Army to keep control of Spanish skies

"Another month’s state of emergency",headlines Público on thecabinet decision to petition parliament to extend thestate of emergency declared on 4 December to 15 January to cope with the air-traffic controllers’ strike that had grounded the country. For the government, observes the Spanish daily, the grounds for taking such a drastic measure persist: the threat of a hindrance to the free movement of people and the risk of adverse impact on key sectors of the economy. Fearing that the controllers might take advantage of the holidays to keep up this “trial of strength”, the government is hoping to sidestep a face-off by keeping the army manning the control towers. Left-wing critics of the Socialist party government are branding this an out-and-out case of “constitutional abuse”.