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The government of the autonomous community of Madrid has said that it will not accept the new restrictive measures decided by the central government to contain coronavirus infections, which in the administrative region of the Spanish capital have exceeded alert thresholds. In theory, in ten municipalities of the Community of Madrid, including the capital, some type of emergency shutdown – although much less rigid than those seen in the spring – but local authorities believe that the central government’s decision does not have the necessary legal basis, threatening to appeal.
It is the latest – and probably the most heated – confrontation between the Spanish government and the autonomous communities, which are bodies similar to the Italian regions but with more autonomy, and which have been discussing for months what measures to apply to contain the epidemic, than in Spain has once again registered very high and alarming figures since the summer, in the most worrying “second wave” that has been seen in Europe together with the one underway in France. The ambiguity in the attribution of powers and competencies in the management of the epidemic between central and local governments, and the consequent ineffectiveness of health systems, is considered one of the main reasons why the situation in Spain is so serious.
Starting in mid-July, after weeks of declining infections in line with trends in the rest of the main European countries, Spain had begun to register a rapid increase in discovered cases. At the beginning of August the average new infections checked daily were around 3,000, two weeks later they had doubled and in early September they were just under 9,000. In recent weeks they have not decreased, and in fact new daily case records have been established since the beginning of the epidemic, with peaks exceeding 14,000. Daily deaths are much lower than in spring, as in all parts of Europe, but still in the order of many tens and in September they increased significantly: in the last two weeks they were almost always between 70 and 100, with a record of 129 in one day. Spain is the European country with the most registered cases, more than 750 thousand, and has more than 30 thousand deaths.
– Read also: The numbers of the epidemic in Europe
Madrid is the Spanish autonomous community where the situation has been worst for months. Of the approximately 130,000 cases of coronavirus diagnosed in the last two weeks in Spain, almost a third have been registered. The infection rate per 500 thousand inhabitants is around 780.
In recent days, the Spanish Ministry of Health had approved a plan together with a commission made up of those responsible for regional health systems, to introduce confinement measures located in areas that in the last two weeks have registered more than 500 cases per per 100,000 residents, a positive swab rate in the total of more than 10 percent and 35 percent of intensive care places occupied by COVID-19 patients. Ten municipalities in the Community of Madrid are in this situation, and according to the plan, they should close the entrances and exits for non-essential reasons (work, school and health, mainly), limit the aggregations to a maximum of six people, reduce to the half the capacity of shops and clubs, anticipate the closure of bars and restaurants at 11 pm and limit the number of participants in religious services.
These measures are already implemented in 45 health districts of the Community of Madrid, by decision of the local government: mainly poorer areas, which has provoked protests and reactions from neighbors and non-residents.
The plan must be published on Thursday in the Official Gazette of Spain and later in the Gazette of the autonomous communities. But surprisingly on Wednesday night, Madrid Community Health Minister Enrique Ruiz Escudero said that since not all representatives of the Spanish regions voted in favor of the plan, the provision does not have the necessary legal basis. He warned that if it is published, the Community of Madrid will activate its lawyers.
– Read also: Madrid no longer know what to do with the coronavirus
Most of the 17 autonomous communities in Spain voted in favor of the plan and some even called for stricter measures. The communities of Madrid, Galicia, Catalonia, Andalusia and the enclave of Ceuta voted against, while the Region of Murcia abstained. Until now, the commission’s decisions had always been made unanimously.
Several representatives of the Spanish government have made it known to The country that the regions must accept the decision of the committee and that any change can be applied, in any case, to toughen the measures. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, accused the government of wanting to take the measures for political reasons, and motivated her opposition with economic reasons related to the closures necessary to enforce the closure.
It is an essentially political clash: the Spanish government is led by the PSOE, the socialist party, while the Popular Party (PP), a historic center-right rival, is governed in Madrid, together with Ciudadanos (another center-right party) and the Vox support (far right). The Madrid government has always been very critical of the central government in managing the epidemic and has long called for powers to be entrusted to the autonomous communities: which in fact happened at the end of August, following a decision from the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez. The “state of alarm”, the measure that had allowed the government to take extraordinary measures to contain the epidemic, ended on June 21 and Sánchez had decided, after great pressure, to attribute these special powers to the regions. For this reason, the new provisions on localized confinements, decided centrally, are now challenged by the autonomous communities. With the worsening of the epidemic, in reality, the Madrid government had already asked the central government for help, recognizing that it could not manage the crisis only at the local level.
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