Any. Zero options. The decree law recently approved by the Canary Islands Government and that came into force last Monday does not give any margin to the celebration of popular festivals in the Islands while the pandemic not be eradicated.
Waiting for the regional Parliament to decide whether or not to validate said rule (for which it has a period of one month), point 9 of article 25 of chapter II, which is reserved for Measures applicable at different levels of alert , It could not be more clear and concise: even in level one, “parties, festivals and other popular events cannot be celebrated”, a sentence that is repeated in the aforementioned legal text – as is logical – in the rest of the levels planned for scenarios with a higher incidence of the disease among the population.
Although it is true that the aforementioned Decree Law may be amended during its passage through the regional Chamber (provided that it is processed as a bill through the emergency procedure, as is the case), the sharpness of the rule has not only caused consternation among the best-informed carnivals, but it has not gone unnoticed by the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council either. Not in vain, it is in this capital of the Canary Islands where some Carnivals that show off being the best in the world (after those in Rio de Janeiro) and, of course, that it is a party located on its own merits at the top of popular Spanish celebrations along with those in Cádiz, the Feria Sevillian April, the Pamplonian Sanfermines, the Valencian Fallas and little else.
Questioned about it by NOTICE JOURNAL, from the chicharrero city council they have limited themselves to answering that it will be next October when the Consistory decides whether, in 2022, Don Carnal will finally have his well-deserved annual tribute through the streets of this city, despite the tightness of the date for the necessary preliminary actions for this purpose.
But in said local Corporation they have taken good note that the Spanish melon, at this level, has just been opened with the recent Fallas, cataloged as a success by the mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, despite the fact that the meteorology did not accompany and a Isolated Depression at High Levels (DANA, formerly ‘cold blob’) wreaked considerable havoc on the preparations for such parties.
“The problem with the Santa Cruz Carnivals is that either they are held or not, there is no middle ground,” argued yesterday to this newspaper a qualified municipal spokesman loaded with common sense who, yes, recalled the enormous importance that carnivals have for the economy of thousands of chicharreros, not to mention the relief that these days of unbridled transgression mean for the mental health of many more.
For now, oblivious to the controversy, the Government of the Canary Islands announces meetings with different sectors to explain the content of said decree, which aims to be a regional legal compendium of all regulations related to COVID-19, while the Canary Islands Coalition and the Popular Party have already shown their disagreement with it.
