by Lenox Napier¹
Editorial:
We live in interesting times. The American elections are just a month away, and it’s not sure who is going to be left holding the field following the result. The one with the most votes? Perhaps not: ‘…All the evidence, literally, all if it, lines up behind the proposition which is that Donald Trump may win, he may lose, but he will not, not now, not ever concede that he was defeated in the election…’ says The Atlantic here. The writer of the piece, Barton Gellman, is interviewed in a video here. NBC News has a similar story: ‘»We’re going to have to see what happens,» Trump said…’.
As far as ‘the most votes’ goes, the peculiar American system uses the Electoral College for each state’s decision (and the Supreme Court to rule on the details of who votes and how), and as Slate says here (while worrying about the recent Trump’s Supreme Court nominee), ‘…As has been noted many times over this past week, the Republican Party has lost the popular vote in six of the last seven elections and yet appointed 15 out of the last 19 justices…’.
Still and all, that tax story has got to hurt…
Compared to other threats that currently threaten our peace, Covid, Brexit and the ghastly prospect of Sober October (gulp!), a possible meltdown across the pond might end up as more than a footnote in future history books.
And so to Spain, where we also have problems with our Supreme Court (it’s too long been in conservative hands), with Catalonia (where the president has just been defenestrated), Madrid (where the regional and national government are quarrelling over whether to put the whole city in lockdown), the outing of Mariano Rajoy (accused in the Operación Kitchen of being party to the PP’s covert police operations), the possible end of the Monarchy (Juan Carlos quietly brooding in a hotel in Abu Dhabi as the Government of Spain writhes in embarrassment), an absurd motion of censure (the PP and C’s will both vote against Vox’s candidate, and even if they voted for him, it would still fail) and finally, the likely Spanish 2020 deficit and financial meltdown.
The Minister for Universities, the normally obscure Manuel Castells, said this week in parliament «Este mundo, sí, este mundo se acaba«. «I have written 45 books about the world, about how things are going», he says and then he categorically assured: «I believe that the world as we have known it is in danger, and I am not saying that it is over, but this world is, this world is over». Antena3 has the video here.
Housing:
‘We need to talk about Brexit’ – how does it affect property buying in Spain?: An article from Property Investor Today here.
‘Upmarket house prices to fall as much as 30pc in coming months, forecasts agent’. An item at Spanish Property Insight (with, perhaps, more interesting comments from the readers).
From Spanish Property Insight here: ‘Fedea, a Spanish think tank, has published a report drawing attention to the erosion of private property rights and legal transparency in Spain during recent decades. The Research and Applied Economics Foundation (Fedea) report argues that private property rights in Spain are increasingly under threat from regulatory changes that go beyond the reasonable criteria applied in most of Europe and “subvert private property in order to make up for shortfalls in public [housing] policy at no cost to the treasury, as is the case with foreclosures and the adverse possession of homes.”…’.
From The Corner here: ‘The coronavirus pandemic forced a high percentage of Spaniards to telework. Although this percentage has been declining as the social distancing measures have been lifted, many companies are already considering the option of offering their employees a more flexible way of working, combining days working face-to-face in the office with working remotely. In view of this foreseeable rise in teleworking, in this article experts at CaixaBank Research will analyse its implications for urban mobility and, from a longer-term perspective, for the residential real estate market. After all, many families decide to buy a home near their workplace in order to minimise the time spent commuting. However, if the need to go to work in person is limited to just a few days a week, the decision on where to reside may change considerably…’.
Tourism:
‘Waiting for tourists in southern Spain’s ghost coast. More than 80% of hotels on the Málaga beachfront have closed while Cádiz’s are surviving on 20% occupancy’ – an article from El País in English here.
Andalucía: ‘The regional department of tourism will offer all international travellers who spend one or more nights in Andalucía, full health and civil liability insurance against Covid-19 from January 1, 2021, to cover all expenses derived from a possible contagion of the disease or the effects associated with it. This would include any treatment needed, a possible hospital admission, as well as an eventual transfer to the patient’s country of origin if the circumstances arose. It will also include accommodation and living expenses in the event that, due to direct contact with a person infected by coronavirus, they have to quarantine…’. The ABC reports here. Hosteltur also has the story here.
With tourism still an unmitigated disaster for Spanish income this autumn, 20 Minutos says that the shortfall for the rest of 2020 will be in the order of 30,000 million euros.
‘Covid has left easyJet ‘hanging by thread’, union official tells staff. The airline denies the suggestion made in a leaked recording of conference call’. The Guardian reports here.
Seniors:
‘More than 270,000 people are recognized as dependent in Spain, but have not yet received the benefits to which they are entitled. To these people must be added the applicants who have not yet seen their rights recognized, but who will hopefully obtain a favourable resolution that grants them some degree of dependency. If they are included, the waiting list then rises to 390,000 people…’. La Vanguardia reports here.
Finance:
From 20Minutos here: ‘The CEOE compromises and will support the extension of the ERTE negotiated with the Government’. The CEOE (the Confederation of Spanish Business Organizations) has accepted the latest government proposal after a full night of negotiations. The protection extends to almost all sectors and «leaves no one behind».
‘The CaixaBank–Bankia operation is the teaming up of two peas in a pod’, The Corner looks on fondly here.
El Comercio says that half of the Spanish in work earn under 20,000€ per year.
Bolsamanía looks at the titans of the Spanish stock-market and asks why they are failing: Telefónica, Santander, BBVA and Repsol.
Wolf Street looks at European airlines and wonders how bad it will get. ‘A grim summer turns to a long cold winter for European airlines as passenger traffic dives again. A struggle for basic survival and for new money to burn’. It says ‘…In the continued absence of cut-and-dry solutions, airlines are cutting back capacity even more. Eurocontrol (the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation) now expects the number of flights in Europe to be down 60% year over year by January, compared to its prior estimate of a 20% shortfall. In its revised air traffic scenarios, it projects total flights this year of around 6 million — 55% below 2019’s total and a 1 million-trip reduction from its April forecast, resulting in total revenue losses for the industry of around €140,000 million…’.
‘The president of the PP, Pablo Casado, met this Tuesday with the 26 ambassadors of the member countries of the European Union and conveyed his discrepancy regarding the management that the Government of Pedro Sánchez wants to make of the 140,000 million that the European Council agreed to dedicate for the economic and social reconstruction of Spain…’. From Infolibre here.
Politics:
There has been tension between the Region of Madrid and the National Government regarding the measures to be taken over the high coronavirus figures in the capital city. On Tuesday, a ‘principle of agreement was reached after four days of bitter recriminations…’ says La Vanguardia here. The plan is that ‘…restrictions would be adopted based on criteria common to all autonomies across Spain. This was indicated by sources in the Community of Madrid and later confirmed by the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, at a press conference from La Moncloa. These criteria being: having more than 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a positivity in diagnostic tests above 10% and an ICU occupancy greater than 35%. Cities that exceed these indicators would have to limit movements, social contacts, reduce the capacity and hours of business premises, including bars and restaurants, and strengthen their health system…’. but then other autonomous regions, who had been roped in, declared that they would have none of it. El País in English here: ‘Most Spanish regions on Wednesday supported the plan, but Madrid, Galicia, Catalonia, Andalucía and the exclave city of Ceuta rejected it, while Murcia abstained…’. So what, says the Government to Madrid – you have 48 hours to do what you’re told!
A majority of Congress demands the renewal of the Judicial Power in office. The PSOE, Unidas Podemos, ERC, Junts per Catalunya, PNV, Más País, Compromís, Teruel Existe and Nueva Canarias, which add up to a majority of 187 seats, agree a statement in which they ask the rest of the parties to «cease their blocking attitude». Thirteen key positions in senior bodies of the judiciary are currently vacant and awaiting appointments to be made by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). An organism that, in turn, continues with its mandate expired for the past two years, due to the rejection of the Popular Party to renew it.
The President of the Unidas Podemos Parliamentary Group Jaume Asens says: «There is an operation underway to overthrow the Government by subverting the constitutional order»
Asens claims that the PP has «entrenched itself» in the Consejo del Poder Judicial to «win with the Court what it has lost at the Polls».
Nevertheless, on Wednesday, ‘The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), whose mandate has been out-of-date for almost two years, appointed Ángel Hurtado, as the new magistrate of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court. Famously, Hurtado is the only judge of the Gürtel Case who refused to allow Mariano Rajoy to be called to testify as a witness and who later cast a private vote against the sentence that certified the existence of a second ‘black’ accounting system in the PP and who then requested the acquittal of the party…’. elDiario.es reports here.
The parlous situation has not escaped the attention of Brussels, which is calling for ‘an urgent renovation’ of the CGPJ.
As part of the ‘Memoria Histórica’ (the re-writing of the history books), Congress voted last week to ‘revoke the honours and decorations awarded to Francisco Franco and the collaborators of the regime’. Just Vox and one PP deputy (the eccentric Adolfo Suárez Illana) had voted against the proposal in the Council of Ministers. The main thrust is to whitewash the Valle de los Caidos (in some as yet unknown way) and to rename Fascist streets and plazas. Público reports here. The Madrid government (PP) promptly voted to change two streets which honoured Republican political heroes – Francisco Largo Caballero and Indalecio Prieto (20Minutos here). There’s a piece about Adolfo Suárez Illana, the son of Spain’s first democratic president Adolfo Suárez (Wiki), over at Público here.
The PP mobilizes the municipalities and the autonomies in its crusade to defend the king «against the attacks» of the Government. Pablo Casado says that Felipe VI has been «voted by the Spanish, while Garzón and Iglesias have not» (to much merriment), and his team announces a motion in all administrations in defence of «national unity and state institutions»’. The story is at elDiario.es here. The order to the PP-controlled town halls and regional governments from Casado is to have a plenary debate on the subject!
Vox finally presented its moción de censura against the Government this Tuesday. The party says that ‘there are motives enough’. El Huff Post picks up the story: ‘…In any case, the motion of censure will not succeed because the far-right party is far from the 176 votes needed to kick Sánchez out of the Moncloa Palace. Aware of this, the parliamentary spokesman for Vox, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, has encouraged the PP to support them because «no other government in democracy has accumulated so many reasons», while recalling previous motions of censure where the numbers looked bad yet the parties that starred in them ended up ruling over time. «And I have no doubt that Vox will one day end up governing Spain,» he claimed…’.
‘A victory for undocumented immigrants with Spanish children: the Government facilitates their regularization even if they do not have a job. The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration approved this Monday a rule to make the requirements for obtaining a five-year residency more flexible for non-EU immigrants with under-age Spanish or community children’. ElDiario.es reports here.
The New York Times – in its Spanish version – has an opinion piece titled ‘The incompetence of Spanish politicians can be as deadly as Covid-19. The citizens did their job, accepted the confinements and followed rules such as the use of masks. Politicians fought each other, broke promises and repeated the mistakes of the first wave of the virus’.
Catalonia:
It’s clear that Spain really hasn’t tried at all to solve ‘the Catalonian Question’ over the years. The latest wrinkle, from the Supreme Court, is to fire the region’s president Quim Torra, essentially for posting a sign outside the Barcelona town hall during the previous elections (June 2018) which said ‘Free political prisoners and exiles’ in two languages.
Of course, the issue may have been that Spanish was neither of them.
Whether he deserves to be sacked, and whether besides, several Catalonian politicians deserve to be in clink (or in exile), is not the point. The point is, the Catalonians voted for them. They are their leaders. This is not the right way towards harmony and cohabitation. This only leads to strife. As Torra said on Monday in a speech delivered in Catalán and English (!), ‘the elections that will be held in four months at the earliest (for constitutional reasons), will become a plebiscite between democracy and repression’.
Extra riot police have been sent to the region, as the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalonian police force) has been put ‘on maximum alert’.
A poll at El Confidencial Digital asks ‘are you in agreement with the unanimous Supreme Court ruling to bar Quim Torra? 96% say ‘yes’. La Vanguardia approval was 78%.
An opinion from Catalonia: Vilaweb (in English): ‘The Spanish repression comes to no end and the Catalan presidency has been ousted once again only three years after the October 1st independence referendum in 2017 and the subsequent autonomy suspension…’.
The acting president of Catalonia is Pere Aragonès.
Ceuta & Melilla:
El Español warns of ‘A silent war is fought in carpeted rooms and through measured diplomatic gestures on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, the maritime strip that separates the continents of Europe and Africa. Sources of the Spanish Intelligence and local authorities of Ceuta and Melilla warn that Morocco is taking advantage of what in their opinion is an alleged «weakness» of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to continue with its historic desire to annex «in the long term» both autonomous cities.
In a confidential document to which this newspaper has had access, it is detailed that Morocco, within its foreign policy strategy, has been trying for «approximately two years» to suffocate the economies of Ceuta and Melilla…’.
The land-frontiers between Morocco and the two enclaves have been closed since March, although the Moroccan government briefly opened the border on Wednesday to allow trapped citizens to head back home.
Europe:
The latest newsletter from The Expat Citizen Rights in the EU is here (pdf). Much to read of interest for British expats.
From The Guardian here: ‘Brexit: EU citizens in UK could be shut out of vital services. Fears that shift from paper to digital permits could prevent those with settled status accessing jobs, banking and healthcare’. From Politico here: ‘UK limits access to grace period allowing EU citizens to secure right to stay’.
From El Confidencial here: ‘Optimism grows for a Brexit trade deal despite Boris’ ‘theatre’. As this newspaper has learned, today there is some optimism. In any case, always treat with caution, because with Boris Johnson at Number 10, the script can have an unexpected twist’. The ABC is not so sanguine: ‘Time is short and the Brexit negotiations have come to a standstill. October 15 is the deadline to reach a pact that prevents an abrupt departure on December 31. An option highly feared by Spanish companies because relations with London would become similar to those of a country with which there are no commercial agreements of any kind, and which is becoming more and more plausible. The British government has generated even more uncertainty with its intention to pass a law that would discard key aspects of the withdrawal agreement and that has already passed its first parliamentary test … The Spanish economy, still in intensive care due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus, holds its breath at the possibility of a rough Brexit that would end up finishing off its already battered health…’. The article features comparisons of Spanish and British trade as they stand at present.
‘A new YouGov poll has put the levels of Brexit ‘regret’ at the highest since the pollster started recording opinions on the vote. Polling found that 50% of the country now thinks Britain was wrong to vote to leave the European Union – the highest reported by the pollster. That is up four points since the start of September. By contrast, the numbers who think it was right to leave the European Union has dropped by two points, meaning just 39% now support the decision…’. An item from the pro-EU New European here.
‘Brussels threatens to repeal the Treaty that allows networks of technology multinationals to pay lower taxes in certain European countries’. Business Insider reports here.
A quote from this week’s Economist: ‘An EU passport is one of the most desirable documents on the planet. Its bearer can live and work in 27 different countries, all of them prosperous and peaceful. Many have excellent food too. In the birthright lottery of citizenship, those with a burgundy ticket marked «European Union» are among the lucky winners’. The article (paywall) then changes gear and goes on to attack the Golden Passport wheeze offered by the governments of Malta and Cyprus.
The Coronavirus:
How many cases are registered in your municipality? Map by Maldito Bulo here.
Is Spain short of doctors, we wonder? From La Cadena Ser (video) here: ‘The testimony of a doctor who left Spain: «I earn more than triple and I have 20 minutes for each patient»’.
From the elegantly-named Adiós here (the magazine for funeral directors): ‘The funeral sector in Spain guarantees that it is prepared to face a second wave of Covid-19 and to prevent a similar crisis as occurred during the first months of the pandemic, when the increase in deaths generated a saturation that exceeded all forecasts of their services…’.
From the ABC here: ‘The Valencian Community becomes the region with the lowest incidence of the coronavirus in all of Spain. The rate of cases per 100,000 inhabitants is three times lower than the national average’.
Corruption:
According to Confilegal here, ‘The crime of corruption as such does not exist in the Spanish Penal Code’. The news-site that specialises in jurisprudence then lists the ten basic criminal offences that can be used legally in a case of ‘corruption’.
‘Ten covert police operations that took place under Spain’s PP government. Illegally spying on former Popular Party treasurer Luis Bárcenas was just one of the jobs carried out without judicial oversight by a group of officers who also disseminated false evidence against Catalan separatists and the leftist party Podemos’. El País in English has the gen here.
- Spicing up a report to sink a Catalan premier (October 2012)
- The penthouse that ended a Madrid premier’s career (November 2011-March 2015)
- Villarejo’s mission to undermine the Gürtel case (July 2009)
- A botched search for Bárcenas’ secrets (June 2013-June 2015)
- Jordi Pujol’s accounts in Andorra (June 2014)
- The non-existent Swiss account that brought down the mayor of Barcelona (October 2014)
- Media weapons to politically destroy Podemos (January 2016)
- A “new life” for a former minister of Venezuela in exchange for evidence against Iglesias (April 2016)
9. A phony payment order in the Grenadine islands (May 2016)
10. A telephone theft turns into a smear campaign (June 2016)
El Periódico says that the summary of the Operación Kitchen brings the focus ever closer to Spain’s ex-president Mariano Rajoy.
Courts:
‘The trial that will determine if Palomares (Almería) was the focus of hundreds of cancer cases begins. The United States justice will decide the aid that hundreds of veterans who travelled to Almería in 1966 to ‘clean’ the bombs should receive’. The story (fruit of the USAF nuclear accident in 1966) comes from El Diario de Almería here are in full translation by Spectrum FM Radio here.
Ecology:
What of the discarded plastic sheets that once served in the invernaderos? Much of it finds its way to the Granada shoreline, especially round Albuñol. ElDiario.es takes a look…
From Emprendedores here: ‘Juan Roig’s new business that is going to make people talk. Mercadona launches its 6.25 Stores, green supermarkets that intend to save up to 3,000 tons of plastic per year.
Various:
The spokesperson for Vox Iván Espinosa de los Monteros was just about to present the party’s moción de censura against the Government on Tuesday, when ¡caracoles! his portfolio was stolen. The story is at Antena3 here.
‘The forgotten pieds-noirs. When Valencian was spoken in Algeria. There was a time, from 1830 to 1962, when Algeria was «El Dorado, the promised land» for thousands of Valencians. Many came and went every year to work in the fields or to serve in the houses of the elite of the French North African colony, but others stayed there and kept their language, which, when mixed with French, gave rise to «patuet «, the language of the Valencians of Algiers’. El Levante has the story here. Some examples of patuet here.
Galicia used to have seven provinces. The actual number of Spanish provinces (fifty) dates – broadly – from 1833, but prior to that time, there were other boundaries and names stretching back over the centuries. Quincemil concerns itself here with Galicia which had five, then seven provinces, including – in the XVI Century, La Coruña, Tui, Betanzos, Mondoñedo, Orense, Lugo and Santiago.
El Confidencial Digital comments wryly that the face-mask preferred ‘por los Cayetanos’ (the young and wealthy) needs to stand out from the herd. Step forward BePatriot, the mask with a Spanish flag motif.
What Happens if You Die in Spain? Metropolitan Barcelona explains here.
Why do we happily believe patent rubbish? Or, as Semana more elegantly says here, ‘The rise of pseudo-science and the return of idiocy. Every time, and against all scientific evidence, more people believe that the earth is flat, that vaccines cause autism, that man did not reach the moon or that the pandemic is a conspiracy of the elites’ (video).
See Spain:
The Visit Andalucia website is here. ‘We have prepared our Visit Andalucia website for you, whether you are on tour, on holiday or living in Andalucía. We have taken most of the location photos ourselves and visited holiday destinations and places definitely off the tourist trail – our travel guides and suggestions come from direct knowledge: we have been there; sampled the restaurants; climbed the mountains; and seen the same views that you will see…’.
A Guide to the ancient city of Baena, Córdoba at Visit Andalucia here.
ElDiario.es brings us to the homes of five Spanish artists: Goya, Dalí, Picasso, Sorolla and El Greco here. And the Museo Nacional del Prado has a number of videos on TikTok here.
‘If you happen to be a lover of all things historical, especially the Spanish inquisition (well, it takes all sorts), then you have definitely embarked upon the right place. The three-culture city of Toledo features the epitome of historical brutality, which we know as el Museo de la Tortura…’. The Darker Past has the details here.
Letters:
Dear Lenox,
Re BOT 367 piece about The Guardian article of 21st September 2020 headlined «Thousands of Britons living in EU told their UK bank accounts will be closed» (here).
The article later notes that the HSBC says ‘…that as an international bank it could continue to serve UK customers across the EU, but would keep them informed of any changes that might affect services…’. I spoke to HSBC, my bank and they confirmed that the HSBC will continue to provide the same services to EU-based British customers after the transition period ends.
The arrangement is called «passporting» (here). The UK legislated for EU banks to continue to provide services for their customers in Britain but the EU has not done the same for us Brits!!
The Guardian story is partly right & names other banks like Lloyds and Barclays doing this.
If there is an overall deal by January 1st then the EU will give the UK passporting rights according to my Spanish wife.
Un saludo, Iain
Finally:
A reader has kindly translated in full an article from La Información here titled ‘Las cifras de la ‘catástrofe turística’ en España: 25 millones de viajeros menos’:
The data is drastic. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) confirms what was already known, what hoteliers had already been announcing: 2020 has been the worst summer in history as far as tourism is concerned. Specifically, and taking into account both national and foreign tourists, 25,380,798 fewer travellers have spent their summer holidays somewhere in Spain this year. While in 2019, 36,524,535 people spent the summer in Spain between June and August; in 2020, the year of the pandemic, it was only 11,143,737. The season started in the worst way in June, with Spain still mired in a state of alarm; but neither did it manage to take off in July, when 64.28% less tourism was harvested, nor in August, when the percentage was 54.77% less. However, sources from the main hotel associations in the country speak of a «catastrophe» for the sector and point out that many of its tourist accommodations are being forced to close early so as not to continue losing money. Some even end the season without knowing if they will be able to reopen their doors in June 2021.
Among the 15 most touristic provinces in the country, the Balearic Islands stands out above all. In 2019, it received 5,277,056 tourists, being by far the most visited in Spain. However, this year, the number of tourists it has harvested falls to 503,102. The fall is resounding and in part is due to the fact that the Balearic Islands is an eminently international destination, that is to say, that the majority of tourists who arrive on its shores, up to 4,672,977 (88.55% of the total), do so from outside of Spain. In the context of the pandemic, the restrictions issued by various European actors (United Kingdom, France, Belgium or the Netherlands among others) coupled with fear when catching a plane and, even, the bad press from Spain in terms of the contagion data have seriously harmed the provinces that, like the Balearic Islands, depend to a greater extent on foreign tourism.
Barcelona is another example of the same. If in 2019 up to 3,887,816 tourists spent the summer in the province, in 2020 there were only 508,612. Also in his case, year after year, between 70% and 80% of the visitors are international. A similar phenomenon occurs in the Canary Islands and, to a lesser extent, on the beaches of Malaga – packed with British people in the summer months – or in Madrid, where approximately half of the holidaymakers usually arrive from outside Spain. That is why many of the hotels have decided to close early to avoid losing money. «There are no tourists and few companies can afford to open just to keep the workforce,» say sources from the Mallorca Hotel Business Federation (FHEM). Even in the provinces (such as the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands) in which tourism has been ‘de-temporalized’, that is, keeping the services operational practically all year round, the pandemic has managed to close down, already in September, many of the hoteliers.
In any case, the disaster has not been the same for everyone. The INE data for the months of July and August confirm the trend that this media already pointed out at the beginning of summer: the provinces devoted to tourism with a national profile have withstood the crisis better than the others. There is the case, without going any further, of Asturias, which has kept 62.6% of tourists from last year. Although it is true that the total numbers of the Principality are very far from the ‘top five’ of the Spanish tourist provinces, it is also true that its hotels have been able to withstand the drain more comfortably. Something similar happens in Cádiz or Huelva. The three provinces usually receive more Spanish than foreign tourism and although «the summer has been bad for everyone,» as Antonio María Ceballos, president of the Federation of Hospitality Industry of Cádiz (HORECA) tells us, the figures have smiled a bit more to those areas that are less dependent on the outside world and that, therefore, have not been so affected by European restrictions.
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