After the floods: Spaniards call for consequences
Almost two weeks after flash floods that claimed more than 200 lives, over one hundred thousand people took to the streets in Valencia and other Spanish cities on Saturday calling on regional president Carlos Mazón to resign over his late and inadequate response to the disaster. Commentators analyse the demands.
The whole of society is in shock
El País describes the extent of the outrage:
“The social indignation was already at boiling point a week ago. ... And this feeling was intensified when it became known that [Regional] President Carlos Mazón had spent hours dining in a restaurant in central Valencia on the day of the disaster. ... At the same time, the ignorance of the regional politician responsible for civil protection [Salomé Pradas] about her department's competences was patently obvious. ... All the parties and institutions would be wrong to believe that the civil indignation is limited to the affected areas. Spanish society as a whole has been profoundly shaken and it will take a great deal of effort and clarification to restore the citizens' trust in the institutions and their government.”
Resignation or criminal proceedings
Eldiario.es takes the conservative politicians of the region to task:
“Resigning would mean admitting their own mistakes, showing integrity and loyalty to their own people, committing to an ethical conception of politics, displaying a dignity and courage that would make them better people and cleanse them of the mud sticking to them. ... They would do the only commendable thing: restore some of the trust in the democratic system that has been lost. Instead, they are repeating the slogans of the failed state that their far-right allies are spreading everywhere. ... The only option is to resign. Since we can't expect that from the people of the [conservative] PP, we can only hope that they will be convicted by a court in criminal proceedings.”