ARCHIVED - Unpaid lockdown-breaking fines in Spain annulled as the first wave confinement is declared unconstitutional

1.15 million fines were issued in the initial 99-day lockdown between March and June 2020

Spain’s Constitutional Court, the highest legal authority in the country, issued a controversial ruling on Wednesday when it declared that the initial coronavirus lockdown imposed by the government on 14th March 2020 was unconstitutional, effectively cancelling all unpaid fines issued to those who flouted the rules which confined many people to their homes for two months.

Opinion was divided among the eleven members of the court and the ruling was reached only with the casting of the decisive vote of the president of the tribunal, but the decision reached is that the elimination of a fundamental right of the population – to leave their homes – was in breach of the powers implied by the state of emergency. As a result, many of the 1.15 million fines issued during the 99-day lockdown between March and June are effectively annulled, although experts say that those which have already been paid are not returnable.

Between 14^th March and 21^st June an average of 11,537 offences per day were punished by the issuing of fines ranging from 600 to 30,000 euros depending on the gravity of the offence.

In addition, a door is potentially opened for a glut of claims for damages against the government from people and businesses who lost money and jobs due to the lockdown, although the scenario will not be clarified until the full text of the ruling is made available. The likelihood is that the government will be exempted from the obligation to offer compensation due to the scale of the emergency brought about by the first wave of coronavirus contagion.

The essence of the judgment is that in order to deprive people of the right to free movement the government should have established a “state of exception”, a concept mentioned in Spain’s Constitution which enables the ruling powers to transcend the rule of law in the name of the public good, although 5 of the 11 members of the tribunal remained of the opinion that the state of emergency (which lasted 50 days from 14^th March to 4^th May 2020) was sufficient to grant this right.

The case against the government was brought by the far-right wing party Vox, who alleged that the fundamental rights of Spaniards had been infringed.

Fines issued during the states of emergency

During the first 99-day state of emergency a total of 1,142,127 fines were issued although only 229,000 were fully confirmed.

During the second state of emergency between 25^th October 2020 and 9^th May 2021, on which the Constitutional Court has yet to pronounce judgment, a further 327,853 fines were initiated at a rate of 1,821 per day.