It takes a lot to keep a Spaniard at home.
Even when bombs were falling on the Madrid streets during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, the streets would fill up as soon as the all-clear sounded, sending people back to their beloved plazas and avenidas. So when Spain loosened up coronavirus restrictions over the weekend, allowing adults an hour a day to exercise, people here in Madrid took full advantage.
As the coronavirus infection, hospitalization and death rates have mercifully slowed, one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns has been eased. After weeks in which only one adult could go out of the house at a time for food and medicine, with kids allowed out a week ago, there is now a full schedule according to which everyone can get fresh air.
Spain‘s bent curve.
Spain’s Ministry of Health
Saturday morning marked the inaugural of the 6–to–10 a.m. exercise shift for adults, and by 9 a.m. Madrid’s sidewalks — parks remain closed — were jammed. Two adults from the same household may go out together, which remains strict for a country whose citizens have been starved of human contact, particularly those who live alone. Rules are looser for Spanish towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants.
The later exercise shift of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. — kids can go out from 12 to 7 p.m., with elderly people allowed the 10 a.m.–to–noon hours and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. slots — was even more populous. To the untrained eye it looked like a spontaneous fiesta, with many spilling onto the roads, and groups of two morphing into three and more, several lounging on the grass in front of the Royal Palace. Even a kiss hello between two pals was witnessed.
A busy Saturday on the plaza beside the Royal Palace in Madrid.
Barbara Kollmeyer/MarketWatch
The looser rules proved too great a temptation for frustrated young people, with reports of dozens of parties across the capital city Saturday evening. The Interior Ministry announced 119 arrests and 16,490 fines on Saturday across Spain, with 116 arrested and 20,272 fined on Sunday. The grip remains so tight here that police stopped three people ambling across Plaza Mayor on Saturday evening as they shouted through a loudspeaker to tell everyone to keep moving — no sitting.
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These outings may be the highlight of the day for some as the country faces a painful downturn that looks set to bring the unemployment rate to 19% this year, according to a government estimate (the International Monetary Fund has pinned its forecast two percentage points higher, as El País reported).
A Twitter post, perhaps mindful of the dire outlook, fired back at the penalties being meted out by authorities for lockdown violations, saying: “If you think you’re going to fix this with fines, then let’s do it”:
“Thanks to the thousands of young people who went out in Madrid,” another tweet carped sarcastically. “Without your fines, the economy would have collapsed”:
If there is one perk for partially liberated adults, many of whom now again face an uncertain economic future less than a decade after la crisis, it’s that the air is clean — even if you can’t fully enjoy it through the face masks donned by almost everyone and mandatory on public transport. Ecologistas en Acción, a confederation of ecological groups in Spain, reported a 58% reduction in air pollution in the country between March 14 and April 30.
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