‘Freedom’ over science: Madrid court kicks out coronavirus lockdown rules to protect people’s ‘rights’

Spain is once again a coronavirus hotspot but a Madrid court has ruled that ‘fundamental freedoms’ are more important than lockdown rules, reports Graham Keeley

A man wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus walks past a closed business in Madrid, Spain. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) (AP)

Madrid's top regional court has overturned a partial lockdown order to confine millions of “madrilenos” as a political row raged over imposing restrictions to try to slow the soaring infection rate in Europe's Covid-19 hotspot.  

The regional supreme court rejected restrictions imposed at the weekend on the capital and nine nearby towns after the number of coronavirus cases in the Spanish capital  reached 741 cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days compared with 257 per 100,000 in the rest of Spain – in itself the highest rate in the European Union.  

In a statement, the court said it had “denied the ratification (of the measures) on grounds they impacted on the rights and fundamental freedoms” of the 4.7 million residents affected by the closure which went into force late on Friday night.