Anyone coming to Madrid these days as a foreign visitor will rub their eyes in amazement: beer gardens, pubs and restaurants are open and full of people, as are shops and shopping centers.
Cinemas, theaters and museums also have their doors open. Life pulsates in the Spanish metropolis, in whose catchment area 6.6 million people live – as if there were no virus epidemic. “Among the European metropolises, Madrid is an island in the sea of restrictions,” writes the newspaper “El País”.
Although Madrid is one of the worst sources of infection in Spain, public life does not stand still. The city, which advertises to have “the longest bar in the world”, is currently considered a European party oasis in which almost everything is open. This also sets Madrid apart from other Spanish regions, such as Mallorca or Valencia with the Costa Blanca, where there has been a tough lockdown in recent weeks and the innkeepers had to lower the shutters.
Contrary to the recommendations of the epidemiologists, Madrid’s regional government is going a separate way. “I’m not in favor of ruining the restaurant business,” says the conservative Prime Minister Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
It has not been proven that there is an increased risk in pubs and restaurants. Spain’s chief virologist Fernando Simón, meanwhile, refers to studies that show that the number of infections is falling much faster when restaurants are closed than in regions where operations continue.
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Meanwhile, the news that you can still go out and party in Madrid is getting around among corona-weary Europeans. Thousands of party tourists come from neighboring France, in particular, to finally be able to go out again after months of tough shutdowns. The French radio fueled the boom with a report on “the city of freedom”. French agencies offer a short city trip to Madrid for just 200 euros with a flight and hotel.
“It’s fantastic here,” say two Parisian students who are drinking their beer in the sun on the terrace of a restaurant in the central Plaza de Santa Ana. “It’s been a long time since we didn’t do that anymore. You can still live in Madrid. ”In France, restaurants have been closed since October, and there is curfew from 6 p.m. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, too, pubs and restaurants have been barricaded for months.
In Madrid, meanwhile, the party continues unabated. The catering is open until 11 p.m. Inside, up to four friends can sit together at the table, outside the limit is even six people. At 11 p.m., a curfew also begins in Madrid, but the police give people the freedom to come home after curfew.
Little attention is paid to the mask requirement in bars
Theoretically, there is a mask requirement when visiting a restaurant: “The mask may only be removed briefly when drinks or food are consumed,” says the regulations. But in practice, only the waiters wear the protection. And these do not see themselves as health policemen to enforce the mask requirement on their customers. “That’s not our job,” says a landlord in the old town, who doesn’t mind that so much French has been spoken in his restaurant recently.
The easy way of Madrid, however, also has considerable health side effects: The region has the highest number of infections on the Spanish mainland. In addition, 14,000 corona deaths have been registered since the beginning of the epidemic – more than in any other region in the country. The same applies to the intensive care units, which nowhere in Spain are filled with as many Covid-19 patients as in Madrid.
But regional president Ayuso, who is celebrated by many restaurateurs as a savior, defends her policy by pointing out that infections are also falling in the party city. The seven-day incidence was last at 114 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, still four times as high as in the tough lockdown region of Mallorca. But Madrid came through the crisis better economically than other regions, says Ayuso. And: “It’s easy to close businesses. But after that it is almost impossible to bring the business back to life. “
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