Too happy to come out after 48 days of very strict confinement, the Spaniards went to walk, run, pedal on Saturday under the sun to enjoy the authorization to go for a walk and to do outdoor sports again.

"Yesterday I was like a child on the eve of Christmas. After so many weeks of confinement, I really wanted to go out, run, see the world", enthuses a 42-year-old financial adviser, Marcos Abeytua, out jogging in the center of Madrid.

Living in the usually festive district of Chueca, he says he woke up very exceptionally at 7:00 am, whereas seven weeks ago, when the bars and restaurants were still open, he would have slept in the morning to recover from an outing Friday evening ...

Near the Retiro, the most famous of the capital's parks, which remain closed, many Madrid residents go out running in summer clothes, sometimes in groups. "Thank you for running on the sidewalks," asked a loudspeaker from a municipal policeman, not far from the Prado museum, which was also closed.

Many stop for a "selfie" in front of the Alcala Gate, decorated with a black ribbon as a sign of mourning while the pandemic has killed more than 8,000 people in the Madrid region. 25,000 in the country.

After having already allowed children under the age of 14 to go out since April 26, the government of Pedro Sanchez has again eased the conditions of confinement imposed since March 14, which was one of the strictest in the world. Previously the Spanish were only allowed to leave their home to go to work - if teleworking was not possible - buy food, go to the pharmacy, to the doctor or briefly walk their dog.

However, walks and sports activities are very well supervised. In municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants, they are subject to specific timetables to avoid crowds on the streets and to keep children and elderly people who cannot go out at the same hours at a distance.

The slots from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. are reserved for people over the age of 70 and dependent people, possibly accompanied.

Walking slowly in Calle Mayor de Madrid, leaning on a cane and the arm of his daughter, Amalia Garcia Manso, 87, comes out for the first time "for a short walk", masked and gloved. "It hurts, it's hard for me to see that everything is closed in Madrid," she says, in the shopping street where police patrol.

"It is a pleasure to dress well"

Place de l'Opéra, two women, 76 and 79 years old, walk at a good distance from each other: "We are at high risk, I was not out at all, and it's good to have fun dress and walk instead of doing exercises at home, "says the oldest, Sonia Claesson.

From 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and then from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., adolescents over the age of 14 and adults can go out either to walk less than a kilometer from their home - two people from the same home maximum - or to do sports individually.

The afternoon is reserved for children under 14 years of age. In a lane near the Opera, Joud Ali Garcia, 3 years old, clings to the bars of his balcony on the fourth floor. "I want to go out," he shouts to an 81-year-old neighbor of the building opposite with whom he has been used to conversing for the past few weeks, impatient to rush into the garden facing the Palace. royal.

In Barcelona, ​​very many sportsmen and walkers are again free on the seafront, even if access to the beaches remains prohibited unlike other cities like San Sebastian, in the Basque Country, which lets walkers walk on sand.

But already, some regret that many do not respect the safety distance of two meters, such as Jose Antonio, a 65-year-old retiree who lets go: "if people want to get infected, they get infected, but the result, will be that in 15 or 20 days, they will lock us up again. "

With AFP

The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_FR