MADRID (AP) — The Spanish government has declared 10 days of mourning starting Wednesday for the nearly 27,000 people who have died with the novel coronavirus in Spain, the longest official mourning period in the country’s 4-decade-old democracy.
Flags will be hoisted to half-staff in more than 14,000 public buildings across the nation and on Spanish naval vessels until June 5, under the declaration made Tuesday. King Felipe VI, as Spain's head of state, will preside over a solemn memorial ceremony once the country emerges from the lockdown imposed 2 1/2 months ago, the government said.
The dead are “men and women whose lives have been suddenly cut short, leaving friends and family in great pain, both from the sudden loss and from the difficult circumstances in which it has occurred,” government spokeswoman María Jesús Montero said following the Cabinet meeting where the grieving period was approved.
Opposition parties had criticized Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's left-wing coalition government for not paying tribute to the virus pandemic's victims as Spain's death toll - the world’s fifth-highest after the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and France - became a point of political debate.
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Coronavirus pandemic in Spain
A waiter wearing a face shield and gloves as protection against coronavirus works in a terrace bar of Mayor square in downtown Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Spain's Foreign Minister says that European Union members should agree to a common approach to open borders, re-establish freedom of travel in the Schengen Area and define which countries outside it should be considered safe to travel from and to. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Customers sit at a terrace bar of Mayor square in downtown Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Spain's Foreign Minister says that European Union members should agree to a common approach to open borders, re-establish freedom of travel in the Schengen Area and define which countries outside it should be considered safe to travel from and to. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A woman wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus, walks in front of a black ribbon for the victims of COVID-19, displayed at Puerta de Alcala square in downtown Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, May 26, 2020, as the lockdown continues. Spain's Foreign Minister says that European Union members should agree to a common approach to open borders, re-establish freedom of travel in the Schengen Area and define which countries outside it should be considered safe to travel from and to. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
People walk on a street in Barcelona on Monday, May 25, 2020. Roughly half of the population, including residents in the biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona, are entering phase 1 on Monday, which allows social gatherings in limited numbers, restaurant and bar service with outdoor sitting and some cultural and sports activities. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Adrian, holds a pawn shop add during his work shift in Madrid, Spain, Monday, May 25, 2020. Roughly half of the population, including residents in the biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona, are entering phase 1 on Monday, which allows social gatherings in limited numbers, restaurant and bar service with outdoor sitting and some cultural and sports activities. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A waiter wearing a protective face mask attends clients at a bar terrace in Madrid, Spain, Monday, May 25, 2020. Roughly half of the population, including residents in the biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona, are entering phase 1 on Monday, which allows social gatherings in limited numbers, restaurant and bar service with outdoor sitting and some cultural and sports activities. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Customers follow social distance guidelines while they wait to enter inside a clothing store in Madrid, Spain, Monday, May 25, 2020. Roughly half of the population, including residents in the biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona, are entering phase 1 on Monday, which allows social gatherings in limited numbers, restaurant and bar service with outdoor sitting and some cultural and sports activities. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A client wearing a protective face mask has lunch in a bar terrace in Madrid, Spain, Monday, May 25, 2020. Roughly half of the population, including residents in the biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona, are entering phase 1 on Monday, which allows social gatherings in limited numbers, restaurant and bar service with outdoor sitting and some cultural and sports activities. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A worker cleans a restaurant ahead of the opening on Monday, May 25, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain. Roughly half of the population, including residents in the biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona, are entering phase 1 on Monday, which allows social gatherings in limited numbers, restaurant and bar service with outdoor sitting and some cultural and sports activities. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A waiter wearing a protective face mask and gloves carries a tray out to a bar terrace in Madrid, Spain, Monday, May 25, 2020. Spain is making progress on its staggered plan out of the confinement against the coronavirus. Roughly half of the population, including residents in the biggest cities of Madrid and Barcelona, enters phase 1, Monday which allows for social gatherings in limited numbers, restaurant and bar services with outdoor sitting and some cultural and sports activities. (AP Photo/Paul White)
Families with their children play along the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, Spain, Sunday, May 24, 2020. Spain is preparing to reopen some of its beaches for sunbathing on Monday, when restaurants and bars in Madrid and Barcelona will serve clients at outdoor seating as the country relaxes its virus lockdown. The two cities are the hardest hit areas by the coronavirus pandemic in Spain. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
People wave Spanish flags during a drive-in protest organised by Spain's far-right Vox party against the Spanish government's handling of the nation's coronavirus outbreak in Madrid, Spain Saturday, May 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
In this Friday, May 22, 2020, photo, Moroccan citizens wait for repatriation after being stranded in Spain due to the coronavirus pandemic in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Spain. (Faro de Ceuta via AP)
In this Friday, May 22, 2020, photo, Moroccan citizens wait for repatriation in buses after being stranded in Spain due to the coronavirus pandemic in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Spain. (Faro de Ceuta via AP)
Police officers ask people to not sit while patrolling at the beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. On Wednesday, Barcelona permitted people to walk on its beaches for the first time since the start of the coronavirus lockdown over two months ago. Sunbathing and recreational swimming are still not allowed. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
People hold Spanish flags in their cars during a drive-in protest organised by Spain's far-right Vox party against the Spanish government's handling of the nation's coronavirus outbreak in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, May 23, 2020. Several thousand followers of Spain's far-right Vox party gathered Saturday in their cars and motorbikes in the center of Madrid and other Spanish cities to protest the Spanish government's handling of the nation's coronavirus crisis. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
People enjoy the beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Barcelona allowed people to walk on its beaches Wednesday, for the first time since the start of the virus lockdown over two months ago. Sunbathing and recreational swimming are still not allowed. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Police officers asks people to not sit while patrolling at the beach in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Barcelona permitted Wednesday for people to walk on its beaches for the first time since the start of the coronavirus lockdown over two months ago. Sunbathing and recreational swimming are still not allowed. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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Arguing that some unconfirmed virus cases had been erroneously counted, Spanish health authorities reduced the country's official mortality figure by 1,918.
Montero said that 80% of Spain's virus-related deaths were people age 70 or older, "those who helped build our country as we recognize it today, and ultimately laid the foundations of our democracy."
“They might not accompany us physically, but they will remain forever in our memory,” she said.
Flags at half-staff and other expressions of grief have become common around the world during the pandemic.
In Italy, the military’s aerobatic team honored the dead over the past few days, saluting cities such as Codogno, Milan and Turin with flybys. Nightly or weekly applause and singing to honor medical personnel working to save lives has been the most clear expression of collective unity amid personal losses and the isolation of lockdowns.
No other country so far has announced an observance on the scale of Spain's 10-day mourning period, an event unprecedented since the country reinstated democratic rule in 1978. Three years earlier, when dictator Gen. Francisco Franco died, a 30-day mandatory mourning period was declared. Three days of mourning were observed in March 2004 for nearly 200 victims of Al-Qaeda-inspired attacks on Madrid commuter trains.
COVID-19 deaths have become a touchy issue for Sánchez's government since it imposed a strict lockdown on March 14 with the aim of slowing the spread of the virus. In the ensuing 10 weeks, the death toll climbed from 120 to 26,800, and confirmed infections in Spain grew from 4,200 to over 230,000.
Spanish politicians across the political spectrum, left and right, have raced to capitalize on the collective loss.
National flags with a black-ribbon have appeared on the balconies of apartment buildings and in the hands of right-wing protesters, a symbol of the country's loss and of anger over the government’s handling of the pandemic.
Authorities in the hard-hit Madrid, a stronghold of the conservative opposition, put gigantic displays of black ribbons at some of the Spanish capital's main landmarks. As a permanent tribute to COVID-19 victims, local officials installed a cauldron with a gas-powered flame in front of City Hall. A plaque, surrounded by floral bouquets, reads, “Your flame will never go out in our heart.”
In recent weeks, strict home-confinement orders and bans on public activity have eased across the country.
“They should have declared the mourning days ago,” Madrid resident Conchita Hernández, 77, said. Her husband, Agustín Álvarez, 77, compared the Spanish capital’s nearly 9,000 virus-related deaths to the casualties during times of war.
“The mourning would have made more sense when we were all homebound, but I still think it makes a lot of sense,” Álvarez said.
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AP reporters Bernat Armangue in Madrid and Colleen Barry in Rome contributed to this report.
