Floods in Valencia

The news of the month and of the year in Spain. It has not been the tremendous and growing corruption of Sánchez’s socialist government. Just today we learn that a judge has opened criminal proceedings for possible corruption in the awarding of contracts – licences, concessions – by the State Lotteries and Gambling Agency. Another institution created in the times of General Franco, which enjoyed prestige and esteem among Spaniards, (and which, in the times of Spain’s reconstruction, had contributed to increasing public revenue and distributing some happiness) and which socialism has consumed by destroying its prestige. No, the news of the month and of the year, and perhaps much longer, will be the serious floods and the deaths of Spaniards abandoned by the so-called State of the Autonomies in Valencia.

On 28 October and 29 October 2024 an Isolated High Level Depression has developed in Spain. Now they call it DANA but all our lives Spaniards have called it cold drop (“gota fría”). The children and young people of my generation grew up with the cold drop. Every two or three, maybe four years, an episode of torrential rains and floods would occur. In Catalonia, in Valencia, in Murcia or in the Levante region of Andalusia. The image of cars swept away by the water that overflowed into the riverbeds, dry most of the time, was a regular feature on the news. So no. It is not climate change. Even if Von der Leyen said so a few hours later on the social network ‘X’, proving that he is an agent of disinformation.

In Valencia, flooding episodes are commonplace . In Valencia everyone remembers the Turia flood of 1957 (which forced the Turia riverbed to be diverted in a brutal public work promoted by General Franco in what was called Plan Sur) which also took the lives of hundreds of Spaniards. The new Turia riverbed, an incredible work of civil engineering, has now saved many lives. On television we have seen ordinary Spaniards, Valencians, despairing at the abandonment of the socialist and popular governments, recalling the goodness of Franco’s regime and giving thanks to that vision of the world in which man has been invested by God with the mission of caring for the earth and growing; apparently contrary orders whose contradictions can only be resolved by means of one word: adaptation.

But we also experienced the bursting of the Tous dam in 1982, and more floods in 2007, or the floods in the Vega Baja del Segura in September 2019.

The most affected areas have been the province of Valencia (especially in the mini-basin of the river Turia), Albacete (Letur), Cuenca (Mira); and in Andalusia, various points in the provinces of Malaga, Almeria, Granada, Seville, Huelva and Cadiz, well actually I think more than 285 municipalities in Andalusia alone.

In some places, the rainfall has exceeded 600 litres per square metre in just a few hours, causing: (i) flooding due to overflowing watercourses; (ii) people trapped in their homes and vehicles; (iii) roads and tracks cut; (iv) cuts in the railway network; (v) flooding of Valencia airport; (vi) bridges destroyed by the violence of the water; vii) interruption of essential services such as water supply, electricity, or telephone; viii) and what is worse, more than 220 fatalities; although as the government of Sánchez (and that of Mazón, the regional president of the PP) has decided not to report for days, we do not have an updated count.

In Letur, Albacete, where the socialists also govern the region, another 7 people have died.

A drama. A tremendous drama. A national drama. But a drama in which the politicians of the Popular Party and the Socialist Party have shown ineptitude, incapacity and lack of coordination. In the case of the Socialist Party, many in Spain say that they have also shown bad faith and serious negligence.

A few days ago, the VOX party filed a criminal complaint for reckless homicide against Pedro Sánchez, and three Socialist ministers; possibly the most ‘powerful’ of the Socialist cabinet: Teresa Ribera, who today will undergo the corresponding hearing in the European Parliament, as she is Von der Leyen’s candidate for the executive vice-presidency and commissioner for the ‘clean and just transition’; Marlaska, Minister of Interior, who accumulates a long list of political scandals; and Margarita Robles, Minister of Defence, who so far has always managed to receive the applause of the press, even the ostensibly right-wing press in Spain.

It is obvious – and except for those directly dependent on the socialist party and government – that from the very first moment on 29 October, the Spanish government should have declared the emergency of national interest. Declaring the emergency of national interest would have saved lives, it was not an option, it was a duty, said Santiago Abascal, president of VOX, in the appearance in which he announced the lawsuit against the socialists.

If they had done so, the Military Emergency Unit would have been in charge of the operations and dozens of military units that were ready from the first moment, and a few kilometres from the scene, would not have been waiting for several days inside the barracks. And they were obliged to do so because the emergency covered several Autonomous Communities, because it was clear that the regional government was overwhelmed, because it was necessary not only for coordination (ineffective and non-existent) but also for operational leadership concentrated in the army.

They could have applied the National Civil Protection System Law, or the National Defence Law, or the National Security Law, or the law regulating the state of alarm. Within a few hours, dozens of articles by experts were accumulated that developed all the legal possibilities offered to the government. But they decided to do nothing and leave it to the regional government to deal with the immediate response to the emergency. The popular government demonstrated incompetence. Another thing that no one doubts.

Why so many deaths? Surely there is no single cause, but many concurrent causes. The State Meteorological Agency and the Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar did not inform, warn or alert in sufficient time to make decisions, it seems. A judge, or many judges, will decide, because criminal actions are multiplying.

It seems clearer that the Government of Sánchez decided to stop the works of conservation of riverbeds or elimination of vegetation, dredging of soils; in short, cleaning and clearing of mountains, riverbeds and riverbanks. This meant that the floods caused by overflowing rivers were not only water, but also logs, reeds, undergrowth and dirt.

Satellite photographs of the affected area show a very serious environmental impact.

In addition, it is clear that the government paralysed infrastructure works to build other dams and channel water, which were intended and designed precisely to protect the affected municipalities.

In addition, the government did not send enough military, police or firefighters. They even turned down more help, such as volunteers from France and El Salvador.

So in the end it has had to be ordinary Spaniards, with organisations and associations such as Revuelta, or the trade union Solidaridad, who have had to go to the aid of the Valencians.

Spain is in a process of national catharsis. It would be broader and more violent if there were no tight government control of the media. The autonomous state has failed. But also, at night in Valencia with devastated towns, gangs of illegal immigrants and criminals are at large. Serious public security problems. It is also the government’s fault.