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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