King and Queen of Spain bravely return to flood-ravaged Valencia amid local tensions

While Sanchez and the Valencia region’s leader Carlos Mazon, who is under mounting pressure to resign over his handling of the incident, were swiftly escorted away, the royals braved the chaos to speak with flood victims and calm tensions down.

On the one hand, this was very admirable; on the other, never have members of the Spanish royal family, and particularly the King and Queen, ever been insulted and attacked in such a violent way. And the fact that the PM did a runner does not help either. I am sure the PM’s advisers warned him that his presence had all the hallmarks of sparking anger, but the royals? I think there are plenty of lessons to be learnt from what happened in Valencia, one of them about the Spanish royals’ standing in 21st century society.