Coronavirus in Portugal: the battle of April

In Portugal, the pine cone procession in the village of Barroca in 2018. RFI / Marie-Line Darcy

Text by: Marie-Line Darcy

Portugal is trying to avoid a new wave of contagion and is also trying to contain the emigrant population for the Easter holidays. This year, there will be no processions, no masses and no family reunion due to coronavirus.

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In the north and center of Portugal, Easter traditions are still alive. Without reaching the emphasis of the parades of penitents in the streets of neighboring Spain, the inhabitants of the boroughs and villages continue to bring the Christian rituals to life.

Covid-19 wiped Easter off the festive card

Some borrow from pagan traditions, such as this so-called “pine cone fire” procession in the village of Barroca, near Fundão in the Serra de Estrela. The shepherds bring back pine branches from the Gardunha mountain which are blessed during a mass and then burnt at the end of the Way of the Cross in the mountain village.

Elsewhere, it is the astonishing “recommendation of souls” on Good Friday. Women dressed in black chant from door to door, at the crossroads and then in front of the chapels that line the villages. A melody a capela where death has the leading role.

This year, the Covid-19 has wiped Easter off the festive card: no processions, no masses and no family reunion. The village of Queirã near Vouzela (Braga region in the northwest) will live silent and isolated days. My mother sings in the choir. She participates in ceremonies. This year it will not be possible. And I won't see my mother, ”regrets Rosa Marques. Rosa lives in Baden near Zurich in Switzerland.

She had to leave on April 9 with her son to join her husband already there. Everything stopped. I only had my suitcase and my son's suitcase to put in the car. We had planned a stopover in Agen to see my other son, and arrived rested for Easter. But I'm not leaving any more . ” Rosa's voice trembles with emotion at the mention of lost vacations and impossible reunions. She talks about her father with advanced cancer and her husband, who arrived on March 16, two days before the extension of the state of emergency. Rosa is afraid of never seeing them again.

Emigrants are undesirable ... as a precaution

Portugal fears a second wave of contagion, with the arrival of emigrants who traditionally come to spend Easter with their families "on their land". The expression is a bit pompous but it well reflects the visceral attachment of the Portuguese diaspora for their piece of land, the house of parents or uncles, theirs sometimes. Calls have increased in recent weeks to prevent them from coming and bringing the coronavirus with them.

The local press is full of examples of “foreigners” who were able to enter Portugal while fleeing the tightening of measures in the rest of Europe. They sometimes adopt dangerous behaviors. Like this man who arrived from France in mid-March, diagnosed as positive as his mother, and on the run after having been forced to confinement for the first time, as provided for in the emergency law decree.

This extreme case is obviously not representative of the overall attitude of the emigrants. We are terribly disappointed. We had to leave for Portugal. But I'm pregnant, no way to take the risk. It's very hard, but we have to respect the rules, ”explains death at heart Marina Gonçalinho, who lives in Heiden, in the Swiss canton of Appenzell Rhodes.

Paschal confinement

The authorities who have bet since March 12 on self-managed and self-regulated confinement, with partial limitations for the over 70s and for the diagnosed positive placed at home over 85%, have forced the measures for the period from 9 to April 13.

Closed airports, Spanish borders under close surveillance, ban on leaving the municipality. Some thirty-five thousand gendarmes and police are mobilized and can impose quarantine if necessary. In place of Easter celebrations, the cities of the interior of Portugal have provided isolation centers to deal with any eventuality.

The Portuguese diaspora is made up of around five million people for a total population of 10.3 million inhabitants. These economic emigrants are in France, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, where they constitute the third foreign community. Affected by the closings of companies in this country, they are trying to reach their country of origin, which has been badly affected from this point of view. Portugal will tighten the dams at the nine border posts opened with Spain.

Bitter fines

In Portugal we play the active prevention card, we talk about the battle of April, to face a peak of infection by May. In Switzerland, between sadness and resignation prevail, Rosa describes herself as a prisoner. " If it lasts too long I will run away, " she said.

Rosa, Marina and many others will not be able to share Easter almonds with the family this year. Coated dried fruits offered as a guarantee of happiness and renewal. This year the treats have a bitter taste.

Read also : the state of the world facing the pandemic on Thursday, April 9

Public bench condemned in the Alfama district of Lisbon: due to the coronavirus pandemic, Portugal is in a state of health emergency. REUTERS / Rafael Marchante

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