The President of the Government, Pedro SánchezThis Saturday at Moncloa, in an institutional declaration on the DANA, Pedro Sánchez admitted that “the response we are giving is not enough”.He has announced the sending of more troops to the area and has called on the president of the Valencian Community to be the one to ask for reinforcements.
In strict mourning and after chairing a crisis committee, Sanchez announced that the Executive will send to 5,000 more military personnel to the affected areaof which 4,000 will arrive this Saturday. It will also send as many civil guards and police to reach a total of 10,000 agents from these two bodies.
“We are talking about the largest deployment of security forces and law enforcement personnel. of the Armed Forces that has ever been made in our country in times of peace,” said Sánchez.
However, he admitted that “unfortunately, the magnitude of this natural catastrophe makes that these numbers are insufficient“The aid is taking a long time to reach many places; there are still blocked houses and garages, flooded municipalities and many helpless people”.
Sánchez has insisted that it is the Valencian autonomous government that should ask for the intervention of the state: “The central government is ready to help”, said the president, and reminded Mazón that if he needs more resources he should “ask for them”.
If the Valencian Community requires more troops, machinery, financing or technical advice, “what you have to do is ask for it”. and that the Government will provide it “immediately”, said Sánchez.
“There is no need to prioritize some municipalities over others or to prioritize tasks. It is prioritized when there is a lack of resources and this is not the case. It does not have to happen. Therefore, the Valencian Community requires more troops, machinery, funding or technical advice. What you have to do is ask for it and we will supply it to you as we are doing immediately,” he said.
“As I said at the beginning of the crisis, the Government of Spain will mobilize all the necessary resources for as long as it takes to help them in this tragic situation. This week’s DANA has caused the biggest natural disaster in the recent history of our country and it is already the second most deadly flood in Europe so far this century,” the president added.
The Council of Ministers will not meet until Tuesday.
In his appearance, Sanchez has revealed that the operational deployment has already made 4,800 rescues and has helped more than 30,000 people in homes, on roads and in flooded industrial estates and has announced “the location and recovery of 211 fatalities”.
The head of the Executive added that the Ministry of Finance and the First Vice-Presidency of the Government will authorize the Autonomous Executive the possibility of making all the necessary emergency expenses, “without any limit of resources”.
“100 positions of interim public servants have already been created and will be incorporated to the subdelegations of the Government, to the delegation of the Government of the Valencian Communityfrom Monday to speed up the processing of aid,” he said.
In any case, it will not be until the Council of Ministers next Tuesday when the Government will approve the declaration of an area seriously affected by a Civil Protection emergency.
Sanchez has said that the Government is in contact with the European Commission and has applied for assistance from the European Solidarity Fund and the use of other community support resources.
The President said that the Government has received numerous messages of solidarity from all the authorities, institutions and member states, a support that has gone beyond the European Union: “As a whole, the international community has turned its support to the Valencian Community and the Spanish people”.
“There will be time.”
At the end of his speech, Sanchez said, “I know we have to improve. That we have to give our all. But I also know that we have to do it together. Together. It is not now a matter of the general administration of the state to replace the autonomous. Now we must support it. Help her with resources and technical guidance. That’s the quickest and most effective way to act. That’s the only thing we should all be concerned about now.”
According to Sanchez, “there will be time to analyze negligence and to reflect on how to improve the distribution of competences. There will be time to talk about the importance of public services, their reinforcement, the need to respect scientific advice and to adapt to climate change”.
“There will be time to look back, to take responsibility and learn from it. As there was after the pandemic. Now is a different time. We must forget our differences, put ideologies, territorial sensitivities and discrepancies aside and act as a single country united in diversity and in the face of adversity,” he said.
“Spain always gives the best of itself in times of crisis.. We did it in the Biescas camping tragedy, in the 11-M or 2017 attacks in Catalonia, in the pandemic, in Filomena and the eruption of La Palma,” he recalled.