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Date Published: 21/07/2023

Alicante bars fight to remove smoking ban on terraces

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The Valencian Community is the only region which still imposes the anti-Covid measure

Alicante bars fight to remove smoking ban on terraces

Earlier this month, the Balearic Islands made the decision to remove the ban on smoking on outdoor terraces, leaving the Valencian Community as the last region in Spain to maintain the anti-Covid measure. Now, three years after the prohibition was implemented and several months after the health crisis officially ended, the association of restaurants and entertainment venues in Alicante wants to put an end to it once and for all.

The president of the Association of Restaurants and Leisure Premises of Alicante (ALROA), Javier Galdeano, plans to petition the regional government to eliminate the rule which, he said, should have been stamped out once the health emergency was terminated. With it went all the other safety measures and so too should the smoking ban have, he added.

In a previous unanswered letter to the former regional president Ximo Puig, Galdeano pointed out that 39.7% of Spaniards smoke daily and that there “are many people who associate sitting on a terrace having a drink and smoking, it’s a matter of habit.” Therefore, “if it has to be prohibited, it is a national [question] and to be voted on in Congress.”

He is confident, however, that the recent shake-up in the government of the Valencian Community will result in a lifting of the ban sooner rather than later: “If there are no legal grounds, goodbye to the ban. There is no reason not to.”

In other news: Spain raises the price of certain cigarettes

Image: Freepik

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