Lenox Napier¹
Editorial:
Murcia is a mess. First of all, as reported by BoT, some 400 party apparatchiks got their vaccines out of turn – as the PSOE complained to the prosecutor – back in January. Meanwhile, the vice-president of Murcia (as was), Mario Gómez (C’s) has denounced the PP to the police for massive fraud for sundry reasons.
In the opinion of the PSOE Murcia spokesperson, ‘the PP think of the region as their farm, where they can do as they like’. The PP has controlled the Murcia Region (it’s – confusingly – made up of just one province, Murcia) since 1995.
Stung by these shenanigans, and following their drop in the Catalonian regional elections this past February 14th from first place 36 to just 6 councillors, the Ciudadanos (remember the ‘What you see is what you get’ nude poster of Albert Rivera?) moved on Wednesday last week to call for a motion of censure against the Murcia regional government (which they shared with the PP) to go in together with the PSOE – the C’s regional leader becoming president. But, alas, it was not to be.
Back in Madrid, the Ciudadanos leader Inés Arrimadas wants to show her independence and underline the importance of a centrist party.
That, or go down with the ship.
The PP is under stress, it needs to stem the loss of support rightwards (imagine writing that a couple of years ago) as well as scooping up any ‘Riveristas’ unhappy with Inés from Ciudadanos. Not that Murcia was under much threat – as a C’s councillor there was all along in direct communication with the PP General Secretary Teodoro García Egea in Madrid!
Thus the Spanish public were treated to the farce of the revolution that never was, as, best foot forward – the PP bought (or ‘persuaded through their comely rhetoric’ if you prefer) the three Ciudadanos councillors necessary to reverse the motion of censure (plus one extra for luck) and gave them all juicy posts in the new Murcia regional government.
Indeed, one of them gets to be the Councillor for Transparency.
While this was afoot, the other regions with PP/C’s alliances were shaking. The Madrid Region, under Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has called for a snap election for May 4th to avoid any rebellion; Castilla y León have a motion of censure to deal with, although Ciudadanos is apparently getting cold feet; while the fourth region with the alliance, Andalucía, says they are happy to continue as is.
But, it gets worse for Inés, as three other senior party-members have now left C’s – one joins the PP – Fran Hervías (here), another, Pablo Cambronero moves to the non-aligned ‘Grupo Mixto’ (here) while the third Toni Cantó, returns, so he says, to his day job. The question is, was Albert Rivera (a friend – and now lawyer – of Pablo Casado) fanning the flames all along as La Razón jubilantly claims?
The result: Pablo Casado raises a few cynical laughs from his ‘We honest’ comments, but comes out of this stronger; while Ciudadanos are, to all tense and purpose, nearing their best-before date.
Housing:
‘The cheap end of the market will suffer most from Brexit’ says Mark Stücklin here. His article at Spanish Property Insight begins: ‘The days of moving to Spain without much money ended with real Brexit at the start of 2021. You now need significant savings to get a visa to live in Spain, which is bound to hit the cheap end of the market…’.
From the ING newsletter here: ‘Spain: House price growth cooled significantly in 2020. According to the house price index of Eurostat, house prices grew by 2% in 2020, compared to 5% in 2019 and 7% in 2018. Given the difficult economic situation ahead, we expect price growth to moderate in 2021 but we don’t expect a sharp contraction. Compared to the financial and euro-zone crisis (when prices dropped by 35% between 2007 and 2014), the impact of this recession on Spanish residential real estate looks minor. But having said that, it’s clear that market foundations are much stronger than they were back then…’.
The Golden Visa Program for Portugal (promotional material) from Astons here. ‘One of the most successful immigration programs in Europe, the Golden Residence Permit Program in Portugal, grants the right to live, work and study in the country, with visa-free access within the Schengen zone. The program provides a wide range of investment options, such as purchase of real estate for a minimum value of €280,000 – €500,000, depending on when it was built and the location…’.
Tourism:
‘The European commission has unveiled a “digital green certificate” that could allow EU citizens who have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from Covid-19 to travel more freely within the bloc this summer. The plan would also allow southern states such as Spain, Greece and Portugal, whose economies are most reliant on tourism, to make bilateral arrangements with non-EU members – including Britain – providing the deals are approved by the commission…’. Item from The Guardian here.
Google has moved into the hotel booking business, offering a free service to compete (!) with Booking and Expedia (which, until now, controlled about 85% of hotel reservations in Europe). One hotel spokesperson says that the agencies were costing them about 22% in commissions. More at Cinco Días here.
From El Salto Diario here: A tour of Marina d’Or’s testosterone-fuelled lunacy. A review of the urban and megalomaniac dream of 1,400,000 square meters and 108 million euros of debt. Marina d’Or in Oropesa del Mar (Castellón): holiday town.
Seniors:
‘Support network for older and more vulnerable English speakers extends services to Catalonia. Project run by non-profit and British Embassy lists local resources for those in need. ‘Support in Spain’, a welfare resource run in collaboration with the British Embassy, has expanded its services to Catalonia’. Item from Catalan News here.
Finance:
‘Spain approves €7,000 million in direct aid for struggling businesses. The non-refundable payouts are part of a larger €11,000 million fund announced two weeks ago to stimulate the economy and prevent a wave of corporate insolvencies as the Covid-19 crisis rages on’. The report comes from El País in English here.
Politics:
The latest CIS opinion poll here gives the PSOE 31.3%, with the PP at 17.9% and Vox on its heels at 15%. UP is 9.6% and C’s is 9.5%.
Pablo Iglesias is to step down next month as leader of Unidas Podemos in favour of his (very successful) party associate Yolanda Díaz, the current Minister for Labour, to run the party candidacy in the regional Madrid election of May 4th. This election came about as Isabel Díaz Ayuso apparently panicked over the Ciudadanos/PSOE manoeuvres mentioned in this week’s editorial above. Says Ayuso by answer: ‘Comunismo o libertad’ (here).
Yolanda Díaz maintains her Labour ministry, but now becomes the Vicepresidenta tercera as the Minister of the Economy Nadia Calviño takes ‘second’. Ione Belarra from Podemos will take Iglesias’ Ministry of Social Rights. RTVE has the update here.
The Tamayazo Murciano dynamited plans of Pedro Sánchez to take on new regions and to absorb Ciudadanos, says elDiario.es here. The long shadow of ‘transfugismo’, where an active politician chooses not to stand down but to switch to another party and thus bring about change in his government (and, perhaps too, in his bank-manager’s expression when he sees him). The word tamayazo comes from such a politician, one Eduardo Tamayo, who brought about the fall of the PSOE in the Madrid Region back in 2003 (Wiki).
Two of the lesser Ciudadanos councillors in the Madrid region have resigned from the party says El Confidencial here. One of them may well join the PP says the item.
An interesting editorial from El País in English: ‘Spain’s populist drift and the politic of extremes’.
We laugh elsewhere at El Español’s Tuesday collection of anti-Iglesias articles. Here’s one we missed (paywall): ‘The sacrifice of Irene Montero (Iglesias’ wife and Minister of Equality) and the ‘overtake’ of Yolanda Díaz. The Minister of Equality was the first to say that the next Unidas Podemos candidate had to be a woman, although few imagined any possible option other than Irene for the job’.
Madrid:
The regional elections are to be held on May 4th. The candidate for Podemos is Pablo Iglesias, who will step down on April 20th from his position as Vice-President and party leader in favour of the Minister of Labour Yolanda Díaz (she will likely be the Unidas Podemos candidate at the next general election). Iglesias, on the announcement of his candidacy to his supporters, said that ‘»Bipartisanship is not going to return, but democracy is threatened by a new Trumpist right, well placed in the Spanish establishment and driven by enormous economic and media powers.»’ The story is at La Vanguardia here.
The latest poll from El Español (paywall) puts the PP (together with the remains of C’s) by a small margin as the putative winner in the Región de Madrid elections. They say that the ‘Iglesias effect’ has fragmented the left and hurt the PSOE. Público runs another, just before Iglesias’ announcement, which sees the PP with C’s as leading by a neck. Both would agree that the PP of Díaz Ayuso has grown in popularity since the last election of May 2019.
Más Madrid has turned down the suggestion of a joint candidacy with Podemos for the Madrid region. The left, therefore, remains fragmented for the upcoming election there.
The President of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso in a TV interview on Tele5: «When they call you a fascist, you know you’re doing it right «, as reported here by Cadena Ser.
Catalonia:
From Catalan News here: ‘Catalan parties file amnesty bill in Spain’s congress, but prospects are bleak. Pro-independence groups demand general pardon for «3,000 victims of reprisals,» including jailed leaders’.
Gibraltar:
‘The glory days are over for Gibraltar, the rock is no longer a tax haven, because the agreement struck between Spain and the United Kingdom came into force on Saturday last week. The treaty aims to eliminate tax fraud and the detrimental effects of a tax system that allowed people to pay corporate tax only on the profits they made in Gibraltar. The Agreement was signed on March 4, 2019 and it’s the first international treaty signed by Spain and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar since the Utrecht Treaty of 1715, when Gibraltar was ceded to the UK…’. The Majorca Daily Bulletin reporting here.
Europe:
‘Johnson sold Britain a botched EU deal and no amount of spin or downright lies can conceal that it is falling apart’: the damning editorial from The Guardian here.
‘Spanish exploitation of Brexit bureaucracy sparks British expats to flee back to UK. Spanish bureaucracy is causing British expats to return to the UK, despite the invaluable contribution the UK’s estimated 360,000 expats make to the country’s economy. Spain is accused of exploiting Brexit red tape and sending people packing…’ says The Express.
‘Thousands of British pet owners planning to take their dogs and cats away on holiday with them when borders reopen in May have been told to be ready for “a total pain” getting onerous post-Brexit paperwork filled in. The former Pet Passport scheme ceased to be valid when the Brexit transition period came to end on December 31. Now they have to obtain an Animal Health Certificate from a vet at a cost of about £110 every time they cross to the continent or Ireland. It must be translated into the language of the country of arrival and has to be obtained no more than 10 days before travel…’. From The Evening Standard here.
The UK participated in the coup d’état in Bolivia against Evo Morales in 2019 says Canarias Semanal here. A short HiSpan TV video on the subject in on YouTube here. They wanted the lithium, apparently. La Vanguardia says they’ve now arrested the ‘expresidenta Jeanine Áñez’ for ‘sedition and terrorism’ (with video).
‘Spain’s attitude towards Kosovo may impede a football match. For political reasons, Spain has never recognised the country and now refuses to display its flag or play its anthem. The Spanish football federation has caused political controversy with their Kosovan counterparts by referring to the eastern European nation as a “territory” as opposed to a country in a tweet ahead of the World Cup qualifier between the two teams scheduled for 31 March 2021…’. Item from Vilaweb in English here.
The Coronavirus:
Joining the Pfizer-BioNTech, Modena and AstraZeneca (the AZ vaccine has been postponed during 15 days) vaccines, the Janssen vaccine has now been recognised by the European Union for use against the Covid-19.
El Confidencial says that ‘The EU exported more doses of vaccines in February than it had consumed internally. Some 25 million doses of vaccines have been exported last month, according to community sources, while some 21 million have been injected in the EU’.
The Local provides here a useful list of words and phrases in Spanish for those who test or take the vaccine.
Taffix, the ‘Good to Go’ nasal stray that protects you from the virus, has been pulled by Sanidad. Understandably.
Corruption:
elDiario.es looks at Murcia and its reputation for corruption here.
‘The fine of 118.4 million euros announced last week by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) to 15 companies for improperly sharing Adif rail infrastructure tenders is the latest chapter in the series of scandals, cost overruns and corruption that has accompanied the Spanish high speed train, the AVE, almost since the inauguration of the first AVE line (Madrid-Seville) back in April 1992. Spain is the European champion in AVE lines, with more than 3,100 kilometres built (only China is ahead on a world scale) and an accumulated investment of more than 50,000 million euros – largely at the cost of making this entity the largest indebted public company in Spain…’. More at elDiario.es here.
Courts:
Luis Bárcenas continues with his court declarations regarding the Caso Kitchen. On Wednesday, says El País (partial paywall) here: ‘…the former party treasurer affirmed that he recorded Mariano Rajoy destroying documents of the ‘black accounts’ that he had delivered by hand at the headquarters of the PP: «I recorded it, naturally», he said….’.
InfoLibre says that the muck-raking far-right Okdiario newspaper will be tried for an alleged crime of harassment of Pablo Iglesias’ children.
Media:
20Minutos says that Spaniards born between 1996 and 2012 (the ‘Generation Z’) are not interested in watching football. They prefer the Internet, Netflix and other attractions.
Wolf Street explains how Google has destroyed the relationship between publisher and advertiser.
Far-right fake news from Febuary with Al Descubierto here. The main media manipulations from last month are revised.
While most people might acknowledge that Pablo Iglesias has proven to be (at least) an honest politician – by leaving his succulent post in the Government for a high-risk venture in regional politics – the media certainly wouldn’t agree.
Here are just Tuesday’s lead-stories from Pedro J Ramírez’ organ: El Español:
- «Iglesias no debería jugar a ser Dios»: enfado en Moncloa por su órdago a Pedro Sánchez.
- Pablo Iglesias obliga a elegir entre Ayuso y él, laminando a Errejón, Ciudadanos, Vox y PSOE
- El Gran Wyoming a un Pablo Iglesias incendiario: «A este paso no le van a votar ni los suyos»
- Iglesias le hace un ‘Rivera’ al PSOE y apuesta por el sorpaso: 35 claves de su decisión
- La amenaza de Pablo Iglesias se cierne sobre el modelo fiscal que más inversión extranjera capta en España
- Iglesias ‘encarga’ a Gabilondo que capte el voto de PP y de Cs: «Repartámonos los roles»
- Madrid como campo de batalla populista: El autor sostiene que la decisión de Pablo Iglesias es una forma efectista de supervivencia política.
- Hablas con 20 en Vallecas y todos reniegan de Iglesias: “Si te vas del barrio, no eres del barrio»
- El CIS de Tezanos da un desplome de Podemos días antes de la salida de Pablo Iglesias del Gobierno
- Iglesias está masticando más de lo que puede tragar (editorial)
It even attacks Pablo Iglesias for fixing up his house: *El chalet de Galapagar como símbolo: Iglesias cambia el tejado y prepara sus cuarteles de invierno
Sadly, the editors at El Español didn’t have room left that day for the news that Podemos had been found innocent of any wrongdoing in the Caso Neurona (La Vanguardia here).
No doubt we can expect a lot more of this sublime and impartial reporting (Wednesday, for example, El Español leads with a hostile analysis of Iglesias by two psychologists) as we approach the May 4th Madrid regional elections.
Ecology:
From The Guardian here: ‘Good vibrations: bladeless turbines could bring wind power to your home. ‘Skybrators’ generate clean energy without environmental impact of large windfarms, say green pioneers’.
Various:
Business Insider looks at the Spanish character here. Late for meetings, keen on a siesta and a late dinner? Well, sure, but there’s more which distinguishes the Spanish from other nations. The list includes their long life-expectancy; their friendliness; their, um, poor English comprehension. It says that they are late-to-bed; have dreadful natality figures; enjoy high gregariousness; a strong concern about climate change; pessimism over future prospects amongst the young; enthusiasm for mobile phone and WhatsApp usage; are hopeless at saving for the future and must contend with the oldest home-based offspring in the business. The above is all linked to official studies.
The Palomares Incident, where the USAF had an accident with four nuclear bombs involved, back in January 1966, has been made into a ‘warts and all’ TV documentary called Palomares, Días de Playa y Plutonio. The story is at La Voz de Almería here.
Asbestos remains an issue in Spain, with a million school-children at risk from this substance, says Público here. Asbestos has been banned in all buildings since 2002, but remains, says the article ‘in hundreds of thousands of buildings, warehouses… and schools.
In Soria, there have been no abortions carried out in the last thirty years, says El Español (paywall) here, as all of the doctors in that province are conscientious objectors.
Whether the autonomous regions are a good thing or not, one of them – Castilla y Léon (which makes up nine provinces) – is looking to split into two. León is the smaller of the partners, with León, Zamora and Salamanca. For some reason, however, it’s only the good people of León who appear to be in favour of the daft proposal. VozPópuli explains here.
Sounding the alarm to sell alarms, says elDiario.es. This time, it’s Movistar moving into Securitas Direct territory. It’s a business currently worth 2,000 million euros in Spain.
EMG looks at the perils of gambling in Spain. The old days of tragaperras (one armed bandits) have moved to sophisticated gaming saloons and online-gambling. Easy money, huh? Compulsive gaming in Spain is called ludopatía and it can become a major problem for the victim. EMG says ‘if you wish to bet, ‘play responsibly’ (or better still, walk on by).
The old days of taking the night train have largely disappeared (even more so with the Covid), although, says Tendencias Hoy here, there are still (theoretically) four of them in Spain – two national and two international routes. The doubt is – will they be re-instated?
The tunnel into Almería, to accommodate the AVE, has now finally been finished by ADIF (with a ministerial visit for Thursday). The first to use it, in a few months time, will be the local train which has been unable to reach the capital since work began two years ago.
‘Postcard from Madrid: ‘Tapas and beer in abundance — but infection rates remain sky-high’. Spring is beginning to show, but the alarming Covid numbers are a reminder that the worst is not over’. The Sunday Times has the article here. A taste: ‘…Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Madrid’s provincial president, is welcoming all legitimate visitors while also warning of no special treatment for any who breach her public-health protocols — which doesn’t sound like much of a threat when even the locals are finding it hard to keep track of the shifting, near-arbitrary curfew hours, zonal restrictions and limits on the number of people allowed around one table…’.
‘I didn’t know that the word ‘siesta‘ – first used in 1655 – came from the Latin sexta hora, or ‘sixth hour’. Which, originally, was noon; and sextus/a goes back to the Proto-Indo-European swek, also meaning ‘six’’. Taken from Colin Davies’ Thoughts from Galicia here.
The trouble with mosquitoes – a piece at Eye on Spain called ‘A Licence to Hunt Frogs’.
See Spain:
Eye on Spain brings us ‘Epic bike routes around Spain. From the Camino de Santiago to an itinerary that follows the route of El Cid or a trip throughout Andalucía or along the Pyrenees. Touring the cultural legacy of Spain on two wheels is an unrivalled experience. These are ten essential routes for bike lovers…’.
Fascinating Spain brings us ‘A route through the most beautiful villages of the Aragonese Pyrenees’ here.
Francisco González built his Gaudí-inspired house in Los Santos de Maimona, Badajoz, to please his daughter. The peculiar house is known locally as El Capricho de Cotrina. It can be seen here.
Letters:
You wrote:
‘What’s the deal with Securitas Direct? With their advertising bombardment, their great hiring capacity, commercial pressure and low prices…..’
May we ask what makes their outrageous charge of €59 a month a «low price», I wonder?
Like all Spanish companies they put their prices up annually and do so unannounced – that is to say without applying the normal business courtesy to telling their clients!!
Very bad manners, that, and not the international norm (at least it wasn’t)!!
Best – John D
Hi,
I really appreciate that you talk about gambling addiction.
Recently, I came across a useful guide for people with gambling addiction problems (like many people!), here.
I have read a lot of similar guides before, but this one is quite thorough and opened my eyes to risks I never even previously considered (!).
Maybe this could help your other readers, as well, if you add it as an additional resource to your page?
Thanks, Rebecca
Finally:
Bienvenidos was a big hit for Miguel Ríos in 1982 – on YouTube
- For subscriptions and other information about this site, go to businessovertapas.com
