Lockdown measures
Curfew unconstitutional: Spain pays citizens back the corona fines
The police in Madrid check passers-by
© Oscar del Pozo / AFP
The constitutional court in Spain has declared the state of alarm during the corona pandemic to be partially unconstitutional. The state now wants to repay the fines that have been imposed.
Like many other countries in the world, Spain took tough measures in the Covid-19 pandemic to stop the spread of the coronavirus. At the very beginning of the pandemic, on March 14, 2020, the Spanish government had issued a state of alert for the country. This emergency regulation allowed the government to restrict or suspend certain rights and freedoms of citizens for a certain period of time. This meant, among other things, a nationwide curfew, one’s own apartment could only be left to buy groceries or medicine, to visit the doctor or to go to work.
The Spanish Constitutional Court had already declared the state of alarm to be partially unconstitutional in July. In particular, the all-day curfew is not responsible for the details. The right-wing populist Vox party had sued. The Spanish government has now announced that it will repay all corona fines imposed for violating this regulation.
More than a million euros in fines in Spain
About 10,000 citizens are affected, a sum of more than one million euros. Most of the fines were due because people had left their homes despite the curfew. It is not yet clear how exactly the repayment should be made. Citizens will probably have to submit an application to this effect. This applies to both unpaid and already paid fines, although the court had ruled that the Spanish state did not have to repay penalties after a legally binding procedure.
Justice Secretary: Lockdown saved 450,000 lives
The state of alert is the third highest of the emergency levels provided for in the Spanish Constitution. Before the corona pandemic, it was used only once, in 2010 during an air traffic controller strike. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court did not criticize the measures as such, but instead considered the Prime Minister’s decree of the state of alarm to be unconstitutional. Parliament should have discussed a measure of this magnitude. However, the majority of MPs later agreed to extend the alarm status several times.
The first state of alert in Spain was extended six times and lasted from March 14, 2020 to June 21. In October the regulation came into force again in a very similar form. This time it was not lifted until May. In Spain, the corona virus has raged particularly badly, in March 2020 the excess mortality was 50 percent. Justice Minister Pilar Llop said the tough lockdown measures “saved 450,000 lives”.
Sources: AP / “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”