Thousands of people demonstrated yesterday, Saturday, in the centre of Madrid against the restrictive measures taken by the authorities to limit the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic, denouncing it as a «fraud», since according to at least some of them the virus «does not exist».
Shouting «freedom!», in an atmosphere extremely hostile to the media, thousands of demonstrators marched from the Atocha railway station to Colon Square.
Many of the protesters were not wearing masks, even though it is legally mandatory to wear them in public places in Spain, which is being hit hard by the third wave of the pandemic - the Iberian country has recorded an average of 400 deaths a day this week.
«People need to open their eyes, stop being afraid, realise that we are talking about nothing more than a heavy flu, that you expect it to pass and that's it,» said Milagros Solana, a 71-year-old pensioner.
«Mortality is lower than in other years,» he added, downgrading the official account (55,000 deaths due to COVID-19, 2.5 million confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2) in Spain.
Next to her, a friend was showing her mobile phone photos that she said prove that ’hospitals are empty«, in a country where more than a third of the beds in intensive care units (ICUs) are occupied by patients with COVID-19, where hospitals have been forced to turn away patients with other conditions to provide beds for patients infected with the new coronavirus.
Some demonstrators also spoke out against vaccination.
In an attempt to control the third wave, the government imposed a night curfew and restrictions on movement between regions of the country.
