As expected since Saturday evening, the state of health emergency is officially declared in Spain.
It is expected to last until the beginning of May, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address following an extraordinary Council of Ministers on Sunday.
This exceptional regime, of its official name "state of alert", is accompanied by the establishment of a curfew at 11 p.m. throughout the country, with the exception of the Canary Islands (located more 1,000 km from the European continent), in an attempt to break the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic.
"The situation we are going through is extreme," warned Pedro Sanchez, as Spain passed the milestone of one million people tested positive this week.
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Compared to the population, the number of new daily cases is however 30% times lower than that in France, according to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Legal hazard
Until then, the Spanish regions were free to decide on the restrictions taken on their territory.
Some of them, like that of Valencia, have already implemented a curfew.
But others, like the one in Madrid, have seen their measures overturned by the courts on the grounds that they violate individual freedoms.
Only the state of alert made it possible to remove this legal framework hazard.
However, the regions will retain the option to advance or delay the start time of the curfew, depending on local characteristics.
As in France, the Spanish government needs Parliament's agreement if it wants this exceptional regime to last more than two weeks (four weeks in France).
Pedro Sanchez says he is confident of obtaining an absolute majority of deputies.