Pedro Sánchez: "Today is the day of the victims of the DANA"

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, speaks during the question period in the Lower House of Parliament (Pool Congreso)

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, focused his answers during the control session of the Executive held in the Lower House of Parliament on the victims of the DANA of 29 October, the tragedy that claimed 237 lives in different municipalities of the Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia.

"I am the president of the Government of Spain that has appeared most often in the General Courts, but I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that today is not the day. Today is the day of the victims of the DANA", said Pedro Sánchez during his response to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, a member of the People's Party.

"Today is a very hard day for the families of the victims and also for the people who have lost everything," continued the president, who thanked the solidarity of those who helped in the wake of the tragedy, and those who worked to tackle it from the administrations: "It is a day to applaud public workers, who did an extraordinary job to protect the lives of our fellow citizens".

The head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, and part of the socialist bench, during the minute of silence on the first anniversary of the DANA of October 2024 | Pool Congreso

Almost €8 billion in aid

In his reply to Ione Belarra, a member of the Mixed Parliamentary Group, in which he took stock of the aid activated one year after the tragedy, the chief executive also referred to the measures adopted by the Government to support the reconstruction of the affected areas and to help all the victims.

"The General State Administration has already executed between €7 billion and €8 billion in transfers mainly to the Valencian Community. We are talking about 10% of the GDP of the province of Valencia", Pedro Sánchez stressed.

To illustrate this figure, the president pointed out that with this allocation, the Government has compensated more than 200,000 households and companies, protected 34,000 workers with ERTEs, and supported 78 municipalities with €1.8 billion for the reconstruction of infrastructure.

Pedro Sánchez recalled at this point the new aid package approved in the last Council of Ministers, which aims to both reactivate the economy of these municipalities and strengthen preparedness for future climate catastrophes, an issue on which he also recalled the State Pact for the Climate Emergency proposed by the Government after the fires that occurred last summer.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, responds from his seat during the question period | Pool Congreso

Fighting multi-recidivist crime

In his answer to the question on multi-recidivism posed by the Basque Parliamentary Group (EAJ-PNV) deputy Maribel Vaquero, the chief executive listed as means of the Government's fight against this phenomenon the increase since 2018 of investment in public safety by 30%; the number of National Police and Civil Guard personnel, which he described as "historic"; and the increased number of judges and prosecutors, to "almost double the number of places", to speed up judicial proceedings and prosecute criminals more effectively.

The president also pointed out that this Executive is the first to modify the Penal Code to incorporate multi-recidivism, which has toughened the penalties in these cases for minor thefts. He also pointed to the recent reform of the registration system, which allows judges and local police in large cities to know quickly the amount of money stolen.

Pedro Sánchez recalled the draft Criminal Procedure Code approved by the Council of Ministers and sent to parliament, aimed at modernising the criminal prosecution system. "We are, of course, ready to process this legislative initiative and to complete what could be the law-making process, precisely to tackle one of the main problems that our country has when it comes to security, which is multi-recidivism," he said.

Non official translation