[:es]Especial coronavirus[:gl]Especial coronavirus[:en]Coronavirus Special[:]

Galician Government and nightlife entrepreneurs will work on a reactivation protocol

Hostelería Compostela and the Association of Bars, Pubs and Discotheques of Santiago disagree with the Xunta and will study legal measures against the regulations that prevent them from opening

The vice-president of the Xunta in charge, Alfonso Rueda, and the acting minister of Economy, Employment and Industry, Francisco Conde, agreed with the Galician nightlife sector to work together on a reactivation protocol for when the health situation allows the reopening of this type of premises, which will include the conditions and phases in which this reopening will take place.

Xunta and most of the businessmen agreed that the premises should be opened when it is safe from a health point of view, a position that is not shared by the whole of this group, as stated by the representatives of the Compostela Hotel Association and the of Bars, Pubs and Discos in Santiago who stated that they are not willing to assume the commitments that the representatives of the sector in Galicia made with the Xunta.

Among these commitments, the one made by the regional administration to study the viability of opening the terraces of these premises before the reopening of their interior space, complying in any case with the same conditions and closing hours as those of the bars and restaurants, as occurred during the de-climbing process. The Xunta will also study together with the representatives of the sector the available ways of financing.

Legal actions
For its part, the Compostela Hotel Association and the Bars, Pubs and Discos Association of Santiago announced that, in addition to opposing the rule that considers that “it does not meet health criteria and criminalizes the licenses and not the activities”, they are trying to reach an agreement with the local government of Compostela so that the city’s nightlife venues can work with a bar license and thus open their businesses at the hours allowed to them.

Both associations are also evaluating possible legal actions against this regulation that discriminates against the night hotel industry and that “will mean the loss of hundreds of jobs and the definitive closure of dozens of establishments in our city”, they point out, as well as promoting private parties or uncontrolled bottles.

That is why des Hostelería Compostela and Bars, Pubs and Discos of Santiago claim a balance between health safety and economic viability of the sector and call for individual responsibility and indiscriminate PCR testing as a maximum guarantee of containment of the virus.