Mazón steps down - at long last!
Valencia leader resigns over handling of deadly floods The president of Spain's Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, has resigned after months of pressure over his handling of flash floods last year. A total of 229 people died in towns in the Valencia region on 29 October 2024, with a further eight dying in neighbouring regions , in Spain's worst natural disaster for decades. Many in Valencia blamed Mazón for the scale of the tragedy because of how he and his government responded that day. It emerged that the regional president had spent nearly four hours in a restaurant with a journalist, Maribel Vilaplana, while the floodwater was wreaking havoc and he did not attend emergency meetings during much of the day. Mazón's government also failed to issue an emergency alert to the phones of Valencia residents warning them of the floods and providing advice until after 20:00, by which time dozens of people had already died. "I can't go on anymore... I know that I ...