Spanish anti-lockdown car protest draws thousands
Thousands of folks in Spain are protesting against the government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
The far-right Vox party urged supporters to operate a vehicle through major cities without leaving their vehicles so that you can maintain social distancing.
Protesters in the administrative centre, Madrid, drove in convoy and waved Spanish flags as they called for socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to resign.
Spain imposed a number of the tightest restrictions in Europe on 14 March.
It has eased restrictions in recent weeks, but Madrid and Barcelona have remained under tight lockdown due to their more serious outbreaks of Covid-19.
Both cities will get started to relax their curbs from Monday by allowing outdoor dining and gatherings as high as 10 people.
Why are people protesting?
The country's two-month lockdown has seen hotels, bars and restaurants all close and beaches and other outdoor attractions.
The government says this has allowed it to achieve the outbreak under control, and the daily death toll has been steadily declining.
But, on Saturday, far-right protesters called for the lockdown to be lifted entirely owing to its effect on jobs and the economy.
Almost one million jobs were lost in March alone, and forecasts advise the Spanish economy will contract by up to 12% this season consequently of the pandemic.
The demonstrators called for both Mr Sanchez and Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, who heads the left-wing Podemos party, to step down over their handling of the crisis.
"It's time to make a big noise against the government of unemployment and misery which has abandoned our self-employed and workers," the opposition Vox party said in a statement.
The party's leader, Santiago Abascal, led the protest from an open-topped bus in Madrid. He wore a nose and mouth mask and accused the federal government of being "directly responsible for the worst management of the crisis on the entire planet".
"Let your desire be heard for the resignation of the government," he told supporters in a speech that was broadcast on radio.
Similar protests also occurred in Seville, Barcelona and other regional capitals where rows of cars and motorbikes decked in Spanish flags honked their horns.
Others followed the convoys on foot and held placards
While countries like the UK, US and Brazil also have seen anti-lockdown protests, they have rarely seen social distancing measures respected.
What else is going on in Spain?
While protests against his leadership occurred around the united states, Prime Minister Sanchez announced two major relaxations of the lockdown.
He said the country's borders would reopen to foreign tourists from July.
Mr Sanchez also announced that football matches in La Liga - the top league of Spanish football - could resume from the week of 8 June.
"Spain did what it should and now new horizons are opening for everybody. The time has come to bring back many day-to-day activities," he said.
The second division is also set to resume concurrently as the most notable flight, with reports suggesting the derby between Sevilla and Real Betis will be the first La Liga game to occur.
On Wednesday, Mr Sánchez won parliamentary backing to increase the state of emergency until 6 June.
Spain is probably the countries that is hardest-hit by the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 28,000 recorded deaths and 234,000 cases.
But the decline in the daily death toll continued on Friday, with 56 recorded over the prior twenty-four hours.
