Spanish regional leader steps down over his handling of last year’s Valencia flash floods

MADRID — The leader of Spain’s Valencia region said Monday that he was stepping down over his government’s handling of the devastating flash floods that killed more than 230 people last year and whose response he is widely seen as having bungled.

Since the Oct. 29, 2024, floods, Carlos Mazón had faced regular calls to resign, including last week at a state memorial to mark the anniversary of the disaster, during which family members of victims lambasted him and called him a “killer” before the event began.

“I know I made mistakes. I acknowledge them, and I will live with them for the rest of my life. I have apologized, and I apologize again today, but none of them were due to political calculation or bad faith,” Mazón told reporters Monday in Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city.

Mazón has been slammed by citizens and political rivals for his administration’s slow response to the emergency. In particular, his government faced scrutiny for issuing a flood alert to people’s cellphones hours after rushing waters were already overflowing banks, sweeping away cars and destroying homes.

He was widely criticized for having an hours-long lunch with a journalist on the day of the floods when emergency officials were meeting to manage the crisis. Mazón changed his own account about his whereabouts that afternoon several times, but on Monday said: “I should have had the political foresight to cancel my schedule and go there.”

The natural disaster was one of Europe’s deadliest in living memory. Torrential rains caused the tsunami-like floods that swept through the hard-hit suburbs of Valencia and elsewhere.

All told, 229 people lost their lives in Valencia, while eight more died in other parts of Spain.

The floods caused an estimated $19.6 billion in damage, according to a report published this year by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research.

Experts and the government said the floods were a sign of the dangers of climate change that is intensifying extreme weather events around the world.

Over the last year, there were several large street protests in Valencia calling for Mazón to step down, including one days before the one-year memorial that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators.

Nevertheless, Mazón clung to power even as his management of the disaster became a drag on the prospects of his center-right Popular Party. He blamed the left-wing national government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for failing to adequately respond to the disaster.

But regional authorities are tasked with handling civil protection in Spain. They can ask the national government in Madrid, now led by the Socialists, for extra resources, and use information from the national weather forecaster and other agencies.

Mazón didn’t specify whether he was calling a snap election or was quitting his seat in the regional assembly — nor did he name an interim successor. He said the last year had brought “unbearable moments” for him and his family.

“I can’t take it anymore,” he said.

Naishadham writes for the Associated Press.