Catalan Government trusts High Court will back curfew

BarcelonaIt is not yet known whether the Catalan Government will extend the restrictions in force next week, but all eyes are fixed on May 9. Uncertainty around what will happen in Catalonia once the current state of alarm elapses has intensified in recent days. The Catalan administration hopes to keep the curfew in place and that is why the executive council will approve a modification to decree law 27/2020 to try to shield it. This is the decree law made in a hurry in summer when a Lleida judge overturned the Segrià area lockdown. This does not guarantee that Catalonia's High Court, which after the end of the state of alarm will supervise the measures, will endorse the curfew. Nevertheless, the Government remains confident.

Vice-president, Pere Aragonès, has defended this Thursday in the Parliament that the legislative change will allow restrictions "that need to be maintained a few more weeks" to be kept in place. According to Aragonès, the curfew will be covered by the modification of the decree law, which for practical purposes will strengthen the Catalan public health law. This idea was already advanced by the Minister for the Presidency and Generalitat spokeswoman Meritxell Budó, who this Tuesday explained that they were studying changing the decree law so that the night confinement receives the High Court's approval. In summer, the government was allowed powers to limit activities and mobility during the pandemic. Now, the Government wants to extend these powers to include the curfew.

Aragonés has also assured that the measures will be made more flexible depending on the vaccination of the population and that they can be applied as long as they receive judicial backing. But this is the mystery that will not be solved until the Generalitat submits the proposal for the restrictions it wants to maintain without the state of alarm and the judges rule on them.

Proposals that need an endorsement

The measures that affect the fundamental rights will require the High Court's backing, once the state of alarm is over. These include the curfew, mobility restrictions and setting a maximum number of people per gathering. Unlike in summer, when the restrictions passed through the ordinary duty courts of the affected area, now the decisions will be taken by Catalonia's High Court.

Until now the judges have never had to pronounce on the curfew because it has been applied since October 25, when the current state of alarm came into force. It will end on May 9.