Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged Europe to “build a wartime economy and promote European resistance, reconstruction and recovery” as the country became the most coronavirus infected country in the continent. Total confirmed cases surged pass 131k, taking over Italy’s near 129k. There were 12,641 deaths recorded, comparing with Italy’s 15,887.
In a piece in Guardian, Sanchez said Europe “must start doing so as soon as possible with measures to support the public debt that many states, including Spain, are taking on. And it must continue to do so when this health emergency is over, to rebuild the continent’s economies by mobilising significant resources through a plan we are calling the new Marshall plan and which will require the backing of all of the EU’s common institutions.”
“In the coming months, the EU member states will inevitably take on greater volumes of debt to deal with the consequences of what is not just a health crisis, but an economic and social crisis,” he added. “That is why the response cannot be the same as that envisaged for asymmetric economic shocks, such as a financial or banking crisis in a single state or group of states. If the virus does not respect borders, then nor should financing mechanisms.”
