MADRID (AFP) – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez yesterday announced almost EUR2.3 billion (USD2.4 billion) in new aid for the country’s flood stricken region as he defended his government’s handling of the deadly disaster last month.
The European country is still reeling from the October 29 floods which killed at least 229 people, washed away roads and rail lines, submerged fields, and gutted homes and businesses, mainly in the eastern region of Valencia.
Spain’s worst natural disaster in decades has sparked widespread fury at elected leaders for their perceived mishandling of the crisis.
Sanchez announced a fresh package of 60 measures for stricken citizens worth nearly EUR2.3 billion that brought the total aid provided in the wake of the disaster to EUR16.6 billion.
Under Spain’s highly decentralised system of power, regions are in charge of disaster management, but the events have triggered a blame game between Sanchez’s minority leftist government and the conservative regional government of Valencia.
“I ask that people not be misled: if you want to find culprits, look for them, do so, but don’t point the finger at the public services who fulfilled their responsibilities,” Sanchez told Parliament.
“The question is whether the Spanish government has fulfilled its responsibilities and the answer is that it has done so. It has done so from the outset and continues to do so and will continue to do so for as long as necessary.”
The central government has said the regional government took too long to convene and emergency coordination meeting in response to the storm and to send out a mass alert to mobile phones.
But the head of the regional government Carlos Mazon of the main opposition Popular Party (PP), has said he received “insufficient, inaccurate and late” information from the state weather agency and a central government agency responsible for monitoring flood risks.
He has come under fire for attending a three-hour lunch with a female journalist on the day of the disaster, when his government sent emergency alerts to mobile phones when water was already gushing through some towns.
Sanchez said yesterday he was “absolutely open” to the creation of a parliamentary commission of enquiry to look into the state’s response to the floods but said he felt it was “not yet the right time”.
