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A former Spanish government minister from Pedro Sánchez's Socialist party has expressed his clear doubts that the city of Madrid, devastated by the coronovirus pandemic, is ready to begin the post-lockdown plan which Spain's prime minister presented on Tuesday.

Miguel Sebastián, trade and industry minister from 2008 to 2011, questioned whether the Spanish capital was ready to enter "Phase 0", the preparatory phase of the six-to-eight week plan for a "new normality". As prime minister Sánchez announced yesterday, the whole of Spain will enter Phase 0 on May 4th, when everybody will be able to exercise outside, and some limited new retail activities will begin.  

"In the last five days," wrote Sebastián on Twitter, "Madrid on its own has had more cases than all of Greece in the whole pandemic, 2,600. In the last 10 days, more than all of Australia, 6,700. In the last 15 days, more than all of South Korea in the whole pandemic, 10,700. Are we really ready for phase 0 in Madrid?" he asked.

The Sánchez government plan, created with the help of experts and scientists and approved by the cabinet, is based on a four-phase lifting of lockdown. Apart from the starting date, dates for each of the stages are not set, and will be subject to the improvement in a series of indicators in each Spanish province, but as the prime minister announced, it is envisaged that the Spanish state will reach a "new normality" in eight weeks. The decision on when a province passes to the next stage is in the hands of the central government. Permission for the population to go outside for exercise has been granted starting this Saturday.