The poor evolution of the pandemic in Euskadi in recent weeks, added to the absence of a legal framework that allows the adoption of draft restrictions, has ‘resurrected’ a debate that seemed to be already over. Is it legal to make vaccination compulsory? And require the covid passport to access certain venues? Issues that, until now, had passed sideways in the current Basque political situation.
When, last August, the deputy general of Álava, Ramiro González, said that people who “do not want to be vaccinated should not work in direct contact” with the elderly who live in residences, very few voices came out to support him. Even from his own party, the PNV, it was decided to put the issue aside due to the legal doubts it raised and the possible wear and tear it could generate. The infections then also began to subside and it seemed that the end of the epidemiological crisis was near.
But the reality is that vaccination seems stagnant – everyone who has wanted has been inoculated – the virus is still among us and there is no longer any margin, without the health emergency, for restrictions. Faced with this scenario, the convenience of adopting more forceful general measures to definitively corner the covid is once again on the table. And on this occasion, the claim has more support and more political weight.
President
Iñigo Urkullu
“These are debates in which a uniform decision in the whole of the State is worthwhile”
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General Deputy of Álava
Ramiro Gonzalez
“Those who have not been vaccinated must be subjected to the necessary restrictions”
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Mayor of Vitoria
Gorka Urtaran
“Those who do not want to receive the vaccine will have to lead a different life”
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If the mayor of Vitoria, Gorka Urtaran, was publicly in favor of the covid passport on Sunday, the lehendakari intervened yesterday in the debate to, for the first time, hint that he is also in favor of promoting mandatory vaccination and limiting access those not immunized to certain public places. Of course, he considers that it should be a collegiate decision in all autonomous communities, under the legal umbrella of the central government. “These are debates in which a uniform decision in the whole of the State is worthwhile,” Iñigo Urkullu pointed out. We have limited powers and, at this time, in addition, in a situation in which we are not in a health emergency, it is not possible to apply the Anti-Pandemic Law approved in the Basque Parliament on June 24 ”.
The Lehendakari thus recovers the discourse that has dominated much of the management of the pandemic, when the absence of a state of alarm left the regional governments at the feet of the horses before the courts. And in Euskadi, unlike other autonomies, the judges have been especially harsh with the Executive of the PNV-PSE coalition, which has seen its most unpopular measures, such as restrictions on the hospitality sector, be overthrown time and again.
“Of common sense”
If last summer was the first to focus on these issues, the deputy general of Álava immediately supported the words of the lehendakari yesterday. “It seems to me common sense (the covid passport), as it would allow greater control of the degree of contagion,” he argued. It responds to a situation of justice that, who, complying with the principle of individual and collective responsibility, have been vaccinated, have the possibility that, as far as possible, develop their lives as normally as possible. But those who have not done so must be subjected to the necessary restrictions to prevent infections. It is not about harming anyone, but about preventing the spread of the infection.
No mask in the disco and the fronton
The image that accompanies this text says it all. A thousand young people attended DJ Wade’s concert at the Sala Sonora in Erandio on Saturday, without the social distance measures being complied with and without the majority of the public wearing a mask. Something similar to what happened on Sunday at the Frontón Bizkaia during the Cuatro y Medio final between Altuna and Laso. The ball game was stopped for a few minutes because the spectators were not wearing their protectors either. The winner of the txapela, Jokin Altuna, reproached the behavior of the fans at the end of the match: “It was a lack of respect,” he said.
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