Alex Trelinski
PRIME Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday announced €2.3 billion in extra aid to reconstruct flood-hit areas of Valencia province.
Speaking to Congress, Sanchez also blamed Valencian president Carlos Mazon for the slow response to what happened on October 29.
“There are people in very high positions who have not lived up to their responsibilities in managing the DANA and they will have to assume their guilt,” he said.
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The national government has so far pledged a total of €16.6 billion aid, and Sanchez said it will keep helping as long as needed.
222 people died and five are still listed as missing after last month’s floods.
Sanchez defended the way his government handled the extreme weather event, which it said was caused by climate change.
He said the State Meterological Agency(Aemet) and the Jucar water authority did their job by supplying appropriate warnings.
The government has criticised Carlos Mazon for a slow response in alerting residents and then not asking promptly for help from the armed services.
Sanchez said that his administration sent in the Military Emergency Unit when Mazon ‘changed his mind’ after the Valencian Minister of Justice rejected the aid.
“The Armed Forces were able to satisfy Mr. Mazon’s change of mind on November 2, when he went from asking for 500 military personnel to more than 5,000 people in a few hours,” he added.
The Prime Minister once again used climate change to make another criticism of the opposition Partido Popular of which Mazon is a member.
“Climate change kills but there is something more dangerous than the climate emergency and it is the negationist governments that, by action or omission, deny the devastating effects of climate change,” said Sanchez.
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