The so-called dehibernacion yesterday left more than one businessman and not a few workers out of temper. Some did not know where to get the recommended protection against the coronavirus; others were not even clear if they could resume daily life. Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior, assured along with the Health Minister, Salvador Illa, that on Saturday the pharmacies will start to have masks, but this Monday sectors as relevant as the industry and construction sectors were reactivated. “We have been asking for supplies for weeks and we were assured of the past. This Monday, however, we were still calling the Ministry of Industry to request it. The businessmen are willing to pay for the masks, but not everyone has had access, "they explain to EL MUNDO from Cepyme, the employers of small and medium-sized companies.

From yesterday to Wednesday, 10 million masks are distributed on public transport, but the work of the Spanish does not necessarily go through some of the Metro stations where these deliveries are taking place. "I am not aware that anyone has distributed masks, so we have had to reinforce the recommendation to maintain a two-meter safety distance, " Juan Lazcano, president of the National Confederation of Construction (CNC), told this newspaper.

Pablo Casado, PP president, has been criticizing in recent days the "improvisation" of the Government in this regard. "The return to work of so many people has not been accompanied by a government plan to supply the necessary material for them to go to work in safety," said Inés Arrimadas, from Ciudadanos. " It was done suddenly, with some last minute modification on which factory you could work in," Casado pointed out in Antena 3 also yesterday, about the specifications collected on Sunday night in the Official State Gazette (BOE) .

Indeed, the resumption of economic activity in some sectors had just been clarified just a few hours before the long-awaited return, and the clarifications left with the passage changed to the scope of the reforms, most of which were suspended. "I had asked everyone to go back to work and at 10 in the morning they had to go home ... One cannot be on Sunday night reading everything published in the BOE, " he tells this Rolando Esteban Macas newspaper, manager of Makasa, a company in that sector. Not having masks was a problem for many of those who yesterday resumed the activity, without a doubt, but more serious was the lack of certainty about whether the regulations were being followed. "We were going to cut the ERTE and we had to change the plans to keep it for two more weeks," says this small businessman in a telephone conversation.

The reform that annulled the BOE

The renovation companies in inhabited properties remained in extremis outside this normality test. His work, fundamental to bear the burden of rents and mortgages of the Spanish, is due 75% to residential activity, which was prohibited at the last moment by the Government. "Even to fix a building facade it may be necessary to enter the portal, something that is also prohibited", they detail from Makasa.

Apart from this specific area, 78.5% of national construction was restarted, which implies the reoccupation of 1,389,000 workers , 916,740 direct and 472,260 indirect, according to data provided to this newspaper by the Association of construction companies and concessionaires of infrastructures (Seopan).

Many branches of the industry also returned to work yesterday, although the turnaround was not as clear as in the case of construction, since iron and steel businesses have remained active, as well as those related to paper, plastic, and pharmaceutical products. , cleaning or hygiene, all of these linked to essential activities that have not stopped during the period of alarm and the consequent confinement.

“In companies we are in a situation of general lack of supply and the ones that suffer the most are the small ones. Many companies have not been able to open directly because they do not have personal protective equipment for workers or have had to adapt the situations to that lack of equipment, "Cepyme points out:" The response we have received from the Government during these days is that no There will be no problem , but clearly we find that the measures do not reach the last mile, to the small and medium business. For this reason, we request again that the supply be guaranteed, in which the Government is supposed to have been working for weeks, but which has not arrived. ”

Reviews by the autonomous map

In Casado's opinion, Pedro Sánchez's Executive should have already been "capable of having massive material and tests" and of "making a kind of logical planning for the economic reinstatement" of non-essential workers, who this week are doing their best to adapt to circumstances. Vox, through the mouth of its spokesman Jorge Buxadé, warned that according to the calculations made by the sectoral organizations and the workers' representatives, "95% of companies will not have personal protective equipment [EPI]", a lack of supply "exclusively the responsibility of the Government"

The regional executives also spared no criticism of the planning of the return to work. Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, President of Castilla y León for the Popular Party, believed it convenient to "wait a few days" for this return. The Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu already asked for Sunday "certainty about the masks, the tests, the arrival and distribution of supplies." Quim Torra, at the head of the Generalitat of Catalonia, considers the end of the productive break "a recklessness and an absolute recklessness" on the part of Sánchez.

Within the Government, the reaction of the Minister for the Interior, Miquel Buch, who criticized the delivery by the central government of 1,714,000 masks as it is "a disastrous figure," especially said, linking this figure with the fall of Barcelona in 1714 during the War of Succession: «With the history of the Catalans it is not played», he charged against the sum of sanitary material received.

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  • PP
  • Pablo Casado
  • Quim Torra
  • Salvador Illa
  • Vox
  • Alfonso Fernández Mañueco
  • Barcelona
  • Castilla y León
  • Citizens
  • Inigo Urkullu
  • Fernando Grande-Marlaska
  • Inés Arrimadas

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