Valencia Hearings: Victims Accuse Authorities of Negligence and Demand Mazón's Resignation

Nearly 500 days after the tragic flood that hit the province of Valencia, the victims' families were given a voice in the regional parliament. The hearings were dominated by emotional speeches from Rosa Álvarez and Mariló Gradolí, who directly called the former president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, a person "without a soul." Álvarez demanded that the People's Party (PP) strip Mazón of his parliamentary mandate or expel him from the party, arguing that continuing to protect the politician makes the party complicit in the deaths of 230 people. During the session, recordings of families were played, dramatically proving that the lack of early warning prevented the rescue of their loved ones. A key point of the hearings was the confrontation with the official narrative of the authorities. Victoria Roselló, head of meteorology at the regional television station À Punt, testified before the commission in the Congress of Deputies that information about the impending disaster was available to the administration much earlier. As early as 3:20 PM on the day of the tragedy, television broadcasts urged residents not to leave their homes, while official government alerts did not reach citizens until the evening, when water was already flooding towns. Roselló emphasized that there was no "information blockade," but rather gross negligence by decision-makers who ignored data from the Júcar river basin. The atmosphere in parliament was inflamed by the decision of the PP and Vox parties to invite controversial activist and YouTuber Rubén Gisbert to the hearings. Gisbert, accused of spreading conspiracy theories and manipulating facts (including through a video in which he deliberately smears himself with mud before going on air), was greeted by victims' families with shouts of "shame." Opposition representatives accused the ruling coalition of attempting to equate the genuine suffering of victims with disinformation. At the same time, recordings were revealed suggesting irregularities in the judicial investigation conducted in Catarroja, where the husband of the presiding judge allegedly unlawfully participated in witness interviews. The flash flood known in Spain as DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos) from October 29, 2024, is considered one of the most tragic natural disasters in the country's modern history. This phenomenon occurs when a mass of cold air is cut off from the main jet stream and encounters warm, humid air masses from the Mediterranean Sea. The political situation remains tense, and the associations have announced another protest in Valencia this coming Sunday. Protesters are demanding not only criminal justice but also restrictions on real estate speculation in the devastated municipalities, where property prices have risen by 30% since the disaster.