Spain pays tribute to COVID-19 victims

The Spanish monarch said on Thursday that Spain has given "a lesson of immense courage" and spirit of improvement during the pandemic and asked to act together, from "respect and understanding", to be able to look to the future with "confidence and hope". Felipe VI made this appeal at the civil tribute to the victims of the pandemic in the Patio de la Armería of the Royal Palace, where he assured the relatives of the more than 28,000 dead that "they are not alone in their pain". "It is a pain we share. Their mourning is ours, which is present here before all Spaniards. Pain and mourning in which we also all recognize ourselves", stressed King Felipe VI.

Don Felipe has admitted that the tribute cannot repair the sadness of those who have lost a loved one, but he has guaranteed them that "they will remain in the memory" and the citizens "will not forget them".  "This moral debt and civic duty oblige and commit us all. Let us put together, let us put together all our will, all our ability, all our knowledge, all our effort and commitment so that we can look to the future with confidence and hope. And let us do so with respect and understanding", the monarch encouraged the institutional representatives attending the event.

Responsibility, moral strength, determination in the face of adversity and the spirit of self-improvement of the Spanish people are, in the opinion of Felipe VI, the principles that must guide the path to be followed in order to "face and overcome the difficulties". "We will overcome them", he added. "This will undoubtedly be the best renewed homage that we can offer tomorrow to those who today, in all justice and merit, we remember, recognise and honour", he proclaimed.

The event was attended by members of the Government and of the State powers, all the regional presidents, representatives of the parties, except for Vox, and the heads of the EU institutions, as well as Queen Letizia, Princess Leonor and Princess Sofia. A participation that has reflected "the respect and greater solemnity of the State" in its tribute to the victims, according to Don Felipe. 

Of those who died, he recalled that the majority were elderly people and that they were part of an "admirable" generation that contributed to "building the edifice of democratic coexistence" on a daily basis. In his speech, he expressed his "immense gratitude" to the thousands of citizens and groups who have worked on the front lines during the pandemic in favour of others, to whom society "owes much more than it can imagine" for having kept the country's pulse racing. "Their behavior has been the best example of the civic and moral values of our society and the best reason for our collective hope," he said.

For Felipe VI, the health crisis has put "the Spanish people to the test as a country and as a society", but he stressed that they can feel "proud" of the responsibility they have shown in these "hard and difficult" times.

"Our society has given in these months a lesson of immense value. Spain has shown its best spirit. When the years go by and we remember this time and these days, we will also remember that we have given ourselves an example, once again in our history, of civility, maturity, resistance and commitment to others", the monarch stressed.

Hernando Fernández Calleja, brother of journalist José María Calleja, who died on COVID-19 at the end of April, defended unity this Thursday as "the best tribute" to be paid to those who died from this disease and claimed that memory is "a duty". "Memory is a duty; the best tribute we can do is to remain united in their memory and build the country that -the victims- would have liked to share", said the brother of the journalist and writer and one of the two citizens who took part in the State tribute to the victims of COVID-19 held in Madrid.

As Fernández Calleja defined it, it is a "symbolic farewell" to those who died from an illness that, in his words, "has been and continues to be a cold, cruel and destructive executor". She has stressed that the pain of the loss of her brother is also the pain of those who have lost their relatives during this pandemic, "compatriots" she has said, with whom she has shared "illusions and hopes".

The brother of the journalist José María Calleja asked the citizens for "compassion", because it is "a feeling" that helps to "understand the pain of others" and to share in "their brokenness" and their "immense sadness".

In what was the first of the two citizen interventions (the next was by a health worker), Fernández Calleja remembered other personalities who also died from coronavirus, such as the actress Lucía Bosé, the Chilean writer based in Asturias Luis Sepúlveda or the businessman Alfonso Cortina. He also mentioned other names of citizens of different ages who died from the COVID-19.

"But we are not here to honor anyone's glory, but to honor the memory of those who left brutally in these months of pandemic and to honor the anonymous and silent dead who lost their lives to this terrible disease," he emphasized in the Patio de la Armería, in the Royal Palace.

Of his brother José María, the youngest of eight, he stressed the close relationship he had with him. "We were unconditional support in the hardest moments and in the happiest ones," he recalled.  

"Let us never forget the lesson learned", asked the public authorities Aroa López Martín, head nurse of the Vall d'Hebrón Hospital Emergency Department, in the State's homage to the victims of the pandemic, in an emotional speech evoking the hard work of the health workers in this crisis. 

López Martín remarked that those behind the protective suits used by health professionals to care for patients with the coronavirus "were not heroes, they were people" who have experienced situations "that hurt your soul". "It has been very hard, we have felt powerless, with a brutal sense of uncertainty and the pressure of having to learn and decide as we go," he said at the ceremony held in the Patio de la Armería of the Royal Palace, before the kings, the government, regional presidents and the main state authorities. 

The nurse, who not only spoke on behalf of the health professionals - 52,000 of whom were infected by the coronavirus - but also of those who worked on the "front line", such as stockists, transporters and police officers, sent a message to the public representatives. He asked them to "defend the health of all" and "to remember that there is no better tribute to those who left us than to watch over our health and guarantee the dignity of our professions". To conclude, he added: "And that we answer a simple question: Who will take care of us if the person who takes care of us cannot? Let us never forget the lesson we have learned". 

Before, Aroa López has affirmed that the experience lived in these months "will mark us forever" although in her case she had already lived "very difficult" experiences as an emergency supervisor in the Barcelona hospital Vall d'Hebrón. She assured that all of them, doctors, nurses, assistants and all the specialties linked to health, have given "everything" they had, working "at the limit of our strength". 

But they have also understood again, he explained, "why we chose this profession" dedicated to "caring for and saving lives", although it has cost many colleagues theirs as well. Thanks to their efforts, they have acted as "messengers of the last goodbye for people who were dying alone", listening to "the voice of their children" on the phone and resorting to video calls. "We had to swallow our tears when someone told us: Don't let me die alone," the nurse recalled in one of the most moving passages of her speech. 

The nurses, continued the nurse, would leave their families to avoid infecting them, leaving the hospital with "all those emotions" on their backs and then returning "from loneliness and exhaustion" but ready to "transmit strength and encouragement to the sick beyond our fears. Glances have been the resource used for this because "it was the only part of the body that remained visible" and also among the professionals themselves, who learned to communicate in this way. 

Aroa López thanked the citizens for applauding them at eight o'clock in the evening, and asked them not to "forget about it" while respecting the health recommendations. She also asked them to think about those who died and the health professionals who lost their lives. "Please, may your efforts never be in vain',' he concluded. After his words and before listening to the speech of King Philip VI, the participants in the tribute deposited, in pairs, some white roses in front of the cauldron located in the center of the enclosure in memory of the thousands of victims of the COVID-19.

The State's tribute to the victims of COVID-19 held this Thursday in the Patio de la Armería of the Royal Palace, presided over by the King and Queen, concluded with a minute's silence observed by the authorities, families and representatives of the groups that have fought against the pandemic.

After the minute's silence, which ended with a round of applause from the audience, the event was brought to a close, attended by the Government in full, all the regional presidents, as well as international authorities such as the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the President of the European Council, Charles Michel; the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli; and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, among others.