A woman poses sporting a face mask with the word "Resistance" on it during a demonstration against the mandatory use of face masks as well as other measures adopted by the Spanish government to fight against coronavirus in Spain, on August 16, 2020, at the Colon square in Madrid.
- New restrictions to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, including the closure of discs and a partial ban on smoking outdoors, went into effect today in two Spanish regions as part of a raft of new measures which Spain's Health Minister Salvador Illa unveiled on August 14, 2020 to be enforced nationwide as the country battles a surge in the disease.
(Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP) (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's Note:
Pedro Brieger is an Argentine journalist and sociologist, author of several books and contributor to publications on international issues.
He is currently the director of Nodal, a portal dedicated to news from Latin America and the Caribbean.
He is also a television columnist on C5N in Argentina and on the program «En la frontera» on PúblicoTV (Spain), and on Argentine radio on Radio10, La Red, La Tribu and LT9-Santa Fe. Throughout his career, Brieger has received important awards for his informative work on radio and television in Argentina.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author.
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(CNN Spanish) -
How could it be otherwise, the pandemic has caused numerous political confrontations in almost all countries.
It is paradoxical that, while it is said that the pandemic should not be politicized, politics “politicizes” it without it being the patrimony of “right” or “left”.
It is very common to hear that the pandemic should not be politicized because it is a public health issue, as if this were not a political issue.
For this reason, opposition parties in many countries accused the governments of the day of acting in the wrong way.
Several governments that took restrictive measures of the public movement were accused of curtailing freedoms and even inventing a nonexistent pandemic.
Others, who were more lax, were criticized for not taking tougher measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
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If a government posited that the central issue was protecting human lives, it was accused of letting the economy fall, and those who posited that the economy could not stop working were accused of belittling life.
Some governments, like that of Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, tried to stimulate the economy while containing the virus, but that also didn't stop them from being criticized.
The arguments, in many cases, were not the result of an in-depth study since the pandemic itself was a surprise to all political parties.
For this reason it was learned as the virus spread, which caused advances and setbacks, marches and countermarches, as can be seen in several European countries that opened theaters or restaurants and those that have had to close for the festivities. of year.
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The contradictions of the governments were multiple, although perhaps the most paradoxical case is that of the United States.
President Trump tried to have a vaccine before the elections to demonstrate the effectiveness of his management.
However, many of the people who follow him consider that covid-19 does not even exist.
Policy contradictions, this time in the middle of the pandemic.
PandemicPolitics