Flood victims rise to 211, controversy grows against Valencia governor

The Spanish government has announced the deployment of 10,000 more soldiers and police officers to south-eastern Spain to help those affected by the floods and to assist in the search for the missing, four days after the tragic floods that killed at least 211 people. In total, 5,000 more soldiers will be deployed in the field, including 4,000 today and 1,000 tomorrow morning, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in a statement from the Moncloa Palace, his official residence. This brings to 7,500 the number of soldiers mobilised in the affected areas, 'the largest deployment of armed forces ever carried out in Spain in peacetime', the head of government insisted. According to Sánchez, these soldiers will be joined by another 5,000 police officers and gendarmes, who will be tasked with supporting the 5,000 colleagues already on the ground.

The accounts of the military divers who managed to enter the totally flooded underground car park of the huge Bonaire shopping centre near the town of Aldaya are impressive. "That car park is a graveyard," they reported, because at the time of the flooding, Tuesday afternoon, clothing shops, restaurants and cinemas were open and there were hundreds of people in the area. Here too, the water level rose up to three metres, and the parking lot, with 5,700 spaces, became a death trap. According to rescue sources, quoted by the newspaper eldiario.es, the casualties may be 'incalculable'. The escalator access inside the shopping centre was completely buried by shelves and objects carried away by the force of the water. From the outside, the access and exit of the underground car parks facing the street are completely flooded. The only way in is to dive. Divers await the court order that will allow the bodies to be removed in the next few hours. In the meantime, they are working with pumps to empty the water from the car park.

Controversy continues over the management of the emergency by the governor of the Valencian Community Carlos Mazón, who has been in the crosshairs for days, initially for sending alerts to the mobile phones of residents in the flooded areas when many were already trapped. Now the Iberian media, including Publico and El Pais, point out that the region has kept the emergency level at 2 despite the fact that the death toll from the flooding now exceeds 200 people. The failure to raise the emergency level to 'catastrophic' means that Governor Mazón has not assumed sole command of the operation. If Mazón had raised the emergency level to grade 3, he would now be legally responsible, and not just the political face, for all the decisions taken by the regional government to alleviate the consequences of the Dana (as this type of flooding phenomenon is called, ed). In the absence of this change, the law stipulates that the person responsible is 'the councillor responsible for civil protection and emergency management'.

And there is also controversy over La Liga's decision not to suspend the championship as a sign of solidarity with the victims of Valencia. Footballers try to follow the example of the MotoGp riders who pushed for the cancellation of the Valencia GP. With the exception of five races involving clubs in the Valencian region, the Spanish championship goes ahead. The protest has the charismatic face of 'Cholo' Simeone: 'Playing this match with Las Palmas makes no sense,' says the Atletico Madrid coach on the eve of the match. "It's very hard everything that's happening and it's exciting to see how people are helping with a shovel or what they have. There is solidarity from everyone. We want to help from where we can. There are people who are having a hard time, it's very sad. And they tell us to continue, and here we are,' the Argentinean emphasises. Even more direct Pablo Maffeo, a Mallorca player who took the field in the advance against Alaves. 'Valencia is a tragedy and I believe that in situations like this you shouldn't play the league day. There are many people who have relatives and friends there; and we know they are going through a bad time," his words. Barcelona's coach, Hansi Flick, also made it clear that, if it was up to him, 'he would have suspended everything because it really is a tragedy for the Valencian Community and for the whole of Spain'.

Thus, La Liga ends up under indictment. Through the media, Spain's top football organisation assures that the decision not to postpone the whole day has nothing to do with the saturation of the calendar. The feeling, however, is that the fear of changing it prompted the decision not to postpone the matches. "We believe that in the terrible situation we are experiencing in Spain, the best message is not to stop, except in the affected areas. The best message is to be on the front line in our workplaces like all workers in other sectors, giving visibility, generating resources and explaining to the world that we must all be at work to move forward,' La Liga president Javier Tebas wrote on Twitter. La Liga has pledged to start as soon as possible a census of the football pitches destroyed by the fury of the waters in order to rebuild them and thus help local communities.