Alex Trelinski
AROUND 80,000 people staged the third mass protest in Valencia City on Sunday against president Carlos Mazon’s handling of October’s flood disaster which claimed at least 223 victims.
The numbers involved were estimated by the Government Delegation in Valencia with the previous two demonstrations attracting over 100,000 people each time.
The march started in the Plaza de San Agustin and was led by seven tractors.
READ MORE:
- Wife of missing DANA victim searches for local who took last known photo of her husband as he clung onto pole during deadly Valencia floods
- Police find flooded drugs lab producing cocaine at ground zero of Valencia DANA
The protest was called by around 60 civic, social and left-wing organizations with the backing of around 150 groups- all of whom called for the resignation of Carlos Mazon.
Organisers said they were after ‘truth, justice and reparation’ due to the ‘inactivity, lack of responsibility and disastrous management’ of the Valencian Government to deal with the catastrophe.
Three people are still missing after tragedy struck 62 days ago.
Minutes before the demonstration started, a spokesperson accused Mazon of ‘denying the evidence’ and only being interested in putting ‘an end to a very difficult situation’.
He added that Valencian society will not forget the dead and missing, and will not rest until the person ‘most responsible for these deaths resigns and is jailed’.
Seven tractors led the rally as a tribute to the farmers, who helped in clean up efforts and as a symbol of the work of people who helped to rebuild what was lost ‘in the face of being abandonment by institutions’.
Behind them were the demonstrators and the slogan that has been repeated in the two previous demonstrations with ‘Mazon resign’, on posters with his image upside down and a black ribbon.
Also a figure of a cardboard president with his hands stained with blood, to demand the purification of responsibilities for the management ‘before, during and after’ the flood to show the Valencian Government was helping citizens but serving ‘the personal and political interests of the president and business profits’.
Relatives of victims were at the front of the demonstration- critical about the lack of help over two months later.
They were critical of ‘endless’ queues and ‘cumbersome’ bureaucratic procedures from the regional government.
They said the ‘inability and inefficiency’ of the administration to manage any type of crisis has been clearly demonstrated.
