Spain’s Ministry of the Interior has declared a state of emergency after a widespread power outage affected most of the Iberian Peninsula.
Announcing the state of emergency, Spain’s Interior Ministry stated that it would apply in those regions that formally request it.
So far, Madrid, Andalusia, and Extremadura have asked the central Spanish government to take over the maintenance of public order and other functions, according to Reuters.
To recap, at around 12:30 p.m. local time on Monday, the entire Iberian Peninsula — Spain, Portugal, and parts of France — experienced a blackout.
The emergency disrupted all aspects of daily life: transactions could only be made in cash, traffic lights in cities went dark, and trains and metro services came to a halt.
