Spain’s PM Sanchez Admits His Mistakes: “We Should Have Decreed the State of Alarm Much Earlier”

In an interview with La Sexta, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez admitted that Spain was late when decreeing the state of alarm and that it should have been “decreed… much earlier”

During his interview on the Al Rojo Vivo program broadcasted from the Palacio de la Moncloa, the Prime Minister highlighted the effectiveness of the state of alarm and the responsibility that residents have had to uphold whilst in quarantine, as well as during de-escalation.

However, he did note that given “what we know today, we should have decreed the state of alarm much earlier”. Nevertheless, he did contend that due to the “information [they] had” they “acted on time”. Sanchez gives the example of the World Health Organisation who did not declare the coronavirus to be a global pandemic until mid-March.

Furthermore, Sanchez does not seem alarmed about the current coronavirus outbreaks which have now affected 14 autonomous communities, in his opinion, they pose no threat and the health system is capable of dealing with them.