Catalonia will return the 23,000 fines paid from the first state of alarm

The Catalan Government will return the 23,000 fines filed and paid during the first alarm state, which is equivalent to having to return some 4 million euros, as explained this Monday by the Interior Minister, Joan Ignasi Elena, in statements to TV3.

The return is a consequence of the Constitutional Court ruling (TC) who declared unconstitutional the measure that forced to confine the population at the beginning of the covid pandemic. The Spanish government announced last week that it would return the fines and the Catalan government will do the same. “The sentence is very clear,” Elena said.

The ‘minister’ has ensured that the return will be made in the “simplest” way for the citizen. On the other hand, he has said that once there is a sentence on the second state of alarm, and depending on the result, what to do with the sanctions of the second period will be studied.

The Government works for the return

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The Government has already ordered the creation of a task force to proceed to refund all fines that were imposed during the first state of alarm (1,142,127 sanctions) and annul the files that were still being processed by the administration, sources from the Ministry of Territorial Policy have informed Europa Press.

The sub-delegations and delegations of the Government of all the autonomous communities participate in the team, except Catalonia and Basque Country, who have the competence in this matter. In fact, the Vice-Lehendakari and Basque Security Councilor, Josu Erkoreka, already announced at the beginning of October that the return would be made.