" We want to dance, " claimed the Barcelona nightclubs on Tuesday, denouncing a standard adopted by Catalonia, which only allows people who already know each other to dance, and only in restaurants or hotels. At the end of last week, the Catalan regional government had authorized the resumption of dance in discotheques, after the lifting of the state of alert which had been in force since mid-March in Spain due to the pandemic.
But on Monday, the regional executive reversed its decision, in a resolution aimed at reducing the risk of contagion in nightclubs. The Catalan health authorities have decreed that discos should keep the dance floors closed or place tables there for seated consumers. Dance floors located in other types of establishments, such as restaurants and hotels, may be used by dancers, but only if they are " groups of people usually in contact and in close contact ".
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Social networks have gleefully laughed at this resolution, which has also provoked outrage from the discotheque sector which was preparing to reopen after months of inactivity. " They prevent us from dancing when that is what we like the most ," criticized the general secretary of the Barcelona discotheque union, Ramon Mas, during an appearance in the regional parliament. " A nightclub without dancing is like an opera without music or a restaurant without food, " he said, before warning: " We won't reopen if we can't let people dance ."
The secretary general of the employers' organization Spain Night Life told AFP that this standard would in fact favor illegal boxes. " Knowing the degree of relation between a person and another touches their intimacy and an entrepreneur cannot take care of that ", argued Joaquim Boadas, who rather proposes to authorize the dance with mask. The regulations do not only concern the discos of the second city of Spain, Barcelona, whose nightlife attracts many young Europeans, but also tourist destinations like Lloret-de-Mar or Salou.
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After a severe containment, Spain ended last weekend the state of alert decreed in mid-March to slow down a pandemic which left more than 28,300 dead. Although the country has reopened its borders and lifted all restrictions on the movement of travelers, it is still mandatory to maintain a distance of at least 1.5 meters between people or to wear a mask when this is not possible .