SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Sep 29 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Plenary of the Parliament of the Canary Islands has validated this Wednesday, with the votes in favor of the quadripartite –PSOE, NC, Sí Podemos and ASG – the decree law that establishes the legal health alert regime and the measures for control and management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the islands.
The text, which has been rejected en bloc by the opposition, will now be processed as a bill in the Chamber.
This decree law was approved by the Government Council on September 2 and integrates in the same text the more than twenty agreements on sanitary measures adopted by the Executive during the pandemic.
With almost 30 articles and about 80 pages, this rule establishes, among other things, the use of a mask, the safety distance or the gauges and maintains the limitation of people by alert levels.
The Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Antonio Valbuena, has said that this decree brings together measures to “guarantee health in the face of a pandemic that has not ended”, for which he has asked to avoid a “myopic” reading of the situation despite that in the developed world the vaccination rate is more widespread.
He has warned that every time there are mutations of the virus, infections multiply and worldwide, only 45 percent of the world’s population has only one dose of the vaccine.
The counselor has commented that current legislation is not prepared for a pandemic of these characteristics and therefore, he has defended the Executive’s decree law to “arm” Canarian society to defend itself from the virus.
He has commented that other communities such as Galicia, the Basque Country or Catalonia have similar decrees and asked the parliamentary groups to “raise their sights” because the risks of the pandemic “are serious” if there is a regulatory “relaxation”.
The spokesperson for the Mixed Group, Vidina Espino, has said that the form used by the Government “is not adequate” because it invades the powers of the central Executive and restricts the rights and freedoms of citizens. “The report of the Advisory Council is devastating,” he commented.
He has pointed out, among other things, that workers cannot be forced to be vaccinated and screened or that private patient data can be accessed.
“UNA CHAPUZA”, ACCORDING TO CS
Ricardo Fernández (Cs) has commented that the decree law “is a botch and does not have a pass” and asks that the text be returned to the Government “on its own merits”.
Jesús Ramos (ASG) has said that this decree law is presented “out of responsibility” and to establish measures to help combat the pandemic, although he has recognized the difficulties that the autonomous communities have since the state of alarm was lifted.
He has recognized that the opinion of the Advisory Council warns of unconstitutionality and does not understand the “urgency” of setting criteria, but is in favor of the Executive regulating and that Parliament processes the decree as a bill. “What we cannot do is sit idly by,” he said.
Manuel Marrero, spokesman for Sí Podemos, has said that this decree tries to “provide guarantees” to face the fight against the pandemic in the future, and the tool left by the current legislative framework is the decree law.
Luis Campos, spokesman for NC, has commented that “the Covid is still there” and the economy of the Canary Islands depends “on people continuing to arrive”, so the Government has the obligation “to act” to guarantee the health of the citizens and economic activity.
He has said that this pandemic is the most important health crisis in the world “in more than 100 years”, recalling that there was a home confinement and for a month no plane landed in the archipelago.
For the Popular Group, Luz Reverón has said that the decree law “is a great botch” of the Government, corroborated by the Consultative Council, which questions the invasion of powers and has signs of unconstitutionality. “They have made a tortious use of legislative power to bypass the courts of justice,” he commented.
He has asked Torres “to abandon the attitude of submission” with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and urged the Executive to withdraw the decree law and request the socialists in Congress to support the pandemic law. “We are not going to support this nonsense,” he indicated.
CC-PNC CHARGE AGAINST THE “ERRATIC STRATEGY” OF THE EXECUTIVE
Socorro Beato, from the Nationalist Group, has regretted that the Government asks them for a consensus and later they find out about the decree from the media, a document that is “the culmination of the erratic strategy” of the ‘flower pact’ to manage the pandemic .
He has said that the opinion of the Consultative Council “is very harsh” and has asked the Government to change its legal strategy. “They do not give one, they continue to beat the sky,” he added, underlining that the decree is a tool to “evade” the TSJC, which now “has gotten into a mess” the nightlife subsector.
Beato has indicated that her group will not be an “accomplice” in the violation of the privacy of citizens and the “economic asphyxia” of leisure and hospitality. They are loaded until the popular celebrations, has indicated.
In addition, it has been asked if the measures included in the decree “are dictated by a politician and not a jurist.”
Marcos Hernández, from the Socialist Group, has indicated that several autonomous communities have already begun to legislate to “give security” to the fight against the pandemic and maintains that the Statute of Autonomy gives powers to the Government in public health.
In his opinion, it is urgent to establish measures to fight the pandemic and it would be “irresponsible” to put this function aside, even more so when the evolution of Covid-19 is “changing” as new variants emerge.
