Villalba de Duero (Spain) (AFP)

"I had always dreamed of coming back to my land".

Tired of traffic jams and the cost of living in Madrid, Antonio Linaje took advantage of the pandemic and teleworking to return to settle in the village of his childhood.

Since October, the 28-year-old public policy consultant has moved into the house he inherited from his grandparents in Villalba de Duero, a village of 700 inhabitants 170 km north of the Spanish capital.

His daily life has changed radically: instead of piling up in the metro, his first task of the day is to go down to the garage to turn on the old wood heating system.

In the village, abandoned houses abound and there is only one bar.

But Antonio - for whom the arrival of fiber optics was a key factor in his decision to return to his "pueblo" - is delighted to buy his food from street vendors rather than at the supermarket and to "see a lot. plus the family. "" There are only advantages to living in a village, not just for me, but for the whole population ", as it solves the problems of the high cost of living in the city or crowded transport, he says.

- 'Planetary phenomenon' -

The young man's experience is not an exception, underlines Diana Moret, founder in 2015 of Pandora Hub, a platform for projects to boost rural areas, which operates in Germany, France and even in Indonesia and Cambodia.

"It's a global phenomenon, people all over the world write to us," she explains of these "digital nomads".

But in Spain, internet access difficulties frustrate some projects, such as that of Carmen Rogado, a 36-year-old Madrid bank employee.

"You want to come back, but in the end, the circumstances mean that you stay in the big cities", regrets this woman who had to give up her dream of returning to her village of Arabayona de Mogica (west, 400 inhabitants). an efficient internet.

After decades of rural exodus, the "empty Spain" of the interior, where aging is widespread and the population density extremely low, is hit hard by the digital divide.

According to a report by the UGT union, 13 of the 47 million Spaniards do not have access to a good internet connection.

The government hopes to improve things with the ambitious "Digital Spain 2025 Plan", funded by European funds.

Its objective: "to guarantee an adequate digital connection to 100% of the population" within five years.

- 'Historic opportunity' -

The country, which will be one of the main beneficiaries of the European recovery plan, now has a "historic opportunity" to "repopulate these interior regions" like Castile or Aragon, neglected for decades by the administration, Gema analyzes Roman, from the Atrevia consulting firm.

This will require investing in the construction of schools and hospitals and giving priority to "mixed models" of work alternating presence and teleworking, advocates the one who lives most of the time in a village of a hundred inhabitants. four hours drive from Madrid.

"It's a new perspective," she says, praising the invigorating activities of her daily life, such as ensuring that the rain does not wet the logs needed to heat the house.

If the interior of Spain attracts disillusioned employees of the city, the coasts are not left out.

Raquel Caramés, 38, from Madrid, took the plunge after the hard confinement of spring, which she spent alone in her apartment.

Polyglot and having worked in Dubai, Brazil, Germany or France, she resigned in September from her post of communications officer to settle in Chiclana, a coastal village in Andalusia where she used to spend her holidays.

That same day, she was hired by a chain of rural hotels based in Madrid, where she returns from time to time.

"It changed my life," she says, marveling at the human warmth encountered in her neighbors.

"There is a very strong network of people watching over you," she says.

© 2020 AFP