The President of the Government defends the coordinated response with the Generalitat of Valencia as the most responsible and effective way to deal with the Dana disaster. During his subsequent appearance at the Council of Ministers, which promoted aid of one million dollars to all those affected, Pedro Sánchez avoided any allusion to reproaching Carlos Mazón and even avoided a clash with Alberto Núñez Feijóo for defend a message of political unity. in the face of tragedy.
“Citizens want to see their institutions not fighting, but working side by side to respond to emergencies, as the Spanish government does,” he defended. In response to questions from the press, Sánchez provided a detailed explanation of the reasons that led him to rule out a state of alarm that would distract the Valencian government from its responsibility.
“The Spanish government understands that there is not a minute to lose and that replacing those responsible at the Generalitat would have meant reducing the effectiveness of the response. But it is also a question of institutional respect. We talk a lot about political leaders and little about civil servants. These days, I have met commendable people who work day and night without sleeping to help their neighbors. And that is why we have all the respect and recognition for the work of civil servants of the Generalitat, provincial councils and town halls. “We are all states,” he said.
The president insisted on this message throughout his appearance, affirming that regional administration officials could not be moved in an emergency situation like the one experienced in Valencia by Dana. “It is the Generalitat that best knows the resources, the territory and the needs. And what the state must do is support it. The responsibility of the Spanish government is to exercise its skills and help other administrations to best develop their own skills. This is an emergency situation requiring urgent action, and that is what we have done. The political debate will come, but now let’s get to what’s important. And the important thing is to be with the people,” he said.
Reconstruction plan
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, appeared after the Council of Ministers to announce the set of measures and aid approved and “intended for those affected by DANA”. First, the Executive declared the most affected areas of the Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Catalonia and Aragon, as “areas seriously affected by an emergency – what was previously called a catastrophic zone”. In addition, the government approved an “emergency decree-law in which all economic, labor and tax aid are grouped”.
At the start of his appearance, Sánchez detailed the deployment of professionals and machines, which has enabled nearly 1,300 rescues, although he recognized that it is not enough because “there are still missing people to locate, companies , businesses and affected families”, and this is why “we must continue to work”. All measures will be framed “in an immediate response plan, reconstruction and recovery of the Valencian Community”, in three phases, which will last as long as necessary and will end with “a transformation of the territory to adapt it to the climate emergency “. .”
In the first phase of this Plan, the first phase is “immediate response”, the measures of which will be available and highlighted on the Moncloa website. “All these measures are inspired by the experience accumulated in the government’s crisis management”, particularly after the pandemic and after the La Palma volcano.
“We are going to quadruple the planned public aid and make it universal, with no income threshold, so that all households can benefit from it,” explained the president of the government. Concretely, there are “72,000 euros for cases of disability; between 20,000 and 60,000 euros for the repair of damaged housing; and up to 10,300 euros to repair or change furniture or household appliances.
An already known measure is that, from the Treasury, the Valencian Generalitat is granted the possibility of carrying out “all the emergency expenses it needs without any limit of resources”, also allowing the Community not to achieve the objectives of deficit due. to the DANA disaster.
The Executive is also in communication with the European Commission and procedures have been initiated to request assistance from the European Solidarity Fund and recourse to other community support resources from the European Union (EU).
For its part, the Ministry of Labor has deployed a series of measures aimed at protecting workers affected by DANA, including prohibiting dismissal and offering paid leave in certain situations, as well as prioritizing the use of teleworking.
This “labor shield” has legal effects from the day of the disaster, Tuesday October 29, according to the first vice-president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz.
