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Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the country’s catastrophic floods proved that “climate change kills” as he announced €10bn in grants and loans to aid recovery and reconstruction in the disaster zone.
Sánchez, who was pelted with mud by angry survivors during a visit to the flood-stricken Valencia area on Sunday, did not seize control of the relief effort from the regional administration but said the central government would help fund efforts to rebuild devastated towns and villages.
“Climate change kills,” he told reporters in Madrid on Tuesday. “And we’re seeing it, unfortunately.”
The prime minister was speaking as the death toll from last Tuesday’s deadly flash floods in southern and eastern Spain stood at 217, a number expected to rise as the search for bodies continues.
The support package includes grants of €72,000 for people unable to work due to injury caused by the disaster, €20,000 to €60,000 per household for home repairs and €10,000 for replacing furniture and domestic appliances.
A total of €838mn in direct aid will be allocated to companies and the self-employed, including grants of up to €150,000 for individual businesses. In addition, €5bn of state-backed loan guarantees will be available to enterprises, the self-employed and families.
Sánchez said the funds would facilitate the rebuilding and “relaunch” of the affected region but also its transformation. “A transformation that is necessary to adapt the territory, and in particular the Valencia region, to the climate emergency, which unfortunately is affecting our beloved Mediterranean Sea,” he said.
Scientists say that by raising the temperature of the Mediterranean, climate change is increasing the frequency of intense rain storms in the region.
The prime minister estimated the package’s total cost to the government would be €10.6bn and said Spain would use some payment mechanisms it had employed to distribute aid during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the IMF, Spain’s response to the pandemic included $107bn of additional spending and $184bn of liquidity support such as loans and asset purchases.
Sánchez hit out at climate change deniers, applying the label to a group that launched a lawsuit in recent days against Spain’s state weather agency Aemet, accusing it of manslaughter over the floods. “I think this is an important lesson about how the political debate is going one way and the reality of people’s lives is going the other,” the prime minister said.
The lawsuit against Aemet was filed by Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, a group with far-right links that also triggered an ongoing corruption investigation into Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gómez. She denies any wrongdoing.
Sánchez said the Spanish government would pay all emergency expenses incurred by municipalities in the disaster zone and cover half their costs for rebuilding roads, civic centres, sports facilities and other wrecked infrastructure.
The package will cover people and organisations in 78 municipalities affected by the floods: 75 in Valencia, two in Castile-La Mancha and one in Andalusia.
Sánchez was speaking the day after a blame game broke out between Madrid and the Valencia regional government over inadequate flood alerts. The Valencia region is in charge of the relief effort and has been blamed for its slow progress by survivors, who are also venting their anger at the central government.
But Sánchez said he would not use Madrid’s powers to take control. “Substituting for the regional administration would reduce efficiency,” he said. “We all represent the state. We have to co-operate . . . The [regional government] knows the needs of its citizens better than anyone else.”