🌧️ This Week in Spain: The storm that changed everything

Over 200 people dead. Gross political mismanagement. And an entire population rising to the occasion.

Nov 07, 2024

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | November 7, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #77

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🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: Last week’s deadly floods in Valencia have revealed an astonishing lack of coordination between national and regional governments and the resulting discontent (or furious anger) from the country’s population. It has been a week of chaos, heartbreak and loss, but also hope, gratitude and love. Because the tragedy eclipsed all other Spain news this week, this issue of The Tapa will be dedicated to that one story.

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How did it get to this?

How a deadly storm became a national tragedy and upended Spanish politics

It was the mud-splattered image seen around the world: Angry protestors pelting Spain’s royals, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and Valencia regional president Carlos Mazón with mud and sticks, livid at the government’s delayed, incompetent response to Valencia’s tragic floods. And with that image, what started as a historic storm morphed quickly into something else—a political controversy of epic proportions.

Indeed, a lot has happened since last week’s devastating floods in Valencia that left at least 219 people dead and nearly 100 missing.

As the death toll rose and time dragged on without a massive and coordinated response to handle such a disaster, increasing waves of criticism were directed at the government, particularly regarding the timing of emergency alerts and mobilization of resources.

This in turn spurred mutual accusations of incompetence between Spain’s national government (center-left PSOE) and the regional Valencia government (center-right PP), focusing on delayed emergency alerts and the overall handling of the disaster.

Red alert. The Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET) issued a red alert for extreme danger in the Valencia region on the morning of Oct. 29. However, the regional government’s Emergency Coordination Center did not send text message warnings to residents until after 8 p.m. (some 10 hours later). By that time, many individuals were already trapped by rising floodwaters.
Blame game. The national government has stated that issuing alerts to the population is the responsibility of regional authorities. In contrast, Valencia authorities have claimed they acted as best as they could with the information available to them. This has led to a blame game between the two levels of government, each pointing fingers at the other for the inadequate response.

Uncoordinated. Coordination really has been… not great. The main command center in Paiporta, ground zero of the floods, is staffed by multiple emergency units and lacks a unified command, leading to confusion and delays.

Responsibility for reporting deaths is unclear, with the regional government attributing it to the Interior Ministry, which has struggled with legal delays in confirming numbers.
Rescue operations rely on separate agency efforts and citizen reports, which adds to the challenges of accurately tracking recoveries and progress.

All of this has created a recipe for disaster that has translated into unprecedented levels of anger against everyone in power.

The visit seen around the world

Dark turn. Amidst all of this, things took a dark turn Sunday morning after a severe misread of the sentiment of the Valencian people. As the death toll continued to rise, someone decided that it would be a good idea for King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and regional president Carlos Mazón to visit Paiporta, which, as we mentioned, was the hardest-hit area.

Bad choice. Needless to say, it didn’t go well.

Angry protesters, frustrated by the lack of warning, long delays in help and the finger-pointing between the national and regional governments, immediately attacked the political tourists—a situation involving the King and Queen of Spain not before seen in the country’s recent history .
People started screaming “¡Asesinos!” (“Murderers!”) at the group as their security details tried to shield them from mud, sticks and other objects that the protesters were throwing. The footage, which was picked up by media around the world, showed the royals, Sánchez and Mazón walking uncomfortably through the muddied streets, unable to avoid the angry mob.
Sánchez was evacuated for safety, with clips later surfacing online showing people attacking his official vehicle with sticks. King Felipe and Queen Letizia chose to stay and confront some of the protesters, listening to them and eventually consoling them. Letizia was visibly moved. “How could they not feel this way? How could they not be angry?” she told ABC.

Speaking later from Valencia’s Integrated Operational Coordination Center, Sánchez (who was joined again by Mazón and the King and Queen) said that the government “would not be deterred, regardless of what may happen with a few absolutely marginal violent individuals”.

However, it was the King’s press conference that stood out, especially after the events of the day.

For one, it looked like he was the adult in the room. True, the King of Spain is the Head of State, but that’s usually a ceremonial title more than anything else, with the Prime Minister being in charge. In this case, both Sánchez and Mazón stepped aside to let him be the one who offered a message.
The people affected by the flood “need to be given hope, their emergency needs to be addressed, but it must also be assured that the full strength of the State is present,” he said.
“I understand the public outrage, and of course, I will stay to receive it. It’s my political and moral duty. The King’s conduct this morning was exemplary,” Mazón later posted on X/Twitter.

Powerful image. The scenes both on the streets of Paiporta and at the press conference served up a powerful and disconcerting image for Spain’s government. PM Sánchez being bundled off in the face of popular anger (or “fleeing”, according to right-of-center social media) while the King and Queen faced the music and spoke directly with the people was not a good contrast for the socialist leader, which perhaps explains why soon after the scene Sánchez’s government blamed far-right groups for the protest and said the royals had designed the visit.

Since then, the Guardia Civil has detained three people involved in the incidents who are being accused of vandalism (mainly for wrecking Sánchez’s car and that of his security detail). Despite what Sánchez suggested, no direct links have so far been found between them and far-right or extremist groups.

And the science

But why so much rain? 🌧️ There’s probably no easy way to explain, but we’ll try. The short version is that a DANA (a Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos, also known as a cut-off low in English) occurs when a high-altitude low-pressure system (a low) is displaced (hence cut-off) from the normal west-to-east jet stream. Low-pressure systems are associated with clouds and rain because they pull air in and up, where its moisture condenses; and being cut-off means the system sits in one place for a long time. So, basically, one of these big wet things was planted stationary over Valencia.

Making it worse? Climate change. The Mediterranean, which is pint-size compared to the Atlantic and therefore easier to heat, has warmed greatly in recent years—and this has increased the water evaporation it blows off. Plus, the air around Spain has warmed too (hello 44° August days!) and, as the FT helpfully notes, air holds 7% more water vapor for every degree it warms. So, prepared for some math? Here we go: Hot sea + hot air + stationary low-pressure system + extremely dry ground that absorbs water slowly = torrential rain (491 l/m² in the town of Chiva—a year’s total in eight hours) and over 200 deaths.

Political head(s) to roll

And what’s next? Some politicians will probably have to pay the price for the failed response and it’s looking like the (un)lucky winner of the blame game will be Valencia presi Carlos Mazón. Local media reports that leaders inside the PP think that Mazón made a mistake by not requesting the declaration of a national emergency so that the national government could centralize the response. One PP leader said Mazón is "cooked and burned" and assumes that his end may be near: "They will have to cut heads and he may not come out of this alive"

But maybe he has a fallback career. Before Carlos Mazón was Valencia’s dead man walking he had his heart set on another career—music heartthrob! Back in 2011, he was a singer/guitarist in the easy-listening pop group Marengo, who got named on the long list of 39 bands competing to represent Spain in Eurovision. (No, we are not making this up.)

Marengo didn’t make it out of the first round—Mazón admitted they could have been “looser” (which, if you watch one of their videos, is an understatement)—but he hasn’t given up: Several months ago, he sang a Julio Iglesias song at a tribute to retired healthcare workers.

Donations and volunteers

Spain time and again has shown itself to be a nation of solidarity when tragedy strikes, and the flood was no exception. Whether it was thousands of volunteers heading to the affected zone or the hundreds of donation collection points set up across the country, Spain has come out to help.

And not just regular people. Inditex founder Amancio Ortega also provided a little good news from the rich amid all the horror and squalor. And not just because Forbes on Tuesday named him the richest person in Spain and the ninth richest in the world, with a fortune of €120.2bn, up 46.9% since 2023 (and, by our calculation, enough to invest in the expansion of The Tapa). Nope, the happy news from Mr. Zara is that his foundation donated €100m “to the social services of the municipalities affected” by the DANA to “support citizens in their most immediate needs.”

Ortega’s philanthropic streak, or at least the Fundación Amancio Ortega, dates back to 2001, and it has given away over €1.5bn, often to health-related projects. Not everyone finds this giving a sign of generosity worth celebrating, however. When the foundation gave Spain’s health ministry €280m to buy advanced cancer treatment equipment in 2021, lefty party Podemos called the move an “advertising campaign” for Ortega and said he was “not a philanthropist," but a "tax evader" because him being too rich, probably could pay more taxes, etc.

The repercussions of this crisis’s severe mismanagement are far from over, with more likely to unfold in the coming week. Stay tuned.

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