Spain's first deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, has insisted that there are sufficient legal means to deal with the management of the pandemic once the state of alarm is over.
In an interview with Canal Sur TV on Thursday, Calvo said that the Inter-Territorial Council of the National Health System could continue to make decisions that are mandatory for all regions because this has been endorsed by the Supreme Court.
Calvo was addressing her remarks to the Partido Popular opposition in particular, attacking the PP for "playing" with the end of the state of alarm, having accused the government of "kidnapping" the Madrid region. "I am speaking to those who told us that the state of alarm was a constitutional dictatorship, a legal outrage. This is what Pablo Casado said, and he also said yesterday that Spain was the worst country in the world. When he can literally say this, he is not up to the task of being the leader of the opposition in a democracy."
The deputy prime minister observed that the leader of the PP had abstained and voted against extensions to the state of alarm. In her opinion, this "disabled" him from saying anything about the government's decisions. Referring to comments by the PP president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and by other PP regional presidents, Calvo felt that "there are three different PPs".
Returning to the management of the pandemic after the end of the state of alarm, Calvo repeated that legislation has "more than enough resources" for all cases, except for confining people to their homes. "We want the regions together with the government to set a legal umbrella and coordinate in seeing how the situation evolves. We are in a position to lead the country out of social and economic crisis."