Sánchez’s impotence to extend the alarm leaves Madrid and Barcelona without springs to confine

On June 21 there will be a paradoxical situation in Spain. The Government will end the state of alarm in Spain, but the Community of Madrid, Barcelona and part of Catalonia, and Castilla y León must enter phase three, in which the free mobility of citizens is still restricted. Thus, the autonomous presidents of these communities will not have the legal resources to confine their citizens, as planned during the last phase.

Since Moncloa they have maintained at all times that the de-escalation – which should be “prudent and sensible” – had followed a planning ad hoc for the different communities following exclusively sanitary criteria. However, with the sixth extension of the state of alarm, Sánchez promised to delegate “absolute governance” to the regional presidents. In this way, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Quim Torra and Alfonso Fernández Mañueco will be able – and should, according to the law – end the confinement when their respective communities theoretically may not be ready yet.

At a press conference, the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, was limited to avoid the controversy this Tuesday: “It is up to the presidents of the autonomous communities to adopt the pass to the new normal“

Until now, the Government has maintained that the state of alarm would end when all the communities had completed the three phases of the de-escalation. However, the weakness of its parliamentary support prevents it, on the one hand, from continuing to approve new extensions and, on the other, from satisfying nationalist leaders by leaving control in their hands.

But that leaves some regional presidents in a dilemma: break the confinement when – according to the health criteria used by the Government itself – they are not yet ready to do so or continue to confine their citizens despite the fact that they no longer have the legal tools to do so. .

Without partners

The truth is that Pedro Sánchez has been bleeding out in the negotiations until he reached this dead end. PNV, Compromís, Ciudadanos and Esquerra have ceased to trust the President of the Government after having suffered constant flurries in their meat.

“Our trust deposit is already in the reserve, “he warned Andoni Ortuzar, PNV president. The nationalist party went from “surprised” to know the PSOE and Podemos pact with Bildu, to play the offended past days.

Far from tempering the spirits, the lehendakari Inigo Urkullu presented to the eleventh video conference with a trick in hand: “President, end these weekly appointments, they are useless.” Sánchez had to give in, and promised that he would close them at the end of the de-escalation.