The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchezacknowledged Saturday that “the response that is being given” to the crisis caused by the DANA (isolated depression at high levels) “is not enough”, but he rejected to take control of the situation with the declaration of the national emergency or the state of alarm because he considers that it is time for all administrations to work “united” and put “ideologies” aside.
“There will be time to analyze negligence”. and “to purge responsibilities”, he remarked in an institutional declaration pronounced from the Palace of La Moncloa, where he met his crisis committee and spoke by telephone with the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, to detail the new measures of the Government.
Sánchez stressed that it is about “the most serious flooding Europe has ever seen”. “so far this century” and reported that the latest information available brings the number of confirmed deaths to 211 people. He acknowledged that the country is going through a “tragic” and “dramatic” situation and said he was “aware that the response that is being given is not enough”.
The head of the Executive refused to confront directly with the Valencian Government of the PP. But he did urge the regional president to ask for more help because “the magnitude of this natural catastrophe”. means that the number of troops deployed is still “insufficient”.
“The central government is ready to help. If it needs more resources, let it ask for them. 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 that is not the case and it does not have to happen. Therefore, if the Valencian Community requires more troops, machinery, funding or technical advice, what you have to do is ask for it and we will provide it,” he said. “For this reason, I am pleased that President Mazón has decided to to raise his request for military troops from 500 to 5,000.”he added after confirming that he will comply with this request.
But he admitted that the state’s response must “improve.” “I know that there are severe problems and shortages, that there are still collapsed services, municipalities buried by mud, desperate people looking for their relatives, people who cannot access their homes, homes destroyed and buried by mud. I know that we have to improve and that we have to give our all. But I also know that we have to do it together, united.“, he said.
Discipline of responsibilities
He rejected declaring a national emergency or a state of alarm because “it is not now a question of the General State Administration replacing the autonomous administration”, but of “supporting it” and “helping it with resources and technical guidance”. “That is the fastest and most effective way to act at this precise moment. That is the only thing we should all be concerned about.“, he reiterated.
And he stressed that “there will be time to analyze negligence”.to “reflect on how to improve the distribution of competences” of Civil Protection in such extreme situations, “to talk about the importance of public services and their reinforcement” and “to look back, to purge responsibilities and learn to be better”.
“But now we are in another moment and we have to put all our efforts in the colossal task ahead. We must forget our differences and put ideologies, territorial sensitivities and discrepancies aside: to act as one country united in diversity and in the face of adversity,” Sanchez continued.
The President of the Government thus sentenced that there is only “one enemy to beat, which is the destruction caused by this catastrophe”, and we must “do it together” because “the lives of many citizens are at stake”, also “the dignity” of the people who have died, “the prestige of our country” and “the future of entire municipalities”.
With this, he appealed to the spirit that governed the country’s action in the face of the flooding of the Biescas campsite, the 11-M and Catalonia attacks of 2017, the Covid-19 pandemic, the Filomena squall and the eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma. “Let’s do it again, let’s add one more chapter to the story of overcoming and resilience, that is the history of our nation, and let us overcome this crisis together,” he concluded.