What are 'goods of primary necessity'?

SOME of the fines levied for breaking quarantine might end up being reclaimed by ‘offenders’ thanks to a change in rules that not many people knew existed anyway.

A man stopped in La Font d’En Carròs (La Safor) showed a receipt from the Spar supermarket to prove where he had been – and was fined €601 anyway, because his trip had ‘not been for goods of primary necessity’.

Local police even uploaded a photograph of the receipt on Facebook, although it has since been taken down.

It showed the resident had bought two Coca-Cola Zero bottles of two litres each, a packet of Frankfurter sausages, and a bar of chocolate.

At the weekend, a young woman in Mercadona in neighbouring Oliva became embroiled in a heated discussion with the security guard after he reprimanded her for ‘only buying unnecessary goods’.

The woman, who was masked and gloved and became distressed when the guard failed to stand at least a metre from her, was waiting in the queue with two jars of pickled gherkins and a jar of jam.

“For me, these are essential,” she said, when the guard told her she should not be leaving the house for non-essential foodstuffs.

The outcome was not known, although a call was heard being put out to a supervisor.

A message posted by the Guardia Civil for the province of Alicante on Saturday gave a list of what were considered ‘goods of primary necessity for which a person could justify’ going to the supermarket.

They included meat, fish, eggs, milk and their equivalents, bread and flour, fruit and vegetables, beans and pulses, sugar and sweeteners.

People buying ‘essentials’ but also including other items not on the list in their shopping have not reported being fined or reproached.

On Monday evening, though, Spain’s interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska ordered officers to stop ‘policing’ what people bought in supermarkets.

He had been made aware of the Guardia Civil’s list and of a man in Alicante fined €1,000 for going out to buy a jar of chocolate spread.

Sr Grande-Marlaska ordered police to ‘stop creating lists of permitted purchases of products on sale in establishments that remain open’ during the state of emergency.

He said it was ‘not correct’ to do so, that the force had overstepped the limits of their jurisdiction and that although conditions for the lockdown were now stricter, they must not be in breach of people’s rights.