Valencia’s regional leaders have faced criticism for taking about 12 hours to respond to a red weather warning from Spain’s national meteorological office (Aemet) on October 29 and issue a warning directly to people’s phones, when the flooding was already causing massive damage.

However, the national leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, questioned the information provided by Aemet, which is monitored by the central government. He also complained that the Prime Minister’s administration had not coordinated with the regional government.

In the days since, pressure has mounted on Mazón, with many commentators and political opponents calling for him to resign for his actions that day, as well as for eliminating the Valencia Emergency Unit (UVE) when he took office last year.

In response, he has taken a more confrontational approach, in line with that of his party chief.

That has included blaming the CHJ hydrographic agency, which is controlled by Madrid, for activating and then deactivating a warning on the day in question.

“If the CHJ had reactivated the hydrological warning, the alert message would have been sent immediately” by the regional government, Mazón said.

CHJ has responded by explaining that it provides data on rainfall and related issues but does not issue warnings of this nature.

Fifteen thousand soldiers, civil guards and police have now arrived in the Valencia region, twice as many as last weekend.