Spanish regional leader Carlos Mazón steps down over handling of Valencia flash floods

The leader of Spain's Valencia region said on Monday he was stepping down from his post over his government's handling of the devastating flash flooding that killed 229 people last year and whose response he is widely seen as having bungled.

Carlos Mazón has faced regular calls to resign since the 29 October 2024 floods, including last week at a state memorial ceremony held on the first anniversary of the disaster where family members of victims jeered and insulted him 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 apologised and I apologise again today, but none of them were due to political calculation or bad faith," Mazón told reporters on Monday announcing his resignation.

Mazón has been slammed by citizens and political rivals for his administration’s slow response to the emergency, mainly for issuing a flood alert to people’s mobile phones hours after rushing waters were overflowing banks, sweeping away cars and destroying homes.

He was also widely criticised for having a long lunch with a journalist on the day of the floods when emergency officials were meeting to manage the crisis.

The natural disaster was one of Europe's deadliest in living memory and caused billions of euros in damages mainly to the suburbs of Valencia, Spain's third-largest city.

Over the past year, there have been several mass street protests in Valencia calling for Mazón to step down, including one a few 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 centre-right Popular Party.

He blamed Spain's left-wing national government for failing to adequately respond to the disaster, even though Spain's decentralised system of government tasks regional authorities with handling civil protection.

Regional governments 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 on Monday when his resignation would take effect or whether he plans to resign his seat in the regional parliament.

He also didn’t name an interim successor.

With his resignation, Mazón said Spain's government "no longer has any excuse to keep dragging its feet," in reference to Valencia's recovery efforts, and said the past year had brought "unbearable moments" for him and his family.