Neighbouring Galicia approves law introducing fines for people who refuse vaccinations

For the time being, Portugal’s national vaccination programme (for all diseases, including Covid-19) is optional. No-one is obliged to be vaccinated. But in Galicia, just over the border, the government has just approved a new law essentially making vaccination obligatory “if the epidemiological situation demands it”. Say reports today, the law allows for fines up to €60,000 for anyone “who doesn’t comply with sanitary measures or puts public health at risk”. An “unjustified refusal” to receive a vaccination against Covid-19 if the vaccination becomes obligatory would constitute a minor infraction, explains Público, punishable with a fine of between €1,000 and €3,000 – “but fines could reach €60,000 in more serious cases like “when there is risk of very great harm to public health”. This new law, approved by Galicia’s Partido Popular, is being challenged by minority parties PSOE and BNG who ‘guarantee they will take it to (Spain’s) Constitutional Court’.