The Spanish Government is in Talks for the “Last Lockdown” Extension-But will Spain be Ready by Then?

The Spanish government is considering the 6th state of alarm extension but Ministers are worried that Spain is not fully ready yet.

Consider this for a moment, the whole of Spain has been in various states of lockdown since the 14th of March this year. Thousands of people had sadly died, some sufferers are still in hospital fighting the disease, others have recovered but still bear the marks of a battle they never want to fight again.

Last week, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, asked for a further month for the emergency lockdown to continue but he was out-voted and had to accept 14 days instead.

Business owners were able to put workers on ERTE so they claim at least money to keep them going, others received nothing. Rents and mortgages were missed, hospital appointments, sometimes for serious illnesses, were cancelled. Schools, retail shops, and the whole service industry ground to a halt.

Pedro Sanchez knows all of this, he has been made very aware of this by his advisors and he realises you cannot simply “flick the switch back on” and expect the economy to recover just because people can go back to work. All these arguments were presented to the PM last week as made his proposal for the one-month extension

Let’s take an example that affects all of us in one way or another, the Tourism Industry. Millions of euros are collected by the Spanish treasury each year, generated by the hoards of holidaymakers eager to soak up the sun, drink sangria, and meet up with friends at their favorite restaurants.

Hotels have still to apply all the equipment and procedures necessary to welcome back guests, apart from that they don’t even know yet if it will financially viable to reopen with reduced capacity. No more self-service buffets, social distancing in the pool-if indeed they can open the pool-and much reduced live music, it begs the question that would holidaymakers be tempted back under these conditions?

Airbnb and private rentals have had to bear the brunt of an increase in sanitising costs, not plain cleaning costs, a thorough deep clean will be required before new visitors can move into their rentals from now on.

Bars cafes and restaurants are all faced with increasing costs due to the coronavirus measures, put into place to lower any threat of a “second-wave” of the deadly disease. Lower capacity in-and-outside their premises and the worry of staff salaries have already prevented some from reopening.

Beaches, the first stop-off point for many a Sun-Seeking holidaymaker have also been handed a list of requirements that must be met before they can welcome anyone back on the sand.

Ticketed entry, sunbed booking systems, separators (ropes)? limited allowed times etc again, surely this may put people off coming here. The only good news is that 30,000 unemployed workers will be hired to monitor and help out at the beaches, a very sensible and welcomed plan.

There are obviously more areas of concern but it does go to show that a rush to judgement by the government to quash the latest appeal for a further month might actually NOT be in the interests of all of us. TW

#costadelsol #costablanca #alicante #benidorm #tourism #spain #pedrosanchez