After several deliberations, the eleven members of the Constitution did not break the tie, and finally the vote of the vice-president, Encarnación Roca, has been decisive in declaring certain measures, such as the confinement of March and April 2020, unconstitutional.

Encarnación Roca has joined the conservative bloc and has defended that the constitutional formula for approving the general containment of citizenship should be a state of emergency and not of alarm, as requested by Vox in his appeal against constitutional reform. In the opinion of the other five judges, three progressive and two conservative, the Government acted correctly to decree confinement at home, choosing the state of alarm.

The working group of the conservative party judge Pedro González Trevijano has finally obtained the support of an absolute majority, but has achieved a very small minority, which has left the Constitutional’s response to Vox’s appeal without effect. Basically, the debate has focused on whether the state of alarm overturned fundamental rights or limited them only in part. The judgment and individual votes will be known in the coming days, as reported by the TC, and it will then be when the content of the judgment can be better analysed.

"It was a life-saving tool."

The Spanish Government has expressed its respect for this decision, but has been "surprised" by its "never seen character" and has insisted on the need for this measure. The Government has indicated that it will study the judgment and, after having heard the narrow vote, it has specified that this implies the internal debate that has led to the judgment, which considers the state of emergency to be the appropriate figure for the suspension of fundamental rights such as traffic.

The Government ratifies the Royal Decree that approved the state of alarm: "It was essential to save lives," he added. In addition, it "conforms to the Constitution and the Organic Law of the State of Alarm and Social Surveillance".

"We are facing an unprecedented decision, as all the countries around us have used similar formulas, each within their national legislation, to fight the pandemic," added the Government of Sánchez. Therefore, "without this tool it would not have been possible to stop the virus in time.

It is now unclear what can happen, in some sources, the decision is symbolic and only serves as a clarification of the decisions that the Government may take in the future, and others are of the opinion that it can serve to annul the thousands of fines imposed during the confinement. We will also have to see what happens to sectors of the economy that believe they have been hit by the state of alarm, because some believe that the judgment may have a loophole in claiming compensation.