According to the proposal, this rate will now apply to all drivers in Spain, regardless of their profession or the length of their driving licence. The current law allows a rate of 0.5 grams of alcohol per litre of blood for most drivers.

In Spain, this maximum rate is reduced to 0.3 grams for some professions (bus drivers, ambulance drivers and lorry drivers, for example).

The bill that was accepted by the Spanish parliament, an initiative of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE, which leads the country's government), received votes in favour of 177 deputies out of the 350 in the plenary. 32 MPs from Vox voted against it, while 135 from the Popular Party abstained.

This was the first vote and debate on the proposal in parliament, which now begins to analyse it at the committee level, where amendments can be made, before the initiative returns to the plenary for a final vote. There is currently no timetable for this process.

As well as changing the limits on the maximum amount of alcohol allowed in the blood to drive, the proposal introduces a ban on publicising information about where police checks on drivers are taking place.

In this case, the proposal specifically mentions "organised groups" that share this information on social networks or via messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram.

Portugal aims to follow the example

After the measure was approved in Spain, Portugal also demonstrated its interest in following suit. Joana Teixeira, president of the Portuguese Society of Alcoholism (SPA), in statements to Lusa, states that a similar measure should be adopted in Portugal, noting that it is “completely different” to have a blood alcohol level of o.2 and 0.5, which could have effects on the driver's perception.