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ARCHIVED - Constitutional Court of Spain could invalidate the second pandemic state of emergency
Another 327,000 fines for curfew breaking and other offences could be annulled throughout Spain
Following the ruling issued last week by Spain’s Constitutional Court that the initial lockdown imposed by the government on 14 March last year due to the coronavirus pandemic was unconstitutional and therefore illegal, the highest court in the country is now reported to be considering a similar judgment on the second state of emergency which was declared in October 2020.
As a result of last week’s ruling, some 1.15 million fines which were issued to lockdown-breakers have become invalid, and those which have not been paid are therefore effectively null and void. In addition, a door is potentially opened for a glut of claims for damages against the government from people and businesses who lost money and jobs due to the lockdown, although the scenario will not be clarified until the full text of the ruling is made available. The likelihood is that the government will be exempted from the obligation to offer compensation due to the scale of the emergency brought about by the first wave of coronavirus contagion.
The essence of the judgment is that in order to deprive people of the right to free movement the government should have established a “state of exception”.
The worry now is that during the second state of emergency between 25th October 2020 and 9th May 2021, on which the Constitutional Court has yet to pronounce judgment, a further 327,853 fines were initiated at a rate of 1,821 per day. The validity of these fines now depends on whether it is judged that the prolonged second state of emergency was justified, as the government’s strategy made it unnecessary for support to be given by Congress every two weeks, as was the case with the initial lockdown.
Instead of the fortnightly debate, a motion passed on 29th October installed a state of emergency until 9 May 2021, with the support of 194 members of Congress.