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MADRID (Reuters) – The Spanish government faced backlash on Monday over its plans to put one of Europe’s worst COVID-19 hotspots under a six-month state of emergency.
Opposition parties said six months was too long, epidemiologists said this might be too short, and some citizens resisted night curfews. [nL1N2HG0CO]
“The curfew doesn’t make much sense. Does the virus only infect people between 11:00 PM and 6:00 AM? No,” said Marta Aragoneses, a 36-year-old teacher, enjoying a cigarette outside a cafe in La Latina.
Nearby, Mariano Moreno de Guerra, a pharmacist on his way to work in La Latina, said he was concerned about plans for a six-month state of emergency.
“I don’t like what they have done at all,” he said. “They are getting a taste for confining people and that could be dangerous. Extending it for six months is utter outrage. I see a lot of potential for abuse.”
Political disputes between central and regional governments and between the minority government and the opposition have hampered the response to the pandemic in Spain for months.
This, in turn, has infuriated many Spaniards, and analysts say the uncertainty could eventually affect the willingness to comply with the measures.
The nationwide curfew is scheduled to last until at least November 9, while the government said on Sunday it would seek approval from parliament for the state of emergency to last six months and give each region the right to take your own steps to deal with the pandemic. including the limitation of people’s movements.
The curfew applies to all of Spain, except the Canary Islands, between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., and the regions have the authority to start the curfew one hour earlier or delay it until midnight.
People cannot move around at those times unless for specific reasons, including work or the need to go to the pharmacy
Both the main opposition party, the conservative Popular Party (PP), and the center-right Ciudadanos said on Monday they would support a state of emergency, but not for that long.
The leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, said that his party would accept up to eight weeks but no more, and with a set of conditions that would include modifying the legislation to allow limits to be decided on the movement of people to face the pandemic unnecessarily to appeal. to a state of emergency.
The curfew was announced by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, on Sunday after other European countries with fewer cases took that step.
“The measures in Spain are reactive, they drag our feet, with the feeling that it is not evaluated if they work and that something is done just because others took those measures,” said Pablo Simón, professor of Political Science at the Carlos III University of Madrid.
Spain cracked down on the first wave of the pandemic from around March through June, including a shutdown that forced people to stay home for the day.
The country’s total number of cases rose to 1,046,132 as of Friday, while the death toll is approaching 35,000.
(Reporting by Nathan Allen, Inti Landauro, Emma Pinedo, Belen Carreno; Written by Ingrid Melander; Edited by Angus MacSwan)
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