Armando G. Tejeda
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, November 5, 2024, p. 23
Madrid. A court in Torrent, in the metropolitan area of Valencia, opened an investigation into the attacks yesterday against Felipe VI, Letizia, the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of the Valencian community, Carlos Mazón, who were received with balls of mud upon arrival in Paiporta, the town hardest hit by the recent isolated depression at high levels (DANA).
The court carries out proceedings to determine the possible crimes of attack, public disorder and damage, after receiving a judicial report.
The victims threw mud, stones and other objects at the monarchs, Sánchez and Mazón. A bodyguard from the royal household ended up bloodied by a blow to the head, and the prime minister was evacuated by his bodyguard after a man threw a stick at him.
The crime of attack being investigated focuses on the attacks directed at Sánchez and carries up to six years in prison.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, some of the people who insulted and threw objects at the procession were from extreme right-wing groups, some of them linked to ultra fans of soccer teams in the area.
Analysts cited by the AFP agency considered that the pop of anger shows the rage of the population against a polarized political class and erratic when it came to alleviating the situation after the tragedy, which began to feed the narrative that the rain of mud was not directed against the kings, but against the politicians.
The anger it’s understandable
Without a definitive number of victims and with towns still full of mud and vehicles piled up by the current, The people’s anger is more than understandable and I believe that the authorities should not have appeared there at this moment.estimated Pablo Simón, a political scientist at the Carlos III University of Madrid, in statements to the AFP agency.
People are angry because there is a perception of the state’s inability to solve their problems. There has been enormous confusion in the face of erratic managementboth in terms of anticipation and after the tragedy, Simón said.
Paloma Román, political scientist at the Complutense University of Madrid, agrees with the above and highlights the lack of coordination between the central State and the autonomous region, which is resulting in not reaching everywhere when people require itwhich increases the discomfort.
Torrential rains were recorded in Catalonia, especially in Barcelona and neighboring municipalities, where train runs were cancelled, main roads and the Prat airport were partially closed.
Just 400 kilometers from Barcelona, in Valencia, the situation is slowly beginning to improve, thanks mainly to citizen solidarity since for the first time in six days, 7,800 army personnel are already deployed for rescue tasks.
The Ministry of Economy indicated that there are more than one hundred thousand cars destroyed by DANA, in addition to 65 affected municipalities in Valencia, whose population amounts to 845,900 inhabitants, and more than 54,000 companies report damage.
