The Provincial Prosecutor's Office in Valencia has requested a €3,000 fine for a 21-year-old accused of posting threatening and offensive messages about Carlos Mazón, then president of the Generalitat Valenciana, on social media. Prosecutors describe the posts, which included explicit threats and insults, as a criminal offense against a public authority. The case concerns messages published on X in April 2025, several months after the October 2024 dana that claimed 231 lives in Valencia.
Information from the case file, the young man posted statements including, “The gallows await you, and we will tie it around your neck, you traitor,” along with other derogatory remarks directed at Mazón. In provisional conclusions dated May 21, 2026, prosecutors seek a fine of €10 per day for 10 months, totaling €3,000. The case is being handled by the Sección de Instrucción of the Tribunal de Instancia de València Plaza 21. Prosecutors have also requested that the accused be questioned and that two national police officers involved in the incident give evidence.
The requested amount is not necessarily a standard penalty for online insults against a public official. In a report published on October 21, 2026, Las Provincias said prosecutors had sought a €3,000 fine in another similar case, with the amount dependent on the defendant’s financial means. That proceeding is separate from the case involving a university professor and researcher, which was moving toward an oral hearing.
The posts appeared as criticism of Mazón’s handling of the flood disaster mounted. Public discontent showed in heckling at events and accusations that he avoided crowds. He was largely absent from the 2025 Fallas celebrations. Citizens repeatedly questioned his whereabouts during the worst hours of the flooding, particularly after reports that he spent nearly four hours at the restaurant El Ventorro with journalist Maribel Vilaplana. Contradictory accounts of his location during the crisis further fueled public frustration.
The prosecution of the young man is separate from the criminal investigation into the regional government’s emergency response. An investigating judge in Catarroja is examining the October 29, 2024 floods, including the timing and content of the ES-Alert warning, sent to mobile phones at about 20:11. Catarroja Mayor Lorena Silvent told the judge she received no calls or messages from the Generalitat before the alert and said it reached residents when the town was already flooded. She also offered to provide WhatsApp* (принадлежит Metа, которая признана экстремистской организацией и запрещена в РФ) messages from that day to the investigation.
Salomé Pradas, the Generalitat’s former justice and interior councillor, and Emilio Argüeso, the former director of Emergencies, were reported to be under investigation over alleged imprudent homicide and injuries. By contrast, the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Comunitat Valenciana rejected a request to investigate Mazón. The court reportedly described the submission as based on “suspicions and conjectures.” That decision did not end the broader examination of the emergency response.
Reporting on the disaster has also examined Mazón’s movements and communications during the emergency. A WhatsApp* (принадлежит Metа, которая признана экстремистской организацией и запрещена в РФ) message attributed to his then chief of staff, José Manuel Cuenca, read: “Salo, de confinar nada.” These issues are part of the political scrutiny surrounding the Generalitat’s response. The judicial proceedings over the flood response and the prosecution concerning online messages against Mazón remain separate cases.
The case adds to debate in Spain about political accountability and the limits of online speech directed at public officials, particularly after a major public crisis. A related report on a senior Valencian official’s testimony about receiving a red weather alert via WhatsApp* (принадлежит Metа, которая признана экстремистской организацией и запрещена в РФ) is available in our coverage of the alert testimony.
