HOW many legal experts does it take to determine whether or not regional governments have the power to order perimeter closures and curfews after the state of alarm ends?
Professors intimate with constitutional affairs, attorneys at state and regional levels, numerous others with vast legal knowledge - they are all hard at work in addressing what has become a hugely important matter.
Hugely important because the likes of Francina Armengol have made it so. It’s logical, insists the president, that the Balearics should have this sort of power, and yet it is far from logical when one hears general legal opinion.
“Ordinary legislation”, to which the Spanish government spokesperson has made repeated reference, does not, according to this opinion, extend any further than the capacity to order a confinement within the Balearics.
That would rule out perimeter closure and also a curfew. When there was localised confinement last year, the regional government itself insisted that this did not entail a curfew. And the government was correct. There was no curfew for the very simple reason that it didn’t have the power to order one. So why is there now the suggestion that it does?
Spain’s tourism minister, Reyes Maroto, was saying yesterday that national tourism in Mallorca will be restarting after May 9. So as far as the minister is concerned, there certainly won’t be a perimeter closure. But is the minister a legal expert? How difficult can it be in giving a definitive statement of the situation? Very difficult, it would seem.