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FATAL ATTRACTION Valencian president quits as blonde lunch scandal erupts over floods which killed 229
TIMELINE TO DISASTER
● 7.45AM OCT 29: Spain's weather agency Aemet issues a red alert weather warning for 'incredible risk to life' in the Valencia region ● MIDDAY, OCT 29: Mazon sits down with the blonde journalist, Maribel Vilaplana, at the Ventorro restaurant for a lavish working lunch. ● EARLY AFTERNOON, OCT 29: Catastrophe warnings and data showing a massive storm surge pile up on desks across the government, but the crucial public alert is not issued. ● MID-AFTERNOON, OCT 29: The DANA storm hits, overwhelming the Poyo ravine and engulfing towns. Citizens are left completely unaware. ● LATE AFTERNOON/EVENING, OCT 29: While the death toll mounts, Mazon and Vilaplana remain in their prolonged ‘sobremesa’ - the political leader only fielding a few calls, but crucially, still failing to grasp the gravity of the unfolding disaster. ● 8:11 PM, OCT 29: The Generalitat Valenciana finally issues the mobile phone emergency alert (ES ALERT), hours after the deadly floods began and with many people already dead. Mazon is still MIA - he doesn't arrive at the crisis center (CECOPI) until 8:28 PM. ● EARLY HOURS, OCT 30: Mazon claims he only found out about the 229 deaths and the true scale of the tragedy after the hours of boozy indulgence were over.
By Dilip Kuner & Alex Trelinski
THE day of reckoning has finally arrived. Valencian President Carlos Mazon officially resigned on Monday, confessing to ‘unbearable’ moments after a poll revealed a staggering 75% of Valencians wanted him gone. But it took the 51’year’old PP politician over a year to do so as he grimly clung to power despite a dozen marches calling for his head over the October 29 DANA floods that killed hundreds.
Scandal
His downfall is the bitter fruit of a political scandal fueled by the devastating flood and one fateful, lingering afternoon with an attractive blonde journalist. The judicial inquest into the disastrous DANA storm, which claimed the lives of 229 victims, reached fever pitch this week as Maribel Vilaplana, the 50-year-old divorcee at the heart of the crisis, was forced to testify. Vilaplana, dodging the angry screams
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of victims’ families outANGER: 50,000 side the courthouse after people joined a march months of mass protests in Valencia calling for (the latest attracting Mazon’s resignation. 50,000 enraged citizens), He complied four confirmed the explosive days later details: she was with Mazon, who is married with two children, for a prolonged ‘lunch and after-lunch talk’ (sobremesa) at the Ventorro restaurant, while the deadly weather system bore down on the region. The key question haunting the public remains: Why was Mazon, the man responsible for issuing the catastrophe alert, extending an after-lunch talk instead of doing his job? The attractive journalist’s testi- were those calls about saving the mony, while highly anticipated, 229 lives, or ordering another bottle was short on substance, conof Rioja? firming the suspicion that this Legal experts claim her case has ‘More Sensationalmemory is now ‘imism Than Substance’ (Mas precise, inexact, and Morbo Que Sustancia). full of gaps,’ a detail Vilaplana, who is not curthe public is already rently under investigation, spinning into a specclaimed she only had ‘pertacular cover-up. sonal impressions’ of Was it the pressure Mazon’s demeanor. of the moment, or She admitted he was the memory received calls - but simply washed away by a boozy, LONG high-stakes midLUNCH: day party? Mazon and The gravity of Vilaplana the situation dined is horrifying: through Mazon is unthe der fire for afternoon potentially as instructhundreds ing offidied cials to
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actually hold back the alarm, leading directly to the terrifying drownings. In his tearful resignation speech, Mazon admitted: “I know I made mistakes, I recognise it and I'm going to live with them all my life.” He claimed he didn't know the Poyo ravine was overflowing or the true scale of the tragedy until the next morning. But his mea culpa was immediately savaged. Rosa Alvarez, president of a flood victim association, slammed the speech as ‘painful and undignified’, claiming it was ‘steeped in lies’.
Scalp
Socialist rival Diana Morant rubbed salt in the wound, declaring Mazon’s fall ‘good news’ and crowing that victim families had ‘claimed the scalp’ of the 'worst Valencian president in its history’. Mazon has fallen, but the scandal continues. Now, a desperate succession battle has begun. Juanfran Perez Llorca, the PP secretary general and Mayor of Finestrat since 2015, is already being touted as the favourite to claim the presidency. But the minority government relies on the far-right Vox party, which holds the balance of power. They could back Llorca - or force early regional elections to boost their own seats! Mazon, who shamefully remains a deputy, is effectively shielded from prosecution by legal privilege - even in defeat. But the long shadow of that single, wine-fueled afternoon hangs over the entire case, proving once and for all that sometimes, a politician’s biggest danger isn’t a political rival - it's a long, boozy lunch that seals his fate. Opinion Page 6