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(In update)
Small retail stores of up to 200 square meters and, regardless of size, hairdressers, car stands and bookstores will open from Monday May 4, the government announced to the social partners on Wednesday. According to the Observer found with the social partners, the Executive plans a gradual reopening: on May 18, if the evolution of the pandemic allows it, stores of up to 400 square meters will be reopened and, in early June, the rest.
The government met with the social partners on Wednesday and listened to the proposals of the employers ‘and unions’ confederations on the recovery of the economy. Government plans are undergoing a reopening similar to what happened in the Czech Republic, where stores of up to 200 square meters, then up to 400 meters, and then the remaining commercial establishments resumed their activity.
Therefore, the government plans announced to the social partners go through a reopening in stages: small shops of up to 200 square meters and, for example, hairdressers, car stands and bookstores will open on Monday. On May 18, it is the turn of stores of up to 400 square meters. In this case, the municipalities will have a special prerogative: that is, as long as they assume responsibility, they will be able to open commercial spaces with areas of more than 400 square meters.
In early June, the others should open. The plan, as the government has always said, will depend on the evolution of the pandemic.
At the end of the social consultation meeting, the Minister of Labor, Ana Mendes Godinho, stressed that the Government is working with the social partners “on a common document of global guidelines on safety and health at work” for the recovery of the economy.
The Government meets this Wednesday afternoon with the political parties, also to announce how the reopening of commercial activity and services will take place.
At the end of the meeting with the Government, PSD President Rui Rio said that the reopening in the first phase will cover “smaller street stores”, which would leave out shopping centers. This opening will require “the obligatory use of masks in closed spaces”, a suggestion of the PSD and which was accepted by the Executive.
The question of the reopening of shopping malls had been raised by the president of the Portuguese Association of Publishers and Booksellers (APEL). Speaking to Rádio Observador, João Alvim said that the reopening of the bookstores is “good news because the sector was dying and will be greatly affected by this entire interval.” But he emphasized that it is still necessary to know “under what conditions it is opened and if all [as livrarias] open “, that is, those in shopping malls.
“We do not know if there are conditions for opening,” he stressed, referring to the decision that the Council of Ministers will leave on Thursday, when the government approves the measures for the resumption of economic activity.
As for the restaurants, Rui Rio said, in turn, that they will remain closed and that they will open, “in a balanced way”, in mid-May, during the second phase of reopening of commercial establishments.
Catarina Martins, coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda, stressed that “only the evaluation of the evolution of the epidemic itself can determine whether the reopens continue or not. The criteria of health is still very important ”.
