The word “fango”, or “mud”, has become a regular feature of Spain’s political lexicon recently. It has been used frequently by the Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez, to describe what he sees as the toxic misinformation peddled by the right and far-right about his government and allies. But his adversaries have also used it against the prime minister himself to talk about revelations linked to a corruption scandal implicating a former minister in his government.
But on Sunday the mud literally flew through the air.
King Felipe, Queen Letizia, Sánchez and the president of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, were visiting Paiporta, the town most severely affected by the recent flash floods in the east of the country which have killed more than 200 people. More than 60 of its inhabitants are confirmed to have died, many others are still missing, and the town itself resembles a war zone rather than a suburb of Valencia city.
Anger had been simmering in Paiporta and across the Valencia region for days. Mazón has been accused of dithering on the day the weather event struck. His administration waited around 12 hours after the meteorological agency issued an extreme weather alert before issuing its own warning, by which time the flood waters were already wreaking havoc.
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Meanwhile, the emergency aid which has been distributed by the regional and central governments has been too little and too late, in the opinion of many of those affected, leaving volunteers to step into the breach.
As a result many of the people who came out to see the quartet of royals and political leaders shouted abuse, calling them “murderers”, in some cases jostling up against them and flinging handfuls of the wet mud left by the flash floods at them.
Sánchez, who was the target of other missiles thrown by the crowd, including a stick, was swiftly led by his security detail to his official car, which had been kicked and muddied, and driven away. The king and queen remained, accompanied by Mazón, as one of their bodyguards put up an umbrella in an attempt to protect them. Another bodyguard had a cut on his forehead and blood ran down his face.
As the police tried to keep order the king attempted to engage with some of those present, assuring them that everything possible was being done to help. As a royal his role in this crisis is little more than symbolic, so the anger directed at him was more a venting of fury at the ruling class than the expression of a specific grievance.
In one exchange, the king and queen, both with their coats spattered with mud, listened to the complaints of a group of residents.
“Felipe, man, there are dead bodies over there,” said one man. “They haven’t been able to get them out because the emergency services haven’t been here when they should have been.”
As the king attempted to calm him, the man said: “A country like Spain ought to be better prepared. We have plenty of fiestas, but not enough emergency services.”
Some commentators have started drawing parallels between this tragedy and the 2004 Madrid train bombings, known as “11-M”, because of the March 11th date on which they took place. In that case the efforts of the conservative Popular Party (PP) government to erroneously persuade Spaniards that those responsible were Basque separatists and not jihadists backfired and contributed to its removal from office at the ballot box three days later.
The claim that this could be “Sánchez’s 11-M” and that it will lead to his downfall looks rather like wishful thinking on the part of those who abhor him on the right. However, beyond the death toll there are potential similarities between the two events. The terrorist attack of two decades ago unleashed a barrage of conspiracy theories – many linked to who had actually carried it out – which undermined the faith of many Spaniards in institutions such as the police, judiciary and political class.
It also served to drive a deep wedge between left and right, fuelling a polarisation which has continued to snowball to this day.
It could be that the Valencia floods have a similar effect and already the two main parties are displaying a familiar inability to show a united front. However, with political leaders on both the left and the right facing criticism it could be that the more immediate, and arguably more dangerous, impact on Spaniards’ psyche will be to push voters further away from their political representatives and institutions altogether.
Ferran Torres, an international footballer from Valencia, hinted at this with a post on social media. “Frustration and outrage with those who govern us, from whichever side they may be,” he wrote. “The state has failed. The people are the ones who save the people. Long live Valencia and long live Spain.”