Not again”. Not at 8 in the afternoon and much less at 6 as some autonomies proposed this Wednesday. The communities, at least for the moment, will continue to be unable to advance the curfew beyond 10 at night. Today the Ministry of Health did not give its arm to twist after almost three weeks of continuous discussions and despite the anger of practically all the autonomies at the refusal of the central government to modify a comma of the alarm decree in force since October 25. A framework that will continue to limit the arsenal of regional executives, who will continue without being able to limit the movements of their citizens until late at night and that only authorizes municipal or provincial perimeter, but not domiciliary.
Although Salvador Illa had always promised that during this time of ‘co-governance’ the decisions on the strategy to be followed would always be agreed upon by the central government and the communities within the framework of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, the truth is Health ignored the request of practically all of the autonomies asking for more legal instruments from the autonomies to face this third wave. And that in today’s Council in Seville was a clamor, including communities governed by socialists, in favor of extending the curfew. Cantabria, Castilla y León, Andalusia, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Madrid, Galicia, Basque Country, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Catalonia, Murcia, Murcia …
Even so, Illa, from the beginning of the telematic meeting in the Palacio de San Telmo, insisted that they did not see the need to introduce changes and that the current regulatory framework had served to bend the second curve and should be enough to do the same with a third. The minister heard the barrage of petitions and criticism but did not move a millimeter from his position. And he reiterated that the current state of alarm still allows the autonomies more measures before thinking about changing it.
Health technicians also insisted today in their previous meetings with various counselors on practical problems in the application of a curfew before 10 at night, since it is very difficult to control compliance in a large city when at that time still tens of thousands of workers are still back home. All this, regardless of the crowds that could cause to get home on time.
But apart from the problems of application, in the Government the “defeat by acclamation” in the “war of the curfew” this Wednesday in the Interterritorial Council would have left a bad taste in the mouth above all. And not because for the first time the vast majority of regional governments have spoken out against a Health decision, but because the agreement to draft a new decree would have left the central Executive in a very uncomfortable situation because it could have been understood as a rectification, after having even had to appeal to the Supreme Court the unilateral decision of Castilla y León to advance the curfew at 8 in the afternoon.
Sanidad not only did not give in on the curfew but also wanted to make it clear in the telematic meeting at the San Telmo Palace that it is not willing to go further. Illa did not even enter into the debate that some autonomies wanted to open so that the new decree of a state of alarm that must be in force until May 9 also allows the ‘delegated authorities’ to decree home confinement at least in the municipalities with the incidence of the virus triggered, as urged by its host today in Seville, the president of the Board, Juanma Moreno.
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