Health clashes with the PP communities to approve its new anti-smoking plan

View of a tobacconist in the city of Zaragoza.Javier Cebollada (EFE)

The Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking, which aims, among other things, to expand smoke-free spaces and raise taxes on tobacco, will continue “even if the PP does not support it.” With this forcefulness, the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, expressed himself this Thursday on social network X. The ministry plans to inform the communities this Friday about its approval in an Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS) in which it will not be put to a vote. Instead, it has asked the autonomies to decide this Thursday, until 1:00 p.m., whether they join or not.

According to Health, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, Navarra and Asturias have joined. The Basque Country has requested not to make its position public until tomorrow, and the majority of the communities have not shown a closed position, they have stressed that the procedure “is not appropriate” and they will wait for Friday's meeting with the minister to make an official statement. The front against some aspects of the plan is formed above all by popular communities, but there are also those governed by the PSOE, such as Castilla-La Mancha, which has not yet made a clear statement, or Navarra, which will adhere but shows, as the region governed by Emiliano García-Page, reluctance regarding the

Comprehensive Plan for Tobacco Prevention and Control (PIT) 2024-2027

, the draft of which they had received on March 14.

Given this first version, some directors general of public health asked for time to study the document. At the next meeting of the Public Health Committee (participated by these directors), which was held on Wednesday, Health accepted 147 of the 157 amendments they presented. But there was no vote to approve the document either, according to sources from some autonomies governed by the PP. “The ministry sent another draft for Wednesday's meeting and stated that there is no vote, but that the communities can join or not and gave another 24-hour deadline for today. There are doubts that the formula used is appropriate,” they explain from a popular council.

The ministry, for its part, has approved this version of the document, which will, predictably, be the one that ends up being approved, and which will serve as a roadmap on tobacco regulations with five main objectives: prevent the beginning of tobacco consumption and related products, promote smoking cessation and facilitate help to quit smoking, reduce environmental exposure to emissions from tobacco and related products, promote applied research and monitoring in tobacco control and enhance coordination and establishing alliances.

This strategy, in theory, will give rise - among many other measures - to the aforementioned tax increase, which will have to be agreed with the Treasury, or to a restriction of places where smoking can be done, such as terraces, as long as Congress pass a law on the matter. This will be done, as Padilla says, with or without the help of the PP communities.

EL PAÍS has contacted all the autonomies to obtain their position on the plan. The majority has not shown a firm disposition in one direction or another. Yes, Aragón (PP-Vox) has done so, saying that he will not adhere to the plan due to its “lack of concreteness”, among other issues. Nuria Gayán, its general director of Public Health, has expressed her concern about the attitude of Health for approving without consensus and with “haste” a rule of this “importance.”

Gayán summarizes some of the drawbacks that various autonomies see: “A plan without financial resources and without an execution schedule seems weak to us. And we also don't think it's good that strategies based on self-regulation of voluntariness to create smoke-free spaces with a badge have not been taken into account, which create awareness, which have positive results in some communities. It is also not said which are the smoke-free spaces, the ministry says it will say it later, and we do not know what it refers to: whether university campuses, sports spaces, hospitality terraces... "

Yes, Navarra (PSOE) will join, but with “all precautions.” His Health Minister, Fernando Domínguez, has justified this because, although they "agree with the general aspects, there is a lack of information." “We do not know what full or partial accession entails, we have not had time to evaluate the text with all the contributions and we do not know where it may take us in the legislation of smoke-free spaces,” he declared. Castilla-La Mancha, also a socialist, is generally in favor, but is bothered by its lack of economic memory.

Other communities are being more ambiguous and do not show a clear position due to their rejection of the way of carrying out the plan that the ministry has chosen. Cantabria has said that it will not make a statement until tomorrow. Marciano Gómez, Health Minister of the Valencian Community, has communicated that his position is “the defense of the health of Valencians”, without clarifying his adherence to the plan, although he has stressed that he misses the economic memory. Andalusia has not given a definitive response, but has been against the procedure, as has Extremadura, which also rejects several points (such as plain packaging or the “imposition of prohibiting smoking on terraces”, which does not appear in the text). His advisor wants to debate it at the CISNS this Friday, in which the regional officials will meet with Minister Mónica García.

Health Response

The Secretary of State has responded in X to the main allegations of communities reluctant to subscribe to the plan:

“It was done very quickly and we have not had time to evaluate the plan,” is one of the allegations. To this, Padilla answers that he has been working for years and that there have been 15 days to make allegations, of which the vast majority have been incorporated.

“It has no economic memory,” is another complaint. The Secretary of State assures that the ministry's advisors did not consider it necessary, and that the large comprehensive plans that have passed through the interterritorial council did not have it either and were still approved.

These days the Popular Party has to decide if it is still the one in the photo or if it has already joined the 21st century.

I will tell you a little about the list of excuses for not supporting the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking (which will continue even if the PP does not support it). pic.twitter.com/IWVSfVq9tk

— Javier Padilla (@javierpadillab) April 4, 2024

“The plain packaging measure has no bibliography,” some communities continue – in the words of Padilla – when referring to one of the plan's proposals: that the brands do not appear prominently on the tobacco packs, and that they all have a similar appearance. In the bibliography of the plan there is a section with 20 references.

Reluctant communities also argue that “if tobacco taxes are raised, they have to be finalists.” Padilla counterargues that the final taxes on tobacco have “a dubious” fit in the Spanish legal system and that Health expects that the tax increase will lead to a decrease in revenue due to its impact on consumption.

Another criticism points out that “smoke-free spaces, such as terraces, have to be voluntary and have tax incentives.” Although the plan does not mention terraces, it does talk about expanding smoke-free spaces. Padilla argues that doing so is already voluntary and does not work. “When there are no reasons that can be made public to oppose common sense measures, one clings to formal aspects. This week will be left to decide who, once again, is placed in a place where the years will show that it made no sense to be,” concludes the Secretary of State.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_