A NEW €350 million aid package for households and workers affected by last October’s Valencia flood disaster has been announced by regional president, Carlos Mazon.
The extra money will be formally approved by the Valencian parliament this Friday with the aim to distribute it all by mid-October.
Mazon, speaking on Tuesday, said the additional aid is down to a ‘deep and permanent self-evaluation’ on how to optimise the response to the October 29 floods.
READ MORE:
- Digital storm: How fake news flooded Spain alongside the deadly DANA floods in Valencia
- Shopping centre underground car park reopens- nine months after Valencia flood disaster
Nearly 40,000 households affected by the floods who have already got €6,000 in aid, will automatically get an extra €3,000 without having to apply.
The 87,000 owners of damaged vehicles will receive up to €2,500 extra- above money already handed out.
Mazon said that ‘more than 5,000 self-employed workers who were forced to continue paying contributions despite not being able to work’ will receive up to €3,000 each.
12,000 workers who were affected by temporary redundancy plans and who have already received aid will get a supplement of €360.
The president criticised the national government which he said ‘has only delivered 30% of the promised aid’ and insisted that ‘it is not the citizens who have to ask for help, but that the administration already knows that they need help and has to provide it’.
He said his administration over the last ten months has made ‘the largest deployment of material and human resources in its history’, with an investment of €1.15 billion to rebuild infrastructures and help those affected ‘without receiving a single euro in non-refundable funds from the Government’.
Carlos Mazon continued: “It is urgent to get the rest of the aid from the Government that has taken too long to arrive.”
“We know that the start of the school year means an increase in family spending, and that should not be an added burden,” he added.
“This is not a competition, nor the fight for the political narrative, but we have to produce real solutions,” Mazon concluded.
Click here to read more Valencia News from The Olive Press.
WHAT ABOUT ESTEPONA