Spain’s state institutions did not adequately inform local authorities about measures to be taken before and during this week’s floods in the Valencia region that killed at least 155 people, opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said.
The leader of the Partido Popular (PP), Feijóo complained on Thursday that state institutions led by the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) “did not inform” the governments and city councils of the affected areas, some of which were governed by the PP.
When I say (that no official information has been received) about anything, it is about anything.
The tragedy that struck Valencia and Castilla la Mancha regions on Tuesday night did not seem to have received the highest alert level (1) from Spain’s National Civil Protection System. Valencia’s PP government declared an alert level 2, meaning that central government resources would be deployed, but all emergency coordination would remain at the local level.
Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont also criticised the authorities for their slow response.
As the hours pass, the number of victims of the climate catastrophe in the Valencian Country increases and the need for basic products and services grows for thousands and thousands of trapped or isolated people. The priority continues to be people, their safety and their lives. It will take a lot to recover from this tragedy, but the people who are put to extreme tests like these come out stronger and more cohesive, and they can change everything. Starting with the rulers who have not been able to foresee and anticipate the measures that could have reduced very significantly the number of human lives that have been lost.
However, Valencia government spokesman Carlos Mazón (PP) on Thursday thanked the operation launched by the emergency services and for being “so close and so quickly present” in the affected areas.
Sánchez, meanwhile, said the government would work “by land, sea and air” with Valencia’s regional authorities for as long as necessary.
In circumstances such as those that the Valencian Community is going through, it is necessary to put the public sector in value. We will work day and night to find the missing and the bodies of the dead, to help restore normality as soon as possible.
