• Direct. Last minute about the coronavirus
  • Map.Evolution of the coronavirus in the autonomous regions
  • Government.The Government will agree with the autonomies the "geographical areas" that will leave before the confinement

In inland Spain there are no cities with a large population, nor a powerful industrial plant, nor large human concentrations. These reasons, together with the weakness of local economies especially hit by the coronavirus, are leading governments, municipalities and social groups to demand that the authorities prioritize rural areas in the exit of the confinement.

The socialist Javier Lambán, president of Aragón , yesterday proposed to Pedro Sánchez a "staggered way out" of the pandemic, starting with rural areas and populations of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Also the President of Castilla y León , Alfonso Ferández Mañueco, said that "the de-escalation must start in the rural world as it is the one that registers the least number of cases". And from Galicia , Alberto Núñez Feijóo advocated making a piece that is also separate from the rural world. This newspaper has also reported that several communities, including Madrid and the Basque Country , are in favor of the plan to exit the restrictions not being symmetrical.

Lambán has been explaining to Sánchez that rural Spain, due to its demographic and economic nature, "allows a greater recovery than that of cities, even also of an economic nature, since it does not have public transport systems or agglomerations." In this way, he picked up the glove thrown by Ignacio Urquizu , mayor of Alcañiz and socialist deputy in the Aragonese Parliament, so that normal life in the towns is the first to be restored in the de-escalation plan.

The Alcañiz health area brings together 70,000 users and a hundred towns, but a week ago this town did not reach a dozen positive cases admitted. "We are prepared to lift the confinement," says Urquizu.

He uses three reasons. First, the damage that the virus has caused in three core sectors for the rural world: services, basically small businesses; tourism, with special emphasis on hospitality; and agri-food. “They were the first to close and will be the last to open. The recession will be more serious in the interior ». The second reason is due to social contact, much smaller in rural areas. "We are depopulated and keep our own distances." The third reason appeals to the need "not to treat the unequal as equal. The economic context and the ways of life are different. We must support the weak.

Without crops or hunting

The alarm decree prohibits traveling to cultivate products not destined for distribution, so it excludes self-consumption crops. It also limits hunting, which is causing the proliferation of pests that threaten to ruin crops - rabbits, for example, destroy vineyards, cereals and fruit trees. "They may seem picturesque, but these activities are important in the towns," stresses the Aragonese president.

Facing the post-confinement scenario, political parties and social entities linked to rural Spain also press. Tomás Guitarte , deputy from Teruel Exists, took advantage of the meeting he had with Sánchez, what La Moncloa called the Reconstruction Table , to demand a state pact "for territorial rebalancing and depopulation."

In statements to this newspaper, Guitarte reveals that Sánchez did not ask him "nothing." He summarizes: «He has not communicated any plans to me. He only seeks to feel if there is a disposition for the pact in each group. Listen, take note, but it stays there ».

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Spain
  • Javier Lambán
  • Teruel Exists
  • Pedro Sánchez
  • Alberto Núñez Feijoo
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

Covid-19 Congress approves extending the state of alarm until April 26 and Pedro Sánchez anticipates that he will request another extension

Politics From contempt to no one: the dirty game of Pedro Sánchez denounced by the opposition

CoronavirusPP and Vox accuse the Government of "hiding" real data on the deceased and ask for a new count of the victims