Covid-19: Spain lifts state of emergency, youth give in to euphoria
Young people are celebrating in the streets of Barcelona after the lifting of the state of emergency on May 10, 2021. REUTERS - NACHO DOCE
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Spain ended the state of emergency established in October 2020 this Sunday, May 9 at midnight.
The inhabitants were able to leave their region or gather in the street in the evening.
A feeling of euphoria mixed with doubts and concerns, especially in Madrid where the youth let loose on Saturday evening.
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With our correspondent in Madrid,
François Musseau
In the Spanish capital, we barely waited for the end of
the state of emergency
to launch into the streets, headlong, until late at night, the night from Saturday to Sunday.
Countless illegal parties took place, thousands of young people drank until dawn in the squares and in the streets.
The mayor of the capital, José Luis Almeida, deplored 450 police interventions for non-compliance with health measures.
“
There is a radical change.
I wonder if we are going towards the abyss or if we are all going to run away,
worries José Antonio, security guard of a night bar.
What I see at the moment is full of people getting drunk in the streets, unprotected.
A sort of chaotic overflow.
"
Non-compliance with health measures
The general euphoria goes beyond the limits.
Madrid had already enjoyed a separate regime so far with a curfew at 11pm.
Now, nightlife venues close at midnight, and there are still restrictions: no more than six people together outdoors, four indoors.
But few people respect this rule.
"
This is not the end of the pandemic, it is the end of certain restrictions, and therefore that does not mean that people can do anything in the streets, because the virus, it still exists well and good,
”warns Milena, who has recently been working as a doctor.
Fear of seeing contagions multiply
The police force of the capital and the mayor, José Luis Martinez Almeida, denounced the existence of dozens of youth gatherings, where hardly anyone wore a mask.
There is a real fear that contagions will multiply.
The incidence of the virus fell, Friday, May 7, to 198 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last fourteen days in the country which remains one of the most affected in Europe with nearly 79,000 deaths and 3.5 million people. cases in total.
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