Coronavirus: Spanish leader looks set to secure extension of state of emergency

MADRID (REUTERS) - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez looks set to secure enough parliamentary votes on Wednesday (May 6) to extend a state of emergency for two more weeks as the country exits a lockdown imposed to control one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks.

The strict lockdown has brought the outbreak under control, with a daily death toll of 244 recorded on Wednesday - far below peaks of nearly 1,000 registered at the beginning of April. But it has devastated the economy and led to huge job losses.

The parliamentary wrangling on how to orchestrate the exit from a lockdown which has devastated the economy and led to huge job losses underlines the fragile political environment in a country that has faced four national elections in four years.

"Lifting the state of emergency would be a total, unpardonable mistake," Mr Sanchez said in a parliamentary speech on Wednesday, adding that the billions in state aid to help businesses and individuals hit by the lockdown were released thanks to the emergency decree.

Mr Sanchez's weak coalition government has secured the support of the regional Basque nationalist party PNV, in addition to the centre-right Ciudadanos party, which said late on Tuesday it would back an extension of the state of emergency set to end expire on Saturday.

This guarantees enough votes to approve the decree in an increasingly fraught political environment where the government has lost the support of opposition conservatives, the People's Party (PP), for any further extensions.

Small businesses such as hairdressers started to open this week with restrictions, while Spaniards, under strict confinement since mid-March, are now allowed out of their houses for exercise under timetables.

In a further move back to normality, soccer players from Barcelona FC will return to their training ground on Wednesday to undergo testing for the coronavirus as La Liga soccer clubs plan a return to action in June.

However, in a sign of how the lockdown has wreaked havoc on Spain's economy, service sector executives reported a further plunge in activity in April from March's record low as businesses shuttered and people stayed indoors.

The economy shrunk by its biggest amount on record, 5.2 per cent, in the first three months of 2020 due to the impact of the crisis. The government predicts the tourism-dependent economy could shrink as much as 9.2 per cent this year.

The decree will be the fourth two-week extension to the state of emergency which Mr Sanchez says is necessary to restrict movement as the country tentatively emerges from what was one of Europe's strictest lockdowns.

The coronavirus epidemic has killed more than 25,000 people in Spain.