The Congress of Deputies has voted to extend the state of alarm in Spain for another 15 days, maintaining the emergency powers the government has to deal with the ongoing coronavirus crisis and move through the next phase of de-escalation.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, of the Socialist Party (PSOE), first implemented the state of alarm on 14th March. Today’s extension is the fourth that has been authorised by Spain’s lower house of parliament.
Sánchez’s request for an additional period until 24th May was met with growing objections from the opposition, and the prime minister, who heads a minority government in coalition with junior partner Unidas Podemos, was forced into last-minute negotiations to secure the simple majority of more yes than no votes he needed in the 350-strong Congress.
“We have managed a partial victory against the virus with everyone’s sacrifice,” he told lawmakers at the start of the debate on Wednesday morning. “We are not here by chance. Nobody gets it right all the time in such an unprecedented situation. There are no absolutely correct decisions, but lifting the state of alarm now would be an absolute mistake.”
Sánchez, who announced this morning that the country will have an official period of mourning for its Covid-19 victims “when most of the country is in Phase 1 of the deescalation,” sought to underscore his message that the state of alarm is necessary to defeat the coronavirus and that this legal tool is not encroaching on citizens’ freedoms.
However, the conservative PP leader Señor Casado accused Sánchez of lying about the causes of the severe impact of the Covid-19 disease in Spain, and of manipulating its economic and social consequences.
“Don’t bring us another extension in 15 days, because we won’t approve it. We do not support this overstepping of legal boundaries…,” said Casado