Black masks, white roses as Spain's King honors COVID-19 victims
Wearing black face masks, Spanish and foreign dignitaries have paid tribute to Spain's victims of the coronavirus pandemic and the health workers combating it in a ceremony led by King Felipe VI.
Many of the roughly 400 guests outside the Royal Palace in Madrid, including relatives of some of the more than 28,000 victims of the disease in one of Europe's worst-hit countries, laid white roses on a black pedestal surrounding a bowl of burning coals on Thursday.
The king told the relatives they were not alone in their pain, a pain shared by all Spaniards.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other senior EU officials, and World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also attended the event at the Armoury Square of the palace.
In a rare moment of unity despite frequent tensions with Madrid over Catalonia's pro-independence drive, the separatist leader of the Catalan regional government, Quim Torra, was present at the event.
But the right-wing Vox party - the third-largest force in parliament - refused to attend, labeling the event "an advertising campaign for the government" and saying that "the victims' truth is not being told."
(Source: Reuters)
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