An anti-mask demonstration in Spain -

Alberto Sibaja / Pacific

  • 500,000 cases of coronavirus, 8,000 new daily cases and 237 new deaths in just one week: the second wave is knocking on Spain's door.

  • For Philippe Moreau Defarges, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), the country's difficulties in dealing with the health crisis can be explained in particular by economic reasons.

  • Spain would suffer the coronavirus all the more violently as its health system would be crumbly.

But what is happening in Spain?

Already strongly affected during the first wave of coronavirus which had swept through Europe from February-March, the Iberian country seems to be suffering the full brunt of a second wave.

On Monday, Spain passed the sad bar of 500,000 contaminations.

To this not very optimistic figure are added other equally worrying: 8,000 cases diagnosed per day, 237 deaths recorded in one week and an incidence rate of the virus - 106 cases per 100,000 inhabitants during the past week - twice higher than that of France.

For Philippe Moreau Defarges, researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), the causes of this difficulty in combating the health crisis are multiple, but above all to be found in the country's economic situation.

Spain is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus that is more violent than its neighbors at the moment.

Are these figures explained by a Spanish culture - shared meals, a more tactile approach, a culture of celebration - more conducive to contamination?

It is always risky to venture into culturalist explanations because they are difficult to quantify.

Perhaps the more tactile aspect of Latin culture played a role in the spread of the coronavirus in Spain, but it seems difficult to demonstrate.

And just as we can see in the culture of Spain elements conducive to the virus (nap at home, so in a closed place, shared meal…), we could find some for all countries of the world by looking carefully.

Above all, if that plays a role, it seems very weak in the face of the explanation which seems the most implacable: Spain is a country which is recovering with difficulty from several economic crises and which has known many austerity policies, which affected his health care system.

A health austerity policy also means less effective prevention, and therefore more contamination.

Spain, country of regions par excellence, does not it also lack an ambitious and common national policy?

It is certain that a strong traditional State could have been more efficient and lead a more coherent and better monitored policy at the national level.

Even more than a strong power, it is a united power that is lacking, because the tensions between Madrid and Barcelona or the Basque Country do not facilitate the acceptance of health measures.

We have seen, for example, that wearing a mask was little respected in Spain, at least less than in other countries.

This element must nevertheless be put into perspective.

Already, compared to ultra-centralized France, we have often praised the regional adaptations of other countries, especially in Germany.

The pro-independence Catalans would surely argue that in the event of a split with Spain, they would have better managed the epidemic by adapting better to the specificities of the territory.

Finally, in highly centralized nations, like the United Kingdom, we have seen that a strong but chaotic speech, like that of Boris Johnso, did not help to better control the epidemic.

The causes are therefore multiple?

Yes, one should always be wary of single explanations.

If we had to "prioritize" the sources of the problem, I would nevertheless place the austerity of the country far ahead, followed by political divisions, and finally we could place culturalist explanations last.

To this can be added other explanations, such as the density of the large cities of Barcelona and Madrid or the fact that Spain is a hotspot for summer tourism and that it has therefore suffered, like the PACA region in France, more cases during the summer, which would have relaunched the epidemic.

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