Repudiation of the Spanish crown in Valencia; They insult and throw mud at monarchs

Madrid. With balls of mud and shouts of “murderers” and “resignation” the residents of Paiporta, one of the towns most affected by the torrential rains in Valencia, welcomed the official delegation headed by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the presidents of the Spanish and Valencian governments, Pedro Sánchez and Carlos Mazón, respectively. After five days of demanding more help in every way to undertake the rescue tasks, the residents and victims of Valencia exploded.

The objective of the official visit was for the kings of Spain, Felipe and Letizia, to visit the affected neighbors in the company of the Spanish and Valencian presidents, but a few minutes after starting the tour the neighbors scolded them and threw balls of mud at them. , which caused the suspension of the visit and police charges against the neighbors.

For five days, those affected by the torrential rains have been denouncing the feeling of helplessness, which has been exacerbated by the lack of diligence in the aid and the partisan battle that the central and regional governments have waged to claim responsibility for the operation. Even more so when hundreds, perhaps thousands of people remain incommunicado or waiting for the authorities to come and lift the body of a family member who died during the torrential rains or to bring them even a bottle of water or a piece of bread. In addition to the urgency to clean houses and streets of accumulated mud to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

In this context, in which a wave of citizen solidarity has been the first and sometimes the only response of support that those affected have received, the kings of Spain visited the area and did so accompanied by the two political leaders most noted for their actions. , Sánchez, in his capacity as president of the Spanish government, and Carlos Mazón, as president of the Valencian Community. Hence, as soon as they saw them arrive with a massive police force, the victims exploded with anger and began to shout phrases such as “murderers”, “sons of bitches”, “get out”, “miserables” and “resignation”, among others. They also threw balls of mud at them, which prompted the action of the police, who went to great lengths to repress the neighbors, who are in turn those affected by the natural disaster.

The latest report of deaths due to the torrential rains in Spain rose to 214, the majority in the Valencian Community -210-, three in Castilla-La Macha and one in Andalusia. The request for help continues to be a cry in the affected towns, although the regional government decided to decree the limitation of movements due to the warning of more rain throughout the day, with which the alert was raised to “orange”. which is the one before the maximum, the red one. Despite the ban, thousands of volunteers decided to skip it and go to help the victims with water, food and tools to clean their houses and streets.

Rescue teams and Army personnel continue working in the areas most affected by the torrential rains, especially in those points where a greater concentration of potential missing persons has been reported, such as in the town of Bonaire, where there is a parking lot flooded with water. in which it is feared that there are dead people. The number is difficult to calculate, as is the whereabouts of the almost two thousand people reported missing and that neither the Valencian autonomous government nor the central government.

Meanwhile, in towns like Chiva, Paiporta, Bonaire and Benetusser they are still waiting for more material and human help to clear houses and streets and know exactly the extent of the tragedy. Hence, despite the prohibition decreed by the regional government for volunteers not to go to those areas due to the risk of heavy rains, the wave of solidarity did not stop and thousands of people came en masse with basic belongings.

But the risk of a new DANA is real, as announced by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), which warned that starting at nine in the morning there is an orange warning on the northern coast of Valencia, ground zero, and the southern coast. In addition, there is a red warning for rain of up to 60 liters in one hour in Almería and throughout the day, there are orange warnings for rain in Murcia, on the coast of Castellón and on the coast of Tarragona. In several provinces of Andalusia, such as Almería and Granada, overflows of rivers and channels began to be detected, so the risk could increase throughout the day.

A television journalist, María Casado, confessed her astonishment at what she was seeing during her broadcast: “There are families here who have been without water and food for two or three days. Today help has started to arrive, but not enough. They feel alone, they feel abandoned, so after five days, they have been here for up to two or three days without help arriving. The reality, and they are going to allow me to be so frank, is that they have lived through a fucking horror. It’s a fucking hell what all these families are experiencing. Five days later and help still hasn’t arrived. What they ask of us are machines, they ask that the Army come in, pumps to bail out the water in the basements. Four days and they are telling us that only yesterday they started to receive a little help.”

The mayor of Bonaire, Guillermo Luján, reported that the Military Emergency Unit (UME) is already working, with divers specialized in rescue tasks, in the parking lot of 5,700 spaces that is completely flooded and where it is feared that there will be victims. deadly, since at the time the immediate evacuation of the place was ordered there were around 700 people. “What we are going to find may be devastating,” the mayor acknowledged on the verge of tears.