La Jonquera A petrol station, a garage, a bazaar, a carpentry shop and one of the biggest brothels in Europe. It is where Club Paradise is located, known because it can accommodate more than a hundred prostitutes. It is five o'clock in the afternoon, opening time, and there is already a group of six men waiting to enter. I have a wife! The Generalitat considers brothels "public establishments with private annexes" and, throughout the pandemic, the same measures have been applied to them as to nightclubs.
This means that, in , they were only allowed to open for two weeks in July, until on October 8 most restrictions were lifted. The only condition is that all customers must present a covid certificate or a negative PCR test result, as in nightclubs. On the first weekend, many customers did not have a test and had to go to a shopping centre next door to get one.
To avoid losing customers, this weekend the club hired medical staff who offer tests just outside the brothel. Five security staff check documents, bags and put the men through a metal detector.
They come out squirming and with reddish cheeks. There is a constant stream of clients coming in and out, although there are not as many as before covid: some have got used to going to flats where, in secret, prostitution has continued; and others are afraid that, with the covid pass, their details will be registered and they will receive a call at home. Only men can enter and they are of all ages: from very young to over 60, like the two Frenchmen who get out of the car with a mischievous smile: "We are going to relax and have a good time in a suite", they explain.
There are fewer Catalans and Spaniards; they tend to come between five and seven in the evening, after leaving work and before going home. On the other hand, the French tend to come later," says one of the workers. And the parked vehicles corroborate this. The debate on prostitution makes the governments of several European countries uncomfortable and the response they give is also diverse. In Spain this practice is legal, at least until now.
