OPINION: Mazon is gone at last, but that should not be the end of the matter

Dilip kuner

Olive Press

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03.03.2026

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OPINION: Mazon is gone at last, but that should not be the end of the matter

THE resignation of Valencian President Carlos Mazon is the result of a devastating combination of political negligence and scandal that has left 229 dead.

His tearful speech on Monday, acknowledging mistakes, rings hollow in the face of overwhelming evidence that his incompetence directly contributed to the loss of life during the October 29 DANA floods.

Many would argue that his mea culpa came 12 months too late. Rather than hanging on to power by his fingernails until a 12th protest march calling for his resignation, he should have gone a year ago.

Mazon’s decision to spend a long, indulgent lunch with journalist Maribel Vilaplana while the storm surged across Valencia – and his subsequent failure to issue an emergency alert – paints a damning picture of his priorities.

READ MORE: Valencian president Carlos Mazon quits after blonde lunch scandal erupted over floods which killed 229As public officials scrambled to assess the severity of the flooding, Mazon was seemingly more concerned with ‘sobremesa’ than saving lives. His blasé attitude towards the gravity of the situation raises crucial questions: was he unaware of the disaster’s scale, or was he simply too distracted?

Vilaplana’s testimony, while sensationalised, adds fuel to the fire. Her vague account of a ‘lunch and after-lunch talk’ offered little clarity on Mazon’s actions during the critical hours.

What is clear, however, is that his political fate was sealed not just by the storm, but by his reckless disregard for the responsibility he held.

While Mazon’s resignation is a step toward accountability, it is not enough.

The families of the victims deserve more than apologies. Children are still suffering the mental damage the terrifying storms caused.

The Valencian government must act to restore faith, and those responsible for withholding the alarm system should face the full consequences. Mazon’s resignation is just the beginning of the reckoning that must follow.

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Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988. He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press. At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park. In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here. He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency. He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later. Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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OPINION: Mazon is gone at last, but that should not be the end of the matter

Dilip kuner

© Olive Press