The Governing Council of the Canary Islands has agreed this Thursday to maintain all the restrictions that are currently in force in the archipelago after the state of alarm expires next Sunday. To this end, it has announced a decree that will be published this Friday in the Official Gazette and will be sent to the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, which must endorse it.
However, the president, Ángel Víctor Torres, has indicated that this decree will enter into force from the night of Saturday to Sunday, pending judicial pronouncement. In the event that the TSJC rejects it, the Canarian Government could appeal to the Supreme Court. That was the door opened last Tuesday by the central government, to try to "unify" criteria and that each territory does not depend on the decision of the court of its community.
In any case, Torres has indicated that they trust that the decree will receive the support of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands in the first instance. "There is a precedent that should not make us think that it will not be ratified," he said in reference to the Balearic Islands. This community had already decided on the measures it intends to maintain and this Thursday it has learned of the decision of its TSJ, which has been favorable. However, the vote was resolved with the vote in favor of three magistrates and the vote against two others.
The measures that were protected by the state of alarm and that will now require judicial endorsement are those that affect fundamental rights, specifically those of movement and assembly. In the case of the Canary Islands, it intends to be able to maintain the curfew, the limitation of group meetings, control with Covid tests in ports and airports and the perimeter closure, should it become necessary again on some island. The other measure that is intended to be preserved and that needs the support of the courts is that of restricting capacity in places of worship, since it affects another fundamental right.
"There are still figures that demand that there be certain controls"
“Our will is to control the pandemic and there are still figures that demand that there be certain controls,” defended the Canarian president, who stressed that the “desire” of the Government is that “contagion decreases” and it is not necessary to maintain any restrictions.
In this regard, he announced that the situation will be reviewed again next Thursday, and will continue to be done every week, to analyze what measures need to be maintained or if any can be eliminated. But in any case, he insisted that it is necessary to “be able to arbitrate mechanisms in the event of any rebound.”
In fact, in the case of perimeter closures, there are currently none in force, since it is only established in alert levels 3 and 4, and there are currently no islands in that situation. However, the Government wants to keep that possibility open in case it becomes necessary again.
Thus, what it intends to maintain is the current traffic light system by islands, with the same measures that are currently approved for each level, depending on how each one evolves. “What we want is not to go backwards,” Torres stressed, who has especially insisted on the need to continue requiring a PCR test or an antigen test for people arriving in the Canary Islands from the Peninsula. However, the final decision is now in the hands of the courts, which will have to decide whether the restrictions that are proposed are justified or not.
