Spain is moving towards a new state of alarm.
After, this Friday, a trail of autonomous communities were joining the request to the Government to decree it, the Executive of Pedro Sánchez plans to do it in the next Council of Ministers, most likely this Sunday in an extraordinary meeting.
This is assured by cabinet sources, although in principle it was intended for Tuesday, a day after listening to the regional leaders in the telematic conference of presidents to be held on Monday and which will have as a guest the president of the European Commission, Ursula von de Leyen.
Melilla began.
And they followed the Basque Country, Asturias, Extremadura, La Rioja, Catalonia, Navarra and Cantabria, Valencian Community and Castilla-La Mancha.
Throughout Friday afternoon, its presidents (Socialists, Citizens and Nationalists, but none from the PP) were demanding that Sánchez articulate this constitutional tool to impose extraordinary restrictions in the face of the unstoppable advance of the coronavirus in almost the entire national territory.
The president had already shown in the morning, in a speech to the citizens, his willingness to take strict measures because, he said, "the situation is serious" and that "very hard months are coming."
Questions and answers about the alarm status
The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, had also asked in the morning for "broad support" to approve a state of alarm and thus be able to establish a night curfew throughout the country, something that has been considering his department for days.
This supposes the competition of the autonomies, which would be the ones that would apply it and sufficient support in the Congress of Deputies, which would have to vote in favor to be able to extend it once it is launched.
Ciudadanos offered their seats and asked the PP to support it.
With the votes of the PNV, Ciudadanos and the partners of the Catalan Government, the Executive of PSOE and United We can add an absolute majority to endorse the measure in Parliament.
The Government would also prefer to have the support of the PP, which has already announced that it is refusing this measure while calling for an "express" legal reform that allows communities to restrict movements without going through the courts.
Events throughout Friday moved quickly.
The Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, was the first regional president to take a step forward.
And the support of the Generalitat finished propping up a measure that seems increasingly imminent.
Executive sources indicated that although it was planned to stage the support at the presidents' conference, it is very possible that it will be approved on Sunday.
State of alarm is not synonymous with home confinement.
In fact, it is what the authorities try to avoid by all means with intermediate measures.
This was expressed by the Prime Minister on Friday in a speech that remembered those he made in spring, during the first wave of the epidemic.
He asked for unity, both from administrations and citizens to avoid complete limitations of movements, while opening the door to a new state of alarm to take extraordinary measures in those places where the risk is extreme.
Shortly after Sánchez's speech, the president of the autonomous city of Melilla, Eduardo de Castro (from Ciudadanos), announced that he had requested in writing to the Government the application of the state of alarm to enable night confinement.
"The city is on the verge of sanitary collapse," he justified.
Its project is to prohibit unjustified movements from 10 pm to 6 am, in application of article 11 of the law that regulates the state of alarm, "to prevent large bottles, private parties in homes, garages ...".
The president of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, did the same: "This is not to confine, it is to limit mobility."
No courts
Once the state of alarm is approved, the idea is for the communities to articulate it and take the measures they deem appropriate without having to go through the courts.
It is the justification that the lehendakari gave when he announced his request and thus have legal protection for the new restrictions that he wants to implement.
Urkullu requested that the state of alarm be extended to all of Spain and that authority be delegated to the regional presidents.
The Basque presidency made the decision just 24 hours after learning that the Superior Court of Justice of that community did not authorize the most restrictive measures for citizens, such as the prohibition of meeting more than six people in the private and public sphere.
That is precisely the problem that the autonomies face when imposing restrictive measures on fundamental rights without a state of alarm: they remain in the hands of the courts, which have allowed some confinements and rejected others.
There is still no precedent for what they will do about the curfew.
"We need a decentralized state of alarm in which the Generalitat maintains all management capacity," defended the acting Catalan president, Pere Aragonès.
“Spain cannot be a puzzle and even less a puzzle, there must be a national pattern.
And the measures to limit mobility cannot only be within our region or any other, but in all of them because some affect others.
The guideline has to be global and there has to be common sense: that we go in the same direction and that we all go ”, proposed Emiliano García Page, Castilian-Manchego president.
At the expense of applying the state of alarm, some communities use decrees that must pass through their superior courts.
Castilla y León was the first to formally request a curfew from the Government.
The president of the Board, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, announced on Friday that they will impose it after a meeting with Minister Illa.
The minister stressed the need for consensus with the communities so that these restrictions can be applied throughout Spain and explained that the state of alarm is the best legal mechanism to provide the necessary coverage if these curfews have to be prolonged more than 15 days.
Illa appreciated the inter-territorial health council held last Thursday, which resulted in agreements on fixed criteria for interpreting the levels of danger, but not in instructions for immediate implementation throughout Spain.
"It is an important step forward," he said, because it served to set "common criteria for risk assessment and includes a catalog of action measures.
It is a common response framework ”.
Mañueco recalled the seriousness of the moment, which his community has led to action to request the limitation of night movement: "We cannot return to the dramatic situation of March and April, we must show that we have learned."
The regional legal services are working to implement this order as soon as possible and make it effective this weekend.
In June, the state of alarm ended abruptly because the Government had increasingly difficult the support to carry out new extensions.
The Health plan required this legal tool at least until July 6, when the de-escalation phases were scheduled to end in all autonomous regions, but it ended on June 21.
This led some, like Madrid, to jump from phase 2 to the new normal.
With information from
Juan Navarro
,
Miquel Noguer
,
Virginia Vadillo
,
Javier Arroyo
,
Ferrán Bono
and
Isabel Valdés
A legal umbrella for curfew
The possibility of establishing a curfew that would limit night movement to stop infections associated with early morning entertainment and drinking bottles emerged this week and several communities embraced this measure.
Now, in addition to Castilla y León, the Valencian Community, Andalusia and Murcia are also going to apply curfews.
The regional government of the latter community is going to consult with the Superior Court of Justice the legal possibility to do so, but it defends that the state of alarm is not necessary and that it can do so with the Public Health Law of 1986. For its part, the Andalusian Minister of Health, Jesús Aguirre, said yesterday that he is considering expanding the curfew agreed for Granada and its metropolitan area to the entire region, which has a very high incidence due, in part, to the night parties.
"If the increase in hospital pressure on beds and ICU persists, we will be forced to ask for a curfew for the entire community," he said in Canal Sur.
Information about the coronavirus
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- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in the world
- Download the tracking application for Spain
- Search engine: The new normal by municipalities
- Guide to action against the disease