Díaz Ayuso’s success in Madrid accelerates lack of refinement in Spain

MADRID – The importance of elections in the Community of Madrid conditioned the debate on the process of de-escalating restrictions derived from the fight against Covid. In order not to undermine his aspirations during the elections, the president Pedro Sanchez He avoided the debate on the renewal of the state of alarm, decreed six months ago and which ends next Sunday. Sánchez said he had no plans to extend it, but many believed he would eventually do so after the election. But the electoral success of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, definitively suppressed this scenario.

Since Sánchez outsourced the management of the pandemic after the first wave, discrepancies have arisen between the different autonomies. Madrid defended the few who favored the economy and preferred to keep restrictions to a minimum –The hotel did not close and the curfew was at 23–. “I am not going to close Madrid because there is no reason, because I do not want to and because no one is blackmailing me”, the President of Madrid came to proclaim with the impudence that characterizes her. And the ballot box proved him right.

In exchange, the Basque Country or the Valencian Community have opted for the most stringent measures, and unsuccessfully asked the central government for a renewal of the state of alert which would allow the automatic extension of measures such as curfews, a maximum number of meetings or closures of perimeters. From Monday, each autonomy will have absolute freedom to decide on its restrictive measures, but these must have the approval of the courts., which can cause a certain legal chaos, as it happened last summer, since the criteria of the judges are not unified on all the territory.

Currently, Spain appears to be in control of the Covid-19 pandemic, although it is far from being eradicated. During weeks, the average number of infections stagnates below 10,000 daily cases and the current incidence is 213 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. However, the death toll shows a clear downward trendprobably due to the acceleration of vaccination in the elderly. More than 25% of the population has already received their first dose of the vaccine and 11% both. The government hopes to have vaccinated 70% of the population by the end of the summer.

The management of the Madrid pandemic has raised a great controversy between experts and the public. During Holy Week, images of hordes of drunken young Europeans screaming in central Madrid, without masks or a safe distance, were not welcome among those who could not travel to the peninsula to visit loved ones.

Last weekend, the presence of French and Italian tourists was much lower. “There are, but nothing to do with the usual. Maybe they represent 5 or 10% of my customers, ”says Sergio Pérez, an Argentinian who has run a bar in the elegant district of Salamanca for more than two decades. “We strictly enforce table restrictions, we do not serve at the bar. But here, the police do not control like in other districts, perhaps because it is an area of ​​pepera, ”he adds.

Madrid hospitality employees and businessmen thanked Díaz Ayuso for his health policy. Some gave their names to cocktails or dishes or hung their posters on the walls. “She saved the area, unlike other parts of Spain that have closed,” says Joaquín Rodríguez, a waiter at a downtown restaurant who was a PSOE voter, but this time he chose the ballot PP. In all, the sector employs some 200,000 people in the capital and its suburbs.

According to Arturo, a bookseller with long white beards and perfectly round glasses, the influence of the new president goes beyond the hospitality industry. “I know shopkeepers in the La Latina district who voted for the left and now they are going to vote for Ayuso because of his lax measures,” he said in a sad tone that hints at his sympathies.

The controversy over the capital’s anti-pandemic policy revolves not only around the dichotomy between economy and health, but also on the measurement of infections and deaths itself. President Sánchez himself even hinted that the Madrid government was tampering with his data, as he used to add certain infections to his daily count several days or even weeks after their occurrence.

Despite the fact that Díaz Ayuso did not tire of saying during the campaign that Madrid were in the state average for mortality, the reality is that was the fifth most affected community. Now alright their data is not much worse than those of regions which applied much more restrictive measures. Epidemiologists have not yet found the reason for this contradiction. To some extent, the coronavirus remains unknown 16 months after changing the lives of the whole world.