Spain’s government is set to retain sweeping lockdown powers until late June under a deal that virtually assures Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of a parliamentary majority on the issue.
The agreement with the pro-market Ciudadanos party, ahead of a vote in the chamber of deputies, gives Mr Sánchez the support he needs to prolong the so-called state of alert for a final two weeks after Sunday, when it is due to expire. The measure has previously been extended five times, each time by a smaller majority.
Under the latest deal, the government has agreed that by mid-month it will set out provisions to deal with possible new outbreaks and a plan to “reactivate” the tourist sector, one of the drivers of the Spanish economy.
The agreement indicates that Mr Sánchez’s minority coalition retains the power to cobble together majorities — at least on some issues of overwhelming importance — despite Spain’s increasingly polarised politics. It also highlights the increasingly centrist position of Ciudadanos, which flirted with a shift to the right last year but lost 80 per cent of its seats in November’s general election. The party also backed the last two prolongations of the state of alert.
“We are doing this out of prudence, considering the general interest and because we think it is the best way of guaranteeing an exit without risking backward steps in this hard fight against coronavirus,” said Edmundo Bal, one of the party’s parliamentary leaders.
Since the government had already struck deals with Catalan and Basque nationalist parties to abstain or vote in favour of the state of alert, it is virtually assured of parliament’s consent on the measure.
Alberto Garzón, Spain’s Communist consumer affairs minister, hailed what he said was the “good news that we are beginning to abandon the trenches of recent years” and suggested that the government could agree a budget with Ciudadanos. However, Ciudadanos has argued that it has no intention of becoming part of the governing coalition.
The powers to rule by decree and restrict mobility have become increasingly contentious since Mr Sánchez’s leftwing coalition assumed them in mid-March, when coronavirus infection rates were at their height.
The prime minister argues that maintaining controls and, in particular, limiting people’s freedom to travel across the country, are crucial to prevent a disorderly phase-out of the lockdown and the risk of a resurgence in infection rates.
The country’s rightwing opposition counters that the government has abused the sweeping powers, which it says are no longer needed now that coronavirus death and infection rates have fallen to much lower levels than before.
On Monday, Spain’s health ministry said it had not recorded any new deaths in the previous 24 hours — although critics say the figures are partial and have been compromised by methodological changes and late reported data.
Under the plans outlined by Mr Sánchez, the central government would cede control over the final stage of the lockdown to Spain’s devolved regions, many of which have been at odds with his government.
During this stage — dubbed by the government as “phase three” of the transition to a “new normal” — people will be permitted to travel to other provinces for non-essential reasons for the first time since the state of alert was introduced.
Mr Sánchez has said that he hopes most of the country will be in the final stage of the phase-out as of Monday next week. However, Madrid and Barcelona, the country’s two biggest cities and the areas worst hit by the pandemic, are lagging behind the rest of the country in the phase-out. Travel restrictions are set to remain in force for both cities until the end of the state of alert on June 21.