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MADRID: Spain’s socialist-led government invoked the state of emergency on Friday (October 9) to re-impose a partial blockade for several million people in and around Madrid, one of the worst COVID-19 hotspots of Europe, after a court annulled the measures.
The measure, effective immediately, intensified a confrontation between the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the conservative-led regional chief of Madrid, who calls the restrictions illegal, excessive and disastrous for the economy.
“Patience has its limits,” Health Minister Salvador Illa said at a press conference, rebuking the regional authority for inaction. “It is important that the level of contagion in Madrid does not spread to the rest of Spain.”
LEE: Madrid must impose COVID-19 travel restrictions or face the state of emergency, says the Spanish government
The government said an additional 7,000 police would be deployed to enforce the law. But many of the 3.8 million affected people in the capital city and eight satellite cities were bewildered and cars continued to fill up over a holiday weekend.
“I feel bad because I do not know how to act, what to do, if I am doing things right or wrong, and I feel totally badly governed by our politicians who simply are not up to the job,” he said 64 years. -old retired Jesús Doria.
Following an order from the Health Ministry, Madrid authorities reluctantly banned all non-essential travel in and out of the city and nearby towns last week. The region had 723 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the two weeks to October 8, according to the World Health Organization, making it the second densest group in Europe after Andorra.
“WHAT DO WE DO NOW?”
But instead of a general restriction, the head of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, wanted restrictions tailored to the levels of contagion in the neighborhoods.
A Madrid court sided with her on Thursday, effectively suspending the restrictions until the government responded with its two-week emergency order.
“We had an alternative plan that we had been defending until the last moment, but it has not been possible, which is a pity. The state of emergency was totally avoidable,” the spokesman for the Community of Madrid, Ignacio Aguado, told the press.
Television images showed lines of cars on the main roads leaving Madrid on Friday afternoon in what is usually one of the busiest weekends for domestic tourism, as the Spanish mark the arrival of Christopher Columbus at Americas on October 12, 1492.
“I feel a little puzzled and surprised and now everyone is saying, ‘I’m going for the weekend, no, no, what do we do now?'” Esther, 45, said in Madrid.
The far-right Vox party, which underlines Spain’s political temperament, has threatened to protest the state of emergency.
Spain has reported 848,324 cases of coronavirus, the largest in Western Europe, and 32,688 deaths. Its economy dependent on tourism will suffer a contraction of more than 11% this year in the worst recession since the civil war.
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