On 29 October last, a strong and long-lasting storm was unleashed in the east of Spain with the effects of a Greek tragedy. The regional government, with full powers to act, but conservative and denialist, did not respond to the numerous weather warnings, nor did it activate the necessary rescue resources.
Miguel Angel Ferrís Gil
The result was the country’s biggest natural disaster of the last 100 years, with nearly 300 lives lost and no time to find safety. Tens of thousands of young people crossed the city’s bridges to help the population abandoned by the government. “Only the people save the people” was the cry born among the solidarity of those who have travelled through the devastated areas.
A human movement in the Valencian capital of hundreds of thousands of voices filled with indignation and pain demanded political and criminal accountability from the local government leaders…. Leaders who belong to the conservative Popular Party (PP), considered to be the most corrupt and profligate of public funds in the European Union and which, after eight years of pluralist progressive governments, returned to regional and local power a year ago. It did so at a time when reactionary thinking is spreading in different parts of the world.
For a few days Valencia has been an expression of the worst and the best of people.
On the one hand, it has been the reflection of a society captured by the siren songs of climate denialism and by the unlimited (and unsanctioned) business of uncontrolled urban and speculative growth. Of a society imprisoned by the lack of social sensitivity and the systematic lies of those who hold economic power and wield political power at will, or by the despair – in times of panic – of a citizenry whose public services are dismantled in order to reduce the budget deficit.
On the other hand, Valencia has shown a face of great solidarity: the population, especially large sectors of the youth, abandoned their role as passive spectators and, armed with brooms, buckets, shovels and carts loaded with water and food, threw themselves into the urgent rescue, crossing bridges and footbridges in the south of the city without thinking about the unmanageable and exhausting task.
On many occasions the Spanish people have shown great and indispensable generosity or a great resilience in the face of the many misfortunes of their history. On this occasion, the response has been a veritable ‘baptism of fire’ for the new generations who were looking at a future doomed to climate collapse and the diminution of their vital expectations of well-being and security.
The international response and that of other regions of Spain has also been remarkable, with numerous aid teams sent for emergencies, search and rescue of survivors, despite the delay in their arrival due to the initial refusal of the authorities, who did not want to recognise the magnitude of the tragedy and their disastrous role in managing it.
This episode, which is undoubtedly the result of the rise in temperature of the Mediterranean Sea due to the effect of fossil fuels emitted into the atmosphere, happened by chance in the run-up to COP29 in Azerbaijan. There, the commitments already adopted on financing to reduce the consequences of global warming are to be reviewed and confirmed.
The Spanish President, harassed by the far-right in his country, which accuses him, without evidence, of inaction, recalled there that “climate change kills”, exemplifying his assertion with what happened in Valencia. However, a world summit presided over for the second consecutive year by the leader of a petro-state lacks the moral authority to guarantee compliance with any agreements signed.
Spain’s progressive coalition government partners are also demanding more involvement from their country’s autonomous and central governments, at a time when, paradoxically, President Sánchez has announced the suspension of the tax on wealthy energy companies.
The Ecological Transition needs resources, but not at the cost of deepening the social inequality gap.
Spain has one of the few progressive governments in the European Union and, together with the highest economic growth figures in the area, which reach 2.9% for this year, it is necessary for it to lead the fulfilment of the resolutions taken in the face of the scale of the global ecological crisis.
In Valencia there is great alarm and the hope is that the martyrdom of its victims will not be in vain and that for the first time it will bring down governments which, putting short-term economic interests first, have denied the climate-change evidence, risking the lives of their own citizens. The people have demanded accountability. The ballot boxes, and hopefully the judiciary as well, must apply sanctions and avoid similar scenarios in a future, which is becoming more and more evident.
(Translated by Rene Phelvin – Email: renephelvin @gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay
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