Several people, on July 6, 2020 at the "no chupinazo" in Pamplona.PABLO LASAOSA
The mayor of Pamplona, Enrique Maya, announced this Monday the suspension of Sanfermines 2021, for the second consecutive year, due to the health situation generated by covid-19. The decision has been communicated in a press conference by the mayor, after meeting with the Board of Spokespersons of the City Council and transferring it to the Sanfermines Table. In recent months, Maya had already said that she considered it "absolutely impossible" to celebrate these parties as they had known each other. The mayor of Pamplona has felt “obliged” to make this decision after remembering that Navarra is one of the autonomous communities with the highest incidence of covid cases, “with 432 cases in the last two weeks per 100,000 inhabitants”. In addition, there are almost 200 people hospitalized, 39 of them in the ICU.
In video, the mayor of Pamplona, Enrique Maya, announces the Sanfermines will not be held in 2021 either.VILLAR LÓPEZ (EFE) |
VIDEO: EUROPA PRESS
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Maya added that the rate of vaccination in Navarra "is slower than expected, and only 202 people out of 1,000 have received one dose and 83 out of 1,000 have received both", when "the forecasts spoke of 70% of the population vaccinated in June;
therefore, it is necessary to make the decision now, however painful it may be, in the absence of just over two months from San Fermín ”.
The mayor, from the Navarra Suma coalition, which includes the Navarre People's Union, the Popular Party and the Citizens, explained that festivals such as Sanfermines "are not organized from one day to the next, there are many people and institutions involved." “Two years without Sanfermines are very hard. I never thought this could happen, but health comes first ”. However, he has been convinced that in 2022 this party will be enjoyed again "with the usual enthusiasm but multiplied by three". At the press conference, the mayor also announced that Pamplona will allocate "1.3 of the 2.4" million of this year's budget planned for San Fermín to a "broad and ambitious" program, mainly cultural, from June to September. .
After the announcement, the Socialist Party of Navarra in Pamplona has considered the decision "the most appropriate", although it has criticized the "forms" used by the mayor to do so. The Socialists point out that it has acted "against the majority of the Corporation", which demanded that the Sanfermines Table be convened previously, in order to inform the sectors involved in the party before announcing the decision. In the same vein, Geroa Bai has criticized the fact that it was not announced to the Table so that decisions were taken "by consensus, after listening to all sectors and areas of the party, as well as all political groups." EH Bildu has added to the criticisms, who have warned of the "obvious risk" of Maya making "the mistakes of last year with the no parties, the no txupinazo and the no masses",in what they have described as "pseudo-campaign of San Fermín".