Spain averts political crisis, extends virus lockdown
MADRID (AP) — Spain’s left-wing coalition government has averted — for now — a political crisis on top of the enormous challenge the country already faces from its devastating coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed more than 25,000 lives and severely damaged the economy.
Despite losing the backing of the main opposition party, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday received the Spanish Parliament’s necessary endorsement for a two-week extension to a state of emergency he declared on March 14, when Spain’s decentralized health care system had lost control of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We have won a partial victory against the virus thanks to the sacrifice of all,” Sánchez said. “No one gets everything right in such an unprecedented situation but lifting the state of emergency now would be a complete error.”
Sánchez said the state of emergency must stay in place to ensure that the country makes a coordinated and cautious return to a “new normalcy,” but his government lost some support from opposition parties who complain he is abusing his extraordinary powers.
To compensate losing the backing of the conservative Popular Party and angering Catalonia’s separatists, Sánchez’s Socialists struck last-minute deals with the center-right Citizens party and Basque regionalists to guarantee the parliamentary endorsement.
That gave the government 178 votes in favor to 75 votes against, with 97 abstentions.
The state of emergency was set to expire on Saturday. The extension will take it through May 24. The government argued the extension is critical to apply its complex rollback plan for the lockdown, which will vary by province as they prepare for a possible second wave.
Wednesday's debate on in the Madrid-based Congress that was limited in...
