Press briefing by President of the Government on measures to combat COVID-19

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government

I appear here before you to take stock of the progress in the battle that the whole of Spain, and indeed the whole world, is waging against the COVID-19 pandemic. And also to notify you of the latest decisions and actions being taken by the Government of Spain.

Firstly, any speech these days must begin by fondly thinking of the families of the victims of COVID-19. The whole of Spanish society shares the pain of the loss and also the impotence of the sudden grief that thousands of people are suffering in our country today.

I also want to send out a message of encouragement, of hope, for those in hospital and those who are bearing this disease in the isolation of your homes. Be strong and get well soon.

In the midst of these overwhelming death notices, today we have received the news of the discharge of more than 12,285 compatriots who have been cured. Many of these recovered patients are also elderly and fall in high risk categories, which gives us a ray of hope.

As you know, the pandemic has now spread to all continents. This is the greatest threat to global public health since the Spanish flu of 1918 and it is hitting our continent, Europe, particularly hard. Europe is currently the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And the origin of the European Union, as you know, and we should remember this, lies in the goal of six nations of avoiding a repetition of the two world wars that exploded in the first half of the 20th Century on this continent and which extended their destruction around the globe. The goal of avoiding a third world war is the founding basis of the European Union. And it has been successful in this commitment in its almost 70 years of existence.

Europe now faces a different challenge, which is to wage a united war against a common enemy that is decimating the health of its citizens, wherever they may live and not only threatening our social well-being but also our economic progress.

The hand of fate has drawn a path in the mortal journey of the virus that broke out in the East and is now in Europe, specifically, in countries like ours, which has been one of its first stopping points, before moving on to other destinations, as we are already seeing, and spreading around the world.

Europe did not start this virus; Europe has not called or attracted it here. Nor has any country in Europe; whether Spain or any of our sister nations. This virus has penetrated Europe on a random voyage. And in the same way as this disaster is putting the whole world to test, it is very particularly testing the European project.

This is the time of greatest difficulty since its creation and the European Union must rise to the circumstance and not let its citizens down. Our generation remembers all too well the economic crisis of 2008, particularly the delays and limited response from Europe to that economic disaster.

This time Europe cannot fail us; it must not fail us, because even the most pro-European countries, like Spain, need evidence of the real commitment of the European Union. We need to see that Europe listens and acts. We need a strong response and solidarity.

These are the two ideas I conveyed to the European leaders at Thursday's Council meeting. Europe, it is said, and it is true, is slow, but it is sure. Its decision-making mechanisms are too cumbersome because it has so many Member States - 27 in total, after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. But it also has the strength of being a transnational political system, the most robust and powerful of its type in the world. So if Europe wants, Europe can.

Spain is calling for the EU to make brave and decisive decisions.

Specifically, we are calling, first of all, for measures to combat the health emergency, such as guaranteeing the availability of basic health resources since the global market is proving to be so aggressive, as we are seeing, thus making it difficult to gain access to certain critical supplies, above all I am thinking about patients in intensive care, and also our healthcare workers, the State law enforcement agencies and staff at care homes for the elderly.

We also clearly need coordination to guarantee the repatriation of all those European citizens that wish to return from abroad; furthermore, we need common cyber-security measures that shield all Member States from the destabilisation of the fake news and cyber-attacks in these turbulent times of uncertainty and great social anguish.

Some of these measures have already been agreed and we welcome them. But Europe must also provide a united socio-economic response because this is a disaster that affects us all, it recognises no borders, and hence it requires a united socio-economic response.

Secondly, Europe must erect a sort of war economy and promote resistance, and then you have the reconstruction and recovery of Europe. And it must do so as soon as possible with measures that prop up the public debt that many Member States are getting into to address and tackle this pandemic.

And it will have to do this afterwards, once this health emergency is over, to rebuild the continent's economies by releasing a large volume of resources through a plan that some Member States have named "a new Marshall Plan", which will need the backing of all the EU institutions.

Of course, the Spanish people have backed Europe, we have done this each time we have turned out to vote, each time we have demonstrated to help strengthen Europe; we have always backed strengthening our common project, and it is now Europe's turn, that of the European Union, to protect all European citizens, particularly the weakest, and also particularly those countries that are unfortunately suffering the worst consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, as is the case of Spain.

This is what I conveyed to the rest of the heads of EU Member States and I repeat this publicly to all the people of Spain - now is the time for the European Union.

Europe is at stake. Let's make the 12-starred blue flag fly forever in the hearts of Europeans. Europe must rise once and for all and not serve to strengthen those who want the opposite - to weaken our common project.

The European Council was not the only important event held this week. At all the meetings Spain has taken part in, whether the European Council or the G-20, also held last Thursday and which brings together the largest economies in the world, we have all clearly observed the global scope of the pandemic.

The virus - we have said this on many occasions - we have seen this first-hand, does not respect borders or distinguish between the political hues of governments. Conservatives and progressives alike around the world, including in our country, in different regions, face the same realities and encounter the same deficiencies.

We are all seeking supplies from the same resources - face masks, gloves, respirators, gowns. And if we are all doing the same, all the governments around the world are doing the same, which means that no-one had in mind the magnitude of the challenge we would be facing, or clearly the volume of resources we were going to need to tackle it.

This pandemic has once again reminded us of some very basic things - how fragile not only our civilisation, but also human life, is. The whole of humanity is being tried and tested. We have seen this in recent days in the media. The pandemic is acting blindly; the virus has managed to ground our planes, close our schools, shut down our productive system, collapse our hospitals and suspend the normal course of our lives.

More than one third of human beings, and I want to underscore this figure, are on lockdown at home to fight this virus, this common enemy. We had all forgotten something that is particularly clear now, which is that the world is facing global threats and yet we don't have the global response mechanisms that rise to the challenges we face.

Meanwhile, Spain is going through the toughest period - we said this last weekend that this week was going to be very tough - we are facing the saddest, most difficult and most bitter days and hours. As we approach the crest of the wave, the virus is attacking us with merciless force.

And when the battle is at the most intense, as it is now in our country, the greater the ravages as we approach the crest of the wave and the more we must ensure we don't let our guard down. On the contrary, now is the time to step up the fight.

I am convinced, and this is backed up by the scientists and experts that advise the government, and to whom we are grateful, that the measures we are introducing are significantly reducing mobility, particularly at the weekends. This reduction is much more noteworthy at the weekends. It is also significant on weekdays, but much more so at weekends. And thanks to the measures introduced we are moving in the right direction.

Now, if we are able to extend this mobility during the weekends for the next two weeks, on the verge of Easter, we will defeat the virus.

That is why I want to tell you that, following the experts' recommendations, from those members of the Technical Committee that advises the government, and after having notified the social stakeholders - business leaders and trade unions - the government has taken the following decision:

I can announce to you that the Government of Spain will approve tomorrow, at an extraordinary Council of Ministers, an exceptional measure whereby all workers in non-essential activities must stay at home for the next two weeks, as they do at the weekend.

To that end, we will approve a system of recoverable paid leave at tomorrow's extraordinary Council of Ministers which will apply to workers in all non-essential activities, such that they won't need to travel to their work centres between Monday, 30 March and Thursday, 9 April, both inclusive.

During those days of recoverable paid leave, workers will continue to receive their salary as normal. Once the current health emergency is over, these workers will gradually recover the hours of work not provided over a period of time.

This measure will further reduce the mobility of people, and consequently the risk of contagion and allow us, which is very important, to free up the ICUs in our hospitals.

The social stakeholders are aware of the tremendous effort this whole country is making to combat the virus and to the subsequent socio-economic recovery. We are all united against the virus in the greatest exercise in solidarity of our history.

I am convinced that social dialogue is and will continue to be fundamental in Spain. This measure may prove to be very effective in our collective strategy to combat the virus and we are introducing this, as always, as and when recommended by the experts and now Spain, as a society, is ready to immediately comply with this. This is precisely the right time.

I hope that soon, in the coming days, we will see the effect of this great collective effort we are making through the lockdown decreed under the state of emergency and since we have been at home. And that this means that fewer people will get infected and have to go to hospital so that our health workers, with more time and resources, can exercise their work with more ease. Meanwhile, all we can offer is sacrifice and resistance, and a moral victory.

When dealing with a disaster of the magnitude of the one we are facing, there are two attitudes you can adopt. There are those who talk loudly about the gravity of the situation, which we are all well aware of and spread fear, while others work selflessly. There are those who seek to apportion blame while others work to find solutions. There are those who foster rancour and division while others work towards unity and loyalty. There are those who seek to take advantage while others go out of their way to help.

One of the wonderful discoveries for me to come out of this disaster is that the vast majority of Spanish men and women have opted to work, to find solutions, to forge unity, to help and to support. The vast majority of our compatriots from all latitudes, of all ages and professions, are complying with their mission. And they are doing so in an exemplary fashion, which says a lot about the greatness of our country.

Small children are complying with their mission, bearing this lockdown which is as necessary as obligatory. Our school-children are doing this, who must take responsibility for studying and doing their work at home.

Our teachers are doing this, making a big effort so that their pupils can continue learning in these complex times. Our young people are doing this, by isolating themselves for protection, but above all, so as to protect their loved ones and the elderly. Our health workers are complying with their mission, and then some, showing their professionalism but also their humanity, as are a great many public servants, servicemen, police officers, and I would pay tribute to the Guardia Civil officers who have died in the last few hours. Our farmers are complying, as are our cleaners.

In short, as public leaders, we should humbly follow the example of all of them and comply with our mission. Let's be guided by the experts, and only by them, let's do our best for our citizens and work as humanely as possible, as we have been doing, to combat the only enemy to threaten us in this war - the virus and its ravages to health, economics and social policies.

At this time, each one of us, in Europe and in Spain, at home and at work, must choose between cynicism and commitment, between selfishness and generosity, between defeatism and following the scent of victory.

One more day means one less day. One more day to help win a war against a criminal enemy that cuts short lives, as we are seeing, that causes economic devastation and human despair. One day less before we can hug each other again and enjoy the great nation that indeed we are.

These are very tough, very sad and very bitter days. But they are decisive days. Because these are the days in which we find out who we are. And we then have our whole lives to remember that in these tough times, we resisted together and Spain rose to the challenge.

Q: We have a great many questions, particularly about the speech you just made talking about paid leave. Cadena Ser asks you what new measures the government is studying to contain the pandemic.

President of the Government: I think we have announced a particularly strong measure today. On many occasions we have seen different analysts in the media, also political leaders, calling for a total lockdown from the Government of Spain. In reality, we have to decide whether to totally halt non-essential economic activity or to structure new mechanisms that allow us not to halt economic activity but to cleverly reduce the levels of activity that are still necessary to defeat the virus more quickly once and for all. In this period of the extension to the state of emergency, which starts today and will go on for 15 days, we have Easter Week. That is why the idea we have proposed, the initiative that we will approve tomorrow at the extraordinary Council of Ministers, is precisely that; it means anticipating that we have these days of public holidays so that, to some extent, instead of closing down the economic activity of non-essential services, those workers that work in these non-essential services can benefit from recoverable paid leave. I repeat, for these non-essential activities. And we are precisely doing this now, and not before, because we are now on the verge of Easter Week and hence it is now that we can significantly reduce mobility to, firstly, much more radically cut the number of infections of our compatriots and, secondly, also avoid the fast rise in the number of people taken into hospital, which is now starting to drop, although, I stress, it still remains high, and consequently alleviate the pressure on ICUs which is clearly the main battlefield in the fight against the virus.

That is the idea so that, for example, someone who works on a building site, and we have been seeing this in some parts of the country, will not go to work as from 30 March but will be entitled to recoverable paid leave. In contrast, nurses, whose work is classified as essential, clearly in the fight against the virus, will continue working to defeat this virus as they have been thus far.

Q: The media are all asking the same, for more specifics. Colpisa, for example, asks what activities are considered essential and what sectors will continue to operate?

President of the Government: I repeat, the activities are the same, those that are in the decree. The measures affect those services, those activities that are not listed in the state of emergency that we approved 15 days ago as essential. The essential services will obviously continue to operate as they have to date. But clearly, since Easter is around the corner the aim is to reduce the levels of mobility to those we are seeing at weekends. I have said this on many occasions in my press briefings: the level of compliance by the Spanish people with these tough measures is absolutely exemplary. To give you an idea, in many of the figure we have seen from those on the Technical Committee, in this case the Ministers for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, and for Home Affairs, they have clearly said that there has been a huge drop in public mobility. But we need to go a step further. And that little step we can take by either closing all activities for good or by taking advantage of the Easter holidays to extend these days by a few extra and consequently grant a right to workers that allows them to go on paid leave, which will then be recovered. What does that mean? That when the whole state of emergency is over, this public health emergency that we are unfortunately suffering from, then workers, preferably within the framework of collective bargaining, can agree with business owners to work half an hour or an hour a day extra before 31 December to recover these lost hours. In reality, we are talking about eight days, from 30 March to 9 April, but we also need to include the week from 9 April as well, which is Easter Week. So, we are talking about eight days of recoverable paid leave. And I feel that this is an example of solidarity. Remember that a few days ago, in the first briefing when we were presenting the state of emergency, I called for this chain of solidarity. And we also said that the State, the public authorities, undoubtedly have a leadership role to play, and we are doing this significantly, because we have the scientific data, the advice from the experts which allows us to take measures to combat our adversary, our unknown enemy, which is the virus.

Hence, I feel that this is a very positive, very necessary measure, an alternative to the closure of all economic activity that would unfortunately cause great destruction to our productive fabric, and we are indeed doing this at a time in which, firstly, we have been told by the experts that this is a measure that could help the common goal of halting the pandemic much more quickly in these last two weeks of the state of emergency; secondly, because we believe that society is ready to take this on and enforce it. We have seen on many occasions, not in our country, but in experience acquired from what we have seen with other governments, that measures are being proposed that cannot then be enforced, or that people have trouble enforcing themselves. Well, I feel that at this time our people are ready to take on this type of strong measure first-hand, which will be very tough for the next two weeks. Hence, advice from the experts at a time in which Spanish society is ready to take another step in this common challenge to further reduce citizen mobility, and thirdly, take advantage that Easter is just round the corner, which we will not be able to enjoy in our usual way, but which can help guarantee that we reduce the levels of mobility and travel to those at weekends. If we achieve the levels of mobility we have at the weekends, which aren't that different to those on weekdays, but a significantly large difference to guarantee, between us all, this reduction in mobility, and consequently manage to slow down even more the spread of this pandemic, then I feel that we will be making a joint exercise in solidarity between public institutions, companies and workers, in short, Spanish society as a whole, to defeat our common enemy.

Q: President of the Government, many media outlets are asking about activities considered essential and many are queuing up to ask - I will use the example of Cadena CUATRO - if you consider media coverage to be an essential activity.

President of the Government: I believe that the media… By the way, I will never tire of saying this, because I believe that the media are doing an extraordinary job of teaching, and advising, the most vulnerable groups about this disease. In my opinion, the media is indeed an essential service.

Q: Cadena Cope asks you, President of the Government, if you plan a change of strategy and intend to take tougher measure to tackle the coronavirus.

President of the Government: I think I have answered our colleagues from Cadena Cope in my responses to previous questions asked by Cadena Ser and Cuatro. I would remind you that the measures being taken by the Government of Spain are incredibly tough. I am well aware that the Spanish people, who are used to, above all at this time with Easter just round the corner, living a different way, out in the street, being in touch with our families, with our loved ones, hugging… In short, to socially behave differently, in terms of our social conduct, which is very different to being forced to stay in our homes, particularly in very small homes which I imagine is happening to millions of Spaniards who have to keep their distance for fear of being infected or of causing infection, in short, to control the pandemic.

As I have said on many occasions, it is not fear but courage that makes us stay at home and that will defeat this pandemic. And that is why these measures are incredibly tough. I am thinking about children, I said this before: they have to stay at home, and this is obligatory because they are also likely to transmit this virus to other people and groups who are more vulnerable to this type of disease.

Hence, I clearly appreciate how tough these decisions are. I want everyone to know that I am well aware of the sacrifice we are all making, that our citizens are making first-hand, and what we hope is that this new decision for the next two weeks to extend the state of emergency to fight this pandemic will significantly allow us to reduce the number of people affected.

Just look, the Technical Committee has also said this on many occasions: many things may push up the number of people affected. It may also be because Spain, fortunately, is increasing the number of tests. We are performing around 15,000 to 20,000 tests each day, as I have said in other briefings. Okay. The most important thing now is to slow down the number of people being hospitalised and secondly, to slow down the number of people in intensive care units. The ICUs in some parts of the country, particularly in the Region of Madrid, which is where we have to invest the greatest resources at this time, all our energy because it is the region suffering from this pandemic the most, well unfortunately it has a number of beds in the ICUs that are starting to come under a lot of pressure and become very full. Consequently, what we must do is what Doctor Simón said and what the CAES have said in their different briefings. In the next two weeks, we must take certain measures that further help reduce the number of people affected so that the pressure on the ICUs is as low as possible.

That is the fundamental goal that explains the reason behind the decision we have taken today to propose this right for workers to go on recoverable paid leave for the next two weeks. I stress, for non-essential services from 30 March to 9 April. In reality, formally this is two weeks but from the point of view of the working days we are talking about, this is only eight days which then runs into Easter.

Q: Radio Euskadi. Does the Government fear that Spain will take the path of Italy where the number of people still getting infected continues to rise after three weeks of lockdown? Under what scenario does the government plan to close non-essential businesses?

President of the Government: I believe I have already answered the second question from Radio Euskadi. And as regards the first question, we are clearly not comparing ourselves with anyone; quite the opposite, we are supportive with all those European countries that are suffering so harshly from this pandemic, as harshly as Italy is suffering, as is Spain, and as are suffering many other countries in the world, including in Europe. So, from this point of view, I repeat, we are not comparing ourselves; on the contrary, we support countries like Italy that are unfortunately suffering from the same ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic as us.

Q: I will ask you two questions back-to-back in the same vein. La Vanguardia asks you, to what extent are you going to do battle with Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries over the cost of this crisis? Do you have the support of Emanuel Macron?

And along the same line, the Economic Agency asks you, Emanuel Macron and Giuseppe Conte, both of whom gave interviews that have been published today in which they demand a clear and unified response from Europe to the crisis with a clear message to Germany, the Netherlands and other nations. What is your position on this matter? Is Spain aligned with Italy and France on this matter?

President of the Government: We have always advocated greater integration at an economic level in Europe, even before the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic. We don't understand why an area like the Eurozone, where we all share the same currency, does not share fiscal response instruments, as well as monetary response instruments when faced with a crisis.

Of course, what economic theory always states is that, with the Eurozone such as we belong to at this time, there may be countries that grow while others don't. That is what we saw, for example, in the 2008 crisis. We saw countries which, while still suffering the consequences of the economic crisis, that were not as tough, as dramatic as happened in the countries of southern Europe, like Spain, Portugal, Italy and so many other European countries.

Hence, this is what the economists say - they call this an asymmetric crisis - where some countries don't suffer so harshly from these economic consequences. Remember what a great many young Spaniards did during that crisis, they emigrated to Germany, to quote the example of that country, because unfortunately there were many more job offers there than in Spain, which witnessed unacceptable unemployment rates.

What is the difference? That now we are not facing a crisis that affects some countries but not others. This is a crisis that affects all countries and which is not thus asymmetric, but rather symmetric - it affects all countries and knows no border, it doesn't distinguish between past economic policies that some countries took and the response cannot only be national in consequence. It must be a European response, where we all row in the same direction, whether we are Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, German… In short, it must be a European response because we are unfortunately seeing a great many deaths, and there will be many more in Europe, and hence, either we provide a European response with all the resources available, by mobilising all these resources, or what will our people think? That at the most critical time the European Union has gone through since its foundation, that at the most critical time on the European continent since the Second World War, as [Angela] Merkel said, we are not going to pool all our resources to protect the health of our citizens and to protect the socio-economic future of our companies and workers.

The Government of Spain has this clear. I have said this in many press briefings. We are not going to leave anyone behind which is why we approved the social and economic measures that we did, but we need to go beyond that and we need a Marshall Plan-style European response to rebuild Europe and recover the economic energy and impetus and growth we had until this pandemic showed up in our lives, without any shadow of a doubt.

This Marshall Plan should be tied into such questions as digitalisation, which has proven essential at times like this, for example, in educating our children and in working from home, and consequently, let's say, in ensuring that the economic slowdown goes more slowly and is related to the growth of our Welfare State, public health, for example, to tackle any potential future pandemics that might hit us, we hope in the distant future; and that is also tied into mobilising economic resources, which is why we have spoken about adaptation and the mitigation of climate change, which is undoubtedly related to this.

There is something else that I would also like to propose to the Spanish people, which is what I have been advocating at the European Council meetings, not the latest ones but ever since I became President of the Government. In a crisis such as this one, economies, the Spanish economy, well economies in general of the Member States, cannot get into debt that they subsequently can't get out of. And consequently, this debt needs to be mutualised by the EU institutions.

I have said this publicly; I am grateful to the commitment from the European Central Bank, but we need to set up new instruments, and issue, although I don't like the term, 'coronabonds' - I believe they should be called Reconstruction Bonds so that this additional effort each and every country is making at this time to tackle this health emergency, to tackle its social and economic consequences which we lack the funds for, should be protected by the solidarity of Europe as a whole.

Of course, I feel that this virus is not only ravaging all European economies, and consequently only a European response can be given to resolve this situation quickly and effectively, and of course I want to remind you of this because this way, let's say, we can also finalise my response to this question from last week, from before the European Council last Thursday, at which we were eight Member States of the Eurozone, not just Spain, but also Portugal, Italy, France and also some countries from central and northern Europe who said to the EU institutions, "listen, we must free up resources, we must provide a response to a crisis that unfortunately is shared, and that affects all of the countries of the European Union".

Because, we are now also seeing what is happening on other continents. When the pandemic reaches these continents, Europe will also have to give a supportive response to those continents. I am thinking about Africa, for example, and I am thinking about countries that we feel close to and that are sister nations, such as in Latin America. When that time comes we will also have to provide a supportive response. But to get to that point, the first thing we have to do is provide a supportive response for each other in Europe.

Q: Bloomberg Agency. Emmanuel Macron and Giusseppe Conte both said in public interviews that they demand a clear and unified response from Europe against the crisis in what would seem to be a clear message to Germany, the Netherlands and other nations. What is your position on this matter? Is Spain aligned with Italy and France on this question?

President of the Government: Well, even before the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the whole of Europe, we were advocating greater intervention from an economic perspective. We don't understand how an area like the Eurozone, in which we all share the same currency, does not have shared instruments for a fiscal response as well as a monetary response to this crisis. What economic theory has always told us is that in a Eurozone like the one we are members of, there may be countries that grow and others that don't. That is what we saw, for example, in the crisis in 2008. We see countries that are still suffering from the consequences of the economic crisis, but which were not as badly affected as the countries in southern Europe, like Spain, Portugal, Italy and many other countries in Europe. Hence, what economists say is that that was an asymmetric crisis, where some countries didn't suffer the economic effects as much as others. In fact, remember that many young people emigrated to Germany in that crisis, to quote an example because there were more job offers there than in Spain, which unfortunately suffered from an unacceptable unemployment rate. What is the difference? Now that we have a crisis that affects everyone, not just some countries, a crisis that recognises no border, and does not distinguish between economic policies that were implemented by some countries. And the response cannot thus only be at a national level. It must be a European response. It must be a response where we all row in the same direction, whether we are Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or German. In short, it must be a European response because there are unfortunately many deaths all around Europe. And hence, either we give a European response with all the resources available, by freeing up all our resources, or what will our people think, that at the most critical time the EU has been through since it was founded, that at the most critical time on the European continent since the Second World War, as [Angela] Merkel said, we are not going to pool all the resources necessary to protect the health of our citizens and to protect the socio-economic future of our companies and our workers?

The Government of Spain has this clear, crystal clear. I have said this at many briefings. We will not leave anyone behind. That is why we are approving socio-economic measures. But need to go further; we need to have a European response. Whether a Marshall Plan or a European reconstruction plan that brings with it vibrant economic growth as we were enjoying before this pandemic appeared in our lives. We clearly need this. Should this Marshall Plan be tied to questions related to digitalisation that have proven to be essential at times like these, for example in the education of our children or in terms of working from home, and with what frequency should we prevent a greater slowdown in economic growth tied in to strengthening our Welfare State, and public health, for example, to tackle potential pandemics in the future, we hope in the distant future; should this also be related to mobilising economic resources which is why we have been talking about the adaptation of climate change? It is clearly related to all this. But there is something else I would like to propose to the Spanish people, which is what I have been advocating at the European Councils. In a crisis like the Spanish economy, and many economies of the Member States, are in, we cannot get out of this by going further into debt. And hence we must mutualise this debt through the EU institutions. I have said publicly that I am grateful to the ECB for its commitment but we need to create new instruments, and issue debt. I don't like the term 'coronabonds' - I believe they should be called Reconstruction Bonds so that this additional effort each and every country is making at this time to tackle this health emergency, to tackle its social and economic consequences which we lack the funds for, should be protected by the solidarity of Europe as a whole.

Of course, I feel that this virus is not only ravaging all European economies, and consequently only a European response can be given to resolve this situation quickly and effectively. Of course I want to remind you that last week, before the European Council last Thursday, we were eight Member States of the Eurozone, not just Spain, but also Portugal, Italy, France and also some countries from central and northern Europe who said to the EU institutions that we must free up resources, we must provide a common response to a crisis that is shared, unfortunately, and that affects all of the countries of the European Union. Moreover, we are now also seeing what is happening on other continents. When the pandemic reaches these continents, Europe will also have to give a supportive response to those continents. I am thinking about Africa, for example, and I am thinking about countries that we feel close to and that are sister nations, such as in Latin America. When that time comes we will also have to provide a supportive response. But to get to that point, the first thing we have to do is provide a supportive response for each other in Europe.

Q: Dutch public television - NOS TV - asks you how you assess Holland's positions against Spain at the European Council held on Thursday and whether Spain will resort to the bailout fund.

President of the Government: As regards the second question, I think I have answered it in my previous response. We are talking about creating instruments to mutualise the debt so that we can tackle this crisis between us all, a crisis that is shared throughout the European Union regardless of whether a country has grown by 1.6%, like us, or economies that expect to grow by less than 1% on our continent. Hence, I feel that the second question answers the first. I believe that we are doing this, we are not doing anything else, we are engaged in this approach, in creating a great Marshall Plan for recovery along the lines of what I mentioned before, of education, digitalisation and climate change, and in creating those instruments that allow us to offer a shared response without countries having to go into debt. Consequently, we must provide a common response to a challenge like COVID-19 which is common to the whole of the EU. And as regards your first question, I have a tremendously good relationship with the Dutch Prime Minister and I hope that, between us all, we can find a solution that satisfies the whole of the EU. Because, I repeat, COVID-19 knows no borders. It will affect the whole continent. And it will do so in a very hard fashion, as it already is in certain countries. And so, this solidarity will not only need to be forged among Spanish, Italian and French people, who are seeing how badly their countries are being affected at this time, but also among people of other countries who will also unfortunately suffer the consequences of this global pandemic.

Q: Canal Sur asks you, after the problems in obtaining supplies of health material, do you feel that it was a mistake to create a single command in the ministerial department? Will you look at other ways to manage this? And also, do you believe that the measures to make it more expensive to dismiss people adopted recently will halt the rise in unemployment?

President of the Government: Let's see, I believe that in relation to your first question, we can tie this in to the social and economic response from the European Union that we spoke about before. Just a few days ago, the Spanish public had the chance to listen to the President of the European Commission, to the German Ursula Van der Leyen, speak about one of the things done, which was to centralise the procurement of health material by the European Union. To give you an idea, the European Union represents a market of more than 500 million people. The internal market is our great power base, our great value and specific weight in the global order.

In other words, the bigger we are the more capacity we have to dominate in a market that is currently suffering from tremendous aggression by all countries in order to acquire supplies of individual protective equipment, PCR tests, of everything that let's say, has an acronym that we have unfortunately had to familiarise ourselves with. So the greater the negotiating power and also self-sufficiency, by reorganising many of our industries to mass production and the quick production of all this type of material we will need to defend ourselves with at present and in the future from COVID-19, until we discover medication that allows us to alleviate or eradicate COVID-19 from our bodies.

Hence, this same logic also applies to Spain. We are much stronger as one rather than as 17 regions, and we have respected this. Logically, the regional governments have the power to buy, but in such an aggressive market the fact that the Government of Spain - as it has been doing since 14 March - can head up these purchases as it is doing, I believe that this can fortunately provide a much faster and more flexible response to such urgent needs as those we have at this time in our hospitals, in our care centres for the elderly, and also by the public servants that also guarantee compliance with these very strict rules.

I want to remind you of some figures because I feel these clearly highlight the position that the Government of Spain has maintained and endorse this position held by the Government of Spain which is not to substitute anyone but to be more effective on a complementary basis.

The Ministry of Health has bought health material from China for the sum of 628 million euros over the last two weeks since the state of emergency was decreed, which includes the purchase of 659 million face masks. To give you an idea, Spain has a population of 47 million people, so 659 million face masks, more than 30 million of which are for professionals. More than 17.2 million units of health material distributed among the regional governments since 10 March. And that includes 8 million face masks, professional health material, which is insufficient.

And believe me, I say to all our healthcare workers that we are doing the impossible to obtain a lot more, more than 460,000 pairs of gloves, more than 8 million… 700,000… and almost 56,000 of sanitising solution.

In short, what I want to say is that we are stronger together. We don't intend to usurp anyone's powers under the state of emergency; quite the opposite, this is a very respectful government of our State of Autonomies, of our social and democratic State under the rule of law. But we have had to take the reins of this crisis when the experts told us that individual regions were unable to respond to the gravity of this pandemic by themselves. That is what we have done; we will continue to do this with a great deal of sacrifice and hard work and with a desire to vanquish because I am convinced that one day more means one day less to see the number of people recover, as we are starting to. More than 12,000 Spaniards have recovered from the disease, and that is one less day to regrettably see people die; let's see if we can rid our lives of this virus.

Q: President of the Government, during your speech, many media outlets have asked about responsibility, the responsibility of the government. El Independiente specifically asks whether you will take on any political responsibility for the fiasco of the tests. Don't you think that things like this demoralise the people?

President of the Government: I have already said this. We are in a highly aggressive market. I have already said that we are talking about all countries that don't have the production capacity by themselves to be self-sufficient, to provide all the growing volume of material that is required in the ICUs, in hospitals, to protect workers, to protect the State law enforcement agencies, for residential care homes for the elderly… Fortunately, we have a great Welfare State in Spain. We have healthcare professionals, and I won't tire of saying this, as everyone says at eight in the evening by clapping, who are extraordinarily professional and capable of tackling the virus. We must give them these instruments. We must also of course, complementing these lockdown measures, carry out widespread testing. Let me tell you something. We have said this in other press briefings, and the Technical Monitoring Committee has mentioned it here every day. Spain is performing in the range of 15,000 to 20,000 tests a day. And that is a very significant number. Because we can detect those people who have unfortunately got infected and thus isolate them and prevent the spread of the virus through these people who are infected. And I repeat, there you have the figures. We have spent 628 million euros of public resources to buy 659 million face masks with more than 30 million for healthcare professionals. And 17.2 million on health material. And the same for the tests. Just look; if we guarantee things when we buy them; the Carlos III Institute then verifies them, in this case to ensure that these rapid tests comply with the rules and the requirements we need to guarantee that these tests are precisely sufficiently effective. In this case, which is very singular, they have been returned to the supplier and another type of test with greater guarantees will be provided. But, at any event, it is what I said earlier. I believe that it is very important in this crisis to not be reproachful but rather to provide solutions. And of course my government and I are here to do that, to provide solutions in a very complex scenario and our people should be aware that this major sacrifice is starting to show results, this mobilisation of economic resources and also of knowledge, which we have a great deal of in this country, together with the will-power to defeat COVID-19.

And I would add something very important; it as important and necessary as purchasing to be self-sufficient and to purchase locally. And the Government of Spain is on the case. We are talking with the manufacturing industry, talking with the textile industry, talking with many sector industries to urgently manufacture ventilators, the respirators needed in the ICUs, the face masks that workers need and to manufacture, in short, all those materials that allow us to defend ourselves from this pandemic.

Q: President of the Government, we are going to end now. Millions of Spanish people are preparing to give a big round of applause in a few minutes to the professionals who work in the health sector and to so many others that are fighting this virus.

President of the Government: I want to thank them as well with this applause, and since we have unfortunately had to extend this state of emergency for another two weeks, I also want this applause to go out at eight o'clock to all the men and women of Spain who are complying with this very tough lockdown in an exemplary fashion for a further two weeks. Thank you very much.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation