Spain to do ‘whatever it takes’ to aid flood victims: finance minister

euronews (in English)

In an interview with Euronews, Carlos Cuerpo said it was too early to point the finger over deadly floods in Valencia, as tens of thousands protest a government response they see as inadequate.

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00:00The Spanish minister of economy was in Brussels to negotiate EU funds to help Spain recover

00:05from last month's devastating floods.

00:09Talking to Euronews, Carlos Cuerpo said it is too early to talk about concrete amounts

00:13of money.

00:15But paraphrasing former central bank president Mario Draghi, he said Madrid will do whatever

00:20it takes to rebuild the damages.

00:25So we are now at the early phase of the critical response, of early response, trying to get

00:31people back on their feet.

00:34But then we will need to reconstruct.

00:35You know there is this sentence by Mario Draghi, it is whatever it takes.

00:39So that's what the government is trying to instill into the minds of those affected now,

00:44to give them a bit of hope that we will be with them as long as it takes and with as

00:49many resources as are needed.

00:53Asked about citizens' anger due to lack of warning and also the insufficient support

00:57from both regional and central governments, he replied that responsibilities will need

01:01to be determined after immediate problems are resolved.

01:08We are now very focused on responding to the current needs of the population.

01:13So there will be a time once we actually get out of this initial immediate response phase

01:19to look at political responsibilities and to draw lessons from them.

01:24But I think people will not understand us really fighting over each other at this point

01:30while they are still in huge need of response and of help.

01:36The unprecedented floods claimed over 200 lives and caused immeasurable economic devastation.

01:43You can watch the full interview on our program, The Europe Conversation, and on euronews.com.

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