Indignant

Sometimes I get the impression that our public representatives are not of this world. They live in a fictional parallel world. They have no empathy, they're not grounded, they're in the clouds...
Last week, the Madrid/Elche (Matola)/Orihuela AVE (High Speed Train) was inaugurated. As a resident of Elche, I'm delighted that, after many promises, this infrastructure has finally arrived in our city. The hourly frequency is terrible, but let's hope it increases over time if they ever "release" us, but given the mobility we have now, we have plenty of it. The launch of the infrastructure couldn't be delayed; it was urgent to inaugurate it with high-profile politicians from Madrid. Even the Prime Minister himself came on the old AVE (High Speed Train) that already took you from Madrid to Alicante. But now it also takes you to the central Orihuela intermodal station. The event caused a crowd of journalists gathered for the inauguration to have to crowd around to set up microphones and recorders for the stars, the pop stars. This happened a few days after the Valencian Government's presidential decree once again imposed restrictive movement measures on "ordinary" citizens, including the closure of municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, a ban on gatherings of more than one person, and the mandatory closure of non-essential businesses at 6 p.m., in addition to continuing to close hospitality businesses indefinitely. It's as if they're making fun of us and laughing in our faces, that's what it seems. We can't leave the municipality, but they can travel across several autonomous communities to take a photo.

Furthermore, Salvador Illa's substitute minister had no better start when she took office than to continue with the same prescription: "I urge the Autonomous Communities to extend restrictions as much as possible" to flatten the curve.

In short, all the measures our politicians deploy begin and end with locking us up at home. We've been in an epidemic for almost a year now, and while some countries are already living normal lives, we remain locked down as obedient citizens. Our authorities are suppressing our fundamental right to assembly, the right to move freely throughout the country, freedom of movement at night, freedom of commerce... Here, the hospitality industry is closing when the origin of 60% of cases is unknown. That's pure consistency. Minister Barceló isn't ashamed to publicly declare "the virus" is out of control and remains in place. Neither one (the virus) nor the other (the Minister of Health) is going away. This is unbearable; I'm going to have a heart attack if this situation continues much longer. But we're not done with frivolities. Healthy citizens are limited by the rules of dubious constitutionality that the Government has delegated to the Autonomous Communities. However, citizens who test positive for coronavirus will be able to vote in the Catalan elections on February 14. The right to political participation cannot be violated, it is argued. Elections are sacred, and so are votes! If this continues for much longer, Constitutional Law will become part of the Roman Law curriculum, as a law that has expired.

P.S. If the PSC wins the elections in Catalonia, I will have lost hope in humanity, not so much because the PSC wins, but because people might vote for a candidate whose only merit is carrying 63,704 official deaths due to his poor management of the coronavirus pandemic.
Victoria Rodríguez-Blanco

Jurist and political scientist

Published in Esdiario; https://www.esdiario.com/elche/176565710/opinion-victoria-rodriguez-Indignada.html


Photo; The Provinces