The former singer and Eurovision hopeful who found himself out of his depth in charge of Spain’s biggest natural disaster this century. Catherine Dolan reports…
From Eurovision wannabe to leader of the Valencian Regional Government… Accused by many of having the blood of more than 200 people on his hands… Carlos Mazón must be wondering what his next move should be.
Ask most of the 130,000 protestors in Valencia on Saturday evening, many carrying placards saying “Neither forgiven, nor forgotten!” and there would be a resounding cry: Resign!
However, there is little sign of that happening any time soon. In fact, on Monday he told reporters he would be announcing changes to his cabinet on Thursday. Is he looking for a sacrificial lamb to get him off the hook?
Born in Alicante in 1974, Carlos Mazón first found fame as a member of the band Marengo. They competed to represent Spain in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, with the romantic ballad Y sólo tú. The group wasn’t successful in their attempt for Eurovision glory. But their time under the Eurovision spotlight boosted their career and they played in several cities across Spain.
Eventually Mazón moved away from music and into politics. But he appears unwilling to relinquish power just yet, despite the tumult of voices baying for his head.
Hiding in plain sight
On Sunday afternoon the Valencia regional government confirmed there would be no resignations at a press conference. Held, notably, not by the top man, but by his deputy. The vice-president of the Valencia region, Susana Camarero. Mazón himself was wisely keeping a low profile. Camarero said the focus should be on the “recovery” and helping people affected, given the “magnitude of the catastrophe”. At the very start of the conference, she stated – twice, to get the message home – that this had been “The worst natural disaster of this century.”
She went on to say that “resigning is not an option”, adding “we cannot abandon the victims.”
For many these words will bring little comfort as “abandoned” is exactly how they felt on the day of the floods and in the week that followed.
A catalogue of catastrophic management
Mazón is held responsible by many Valencians for the deaths of 222 people following the heavy rain that fell on Tuesday 29 October. It flooded more than 70 municipalities in the L’Horta Sud area to the south and west of Valencia. Many believe that most of these deaths could have been avoided had Mazón’s government raised the alarm earlier. At 07.36 on Tuesday 29 October the state meteorological agency, AEMET, issued a Red Alert weather warning for heavy rain. This came after a series of similar warnings of extreme weather which had begun on the previous Wednesday. It would be another 12 hours before the alert was sounded, by which time many people were already dead or fighting for their lives.
During that fateful Tuesday, Mazón continued with his planned agenda: he collected a tourism award in the morning. He even spoke at 13h to say the storm was heading away and that by 18h should have diminished. He put out a tweet to that effect, though later deleted it. He said the emergency services were on alert and in constant contact with his government.
He then attended a secret lunch with a female journalist, Maribel Vilaplana, at which he offered her the top job at ÀPunt, the regional television channel. According to reports, he was incommunicado during the four-hour lunch and finally arrived at the meeting of the emergency command centre in l’Eliana at least an hour and a half late, after 7pm.
By contrast, many mayors from towns and villages across the province had individually issued recommendations to schools throughout the day to send children home early and parents started collecting them from midday. The city’s universities had also acted on AEMET’s warning cancelling the day’s classes.
The PP is trying to close ranks
In the days that followed the flooding, again the task appeared to be beyond Mazón and his government. The army wasn’t called in for days and emergency services from other parts of Spain were not allowed in. To add insult to injury, Mazón asked that volunteers stay away from the affected areas to not get in the way of the clean-up operation.
While Mazón has admitted that some errors were made, it appears he was not alone in managing the crisis abysmally. It seems his team were also pretty inept. By her own admission, Salomé Pradas, who has held the post of Justice Minister since July and whose remit includes the responsibility for emergency coordination, said that she didn’t know about the ES-Alert system. Some have argued that it is rather a basic piece of information for someone in that role and she should have known. The other option is that she’s lying, and that would be even worse.
The PP even put out a tweet trying to blame last Saturday’s demonstration on Catalan separatists who they accused of stirring up trouble.
In Spanish there is an expression El traje le viene grande, which literally translates as the suit is too big for him, but could be likened to the English expression he’s punching above his weight.
Is the stage too big for Mazón?
The ability of being a crowd-pleaser, while essential as a performer on the stage, can be helpful in politics as well, but not essential. Think Gordon Brown, John Mayor hardly electrifying performers. However, the ability to spot a crisis and react accordingly, while a useful asset to anyone, is absolutely fundamental when in a position of responsibility, like Carlos Mazón was on Tuesday 29 October.
Was the former Eurovision wannabe out of his depth? Was the suit too big for him? Or should pop stars stick to being pop stars and leave the politics for the experts?
Volodomir Zelensky might offer Mazón hope. A former TV comic actor, Zelensky won the Ukraine presidency by a record-breaking landslide in 2019. Since then, he has proved himself on the world stage. World leaders court him and vie for publicity shots with him. You might say he has grown into his (combat) suit.
But if Mazón believes this could be a path for him, it seems unlikely. The former comedian turned politician Al Franken who was forced to resign from office in 2017 in scandal when several women accused him of sexual misconduct might be a closer fit. Either way, for the moment Mazón appears unlikely to resign, but it seems difficult to imagine a way in which he could survive and reanimate his political career. It looks like we are set to watch his demise in slow motion.
Video of Marengo singing Y solo tú.