Some 600 people, according to the Guàrdia Urbana, gathered this Thursday in front of the PP headquarters in Barcelona to show solidarity with the victims of the DANA of Valencia and to protest against the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón. “Mazón, to prison,” has been one of the most chanted cries of the protest, in which some attendees have thrown mud against the ground floor where the offices of the conservative party are located in the Catalan capital.
The protest has brought together Valencians residing in the Catalan capital, as well as Catalans who wanted to show their support for those affected. The rally passed without incident in a solemn atmosphere (a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims), but also a protest. The attendees wanted to show their anger at the Valencian Executive’s management of a tragedy that has so far left more than 200 dead and dozens missing, in addition to entire towns devastated.
“In everything that has happened there is criminal responsibility on the part of Carlos Mazón and his emergency team, who have caused hundreds of deaths,” says Raul, a young man from Castelló and member of Espai País Valencià, one of the entities that have organized the demonstration together with entities of the Catalan independence left such as the CUP or Arran. “I have friends in Chiva who have lost their business, and in Catarroja and l’Alcúdia others who have been left homeless,” he adds angrily.
“My uncles are from Catarroja and have lost their home and are now living in Valencia,” explains Gabriel Torregrossa, a member of the Muixeranga of Barcelona. The colla of Valencian popular culture has been one of the protagonists of this demonstration, raising a castell with a black ribbon of remembrance to the victims.
A large banner with the slogan “Criminal Mazon” has marked the course of the protest, which has finally gathered in front of the PP headquarters in Barcelona. Some of the protesters carried banners in their hands with messages such as “Justice for Valencia” or “these disasters are not natural, they are responsible”, among other slogans that expressed their discontent and demanded responsibility from the president of the Generalitat Valenciana for the management of the catastrophe. .
“We are angry, the negligence of the Government of Valencia seems to be deliberate and its ineptitude even more so,” laments Iván Garnelo, in reference to the delay of the Valencian president last Tuesday, October 29, in going to the crisis committee to manage the emergency.
Tània Ros, spokesperson for the Union of Students of the Catalan Countries (SEPC), one of the organizing entities of the protest, has read a manifesto in which she has demanded “criminal responsibilities for all politicians who put economic performance before the safety of the population.”
Like several residents of the affected towns, the Barcelona protesters did not understand why the Valencian Executive did not send the alert until 8:12 p.m., when hundreds of people were already trapped or dead. The protests in Barcelona and other cities in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands this Thursday are the first to be held in Spain against Mazón, but demonstrations are planned for the weekend in Valencia and several capitals.
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