At this stage, no French victim has been identified after the Devastating floods that hit the Valencia region of Spainbut French expatriates remain unreachable, says this Saturday on franceinfo Stéphane Vojettadeputy for French people established outside France, whose constituency covers Spain. According to a still provisional assessment given this Saturday morning by the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reports at least 211 victimsincluding 204 in the Valencia region, and there are still many missing.
And “4,000 French people are officially registered as permanent residents in Valence on consular registers“, the Ensemble pour la République deputy assures that “it's probably double in reality“, and which must also be added “French people passing through“. Stéphane Vojetta also explains that the most affected regions in the south of Valencia “are quite popular“where the”French expatriates are not intended to reside“. “However, in the epicenter area, like Torrent or Paiporta, there are a few hundred French people registered with a permanent address“, he adds.
He specifies that the consular teams are working hard to “contact“French residents in Valencia.”A few dozen“were able to answer the phone, but”telecommunications are so degraded that it is very difficult to reach“most expatriates. The EPR MP therefore believes that”all we can do is wait [des nouvelles des] Spanish authorities“, even if he recognizes that “These are distressing times for the entire community.”.
Search for bodies continues with reinforcements
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also announced this Saturday the sending of 5,000 soldiers “in the coming hours” and 5,000 additional police and gendarmes to help residents. The president of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, assured Friday evening that there was no still no official figure for those missing. “It would be imprudent to give a figure“, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska confirmed on the Antena 3 television channel. Nevertheless, “it is probable, given the circumstances and the feedback from experts (…) that there will be more deaths“, he clarified.
To deal with this situation, 500 additional soldiers to be deployed to the Valencia region on Saturdaybringing the number of soldiers in the area to 2,500. Several thousand police officers, gendarmes and firefighters are also mobilized.
One of the army's priorities, in addition to searching for the missing, is to reopen the roads to allow the delivery of aidparticularly food, by clearing vehicles and rubble that prevent traffic, and restoring order in the affected communities. Since the floods, which occurred during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the authorities have indeed noted acts of looting and theft. The police announced that they had already arrested several dozen people, several of whom were placed in pre-trial detention.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who chaired a meeting of the crisis committee on Saturday morning from the Moncloa Palace, the official residence of the head of government, is due to speak this Saturday morning.
