The first Christmas of the pandemic had an unexpected protagonist to make room at Christmas dinners for people who did not have family status.. For this, the Ministry of Health coined the term “relative“, which caused confusion among regional councilors, who asked more concrete to the then minister, Salvador Illa, to delimit a term that might be so wide that it made it impossible to “put limitations” on Christmas gatherings.
“Regarding ‘relatives’, he clarifies that there are people in a relationship (or other types of relationships) who might not meet if this term is not used“, explained Illa at the Interterritorial Council on December 2, 2020, as reflected in the record of that meeting to which you have had access 20minutos through the Transparency Portal.
In preparing the measures recommended to the communities for that Christmas, the term “close” was even imposed on “cohabitant” in the meeting that day between Illa and the councilors, not without them expressing their doubts regarding what it meant.
“Would like to modify the related term to obtain a consensus”, indicates the minutes on the intervention of the Madrid counselor, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, who was also “dissatisfied” with the limitations on entry and exit to the communities from December 23 to January 6 “except for family conciliation.” This last element was what ultimately led Madrid to vote once morest it, despite the fact that it also closed its perimeter.
Minutes of the pandemic
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“Request to define the term ‘relatives'”, intervened the Minister of Castilla y León in relation to one of the measures of the plan for Christmas, which speaks of regular “meetings with relatives and close friends”. The one from Ceuta pointed out that “since the term is so broad, we don’t know if they are going to be able to set limitations.”
In conclusion, Illa informed the directors that the term ‘relatives’ would remain, “although a powerful message so that the population does not move And there are no crowds.
Do children count as cohabitants?
The relatives were not the only doubt raised by the directors at the gates of Christmas 2020. The term “cohabitant” also raised questions and, in line with what was happening on the street, also if children were to “count” or not as one of them at Christmas tables.
In addition to “reviewing the wording taking care of the gender language used”, the councilor for the Basque Country, Gotzone Sagardui, asked “to clarify the term cohabitant to offer a general common interpretation“.
“The ‘cohabitants’ are those registered at the same address”, replied Illa, who did accept Galicia’s request, later supported by other communities, to allow “two family units” instead of one among the 10 allowed diners. “Requests that those under 10 years of age not count in the 10 people,” adds the councilor, Julio García Comesaña.
“Regarding the children, consider that better leave it as it is“, The minutes reflect Illa’s response. That is, they would count.
The recommendation that was agreed was that in the Christmas celebrations do not gather more than 10 people, preferably from the same group of coexistence and that in any case the two groups were not exceeded. What did not ‘coló’ was the request of the counselor of the Community of Madrid. “I would prefer to allow three groups of cohabitants,” said Ruiz Escudero.
At the other extreme, other communities such as Asturias, Cantabria or the Valencian Community they asked to be “stricter” with the Christmas measures and anticipated that they would be in their territories.
“Each community is sovereign”
Although the agreement was not unanimous, in that meeting at the gates of the first Christmas of the pandemic, the eagerness of the communities to contribute and of the Ministry to take into account their contributions. For example, add to the prohibition of eating and drinking in the street or that January 6 be taken into account as one of the dates indicated in which there would be a curfew.
“Each community is sovereign in that aspect”, said the minister regarding including January 5 and 6 among the days with a curfew, which in principle had been designated for Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. They might also lower the time to return home from 1:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.
All the communities voted in favor, except the Community of Madrid, which voted once morest, and Catalonia, which abstained. because he had already worked out his own plan. “The Christmas measures document is not intended to invade powers,” warned Illa preventively, since the minutes do not reflect any reproach in that regard.
In any case, the measures did not prevent that Christmas from giving way, in January, to the third wave of the pandemic, which left more than 10,000 dead before starting to remit in February 2021, but
