Madrid finds its terraces, the first beaches reopen in Spain

Madrid residents will find their friends on Monday, their parks and terraces and in other regions less affected by the pandemic, the Spanish will be able to swim at the beach after ten weeks of one of the strictest confinements in the world.

Madrid, Barcelona and a large part of the Castile-Leon region (north of the capital) are in turn embarking on the first phase of a gradual deconfinement that the rest of the country started a fortnight ago. These were the areas hardest hit by the pandemic of the new coronavirus which left 28,752 dead and infected 235,772 people in Spain. Residents can now gather in groups of up to ten, at home or on the terraces of bars and restaurants. The gates of the major parks in the capital, such as the Retiro, will be reopened.

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However, everyone must continue to wear the mask, which is compulsory in buildings and on public roads when it is not possible to keep a safety distance of two meters.

The rest of the country, or 22 million inhabitants out of the 47 in Spain, is going through the second phase of deconfinement in stages, which should last until the end of June. Restaurants can reopen there, limiting the number of customers, and outings, for walking or sports, are no longer limited to certain hours of the day. As the heat of summer begins, the beaches of the Balearic and Canary Islands, the Atlantic and much of Andalusia are reopening for swimming, always with strict safety measures. The Ministry of Health recommends limiting the crowds on the beaches, delimiting spaces for each group and spacing the umbrellas 4 meters.

For the moment, only the natives will be able to benefit from it since displacements between regions remain prohibited and that the foreigners who disembark in Spain must observe a fortnight fortnight. However, the government plans to reopen the borders to foreign tourists in July.

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The restrictions imposed during containment in effect since mid-March were among the most severe in the world. During the first weeks, the Spaniards were practically unable to put their noses out and their children remained cloistered. This rigor and the slowness of the deconfinement caused a grumbling which was expressed gradually by concerts of casseroles then demonstrations, encouraged by the extreme right party Vox. The latter successfully summoned protests of thousands of cars on Saturday that engorged the center of the country's major cities, their drivers honking and waving the Spanish red, yellow and red flag, to denounce the government.