Spain’s royals cheered in flood epicentre after previously being pelted with mud
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Spain's King Felipe (centre) talking to residents during the royal couple's visit to the flood-affected municipality of Chiva, Valencia, on Nov 19.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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UTIEL, Spain - Spain’s royals bathed in applause and cheers during their return to the epicentre of catastrophic floods on Nov 19, after a previous trip was marred by survivors hurling mud and insults at them.
The European country is reeling from the Oct 29 disaster
That outrage boiled over in the ground-zero town of Paiporta in the eastern Valencia region when King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited on Nov 3, in extraordinary scenes that stunned the world.
Furious residents chanting “murderers” pelted them with mud and projectiles
But crowds in the devastated Valencia region town of Chiva applauded and shouted “long live the king!” upon their highly anticipated arrival on Nov 19, AFP journalists witnessed.
Felipe and Letizia embraced residents and stopped for conversations and selfies as they toured streets cleared of mud and with their shops reopened.
The King wrote a message in Chiva town hall expressing the couple’s “great affection, love and all our support and solidarity”.
The same warm atmosphere greeted them in the nearby town of Utiel, where they visited destroyed neighbourhoods and spoke with affected students and farmers.
“I am not a monarchist... but I respect them because they are people who have never messed with anyone,” Mr Pascual Gimeno, a 58-year-old waste management worker, told AFP in Chiva.
The visit “has made many people happy.”
The palace had maintained the utmost secrecy about the itinerary of the visit beforehand in the wake of the Paiporta unrest.
Monarchy ‘strengthened’
Felipe and Letizia were keeping a promise to return to the region and console survivors, said constitutional law professor Vicente Garrido, of the University of Valencia.
Whereas Sanchez and the Valencia region’s under-fire leader Carlos Mazon left Paiporta early, the mud-spattered royal couple braved the popular anger to speak with victims.
Their willingness to travel and risk personal harm earlier this month “strengthens the image” of the monarchy, Prof Garrido told AFP.
Popular ire has instead targeted elected politicians, particularly Mr Mazon because the regions manage the response to natural disasters in Spain’s decentralised state.
“What they did in Paiporta, I think it is an aberration,” said Ms Maria Victoria Sanchez, a 75-year-old Chiva resident.
The monarchs “aren’t to be blamed for anything, here it’s the politicians’ fault”, she told AFP.
“Mazon, if you had any shame you would be at home, murderer!” shouted one man in Chiva.
Local authorities in many cases warned residents of the impending catastrophe too late and stricken towns depended on volunteers for essential supplies for days in the absence of the state.
The conservative Mr Mazon admitted “mistakes” and apologised
The regional government on Nov 19 appointed a retired high-ranking army officer to a new post in charge of rebuilding Valencia.
Mr Sanchez is due to appear in parliament this month to explain the left-wing central government’s handling of the floods. AFP
