Stop political discussions please, they are out of place and moment
Living in Spain and in Madrid I thought I had to share with you how the ambience is now.
Yesterday 2,300,000 persons took Madrid's streets (can you imagine Plaza de Colón filled, and a sea of people covering all the streets from Colón to Plaza de Cibeles, to Plaza de Neptuno and Plaza de Atocha? can you imagine all the streets heading to Pl. Colón filled with people?). Yesterday 11,400,000 persons all over Spain took the streets.
1,500,000 in Barcelona
700,000 in Sevilla
500,000 in Canary Islands
400,000 in Zaragoza
400,000 in Vigo
400,000 in Málaga
350,000 in Cádiz
350,000 in Oviedo
300,000 in Bilbao (the Basque Country)
300,000 in Murcia
180,000 in Baleares
150,000 in La Coruña
150,000 in Extremadura
120,000 in Jaén
100,000 in Vitoria (the Basque Country)
100,000 in San Sebastian (the Basque Country)
100,000 in Logroño
85,000 in Cantabria
85,000 in Pamplona, Valladolid and Santander
65,000 in Orense
40,000 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Lugo
35,000 in Ceuta (half the population)
30,000 in Melilla (half the population)
But also in Europe:
6,000 in Brussels (Belgium)
2,000 in Paris (France)
2,000 in Berlin (Germany)
1,000 in Lisbon (Portugal)
1,000 in Ginebra (Switerland)
1,000 in Helsinki (Finland)
300 in London (United Kingdom)
And all over the world:
800 in New York (USA)
500 in Washington (USA)
Mexico, Peru, Honduras, Beijing,...
Think about it: We knew that by attending the demonstrations we were an easy target for another terrorist attack; everybody commented it. But people went; the metro was filled of people (to the point that some exits near Pl. Colón were blockaded and people couldn't get out of them), lots of parents with their kids (even babys of less than 1 year old). It was raining heavily, people was wet, but they were there.
Between my family and my friends only my grandmothers (99 years-old and 93 years-old) didn't attend.
Those who know Spain know that we don't easily show signs of patriotism. Yesterday most people worn a spanish flag with a black ribbon. I can see from my room various buildings, and people has hang spanish flags and white flags with black ribbons.
I don't know anyone who has not cried in the past two days. People is sad. Yesterday a friend of mine almost started to cry in front of me. I have cried.
But people is equally determined not to let this alter our lives, we will face terrorism (no matter it is ETA or Al-Qaeda) and will defeat it.
Tomorrow we have legislative elections, and will go massively to vote. They won't destroy our democracy.
It is incredible the support we have received from all over Spain and abroad. Very impressive. We have just to see this same Board with more than 200 posts. We can only be thankful.
From Madrid
Fernando