A year on, leader of Spain's Valencia region quits over deadly floods

By David Latona

VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters) -The leader of Spain's eastern Valencia region said on Monday he was stepping down under pressure over his handling of catastrophic floods a year ago that were the worst of their kind in Europe in over half a century.

Carlos Mazon had faced repeated calls to resign and was heckled by victims' relatives at a memorial last week.  

The October 29, 2024 downpour killed 229 people and caused billions of euros in damage, mainly in suburbs south of Valencia, Spain's third-largest city.

The floods sparked a lengthy blame game between the Socialist-run national government and the regional government run by the opposition conservative People's Party (PP).

"I can't go on anymore," Mazon, told reporters. "I know I made mistakes, I admit it, and I know I'll have to live with them for the rest of my life."

However, he excoriated what he termed an "egregious" lack of support from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez' government due to political strategy, adding that it sought to add debts to Valencians' woes with loans for rebuilding work. 

Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said the government provided 8.2 billion euros ($9.6 billion) in direct aid for Valencia's recovery to date. Mazon's resignation came too late and he should have called a snap regional election, he added.

Mazon said no one foresaw the local river gorge would overflow, blaming national weather agency AEMET and the body regulating the regional hydrological network, overseen by Spain's Energy and Environment Ministry, for failing to adequately warn of the impending disaster.

The ministry said in a statement both agencies had acted with technical rigour and provided essential data.

Mazon said he did not request the central government to declare a national emergency - which would have put Madrid in charge of the response - because the PP party chief, opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo, advised him not to.

Feijoo said later on Monday it was up to Sanchez to declare a national emergency.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

Residents of the affected areas accuse the regional government of issuing an alert too late after buildings were already under water and many people were drowning.

"He is still repeating lies and making it look like he's the victim," Rosa Alvarez, who heads the main association of flood victims, told SER radio station.

Analyst Pablo Simon said Mazon's resignation was self-exculpatory, both politically and in terms of potential legal consequences.

Historian Joan Esculies said the timing of Mazon's resignation had less to do with him personally and more because the PP feared the issue was hurting them politically in Valencia and at a national level. Polls show far-right Vox's anti-establishment messaging is resonating.

Mazon is expected to be replaced by another PP-nominated leader, though this pick will need the backing of Vox, as the PP is 10 lawmakers short of a majority in the Valencia assembly. His successor could carry out the remaining legislative term until May 2027.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

(Reporting by David Latona, Jesús Calero, Joan Faus and Corina Pons; Editing by Aislinn Laing and Andrew Cawthorne)