ARCHIVED - Spanish Government approves new state of emergency and curfew

The measures include curfew and social restrictions but give greater powers to regional authorities for mobility and confinement restrictions

Click here for the full BOE text in original format

The state of emergency comes into immediate effect on Sunday evening and affects all of Spain.

- Nationwide curfew lasting seven hours from 23.00 to 06.00 except in the Canary Islands ( can vary from 22:00 to 07:00 depending on the individual regional government.
- Regional governments retain control to apply the specific conditions of the SoE at a regional level
- Movement between regions and movement within regions can be limited by the regional governments.
- Restrictions placed on social gatherings: no more than six people unless they co-habit

- Other restrictions will be decided by the regional governments in line with the four tier agreement agreed last week and the regional governments are at liberty to dictate their own restrictions regarding opening hours for businesses, commercial centres, gyms etc.

The Prime Minister repeated his message that "we must limit our mobility and reduce our social interactions."

🔴EN DIRECTO
Comparecencia del presidente del Gobierno, @sanchezcastejon, tras el Consejo de Ministros extraordinario. https://t.co/f9FuwAhzE3

— La Moncloa (@desdelamoncloa) October 25, 2020

The Prime Minister called this "the most important sanitary emergency in Spain of the last century" and said that the Government had no intention of spending "one more minute than was absolutely necessary" in the state of emergency.

"Spain can stop this pandemic, united until the vaccine arrives to eradicate it permanently. I understand the anguish of citizens, I understand the concern of many older people, I understand the uncertainty and discomfort of the younger generations, forced to restrict their lives For that reason I would like to thank you. We need discipline, resistance, morale. United we will be able to defeat the virus again in this second wave. "

On Sunday morning an extraordinary meeting of the Spanish cabinet approved a new state of emergency (state of alarm) which the government hopes to extend for six months until 9th May. The Prime Minister said this is the period of time believed to be necessary by the experts to fully overcome the virus.

As with the previous state of emergency which began on March 14th and concluded on June 20th, the Spanish Constitution dictates that each SoE is only valid for 15 days, so each fortnight the Prime Minister must return to Parliament and seek a new extension.

State of Emergency affects all of Spain:

Although 11 regions had requested the application of a state of emergency, ( Basque Country, Catalonia, Cantabria, Asturias, Extremadura, La Rioja, Navarra, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands and the Community of Melilla) the state of emergency applies to all of Spain.

“Soft state of emergency”

The Prime Minister is determined to try and avoid the aggressive political confrontations which marred the last lockdown and became increasingly difficult to handle as the previous SoE neared its conclusion. This time, the intended duration of the SoE will be a six month period, until the end of April, the intention being that by writing this into the decree now and making this the stated aim, confrontation can be avoided. The government would like to achieve a similar situation to those of France or Italy where parliament understands and accepts that the measures will be in place for a minimum of two months, without the need for constant political arguing, which only demoralises the population. There is no intention of returning to a full-scale lockdown or confinement as before, the intention being to make the measures easier to bear and focusing on the principal roots of the problem without adversely affecting the business community, in order to make the measures more palatable over a longer period of time.
The aim of the Government is to reduce the current level of cases from 361.66 per 100,000 down to 25 per 100,000.

The Prime Minister said, "Sacrifices will be essential. We do not want to establish a limitation that is not essential. We believe that we can achieve this without paralyzing the life of the country. However, I would like to ask something: there is no general confinement, but the more we are at home, the more we will protect the ones we love the most. Less mobility, less contact. Let's stay at home as long as possible "

Nationwide curfew
The principal feature of this new SoE is the incluson of a nationwide curfew lasting from 23:00 to 06:00, a measure designed to prevent the nocturnal gatherings which have caused so many problems since the end of the last SoE.This has been a point of great discussion as some regions were keen for the curfew to begin at 22:00, and others for it to begin at midnight, the influencing factor being the hostelry sector. As Spain tends to habitually eat later at night than other Europeans, the restaurant sector has been concerned that a 22:00 curfew would completely destroy its chances of attracting evening diners, whereas the Ministry of Health has been concerned that permitting a curfew to begin at midnight would not be enough to deter social gatherings from germinating. Although the official text of the order has yet to be published, the regional governments will have some room to adjust the timings of the curfew to better suit their individual situations, so the time can be brought forward to 22:00 should the regional government so desire and can conclude between 05:00 and 07:00. There will be exceptions; shift workers, care of the elderly and dependents, essential movements etc.

The Canary Islands will be exempt from the curfew as its current rate of contagion is the lowest in the country and a curfew is not considered necessary.

Regional governments to take control of implementation
A major difference in this SoE which hopes to minimise political conflict is the decision to make the regional governments the delegated authority to enforce the measures within their own autonomous regions.This follows the principle of the co-governance agreement made in June after the conclusion of the first SoE and effectively gives the regional governments the tools they have been asking for since June, but without depriving them of the right to manage their own regions as they see fit and apply the measures necessary in each individual situation.

This measure is particularly important in the political arena, as although the Government has already secured the guaranteed support of Ciudadanos, the political diversity of the country makes the remaining votes more difficult to secure.

Normally the government has a major fight on its hands when dealing with the separatist regions; principally Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarra (PSN-PSOE coalition) and Aragón (PSOE).

However, the situation has changed since June as Catalonia is currently one of the worst regions affected and the number of cases is spiralling out of control; for this reason, the Catalan Government is currently favourably disposed towards more restrictive measures. The Basque Country is also experiencing its highest levels of transmission and was the first region to formally request that the Government impose a state of alarm, both of these factors pretty much guarantee the votes of the ERC and JxCAT in two weeks when the first extension must be approved.

The PP is the great unknown at the moment, as their position is under attack by right-wing Vox, so the party leadership is cautious of appearing to be “in-bed” with its socialist opposition and is highly mindful of the “blame games2” which will follow once the virus is controlled and the country is immersed in the economic crisis which will unavoidably follow the virus.

It’s noteworthy that none of the PP regions were amongst the 11 regions which requested that the Government implement this state of emergency.

This time the Prime Minister has studiously avoided any lockdowns which will adversely affect specific commercial sectors (other than tourism which will be decimated until after Christmas due to the mobility restrictions, which should deflect the flack and accusations of damaging businesses through his actions, leaving the day to day management of restrictions to the regional governments and allowing them to make their own decisions. The PP, although verbally in favour of nationwide measures, has proven rebelliously against acceptance of these blanket measures when the PM has attempted to impose them in the past, so in theory, this should give everyone what they want.

Regional governments will now be free to tailor-make their own restrictions, in line with the measures agreed previously in the “respuesta coordinada frente a la pandemia “ (click for full pdf), establishing a four tiered structure based on the epidemiological criteria of each region.

Thsi document establishes the measures which will be imposed according to a series of criteria, principally number of cases, level of positive cases detected in PCR tests, percentage of hospital beds filled etc.

Restricted movements between regions and within regions:
The decision about whether inter-territorial movement is permitted between regions will be left to the individual regions to decide for themselves. Regional governments will have the power to decide whether their own citizens are permitted to move between municipalities and whether residents from other regions are permitted to travel into each individual region. This gives the regional governments the power to decide for themselves whether to close off their region completely, or confine specific municipalities for a period of time and restrict the movement of residents. This is inevitably going to lead to a highly fluid situation with widely ranging restrictions right around the country, constantly changing.