Valencian president heckled during state funeral for victims of the DANA: "Murderer, coward"
The state funeral was emotional and solemn, but before and after there were shouts and heckling against Valencian president Carlos Mazón.
October 29, 2025, marked the first anniversary of the tragedy of the DANA, floods caused by a cold front that devastated dozens of villages, damaged or destroyed thousands of houses and businesses, and claimed the lives of 237 people.
Today, a state funeral took place in Valencia, in the City of Arts and Sciences, attended by family of the victims and many institutional figures from the Generalitat (Valencia's government) and the Spanish government and Crown. Spanish King Felipe VI gave a short speech, but the victims and their emotional speeches led the civil funeral, including the reading of the names of all 237 casualties.
The act was solemn and quiet, but before and after, many of the attendees heckled the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, shouting "murderer", "coward", "bastard", "rat", asking for his resignation and shouting "they didn't die, they were murdered".
Before the funeral, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia met with some of the family members, but at their request, they didn't meet with Mazón.
Most of the deaths (229) happened in the Valencian Community, where a warning message wasn't sent to mobile phones until 20:11 in the afternoon, asking people to stay at home. By that time, most of the victims were already dead.
The inefficiency of the Valencian authorities, that most surely cost many lives, has outraged the people of Valencia and Spain, and the focus is set on the president of the region, Mazón. While demonstrations have happened all year long in Valencia, social pressure over Mazón has increased recently not only because of the anniversary, but because of the findings of a judge investigating the whereabouts of the president during the hours before the tragedy.
Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra charged not only Mazón but also Salomé Pradas, former counsellor of Justice in Valencia who was dismissed weeks later, finding "overwhelming signs of malpractice" as responsible for not sending the alarm through the Es Alert system (sent to every phone in the region)... with Mazón himself missing for most of the afternoon, in a four-hour lunch with a journalist.
Judge is now reconstructing Mazón's steps and movements that afternoon using witnesses and even security cameras, with the country still wondering where the president of the region was during one of the darkest days in Valencia's history and why weren't he and his government in charge of sending a security alarm that could have prevented most of the deaths.
Before and after the funeral, Mazón was heckled and insulted, but not during the solemn act. Only a moment broke an spontaneous applause: when Virginia Ortiz, family of one of the victims, said that "it is the one who omits his duty, knowing that his omission may result in the loss of human lives, who commits the initial act that leads to their deaths."
