The head of the Spanish government announced on Wednesday a third aid package amounting to nearly 2.3 billion euros to support the victims of the floods which devastated the south-east of Spain at the end of October, bringing total funds allocated to the affected regions at 16.6 billion euros.
The floods at the end of October, the most serious in several decades in Spain, caused enormous damage and brought down many businesses, provoking anger in the Valencia region, where a new demonstration is planned for Saturday.
Faced with this situation, Pedro Sánchez announced on Wednesday a third aid package of nearly 2.3 billion euros, including 60 measures intended to “accelerate the return to normal and the recovery of damaged areas”. This envelope, which will be approved on Thursday by the Council of Ministers, brings to 16.6 billion euros the overall amount of aid made available to the affected regions by the central government, according to the executive.
Heavy fire on the right
The Socialist Prime Minister also defended his government’s action on Wednesday in the face of the floods which devastated the south-east of Spain at the end of October, accusing his detractors of “polarizing” opinion and “fueling distrust in the ‘with regard to institutions’.
The question “is whether the Spanish government has assumed (its) responsibilities and the answer is ‘yes’. He did it from the start, and will continue to do so as long as necessary,” assured Pedro Sánchez, who came to report to the Spanish deputies on his management of the tragedy. The executive did “what it had to do” in the face of this catastrophe, insisted the socialist leader, accusing the opposition of “polarizing” opinion, “of creating discouragement and fueling distrust in the respect for institutions” since the tragedy.
The government and the regional executive of Valencia, led by the Popular Party (PP, right), continue to blame each other for the failures in the management of the floods of October 29, which caused at least 229 deaths, in very large numbers. majority in the Valencia region. These accusations have further strained the already deleterious Spanish political climate. In Spain, a very decentralized country, disaster management is indeed the responsibility of the regions. But the central government, responsible for issuing alerts via the National Meteorological Agency (Aemet), can provide resources and take control in extreme cases.
No one guilty, but all responsible?
Called to explain his management of the disaster in mid-November, the conservative president of the Valencia region Carlos Mazón, widely criticized by the victims for his management considered chaotic of the tragedy, recognized “errors” and presented his “ apologies” to the residents. But he also criticized the services of the central state, and in particular the National Meteorological Agency, affirming that the latter had triggered the red alert “36 times” over the last ten years, “without any between them is not followed by sudden floods. “I ask that we do not mislead people: if you want to find those guilty, look for them, do it, but do not point the finger at the public services which have done their duty,” replied Wednesday Pedro Sánchez, refuting any fault on the side of state agencies. Referring to the responsibility of the Valencia government, he considered that there had been no failure of the “system”, but that “certain very high-ranking people” had not “assumed their responsibilities” or had “completely simply ignored. “Knowing who these people are is simple, in my opinion, because they are the same ones who are making mistakes again and are busy sowing discord when they should be focusing” on reconstruction, he insisted, in an implicit reference to Carlos Mazón.
These barbs aroused the ire of the leader of the PP, Alberto Nunez Feijoó, who castigated the attitude of Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday: “you should be the first to apologize, but what you came to say is that everything had been done well.
Facing the deputies, the Spanish Prime Minister said he was “totally open” to the creation of a commission of inquiry within the Congress of Deputies on the floods, while believing that it was “not yet the time” to set up such a commission. “If we want this collective reflection to be useful, it cannot be hasty,” he explained, ensuring that this approach was currently not the “priority”.
Sami Nemli With Agency / ECO Inspirations
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