Autonomous State and Covid-19

Abstract

This article makes a critical analysis of the functioning of the Autonomous State during the management of the pandemic. Special attention is paid to centralization and decentralization in the restriction of fundamental rights, to the participation of the autonomies in decision-making, to the role of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System and to the coordination exercised by the State. It is argued that in our Autonomous State there were two equally legitimate ways of managing the pandemic: centrally through emergency legislation or decentralized through the modification of organic health legislation. In practice, neither health legislation has been reformed that would have allowed decentralized management without a state of alarm in a framework of legal certainty, nor has emergency legislation been reformed to allow decentralized management within a state of alarm. While the centralized management of the pandemic in the first phase was in accordance with the constitutional and legal provisions, the decentralized management during the second and third phases would have required legislative reforms that have not occurred. The consequences have been legal uncertainty during the second phase and the lack of political control and accountability during the third phase