Date Published: 23/10/2020
ARCHIVED - Basque Country recommends limited mobility in 25 municipalities with a high incidence of Covid
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
The judiciary has prevented the regional government from imposing movement restrictions and prohibiting gatherings of more than 6 people so the government has been forced to issue a recommendation instead.
The Spanish Constitution is designed to protect the rights of residents of the country and one of its prinicipal fundamentals is to protect liberty and freedom of movement, although it is proving to be a real inconvenience for regional governments attempting to impose restrictions who must request judicial approval of measures which may contravene the Spanish Constitution. If they were to accept a state of emergency in their region they could implement the measures without any difficulty, but in a region such as the Basque Country (Euskadi or País Vasco), which has a long history of separatist campaigning (ETA….) this is never going to be acceptable.Some restrictions are accepted by the judiciary in many regions of Spain, but not here, and the courts have rejected the measures as anti-constitutional, so the regional government can only strongly recommend.
So on Friday the Basque Government will approve an order in which it will establish a 'general recommendation' for a total of 25 municipalities in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa due to the "severe" epidemiological situation, to restrict entrances and exits from the municipal area, except for health, work or force majeure reasons.
The ‘general recommendation’ to avoid entering and leaving the municipality affects 25 localities with more than 5,000 inhabitants and with a cumulative incidence of the coronavirus of more than 500 infections in the last 14 days.
The municipalities affected by this 'recommendation' are Abadiño, Durango, Elorrio, Ermua, Lekeitio, Andoain, Astigarraga, Azkoitia, Azpeitia, Beasain, Deba, Eibar, Elgoibar, Hernani, Lazkao, Legazpi, Lezo, Oñati, Ordizia, Pasaia , Tolosa, Urnieta, Urretxu, Zumaia and Zumarraga.
There are no such problems in the Valencian Community which will issue a resolution in the next few hours to decree a night curfew. The Ministry of Health and the Law Office of the Valencian Government are already studying a resolution that allows restricting mobility from 00:00 to 6:00 in the morning until December 9th. Andalusia, has become the first region that has already agreed to apply a curfew in Granada and in thirty municipalities in its metropolitan area, restricting mobility from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Meanwhile, the Navarra region and large cities such as Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel have voluntarily imposed their own perimeter confinement since Thursday, while La Rioja will also voluntarily confine from Friday.