Pedro Sánchez offers a middle way to the opposition regarding the duration of the state of alarm that the Government raises for six months and that most groups consider to be “excessive.” The president has proposed in Congress that within four months -in March- the Interterritorial Health Council review the situation and consider whether or not it is necessary to maintain that exceptional measure that is included in article 116 of the Constitution and with which the Executive has endowed the regional presidents with the legal framework to establish restrictions such as the curfew, the perimeter closure or the limitation of social meetings.
The Government defends that half a year is what the experts advise and that it serves to provide a stable framework for the communities. In addition, it maintains that the state of alarm can be in force without measures being taken if it is not necessary. Given the criticism for the duration, including the PP, Sánchez has proposed during the control session that in four months the inter-territorial council in which the Government and the communities are represented analyze the situation. “If it stipulates that the alarm is not necessary, the Government will review its decision and if it says that we have to continue another two months, the Government will keep that tool” until May 9, as is foreseen in the extension that will be debated this Thursday.
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“The Government is for unity and unity means listening and reaching out,” said Sánchez, who has formulated his proposal in the ‘face to face’ with Pablo Casado, whom he has reproached for making “mistake after mistake.” He has also reproached the conservatives for having “denigrated” the constitutional tool of the state of alarm. Casado supported her in the months of March and April, but then he got off the hook and went to abstention and later to ‘no’ during the first wave of COVID-19. The PP’s proposal is to reform the legal package of health regulations so that exceptional measures can be applied without the need to resort to a state of alarm.
Sánchez has reproached Casado for “qualifying as a constitutional dictatorship” the state of alarm. “Either dictatorship or constitutional, both is impossible,” the president told him, who appealed to the “responsibility” of the main opposition party in this second wave.
Casado, for his part, has kept his “hand extended” to Sánchez to support the extension of the state of alarm -which is being applied by the autonomous governments of the PP to restrict movements-, but has conditioned its duration to two months to “save Christmas “. The head of the opposition maintains that reducing the duration would serve to prevent the December jobs campaign from being spoiled, but has assured that it would also serve to maintain “the hope of thousands of older people.” “Why don’t you accept this proposal for this second wave of the coronavirus?” He asked the president after recalling his “legal plan B” to face the pandemic.
