The Sants Market it closes its doors on Saturday afternoon and does not open until Monday morning. But this week, Sunday was not a day off for the activity inside this municipal facility, built at the beginning of the 20th century in the popular Barcelona neighborhood. The modernist style building, remodeled in 2014, is one of the alternative spaces that in these elections have served as electoral College. It is not the only case. In this unprecedented day, six others have also done it: Concepción, Hostafrancs, Sagrada Familia, Sant Antoni, Abaceria and Ninot.
The common image of people with bags, cars and voices today looks substantially different. People only carry envelopes and identification papers (and umbrellas on a rainy day, of course). The ordered queues (no need to ask for the time) and the relative silence prevail over the daily bustle. Toni It is the first time that you step on the facilities. He has lived relatively close for a couple of years, but had only seen it from the outside: “I’m not from markets,” he says. “But not because I don’t like them, but because of my work hours.” Different case is that of Jaume, who goes weekly on Saturdays to the fish, meat or vegetable stops. Yesterday he did too, of course.
Josep, Isabel Y Elena They are in the first of the two polling stations enabled in the access. The bustle of the morning has stopped after half past one. No queues since then. Until noon, the recommendation called only people from those groups considered “at risk” to vote, but the bulk of voters seem to have also joined.
“237 of 462”, they sing at the second table. They have also passed 50%. Taking into account that the turnout will be much lower than in the last elections, they do not believe that many people will arrive. Especially since the time slot (from 7pm to 8pm) is approaching for people in quarantine, that is, those diagnosed with a positive coronavirus, suspects and close contacts.
Faced with the forced question of whether they are afraid of hour H, the answer is a blunt “no”. Ironies of fate, Josep works in another market. The most emblematic of Barcelona, the Boqueria. “How am I going to be afraid if last year, in January and February, we received thousands of tourists and then we weren’t wearing a mask. And I keep working every day, I’m going to Mercabarna weekly … “, he explains.
Something similar happens to Isabel, an employee of a department store in the center of the city: “My family is a little afraid, but I am not. FOR HIM, but until March every day you spoke with dozens and dozens of clients and many of them came from China”.
Everything has gone according to plan, they say. They only have one but: the inevitable cold that comes in when the doors are open less than two meters away: “We took advantage of lunchtime to go find coats and scarves.” “Perhaps in addition to the EPI They should have put a blanket on us, “they joke.
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