[ad_1]
The images are unlikely to hold memory. A city devoid of people, without hearing the languages of the whole world, without feeling the smell that comes out of restaurants. On the first night of a state of emergency, with a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., it is as if the 121 counties had retreated to March: cities are closed at home, deserted streets, shops and restaurants with curtains drawn down. It is the return to the city in suspension. It is the return to a state of emergency, on a day when another regrettable record was broken: the day when more lives, 63, were lost to covid-19.
Despite having entered into force at midnight, the main impacts of the curfew imposed by the Government were shown in the last hours of Monday. Restaurant dinners rushed to meet the 10:30 pm closing time; The goodbyes were shortened to avoid circulation in the street after 11 at night. Not always with great success.
Sara Pinheiro Nunes had gone to the gym and had dinner with a friend. I was on my way, on a motorcycle, to the hotel in Chiado, emptied by the pandemic. “There is no one, no one. I’m going to sleep there so that I’m not alone. “It was after 11 at night and, therefore, the 28-year-old businesswoman was stopped by a PSP team that was conducting a traffic inspection near Praça dos Restauradores. She confesses that she is surprised. For the inspection and for the late hour. The justification does not fit into any of the exceptions provided, such as being back home after a day’s work or going to support a sick relative.
In addition to prohibiting circulation on public roads between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., the decree that establishes the new state of emergency imposes a curfew on Saturdays and Sundays between 1 p.m. and 5 a.m. two weeks. For Sara, these schedules “don’t make much sense.” “In the restaurant, you were in a hurry to try to close at 10 pm. In the supermarket it will be chaos, especially on Saturday morning. But we have to be responsible “, shoots the businesswoman, who remembers” the many businesses that are bankrupt. ”
The cars with TVDE couplets stop, as well as the messengers who take the food home. The restaurant where Leonor Castelo Branco works, in Campolide, also makes home deliveries until 11:00 pm. As she essentially works on a take-out basis, and given the home-confinement scenario, the 25-year-old hopes the business will stay afloat and put her fears aside, though she acknowledges that restaurants will be one of the best. . sectors most affected by movement restrictions. “I am not afraid. We have already passed another phase of confinement. It will be better now.” It was from there that she left, bound for her home, in the Alfama neighborhood of Lisbon, when she was surprised by the PSP, who stopped her, asked for the vehicle documents and the employer’s statement that attests to the reason that allows her to move. outside the curfew period. required.
The Municipal Police and the PSP put “about three hundred” of their agents on the streets of various points of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area to monitor compliance with the new hours of commercial establishments, gatherings, alcohol consumption on public roads and wear the mask When it is not possible to guarantee the distance of two meters, the spokesman for the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the PSP, commissioner Artur Serafim, tells PUBLIC. The operation began at midnight Monday and will remain so during the emergency period.
The measures are “well founded”
On Monday night, in Praça dos Restauradores, an operation was launched, after 11 at night, to assess the reasons why passers-by were circulating on public roads. The first approach of the security forces, stressed Commissioner Artur Serafim, is to sensitize the public. “Participation in the crime of disobedience is used as a last resort,” he explained. On the first day, no crime of disobedience was recorded.
It’s late, it’s true, it arrives at midnight, and few cars go down Avenida da Freedom. They carry one or two people inside. The same goes for trams and buses.
Rossio train station is primarily a starting point for those who want to return home at the end of a working day. They are restaurant workers, vigilantes.
Shortly after the turnstiles, agents of the Security and Public Transport Division of the Lisbon PSP approach the person who arrives. Paulo Nobre had finished his shift at the Bank of Portugal, on Avenida Almirante Reis, where he is a vigilante. There are still 15 minutes for the 00:01 train to Sintra. The agents ask for your employer’s identification and statement. The departure station will be Reboleira, where he lives. Despite the interpellation of the agents, Paulo points out that these are measures that have “their foundation”. “I think it is too late. That’s what you can get. “
Rodrigues usually goes on the same train, to Damaia, after a working day that will be the last of at least 15 days. The 38-year-old Brazilian works in one of the restaurants in the Time Out Market, which will close on Tuesday. In principle, says the employee, it will be for two weeks, but the future is uncertain. “I think they are fair measures, but I think that if they had been taken during the holidays, this could have been more contained,” he says. Tourists have disappeared from the streets. “We are at zero. That is why we are going to close ”, he observes.
Despite the knowledge of the restrictions in force in 121 municipalities where there is a greater risk of contagion, there are still those who are surprised by the police approach and do not have a justification -exception for traveling during curfew hours- performance of professional functions as professionals With the exception of health and civil protection agents, obtain medical attention, go to establishments that sell food and hygiene products, attend to vulnerable people, exercise freedom of the press and take short walks on foot.
The population, Commissioner Artur Serafim has been abiding by the rules. “I come now from another area of Lisbon and the establishments were already closing or completely closed even before 10 at night. There is very little influx of people on public roads and there is almost no movement of cars ”. Even so, the PSP still has to disperse some concentrations in “sensitive urban areas,” such as social neighborhoods, he says. In Amadora, there are also reports of councils “almost every day”.
In the roughly two hours that agents were monitoring travel at Rossio, at least 10 people did not provide a valid justification for “boring” the curfew. However, they were able to continue their journey, with the caveat that they should not do so again after hours.
The homeless, the taxi drivers, the distracted and the workers who return to their homes or working hours resist on the streets. Those who collect our garbage and those who walk the dogs at night resist. Those who have the mission of giving light and color to an era that will inevitably be different still resist. In Largo do Calhariz, in Bica, it is almost Christmas.
Porto to retire
In Porto, the flow would fade as curfew approached. Some people at the bus stop, some people running towards the subway. A man eating, unhurriedly, on a wooden bench in a granite avenue, Avenida dos Aliados, the main one in Porto. Another a few feet away, looking at the town hall clock. A few minutes after 11 p.m., they disappeared. Mandatory curfew, the first in almost everyone’s life.
The cars continued, less, less. The sound of the engines becomes more audible, like an impossible to hide transgression. The footsteps of the last passersby. Ten minutes after the hour a patrol car was already passing. Siren. A little warning. You would have to say, “It’s time.” Only a few would have acceptable reasons to continue in that scenario. Only those should continue to circulate.
Leaving Baixa in the direction of Foz, only one car or another, the bustle of garbage collection, the homeless on their pieces of land, a man walking a dog. Porto picked up. with Ana Cristina Pereira
