Spanish Government will request the sixth and last extension of the confinament

USPA NEWS - The Spanish Government will ask Parliament on Wednesday to approve the sixth extension of the state of alarm. It will be the last, as confirmed this Sunday in a televised address by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. The new extension of the alarm state had been recommended by Spanish epidemiologists, who insist on the need to remain alert to hypothetical outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We continue to need a final and definitive extension of the state of alarm," explained Pedro Sánchez at the beginning of his television intervention. Said extension will last until zero hours on June 21 and will be, according to the president, "lighter" than the previous ones. In this sense, Sánchez announced that, from June 8 - just when that sixth extension begins - it will be the regional governments that will manage the de-escalation, deciding the phase change in those territories where it can be changed, or the end of the alarm state in the rest. According to the Spanish Prime Minister, there will be a shift from co-governance that has characterized the state of alarm to complete governance of the regions. The central Covernment will only reserve control of interprovincial movements.

According to Pedro Sánchez, it is expected that the Spaniards can move freely between the different regions from June 21. The president explained that it would not make sense that, since the end of June, international tourists could come to Spain and the Spaniards could not move freely throughout the national territory. In effect, the Spanish Government's forecast is that, from June 21, international tourism may enter Spain, starting with the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. In principle, they will be tourists from Germany and from northern European countries, but the borders will be open to all international tourists.

The Spanish Government only makes a condition for the free movement of foreign tourists: that the epidemiological situation in the countries of origin offers guarantees that they will not spread the Coronavirus. In this sense, responding to questions from the US press, Sánchez justified the announcement that foreign tourists must spend 14 days arguing that other European countries have implemented similar measures and saying that at least 22 infections detected in Spain have been imported by people arriving from abroad. In any case, quarantine will no longer be mandatory when the borders are fully opened to international tourism.

Recovery will be slow

Sánchez warned that, from July, the Government will work to restart the legislature interrupted by the pandemic. Among the objectives to be met is the approval in Parliament of the state budgets for 2021. According to the Prime Minister, Spain's economic recovery will be slow and will take at least two years. And he stressed that Spain needs the help of the European Union, from which it will receive € 140,000 million for recovery. The Spanish Government will distribute this amount with the regions, which will be in charge of managing its use.

"We always defended that Europe needed a new Marshall plan," said Pedro Sánchez before adding that "then it was the United States, now it is Europe that will save Europe. We are preparing an unprecedented investment plan with those € 140,000 million. Tourism and the automotive sector will have special support in this program," he concluded.