More than six months ago it ended at 00:00 this Sunday, May 9, and Spaniards can now move throughout the country. In fact, midnight was celebrated as if it were a spring New Year’s Eve, with crowds and celebrations in the main cities of Spain.
The perimeter closures at the regional level have been lifted with the end of the state of alarm in all the communities. The Balearic and Canary Islands will continue to carry out health checks on people from other autonomous communities or cities and will request a negative test for coronavirus.
From now on, the restrictions on the fundamental rights of citizens remain in the hands of the autonomous communities and what the courts dictate.
Since the coronavirus crisis broke out in March 2020, the state of alarm has been in force for a total of 9 months and 21 days throughout Spain, 10 months and 6 days in the Community of Madrid.
Restriction of fundamental rights
There are three measures that have been in force until this Sunday that restrict fundamental rights and that must be endorsed by the courts to continue applying them: limits on social gatherings, curfews and closures of communities, provinces or municipalities. No community will maintain the closure of its entire territory. The only one that has requested it has been the Basque Country and the courts have not accepted it.
In Madrid, the ICUs have a covid occupancy of more than 40%, 37% in Euskadi and 35% in Catalonia
The state of alarm ends with the average incidence of infections in Spain in the last 14 days reducing, since it stood at 198.60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants this Friday, with a disparate epidemiological situation by territory. Thus, for example, in the Valencian Community there are 40 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while in the Basque Country, more than 450.
There are currently 8,605 patients admitted for covid-19 throughout Spain and 2,183 in an ICU. The occupancy rate of beds occupied by coronavirus stands at 6.85% and in ICUs at 21.85%. In Madrid, the ICUs have an occupancy due to Covid of more than 40%, 37% in Euskadi and 35% in Catalonia.
Back to summer 2020?
The situation faced by the citizens of this country from now on will not be such a novel scenario. In reality, we already experienced it in the summer of 2020, when the population came out of the harsh spring confinement with a cumulative incidence that did not reach 25 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants.
So, with a variety of measures -many of them opposite- that caused ambiguity and confusion among citizens.
Given the different outbreaks that arose from the first weeks, and which led to a new viral escalation that has been triggered since August, it was the courts that had the last word to support the restrictions of the regional executives. In many cases, invalidating them.
Barcelona beach, after the end of the state of alarm. Image: Reuters.
Many regions already found themselves last summer with resolutions from the Superior Courts of Justice annulling the measures they had adopted. This is the case of the Basque Country, whose government is one of those that has pressed the most for the state of alarm to be extended.
However, the Executive has decided to uphold its decision and to avoid discrepancies between the decisions of the Superior Courts of Justice of the different autonomous communities, it has chosen to create an express appeal before the Supreme Court so that it unifies the doctrine. The Third Chamber of the high court will have 5 days to resolve, so that the measures that may affect fundamental rights are the same in all regions.
The court notice
But even before the appeals for the decisions of the TSJ begin to reach the Supreme Court, it has already issued an urgency note in which it points to a “possible insufficiency” or “inadequacy” in the range of the norm used to regulate issues that affect fundamental rights.
In addition, the Supreme Court criticizes the Executive for trying to make the courts of justice executive partners in the adoption of administrative measures. The TS also warns that the intended unification of the Government’s doctrine may not occur, because, among other things, it warns that the appeals may be inadmissible because it is understood that it has no appeal, for example, because it is a casuistic issue.
The warning from the high court came just after the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands endorsed this Thursday the plan that the regional government has carried out and that will operate from May 9 and that does affect fundamental rights.
Specifically, the Balearic Government has decided to limit movement on public roads between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and also establish controls for entry to the autonomous community with tests that passengers must pay if they do not they move for justified reasons; These measures are de facto a curfew and a perimeter closure.
However, a day later, the Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country (TSJPV) has ruled this Friday that the regional or municipal confinements, the night curfew or the limit of groups of four people cannot be maintained in the Basque Country, after the end of the state of alarm considering that it affects fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
In the Valencian Community, the Superior Court of Justice has authorized this Friday the limitations on night mobility, social and/or family gatherings and capacity in places of worship agreed by the Generalitat Valenciana this Thursday before the end of the State of Alarm.
Celebrations in the streets of Barcelona after declining the state of alarm. Image: Reuters.
Most of them have chosen to end the curfew and the perimeter closure at the end of the state of alarm, except for the Canary Islands, Navarra, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, which intend to maintain the night-time limitation on mobility.
In this context, the State Attorney General, Dolores Delgado, issued this Thursday an Instruction aimed at speeding up the procedural response of the Prosecutor’s Office in relation to the lifting of the state of alarm starting next Sunday, May 9.
The Instruction of the Attorney General’s Office, which is dated this Wednesday, establishes guidelines so that prosecutors can unify the immediate procedural response to the new scenario of resources contemplated in the regulatory text, “establishing direct channels of communication with the Prosecutor of the Chamber of the Contentious-administrative through the network of delegates deployed throughout the territory,” the Public Ministry reported in a note.