When the necessary time passes and the impact of the pandemic on the country's life is studied (emphasizing first the victims, of course, and then the economic catastrophe that Covid has brought), I hope and wish that historians take note of the criminal conduct that our administration has perpetrated against the hospitality and nightlife sector. Referring to criminal attitudes is not an exercise in clickbaiting nor a literary exaggeration. Let's do it properly, let's start with the data and hold on tight: according to a study promoted by the Guild of nightclub owners of Barcelona and province aimed at leisure professionals this August, 74.74% of establishments have not invoiced because it was not profitable for them to open (23.16% obtained between 0% and 25% of what they earned in August 2019; establishments that invoice the same or more than last year only show the explicit figure of 0%).
Let's continue. The aid received by the leisure sector, we can conclude without much thought, is an absolute joke: it has served to cover the percentage of losses from 0% to 5% in 31.58% of cases, from 5% to 10% in 25.16%, and has only managed to mitigate between 50% and 100% in 8.42% of respondents. Translated and without beating around the bush: the nightlife sector is experiencing an emergency situation and this not only affects the universe of nightclubs, but also many bars or cocktail bars in the city whose main invoicing starts after midnight. The cause of all this is not only the effect of the virus, but also the fluctuations in the administration's restrictions on one of the few sectors that has received specific closure mandates, as if nightclubs or bars were places where Covid is more contagious than in supermarkets, music festivals, or beach bars.
Shortly after the season began, most professionals in the hospitality world have not yet been able to plan the autumn course because the Government has decided to give itself a school holiday in August. The most worrying aspect of the case is that most of our councilors (especially those in the business, labor, and health sectors) are unaware that discotheques, rural houses, and also the country's bars plan months in advance and are losing bookings for future events simply because the Generalitat has not had the kindness to explain when the end of time restrictions will arrive. The situation is so denigrating that most of the privileged minds of public power exclaim against the proliferation of street drinking when this alcoholic phenomenon is explained precisely by the closure of bars and the major festivals themselves that have not been authorized by the Holy Spirit, but by the Government itself.
To be even more blunt and for everyone to understand. The very Government that allows the major festivals of Gràcia or Sants, and that, therefore, encourages the street to become crowded, is the same body that ends up sending the police to beat up the young people in the neighborhoods because, logically, and as has happened since the Pleistocene, they continue the party in the street when the stroke of midnight has passed. To exclaim about this fact (and on top of that send the police to clean (sic) the streets exceeds the incompetence and cynicism to which, on the other hand, our leaders have already accustomed us). But if that weren't enough, the most delirious thing of all is that the Aragonese Government, a group of sensible people who theoretically should have concentrated on the good management of the country, is unable to understand the foresight with which a sector, that of nightlife, must operate, which, as even a baby would understand, cannot be waiting to place orders or hire staff based on measures that change every week.
The very Government that allows the major festivals of Gràcia or Sants, and that, therefore, encourages the street to become crowded, is the same body that ends up sending the police to beat up the young peopleI spend the morning chatting with the baristas who have camped in Sant Jaume and their desperation is such that they are content with asking the administration to tell them when they can open without restrictionsand that, if possible, the measure not be retroactive. This is not a sector like mine, that of the culture vultures, who complain systematically due to their unhealthy dependence on public subsidies: these are a group of workers and laborers who only ask to be able to exercise their profession without more stumbling blocks than those brought about by a viral crisis. I repeat and must insist;no sector has received as many restrictions as the nightlife sectorand whoever wants to blame this powerful economic creation factor for the contagions only has to pay attention to the ICU saturation data, which in Catalonia is 72.29% and in Madrid 69.91%. It is therefore objectively false (and perverse) to impute the proliferation of the virus to nightlife.
If you pass through the Gòtic, stop to listen to the sector's spokespeople who are on guard in Plaça Sant Jaume and, if you wish to help our professionals, and I address especially our fellow citizens of Barcelona, please do the damn favor of entering the bars and venues that have given us so much satisfaction during so many nights of fun and have at least a beer at their counters.
In the country's capital, half of the establishments are at risk of closure. Let it not happen as always, dear fellow citizens, and let us mourn the death of our favorite local when it is already too late. At home, we have always known that things are only maintained by paying the bill. It depends on us, because I tell you, if it's up to this administration of geniuses, we can already consider the sector dead. And you, historians of the future, if posterity grants me the grace of readers who survive my breath, remember the crime I am talking about.
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