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Spain government defends flood action as it offers new aid

Sanchez's 2.3 billion euros relief package includes 465 million euros to help people replace damaged cars and 19 million euros to replace text books and other school materials

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday announced almost 2.3 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in new aid for the country's flood stricken region as he defended his government's handling of the deadly disaster last month.

The European country is still reeling from the October 29 floods which killed at least 229 people, washed away roads and destroyed homes and businesses, mainly in the eastern region of Valencia.

There has been widespread fury at elected leaders over their handling of the crisis.

Under Spain's decentralised government system, regions are in charge of disaster management, but the events have triggered a blame game between Sanchez's leftist government and the conservative regional government of Valencia.

"The question is whether the Spanish government has fulfilled its responsibilities and the answer is that it has done so. It has done so from the outset and continues to do so and will continue to do so for as long as necessary," Sanchez told parliament.

The central government has said the regional government took too long to convene an emergency coordination meeting on the storm and to send out a mass alert.

But regional government head Carlos Mazon of the main opposition Popular Party (PP), has said he received "insufficient, inaccurate and late" information from the state weather agency and a central government agency responsible for monitoring flood risks.

He has come under fire for attending a three-hour lunch with a female journalist on the day of the disaster. When his government sent emergency alerts to mobile phones when water was already gushing through some towns.

Sanchez denied state bodies did not provide enough information, saying the state weather office AEMET had warned for days of the risk of heavy rain, and said he did not think Spain's decentralised system of government "has failed".

"I think that some of its parts have failed and above all some people in very high positions who have not lived up to their responsibilities," he said in what was seen as a reference to Mazon.

Sanchez announced a fresh package of 60 measures for stricken citizens worth nearly 2.3 billion euros that brought the total aid provided in the wake of the disaster to 16.6 billion euros.

It includes 465 million euros to help people replace damaged cars and 19 million euros to replace text books and other school materials.

Outrage over the flood action triggered mass protests on November 9. The largest in Valencia city drew 130,000 people. Fresh protests are called for this weekend.

Sanchez said he was "absolutely open" to the creation of a parliamentary commission of enquiry to look into the state response to the floods but said he felt it was "not yet the right time".

PP head Alberto Nunez Feijoo accused Sanchez of "zero self-criticism, just blaming others".

"What a lack of humanity and what a lack of humility," he added after the Socialist premier's address to parliament.

The Bank of Spain estimates the floods were likely to knock 0.2 percentage points off the country's gross domestic product in the last quarter of the year.