Date Published: 03/06/2020
ARCHIVED - Health MinIstry denies movement between regions in phase 3 will be permitted
ARCHIVED ARTICLE On Monday the Transport Minister had said the government was considering this possibility
Anyone who had planned a quick “phase 3 getaway” will have to remain patient a little longer as the Health Ministry has firmly quashed any suggestion of movement between regions of Spain which have entered phase 3 until the end of the de-escalation process, planned for 21st June.
Today the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will ask parliament to support the continuance of the state of emergency until this date, and is expected to gain the support required. This permits him to maintain control of the armed forces and police and enforce restrictions on movement until that date.
On Monday the Minister for Transport, José Luis Ábalos, had announced that the government was considering permitting residents of regions which entered phase 3 to travel to other phase 3 regions, an announcement which was followed by a wave of criticism from regional presidents demanding to know how this could possibly be enforced and managed.
The Minister for Health, Salvador Illa, has now “corrected” him and made it clear that non-urgent travel between regions of Spain will not be permitted until the conclusión of the state of emergency, but inter-provincial travel WILL be permitted in phase 3.
For us here in the Region of Murcia the ruling makes no difference to our own mobility as the Murcia Region has no internal provinces, but for neighbouring regions such as Andalucía and the Valencia region it makes a huge difference, as these regions cover vast geographical areas and are subdivided into multiple provinces.
The only major difference for us here in Murcia is that second home owners from outside of the region will not be permitted to come to their second properties; a major relief for the regional government which has fought hard to keep the region contained and isolated from cases imported from other areas of Spain; it has to be remembered that the trigger for the declaration of the state of emergency back in March was the mass migration to coastal areas of second home owners from Madrid, the region which has suffered the largest number of cases and deaths from Covid -19.
At the moment national travel is only permitted in exceptional circumstances or principally for the movement of personnel for work purposes, not for tourism.
At the moment Spain’s borders remain closed for all but non-essential travel and this is anticipated to remain the same until 1st July.
There is considerable confusion amongst UK residents at the moment about the situation in Spain as airlines are now openly selling flights to the Spanish mainland from the beginning of July and for the Canary and Balearic islands from the middle of June (these are expected to enter the “new normal” from the beginning of the month as case numbers have been lower and the islands are ahead of the rest of Spain in de-escalation, already in phase 3). Many social media users seem not to understand that Spain is still closed, and it’s not possible to hop on a ferry and drive down through France to get to Spain unless they have full residency in Spain.