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The government of Pedro Sánchez approved this Sunday morning the establishment of a state of emergency during an extraordinary Council of Ministers. Circulation will be prohibited between 11pm and 6am, setting up what the Spanish press calls “nighttime running.”
However, on this occasion, the state of emergency is expected to last for six months, with mandatory curfews, with each autonomous community having a margin to delay or advance the curfew by one hour.
Other restrictions are also envisaged, namely in terms of social gatherings. Displacement between autonomous communities will be prohibited, except in situations duly justified for health or work reasons. The control will be done by the security forces.
The covid-19 virus has so far infected more than a million people in Spain (a barrier that was crossed, by the way, on Wednesday of this week, becoming the first country in Western Europe to exceed one million infected). About 35 thousand people died.
“El País” had already anticipated, based on information from executive sources, that the measure could take effect for several weeks. The majority of autonomous communities supported it, given the exponential increase in contagion cases in the country.
It is one of those provided for by the Spanish Constitution (Article 116) for “natural catastrophes, health crisis, crisis in the supply of essential goods and paralysis of essential services”, the others are the state of emergency and siege.
The state of emergency was enacted for the first time in Spain on December 10, 2010, when a strike by air traffic controllers forced the cancellation of air traffic in the country. The second time was during the covid-19 pandemic, on March 14, which lasted 98 days.
At that time, drastic measures were imposed to try to contain the transmission of the virus (which implied an economic paralysis), which is not the intention of the Executive at this time, says “El País”, which speaks of “lighter measures.” Limiting the country completely is not an option on the table.
