The 'Guide to Good Workplace Practices’ published yesterday by Moncloa and Pedro Sánchez declarations earlier today do not match up. Although the manual, publicly available, states that "it is not essential to wear a mask" when travelling on foot, by motorbike or bicycle, today Sánchez spoke in general terms and only specified that “people must protect themselves when travelling”
At question time, he went further and assured that "workers will be provided with masks. Tomorrow they will have all recommended protection". No more details were shared, 24 hours away from the end of the full lockdown in some autonomous communities. So far, out of the 10 million masks promised for the return to work, the Spanish government has only guaranteed the distribution of 153,000.
These vague measures have been announced on the verge of the re-opening of non-essential working activities, which were suspended on March 30th.
Sánchez has explained that it is only "a reactivation of some hibernated activities" but the measures of the Royal Decree are maintained: "Tomorrow we will not enter the de-escalation phase". The Spanish government warns that this process will begin, at the earliest, "in two weeks and will be done gradually.” Thus, he concluded that "only the extreme phase of hibernation comes to an end”
On the other hand, Sánchez has insisted on coordination and cooperation within the European Commission, and has repeated the word "unity" to refer to the collaborative work that he asks from all the presidents of autonomous communities: "No word will come from my lips but unity".
That is why he asks for a consensus emulating the ‘Moncloa pacts’. Using the war-like language adopted by politicians in this pandemic, Sánchez speaks not only of war but now of post-war period: "We must end the aggressive political language, we will also need to overcome the post-war period".
In regard to the set of measures that the Spanish government has taken since the beginning of the pandemic, he has reiterated that they are simply following scientific criteria and he is pleased with the decrease in the number of infected cases and hospital and ICU’s admissions, despite the increase of the death toll. Sánchez ended up contradicting himself when he spoke on his management: "Our state is strongly decentralised and one of the successes is our homogeneous response". However, he concluded by stating that: "I take the decision as the sole commander".