards, especially in Valencia, have been critical of other aspects of the regional and national government’s initial response to the disaster. In the hard-hit Paiporta survivors pelted mud at Prime Minister Pedro SánchezKing Felipe VI and Mazón when the three leaders visited the city days after the floods.
Mazón’s reputation took another blow this week when local media reported that he had had a three-hour lunch with a journalist on the day of the storm, while some towns and villages had already begun to fill with water.
On Friday, Mazón repeated an earlier claim that a national agency responsible for measuring river flows had not given sufficient warnings, saying the extent of the flood was difficult to predict.
“It is legitimate to ask in general whether the (emergency) system responded as we thought it should,” Mazón said, adding that this was not the case.
The decentralized Spanish government entrusts regional authorities with civil protection. Regional authorities can ask the national government in Madrid, now led by the Socialists, for additional resources and use information from the national weather forecaster and other agencies.
Science Minister Diana Morant, who belongs to the Socialist Party, called Mazon’s speech an “act of political cowardice.” She said the Popular Party should fire him.
Most of the victims of last month’s floods died in small towns just outside Valencia. Official data released on Thursday showed almost half were aged 70 or over.
