Paco Camas, head of Spanish public opinion research at Ipsos, a polling company, said that since the COVID-19 pandemic, “Spaniards continue to place politicians as the country’s main problems rather than the country’s main problems, such as unemployment, Catalan independence and corruption.” “I’m choosing it,” he said. “That helps explain people’s reaction to (Paiporta’s) leader.”
People affected by floods have two main complaints. Despite the availability of information from the AEMET National Meteorological Service, there was insufficient warning from local governments before weather events occurred. And the response to the tragedy was slow and perfunctory, with volunteers having to pick up the slack when rescue workers and the military were not on scene.
Perceived flaws have led to closer scrutiny of Spain’s crisis warning system and territorial model. (The country is made up of 17 regions, each with varying degrees of autonomy from the central government.)
Lola García, political commentator for La Vanguardia newspaper, compared Spain’s response to the 2021 floods with Germany, a country with a decentralized regional structure.
“In the case (of Germany), political decentralization is based on cooperative premises with minimal institutional loyalty, which is disappearing here at an alarming rate,” she said.
Many commentators have likened the public response to the flood crisis to ’11-M’, the 2004 Madrid train bombings. The attack sparked a backlash against the conservative Popular Party (PP) administration for misleading voters about who was responsible for the attack. The protests led to the party being voted out.
