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ARCHIVED - Spain heads rapidly towards a second declaration of state of emergency
The autonomous regions of the Basque Country, Catalonia, Asturias, Navarra, Extremadura, Cantabria, La Rioja and Melilla have requested the application of a state of alarm/emergency and Castilla La Mancha will do the same on Saturday.
Update Saturday 24th October; A special session of cabinet has been scheduled for Sunday morning following the request of the Region of Valencia to be added to the list of those requesting a state of emergency.
Even the Vice-president of the Madrid Region, Ignacio Aguado, urged Pedro Sánchez to "take the reins and decree a state of emergency".
It’s becoming increasingly likely that within the next few days the Spanish Government will either declare a state of emergency within the 8 autonomous regions which have specifically asked for a declaration on Friday afternoon or declare a national state of emergency encompassing all 17 autonomous regions, following a dramatic rise in the number of covid cases reported this week in Spain and the pressure this is starting to apply to the health system.
This week Spain passed the one million cases mark and within the last seven days has notified 109,572 new cases as well as reporting 977 deaths.
The clocks are going back this weekend, the weather is turning colder and scientists have no doubt that once the population starts to move indoors for the winter, that case numbers will soar further as this level of contagion is associated with uncontrolled transmission. Although many foreign tourists believe that Spain is the land of sun and sea, it actually has a very varied climate, with ski resorts, areas that become almost impassible in the winter months due to the deep snow and Atlantic coasts that are frequently subjected to severe storms and heavy rainfall; there’s a very good reason why Galician pasture is so green and abundant and fat Asturian cows the source of such wonderful cheeses!
This week the reality that the covid pandemic is rapidly spinning out of control has started to really hit home and there has been a veritable scramble amongst the 17 autonomous regions to try and impose restrictions which will contain the virus, but this course of action is proving far from easy due to the Spanish Constitution.
The Spanish Constitution is designed to protect the rights of residents of the country and one of its principal fundamental aims is to protect liberty and freedom of movement, so should a regional Government wish to impose perimeter confinements, prevent its residents from leaving their homes or towns, enforce a quarantine order or impose a curfew, the Spanish Constitution prevents them from doing so without either the national Government ordering a state of emergency or a court granting a special exemption.
In the early months of the pandemic the national state of emergency was the mechanism used by the Government to control the lockdowns, which took away the power from the regional governments, although every step of the way the Prime Minister worked with the regional governments to ensure that the powers were not abused and each extension of the SOE was undertaken with the express agreement of the regional presidents.
However, the country is run by politicians from a wide variety of parties which lean left, right, to the centre and even want to leave Spain altogether, so gaining consensus became increasingly difficult as the weeks wore by and the regional governments became impatient to resume control of their regions.
So, throughout the summer, the regional governments have resorted to the judicial mechanism to try and implement their desired measures, rejecting the offer of the Prime Minister to implement a localised state of emergency should a region require one.
There has been fierce arguing about the mechanisms available, as some regions have been calling for the Government to prepare new legislation enabling them to impose the measures they require without the state of emergency or the courts, but the PM has resisted these attempts, maintaining always that the SEO is already in place and gives the regions all the tools they need legally.
The judicial mechanism has worked well in many cases, but in others has caused significant difficulties; this week for example, the Basque Country Government has been attempting to impose perimeter movement restrictions on several areas of high covid incidence and the courts turned them down, stating that this breaches the fundamental rights of citizens. Catalonia hit the same problem when it was trying to close nightclubs, as did Madrid when it was trying to enforce a ban on smoking in public places and restaurants; just a couple of examples of many judicial disagreements which have made managing the pandemic complicated this summer.
Now many regions wish to impose a curfew along the lines of the curfews being imposed in other European countries such as France, but preliminary discussions with their respective regional judiciary have highlighted the potential legal minefield such a course of action could entail.
If a regional government was to accept a declaration of a state of emergency in their region they could implement the measures without any difficulty, but up until today the autonomous governments have been reluctant to accept the offer of the Prime Minister to call a state of emergency in an individual region due to the perceived political implications of this situation and a fear of losing control in ther own regions.
Yesterday the Interterritorial Commission (made up of representatives from each region) rejected a proposal made by the Ministry of Health for a blanket curfew or state of emergency in spite of the huge rise in cases this week and obvious need for drastic action amidst a scenario of uncontrolled transmission.
This afternoon the PM put out an address to the nation in which he stated clearly that Spain and all of Europe have the obligation to apply new measures or toughen existing ones to stop the transmission of the coronavirus.
He recalled that the official number of infected has risen to one million this week and that seroprevalence studies carried out indicate that the real number of people who have been infected in Spain exceeds three million.
In addition, he said, the number of cases reported in 24 hours has doubled compared to the worst day of the first wave. He reminded the public that the onset of the cold weather and incidence of seasonal respiratory diseases such as the flu make up a favorable context to spread the epidemic and re-stress the health system and emphasised that neither the Government, the autonomous communities nor the municipalities have any interest in imposing more limitations than those necessary to prevent the spread of the pandemic: "We want and must avoid resorting to a new home confinement at all costs. like the one we lived with for weeks in the spring. "
Within an hour, the Basque Country had caved in and requested the declaration of a regional state of emergency. Their request was followed by letters from Asturias, Extremadura, la Rioja, Catalonia, Navarra and Cantabria. Castilla La Mancha confirmed that it would also request a state of emergency on Saturday.
However, other regions are standing by their opinion that any state of emergency declared or measures imposed must be done at a national level; Murcia is amongst those making this stance. During the day Murcia, the Valencia Region, Andalusia, Madrid and Castilla y León instigated judicial examinations of the legal implications of a curfew, the President of Castilla La Mancha declaring that,” This situation requires a national mould. The ship needs a captain and although the autonomous communities can manage the state of alarm there cannot be 17 states of alarm. Spain cannot be a puzzle.”
On Saturday the Prime Minister will be in Rome as he has an audience with the Pope and is then flying straight to the Conference of Presidents in Brussels on Sunday, although any major decisions, such as whether to impose a full state of emergency or whether to declare several localised states of emergency could be made in a special cabinet meeting on Sunday or during the regular cabinet meeting on Tuesday without the need for the PM to be present other than telephonically.
Ciudadanos has already offered its support for a state of emergency and although theoretically the government has enough votes already to move the measure forward, the PM would prefer to have the support of the PP, as should an extension be required in 15 days time, agreement from the PP will be required.
Agreement to impose a state of emergency does not automatically imply that any lockdowns such as those experienced in the spring will follow as there is a general acceptance that this second wave is very different from the first, not least of all because we have a better understanding of the virus, we have drugs which can treat it, our hospitals are better prepared and staff better trained and the public is more aware of how the virus is spread, but there is agreement that our regional governments need to have the legal powers they require in order to impose the measures legally which can limit the spread of the virus.
So as things stand, it is looking increasingly likely that by Tuesday at the absolute latest, the decisions will have been taken and a state of emergency declared either in several regions, or nationally, and that nocturnal curfews will be rapidly imposed across the country.