Party and lack of control in Spain due to end of curfew – News

The first hours after the end of the state of emergency declared in October were experienced in many cities like a big Christmas Eve, with bottles and toast in the main squares and no respect for security measures, despite the data on coronavirus infections are still worrying.

In Madrid, people took to the streets to celebrate in Puerta del Sol, and police said today they were forced to make 450 interventions, although there were no arrests .

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In Palma de Mallorca, in the Belearic Islands, 16 people were arrested and four police officers were injured in skirmishes that followed an unauthorized demonstration against the curfew that still applies in this autonomous community.

In Barcelona, ​​in the northern region of Catalonia, thousands of teenagers and young adults strolled through central squares and beaches to mark the relaxation of restrictions.

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The urban guard, in coordination with the regional police, had to expel around 6,500 people from 31 different spaces in the Catalan city this morning.

Catalan police director Pere Ferrer condemned the footage last night and lamented the “irresponsibility” of an “unsupported” minority, the newspaper reported. The world.

“Street parties for the end of 15 months of state of alarm. Hundreds of young people celebrated the end of the curfew at dawn, many without masks and without keeping a safe distance,” reported the Catalan newspaper. The avant-garde.

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“The silence that has accompanied the Catalan city for so many months ended at midnight, with car horns blaring constantly, chants and cries of hundreds of young people, gathered in different squares in the city.”

Although in Madrid and other cities, such as southern Seville, there were no notable incidents, images of the celebrations showed the lack of control and non-compliance with measures against the virus. .

“Freedom is not about breaking the rules,” Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said today.

“What we saw were despicable scenes,” he said.

Although the incidence of the coronavirus in Spain has started to decline this week, this trend remains very low after another two weeks of stagnation.

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Friday, last day with official data, 198 cases on average were recorded per 100,000 inhabitants across the country, which, according to the semaphore of the Ministry of Health, represents a “high risk”.

But in the first hours without an alarm, these figures were not recalled on the streets.

After the explosion of cases the country experienced after the Christmas holidays, the authorities maintained the closure of regions for Holy Week, a fundamental family holiday in Spain.

The country has remained open to foreign tourists, which has generated great unease among many Spaniards deprived of travel between regions.

Now, at state level, there is already free mobility throughout Spain.

With the end of the state of alert, the restrictions imposed in the final months of the pandemic by the government of President Pedro Sánchez come to an end.

Each Autonomous Community can impose different restrictions such as limiting the hours and capacity of shops, bars or restaurants, but to reinstate a curfew or the closure of its territory, it will need court approval.

Only four autonomous communities – Canaries, Navarra, País Valencia and Baleares – maintain the curfew.

Spain has recorded nearly 79,000 deaths and 3.5 million infections since the start of the pandemic.