Tensions starting to fray

Spain has introduced the strictest confinement measures in Europe and it would appear that they are working, but for those who have been locked away in cramped apartment blocks in Madrid watching the lockdown being eased across the rest of the country, bar Barcelona, it must be a bitter pill to swallow even when lives are at risks. And it’s starting to tell. Yesterday, anti-government protests continued for the sixth consecutive night in one of Spain’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

Despite heavy police presence, hundreds of protesters took advantage of their rights to exercise outdoors after 8 p.m. and joined up in the Salamanca district in the capital calling for the government to resign and to ease the lockdown. Images showed many of the participants wearing masks, but social distance between protesters was not always maintained.

Spanish daily El Pais reported seeing a Spanish Civil Guard internal document warning of growing social unrest in the months to come. The whole situation is extremely sad and traumatic but we’ve got to keep cool heads and take the bigger picture into account otherwise we will be locked away again.