Ex-leader of Spain's Valencia region grilled in parliament over deadly floods

By Jesus Calero

(Reuters) -The outgoing leader of Spain's Valencia region, Carlos Mazon, told parliament on Monday the authorities did not know that people were drowning when he was questioned for hours over the handling of last year's floods that killed 229 people.

Mazon announced his resignation on November 3 under pressure from across the political spectrum but he is still under intense scrutiny.

The leader of hard-left party Podemos accused Mazon of being personally responsible for the deaths, while the spokesperson for leftist Catalan party ERC said he should be jailed.

Victims' relatives protested outside the lower house in Madrid as they followed Mazon's testimony in the commission of inquiry from the street. Some people caught up in the floods have also given their testimony.

'NO ONE WAS AWARE'

Some of the lawmakers accused him of inaction, while Mazon countered that authorities were not conscious of the catastrophe's scale as floodwater swept through Valencia on October 29, 2024, causing billions of euros of damage.

"No one was aware of the magnitude, no one knew that people were drowning," Mazon said.

He did not provide any new details on that day's timeline, including a lunch with a local journalist at a restaurant that lasted for several hours or a 45-minute spell while his bodyguards were absent and when records show the emergency services chief was trying to reach him.

He told parliament he could not provide an exact timeline of his whereabouts: "I cannot be precise about the exact timings."

He also said "nothing would've changed" if he had left the lunch and arrived earlier at the crisis management committee meeting.

SAYS WARNING MESSAGES NOT HIS RESPONSIBILITY

PNV Basque party lawmaker Idoia Sagastizabal echoed the criticism of others who have said his account of events has repeatedly changed: "There are many holes in your versions."

Mazon defended missed calls from his emergency chief and insisted that issuing the official flood warning to residents - a message that reached phones only hours into the disaster, when many people had already drowned - was not his responsibility.

"I hope you pay for everything you've done with prison time," ERC spokesperson Gabriel Rufian told him while holding up pictures of victims and demanding Mazon publicly apologise.

The two parties in Spain's ruling coalition, Sumar and the Socialists, said Mazon's regional government, run by the opposition conservative People's Party, failed to enact preventive measures such as suspending classes or warning nursing homes, and criticised its management of reconstruction funds.

Mazon has previously said there has been a lack of support from the central government, blaming political strategy.

When he resigned earlier in the month, he said he admitted having made mistakes and that he would "have to live with them for the rest of my life".

Mazon's successor has yet to be sworn in. He is expected to be replaced by another PP-nominated leader.

(Reporting by Jesus Calero and David Latona; Editing by Alison Williams)