Spain deploys army to Madrid to help enforce lockdown

Local police control people's movement in a traffic checkpoint at the Puente de Vallecas neighbourhood

Credit: AFP

Spanish troops will deploy to Madrid to help enforce a strict new lockdown after thousands of residents took to the streets in protest.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed to send in the army after a meeting on Monday with the regional governor, Isabel Diaz Ayuso. 

Thousands of soldiers helped battle the outbreak during Spain’s first wave and they will return to the job as case number rises over 10,000 per day.

“We need help from the army for disinfection … and to strengthen local police and law enforcement,” Isabel Diaz Ayuso told a news briefing.   

The exact extent of the emergency deployment was due to be decided at meetings on Monday night. 

Madrid is currently accounting for one third of new cases in Spain and registered 144 out of 432 deaths from Covid-19 in the past week, with some intensive care wards exceeding their capacity.

Nearly one million Madrid residents in 37 districts were barred from leaving their neighbourhood from Monday  unless for work, family care, or a legal obligation. 

Other restrictions within these areas include the closure of parks and children’s play areas, while all indoor venues must restrict capacity to 50 per cent and close by 10pm.  

There were protests in many of the 37 districts on Sunday night, with demonstrators pointing out that these are among the poorest neighbourhoods in the capital, with residents living in small apartments and using overcrowded public transport.

According to a study by the newspaper El País, all of the 37 districts have average disposable annual income of less than 13,000 euros, the average for the region, with four of the five poorest areas being affected by the restrictions.

“We want adequate measures to protect us in these working class areas. We don’t have medical centres. Many people do not have a work contract so they cannot observe quarantine properly,” said Vanesa, a protester from the Vallecas area.

“It is illogical that you can go and do things in wealthier areas, but you cannot do the same in Vallecas. There is the same risk of contagion. They are discriminating,” said 56-year-old Begoña Ramos at the same protest.

Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida said the measures did not discriminate against the poor.

“There are no first class residents and second class residents. We have to be together at this moment,” he tweeted.