ARCHIVED - 56,000 Spanish flags in Murcia city to highlight Covid dead in Spain

Similair protests have taken place in Madrid, Valencia and Seville

ANVAC, The National Association of Victims and People Affected by Coronavirus planted 56,000 Spanish flags in one of the principal arterial avenues of Murcia City on Sunday in a symbolic tribute to those who have died from coronavirus in Spain so far, 56,000 to date.

Similair actions have been carried out in the Roma park in Madrid; the Patacona beach, in Valencia; and the Alamillo park, in Seville so far, and the organization chose the garden bearing the name of Murcian artist Isidoro Valcarcel Medina, which runs between the Vistalegre and La Flota districts in the centre of Murcia city via Avenida Juan de Borbón, for their protest in the Murcian capital.

Close to the headquarters of the Guardia Civíl, they placed a larger Spanish flag on the ground under a large white ribbon reading: "Justice for the victims of coronavirus."

The association has been set up to help those who have died from the virus and their families, as well as those suffering from the issues of “long covid” which is starting to receive increasingly wide media attention, with victims of the virus left suffering from fatigue and associated symptoms for significant periods after contracting the virus.

The group has also attracted significant support from right-wing political parties critical of the national Government handling of the crisis (principally VOX), so although the original aims of the association may have been victim support, the flag planting protests are becoming increasingly politicised. In Valencia, left-wing protestors from the Frente Obrero ripped all the flags out and threw them away before the symbolic manifesto could be read out at mid-day: as the video below shows, the Frente Obrero also intervened in Murcia, binning the flags:

Una vez más el #FrenteObrero, esta vez en Murcia, contra los vendepatrias de Vox que convierten la muerte de trabajadores españoles en una parte más de su circo político contra el gobierno. https://t.co/dNBWX0Rfo1 pic.twitter.com/9zI8lcFCPf

— Frente Obrero España (@frenteobreroesp) October 18, 2020

There is no doubt that the covid crisis has polarised public opinion and that significant problems will continue to be associated with the virus for many years to come, the economic fall-out alone affecting employment and the economy as well as the families of victims, issues yet to be addressed as the world attempts to bring the virus under control. There is still a significant problem limiting the spread of the virus as the public has become desensitized to the deaths and the numbers involved. It's common these days to see members of the public on television complaining about how bored they are with the measures and certainly the increasingly militant attitude of some figures of authority towards the measures being taken by governments add only to the growing mood of rebellion amongst the general public who have lost confidence in the ability of their governments to limit the spread of the virus; sadly, we know that only a complete lockdown will halt the spread of the virus, but economically that will be disastrous, and the half-measures will only result in the virus continuing to circulate freely for many months to come and kill many thousands more before vaccines are widely available. It's a no-win situation for any party in power; which option do they choose; economic difficulty or a larger death toll.


Why 56,000?
Although the official fatalities count is just over 30,000, the figures produced by Euro MoMo and the National Statistics Institute do both co-incide that the number of deaths over and above what would normally be expected for the corresponding months, indicate that the number of deaths by coronavirus exceeds the official total by 23,000. The Ministry of Health does accept that this is probably a more accurate fatality count than their own official figures as many deaths in carehomes and the domestic environment were not included in the official figures as the victims were not PCR tested (at that point there simply weren´t the tester kits available.) The Ministry has always said that the true figure will only be known after the event when all of the data from funeral parlours and the civil registry have been cross-referenced.

The initial protests planted 53,000 flags, which was generally accepted as being a more realistic estimate of the total number of covid deaths in Spain to date, but as the death toll continues to rise, 56,000 flags were planted in Murcia.