Restart plan from Spanish government: automotive asks for more
Spain’s government announced a plan to release the country from lockdown, step by step, in the course of the coming weeks.
From May 4, shops and boutiques will be allowed to serve customers one by one by previous ap-pointment, which could be good news for luxury boutiques and other small outlets.
From May 11, bigger shops will be able to open, but must maintain social-distancing norms and they must not admit more customers than one-third of the previous maximum capacity at any one time.
It will be May 25 before shopping centres will open later, also keeping to 33% of maximum capacity and with rest and recreation areas closed off.
In a third phase, the number of shoppers admitted will increase to 50% of maximum capacity and recreation areas will open. The government has given no fixed date for this; it is likely to vary re-gion by region. However, it said it envisages this phase being in place across the whole of Spain by the end of June.
On the production side, many factories opened again in the last week of April, after discussions with trade unions on protection measures that companies needed to put in place.
Spain is the second-largest producer of cars in Europe and, while factories in many parts of the country have opened again, national automotive industry association Anfac issued a statement on April 28 calling on the government to take urgent action to protect the sector, which, it said, con-tributes 10% of Spain’s gross domestic product and directly employs 500,000 people.
Anfac president, José Vicente de los Mozos, said that, without a dedicated, urgent action plan to help the car industry, the sector could be “seriously compromised”. He said it was essential for the government to take steps to guarantee the survival of the sector.
Mr de los Mozos added: “We were the only industry to close all of our factories completely after the government declared a state of alarm [in mid-March] and the one that will find it hardest to start production again. Automotive is a strategic sector for Spain and to do nothing for us would be very grave, for economic, social and environmental reasons.”
