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Business over Tapas (Nº 227)
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Business over Tapas (Nº 227)

By Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner –Sent by José Antonio Sierra (CCLAM)

jueves 05 de octubre de 2017, 22:26h

06OCT17.- A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners: With Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner. Consultant: José Antonio Sierra - For subscriptions and other information about this site, go to businessovertapas.com - email: [email protected] ***Now with Facebook Page (Like!)*** Note: Underlined words or phrases are links to the Internet. Right click and press 'Control' on your keyboard to access. Business over Tapas and its writers are not responsible for unauthorised copying or other improper use of this material.

Editorial:

Catalonia? Everyone has an opinion.

Housing:

From a South African site called Moneyweb: ‘As more South Africans look to invest in property abroad, Spain’s golden visa programme is offering them one of the best deals in global real estate. With the Spanish property market in full growth phase and Spain’s GDP growth nearly double the Eurozone average at 3.2%, Spanish real estate is emerging as a strong investment for foreign nationals...’.

The Andalusian Superior Court of Justice has ruled that the Priors (who will have spent ten years living in their garage in Vera come January next year) were offered far too much in compensation by an earlier court ruling – money they of course never got – and has decided they should be paid just half. One day. Maybe to their grandchildren. The story can be found in El Mundo here. How much? Well, it’s not exactly a round figure at 220,344.98€ (less what their lawyer takes).

Tourism:

August statistics: almost 47 million tourist nights spent in hotels in Spain. The average stay was 3.8 nights! Item from Nexotur here. Indeed, by the end of August, Spain has been host to over 57 million foreign visitors, says Agent Travel here.

From The Guardian: ‘UK holidaymakers set to pay for making Spain their favourite getaway. Spain is the top destination for British tourists but increased demand is straining resources and prices may rise by up to 10% for 2018 holidays’.

From the Civil Aviation Authority: ‘Monarch has confirmed that the following companies have ceased trading and now entered administration:

Monarch Airlines Ltd

Monarch Holidays Ltd (ATOL Number 2275)

First Aviation Ltd (ATOL Number 4888) previously trading as Monarch Airlines

Avro Ltd (ATOL Number 1939)

Somewhere2stay Ltd

As a result, we are sorry to inform you that, as of 2 October 2017, all future holidays and flights provided by these companies have been cancelled and are no longer operating.

This is an unprecedented situation and because there are up to 110,000 passengers abroad, the UK Government has asked the CAA to coordinate flights back to the UK for all Monarch customers currently overseas. These new flights will be at no extra cost to you...’.

The Olive Press headline: ‘‘Biggest ever peacetime repatriation’ to get thousands of holidaymakers home after Monarch collapse’. In many ways, the ‘Story of the Week’ here in Spain (Catalonia notwithstanding) is that Monarch Airlines closed its operations on Monday: ‘Over 100,000 Brits left stranded abroad as Monarch ceases trading and cancels 300,000 bookings’ as The Olive Press reports here. Finally, from the same site: ‘Spanish hotel bosses threaten stranded British tourists with arrests if they don’t cough up Monarch’s unpaid bills worth thousands of euros’.

‘The German tour operator JT Touristik has initiated insolvency proceedings but will continue to operate under self-management and expert supervision during the recovery process. The Tour Operator has both urban and holiday destinations in Spain, especially Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, but ensures that customers and establishments will not be affected...’. From Hosteltur here.

Finance:

‘Stock market crash over Catalonia chaos - ‘Worst outcome for Madrid’, says The Express.

‘Spain’s stock market came under pressure on Monday after Catalans voted in favour of independence, intensifying a political crisis in one of the euro-zone’s best functioning economies’. On Wednesday, says El Mundo, the IBEX 35 fell a further 2.85%.

‘Wages of Balearic Islands hospitality workers to rise 17% in next four years. The collective bargaining deal will affect 137,000 people employed in key sector of regional economy’. Headline at El País in English here. The agreement ‘breaks the tacit pact towards salary depreciation in Spain’, says Público here.

‘Spain jobless figures to September are, on first sight, mediocre: but the best in net SS affiliates since 2005’. From The Corner here.

Politics:

From Sunday’s El País: ‘Forty years after the Generalitat was re-established and with it the broadest self-government in their history, the governors of Catalonia have decided to break the constitutional consensus of 1978, confront a large part of their citizens with the State and lead to its final consequence a referendum of secession that puts at risk the very idea of Spain...’.

El País again: Rajoy will speak in Congress on the situation ‘when he can’.

Podemos has called on the PSOE to join them for a Motion of Censure against Rajoy here.

The PSOE, perhaps dodging the bullet of asking for Rajoy’s dismissal, has gone against the Vice-president instead. ‘The PSOE will demand the reprobation of Soraya Soraya Saenz de Santamaría for the police action of October 1st. They are confident that the initiative will be voted on in Congress on 17 October’. Story at El Huff Post here.

‘Cause for Basque Independence Regains Attention After Catalan Referendum. Independence for Catalonia may only be the beginning’. Title is from 71 Republic here. An excerpt: ‘Although it is still tarnished with the image of violence, the future of the Basque independence movement may be looking up. Continued support for the independence for Basque country can be seen in a sizable Pro-independence bloc in Basque parliament...’.

Corruption:

The Pujol clan operated in Andorra under the nickname of the 'Sagrada Familia' according to El Mundo here.

From the BBC Mundo: ‘Corruption – the subject which receives little attention in Spain thanks, perhaps, to the Catalonia crisis’. It says ‘...the noise drowns out the issue that has caused the greatest public concern in Catalonia and the rest of Spain: corruption, which stains the two parties that lead the two governments bent on a collision course...’.

Catalonia:

The election result was almost anticlimactic. The 'yes' votes won. Whether sending ten thousand belligerent policemen from the rest of Spain, cutting the local internet and confiscating the ballot boxes helped people move towards the 'yes, we want an independent republic' is a moot point. There is little doubt that sending those ten thousand cops, breaking heads and using tear gas (850 people needed medical attention for various wounds at the hand of the Spanish state), yet failing to stop proceedings, is a public relations disaster for President Rajoy. 'Savagery and impotence mixed together' it says here. An interview with the Spanish foreign minister at Sky News says the minister '...defends the use of force by Spanish police...'. It may play well in Ciudad Real - Spaniards against Spaniards (or was it Spaniards against Catalonians?) - but not so well internationally.

The emotive picture of a man hugging a Mosso, following a police charge...

One group that supports the Catalonian fight for independence is the European far-right: Nigel Farage and his friend Gert Wilders and so on.

The results of the 'illegal election' in Catalonia: 2,262,424 votes counted (an estimated further 700,000 votes were confiscated, or the polling stations successfully closed by the police): 90% and 7% No.

What will happen next? The Catalonian president Puigdemont is reported to be planning a unilateral declaration of independence for this coming Monday. President Rajoy has called for an urgent debate on the issue with other party leaders.

Rajoy may be forced out of office soon - either a resignation or following fresh elections.

As for Puigdemont - his fate is equally uncertain...

On Tuesday, King Felipe spoke to the Nation on the TV. He was very firm: ‘The responsibility of the legitimate powers of the State is to maintain the Constitutional order’.

From BBC News: ‘Pro-independence Catalans defy King Felipe VI's warning’.

Opinion from Matías Vallés in La Nueva España: ‘When Election Day has more news stories than the recount, something is goes wrong in a democracy. When international leaders such as the Belgian Prime Minister or the likely future British Prime Minister are appalled at the development of a regional referendum, even before the outcome of the consultation is released, the image of the host country is at stake. Today is the worst day for the Marca España. The Moncloa has been left with little more the consoling press from Madrid. The headlines of the rest of the planet also open with Catalonia. However, the global stupor is summed up by the headline from the Bild Zeitung: "Rubber bullets against the voters! "...’.

Spanish national RTVE has come in for criticism for slanted reporting. Criticism, that is, from its own journalists. Here and here.

The most read Tweets on Sunday’s events here.

Will Spain trigger Article 155 of the Constitution asks Wolf Street here. ‘Unless concrete measures are taken to calm tensions between Madrid and Catalonia, one of Spain’s richest, safest and most visited regions could soon be plunged into chaos. With neither side willing for now to take even a small step back from the brink, the hopes of any kind of negotiated settlement being reached are virtually nil, especially with the European Commission refusing to mediate. Since Sunday the Spanish government has even ruled out dealing with Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, and its vice president, Oriol Junqueras. In other words, the communication breakdown between Madrid and Barcelona is now complete...’.

A statement from the European Commission on Monday unsurprisingly supports Madrid: ‘Under the Spanish Constitution, yesterday's vote in Catalonia was not legal.

For the European Commission, as President Juncker has reiterated repeatedly, this is an internal matter for Spain that has to be dealt with in line with the constitutional order of Spain.

We also reiterate the legal position held by this Commission as well as by its predecessors. If a referendum were to be organised in line with the Spanish Constitution it would mean that the territory leaving would find itself outside of the European Union.

Beyond the purely legal aspects of this matter, the Commission believes that these are times for unity and stability, not divisiveness and fragmentation.

We call on all relevant players to now move very swiftly from confrontation to dialogue. Violence can never be an instrument in politics. We trust the leadership of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to manage this difficult process in full respect of the Spanish Constitution and of the fundamental rights of citizens enshrined therein’.

From My Country: Europe comes a proposal which begins: ‘The European Union is fundamentally a Union of States, and although it aims at creating an “ever closer union of Peoples”, Member States are the Masters of the Treaties. Additionally, the EU is bound to respect the constitutional framework of each Member State, since these are part of the constitutional tradition of the EU. However, this should not prevent EU institutions from taking the initiative, pushing back the accusations of meddling into State internal affairs, and proposing mediation between the central government and Catalonia.

A possible solution should start from a reform of Spanish constitution, enacting the transformation of Spain into a full federal state. This would include the introduction of those elements that were already in the Statute of Autonomy that Zapatero negotiated years ago, and more importantly, adding a right of secession and the related procedures. Then a legal referendum, with qualified turn out and majority should be celebrated, and no matter what all parts will have to accept its result, whatever it is...’.

Catalonian Independence

by Andrew Brociner

The inevitable happened. Rajoy would have gone down as being the most ineffectual and arguably the most corrupt prime minister in history, but might just, to add to his nefarious accolades, also be remembered as the one responsible for the secession of Catalonia as well. His use of force has been, predictably, counterproductive, escalating tensions, stoking the flames of the separatist movement and dividing a nation, pitting Spaniards against each other.

The display of violence was shameful and disgraceful. There were images of Spanish police kicking and pulling the hair of defenceless and peaceful voters, including women, sometimes elderly, of hitting people with batons, including, unbelievably, Catalan firemen, and throwing women down stairs to get to the ballot boxes. It was horrid. There were almost 900 people injured. There were moving scenes as well, of members of the Mossos d'Esquadra weeping and being embraced by the Catalans they were given orders to obstruct.

Given that most Catalans were not for independence, Rajoy could have let them vote anyway. It is an autonomous right of a people for self-determination, after all. The vote was meant to be peaceful and democratic. But his obdurate and intransigent stance, and his undignified use of force to prevent the vote from taking place, only made things worse, as along with the choice, there was the defiance and the pride which swayed numerous voters, to a whopping 90% in favour of independence. The violence and the impediments to voting also ensured that most of the voters would be the diehards in favour. Some Catalans who were not for independence voted for it because of the repression they endured and the sense of outrage and indignation they experienced. And in a further expression of this, Catalans took to the streets in protest – 800,000 in Barcelona – and shut down many of the normal activities. Rajoy's incompetence not only divided Spaniards, but united Catalans. Waiting in the wings, the PSOE, which is in favour of modifying the Constitution, and Podemos, who are in favour of a Catalan referendum, could unite to topple the government. In the days following the vote and displaying more inflexibility, the central government has apparently shut off communication with the Catalans, further worsening the situation. The King gave a speech as well and disappointingly, sided with the central government. He had a golden opportunity to appease the situation by acting as a mediator – after all, the Catalans are his subjects as well – but by taking the side of the central government, without mentioning the unacceptable violence perpetrated against them, has only added to the frustrations of the Catalans. This is clearly going in the direction of independence and each act, the blocking of their democratic rights to vote, the gratuitous violence, the rigidity of the Spanish government, the aloofness of the EU, the one-sidedness of the Spanish King, and the refusal for dialogue, is taken by the Catalans to strengthen their resolve to separate. This should also go down in history as an example of how not to deal with a region seeking secession.

... A Viral Essay...

‘No, honey, you're not a Spaniard. To be Spanish is not to wave the flag, nor to scream like a bore phrases of hatred that I hope you do not feel. Nor is it to put a wristband on your wrist, or sing Cara al Sol (the fascist anthem). The concept of being Spanish is something totally different, or at least should be, because at this point, I do not know what else to tell you.

As a Spaniard, I’ll tell you what it is for me to be Spanish:

To be Spanish is to burn when Doñana burns or to tremble when the City of Lorca trembled; it is to sit and listen to folk stories in Galicia and to believe them; or to go to Valencia and not feel rage to read a poster in Valencian, but rather that you are pleased with yourself to be able to understand it. To be Spanish is to think that the Canaries are as good as the Caribbean.

To feel Spanish is to suffer for not having lived la movida madrileña; it’s to fall in love with the sea when hearing Mediterraneo by Serrat; it’s to ask while drunk if your Catalan friend would teach you to dance sardanas, to want to go to Albacete to check if their feria is better than the one in Málaga and to be surprised to see just how beautiful Ceuta is.

For me to be Spanish is to be proud that in Andalucía we have beach, desert and snow; to feel almost as if it were my doing that a Alicantino is so close to winning a Nobel, to ask an Asturian to teach me to pour cider properly and to die of love seeing the beaches of the Basque Country in ‘Game of Thrones’.

You know how Spanish it is to drink a beer in the early afternoon: the Galician orujo, the siesta, the calimotxo, the paella, the tarta de Santiago, grandmother’s croquettes and the tortilla de patatas. It is the desire to show you the best of your city to the one who comes from outside and that you ask him about his; it is to make friends with a Basque and ask him to teach you how to count up to ten in euskera, just in case you return for 2 or 3 more pintxos; it is to be proud of being the leader of the world in transplants, of being part of the land of a thousand cultures and of being from the country of good cheer.

There is nothing more Spanish that having the hairs on your neck stand on end with a saeta or with a copla bien cantá (well-sung flamenco verse); seeing the sunset on the beaches of Cádiz; to discover almost without wanting to some fresh paradisiacal cove in Mallorca; to walk the Camino de Santiago in September cursing the cold or learning in Salamanca or Segovia that you do not have to be big to be beautiful.

So, I think, my love, miarma, honey, darling, my child ... that is to be Spanish, the rest of it is politics. But if you want to insist on your view of politics, I also want to say that you are wrong: because being Spanish is not wishing to break the face of anyone, but to suffer the unemployment situation of your neighbour or those terrible scenes of eviction that you have seen on the TV. Being Spanish is not opposing the YES or NO supporters of an entire autonomous community, but rather it is to be angry when they treat us like arseholes with each new case of corruption. To be a good Spaniard is to wish that in your country there is no more poverty, no more ignorance, no patients being attended in hospital corridors and, Goddammit, to want to stay here to work and contribute everything that, for so long, you have learned.

That is to be Spanish, or at least, I hope so’. Laura Moreno de Lara (Original here).

Gibraltar:

Gibraltar is building apartment blocks on the edge of its territory, expanding into Spanish owned sea-waters. The choleric story is at La Información here.

The Rule of Law:

A snippet, unattributed: ‘The “Rule of law” at its core requires that those who make the laws and enforce them are bound equally to obey them and stand equal with everyone else before the justice system. Of course, the Spanish at many levels use this slogan to mean when mistranslated into English “Rule of law”. It is not. It is “Rule by Law”. Spain has about 250,000 “aforados” who are to a serious degree above the law. The rest of Europe has a few hundred in total, Royal Families, Presidents in office, etc’. Europa Press here on the aforados in Spain.

Various:

Sanitas, the private health insurer which belongs to BUPA, is Spanish (or British)? Either way, the company and El Español have a squabble going on here.

Spain has too many piggeries, producing too much waste. ‘...The enormous amounts of slurry - excreta and urine - from the animals crowded into this type of farm pollute the air and, in particular, the aquifers. In fact, there are regions where the levels are beginning to be more than alarming, as they exceed the water sanitation thresholds set by the World Health Organization (WHO)...’. The story is at La Voz del Muro here.

From HMG, Factsheet. Returning From Abroad. ‘...useful if you are a British citizen over State Pension age who moved abroad and who is now considering moving back to live permanently in the UK. It gives information about things to consider regarding your finances and housing and looks at your eligibility for health and social care services’.

The issue in Murcia regarding the three-year wall blocking a part of the city from the rest – a temporary structure while the AVE route is built into the city centre – remains in the news. On Tuesday night, part of the wall was ‘dismantled’ by protestors. The official ‘let’s build an underground access’ Plataforma Pro-Soterramiento say they had nothing to do with it. Another article, from Magnet, is titled ‘While we are all looking at Catalonia, there’s a rebellion going on in Murcia’. 50,000 people a day are protesting, says the article.

Pilots and air-control can communicate in Spanish after all.

The Northern Irish town of Mullaghmore honours the dead from the Great Spanish Armada. A report with video at Counting Stars here. An excerpt: ‘...The Spanish Armada could have been a liberation for the Irish Catholics, put under a hard situation by that queen, that was Anglican. Nine years earlier a small Spanish expedition had already arrived in Smerwick, Ireland, to support an Irish rebellion, which was unsuccessful. Today many Irish people continue to remember it as a historical tie that unites them with Spain, the Nation in which so many times they put their hopes to free themselves of the English yoke’.

Waste: the 300 million euro motorway that cost 3,000 million. The 36km long M45 ring road for Madrid built by Ruiz-Gallardón. Público reports here.

‘Legend has it that Stanislaus Figueras, the first president of the failed first Spanish republic (1873 – 1874), after attending the umpteenth meeting of politicians unable to reach any agreement, rose from the table and said “Gentlemen, I will be frank with you: I am sick and tired of all of us”. The next day, the man boarded a train for France, without even presenting his resignation...’. A story at Politikon here. The anecdote is a preamble to a discussion on the current events in Catalonia.

See Spain:

From The Guardian: ‘Bilbao city guide: what to see plus the best restaurants, bars and hotels. In the 20 years since the Guggenheim opened, the Basque port city has not looked back – the museum acting as a magnet for great art and architecture as well as buzzing nightlife and restaurants’. (Some great photographs).

‘Four Personalities Who Shaped Modern Marbella’. From Eye on Spain here.

The only German military cemetery in Spain is in Cuacos de Yuste (Cáceres). Story here.

Letters

From Per Svensson, Thursday 28 September:

Dear Lenox, Let me, before the plebiscite in Catalonia, go on record saying:

  1. I completely agree with the assessment of Andrew in his two articles
  2. If I lived in the region and had a vote, I would vote NO to independence
  3. But at the same time I would claim the right to take part in a referendum and condemn the anti-democratic actions of prime minister Rajoy, sending in the Guardia Civil to capture ballot boxes and arrest mayors letting municipal premises be used for a peaceful vote. The tougher the Guardia Civil acts, the more Catalonians will vote YES.

Un abrazo, Per.

Hi Lenox,

I hope by now BoT pension-age residents will have registered, as you suggested, with the IMSERSO. Via a State-sponsored scheme they can book all-in holidays on the Spanish Costas or Islas. The IMSERSO uses hotels which would otherwise have to shut after the main holiday season. Employment is maintained and we seniors get a well-deserved break. We are off to Mallorca soon for just €300 each, all travel included and full board and lodging including wine with all meals (except breakfast..!) Holidays on the Costas are €200 for a week.

For the more laid-back over-60 BoTsters, an IMSERSO subcontractor [MundoSenior Plus] does the same deals for 30-odd euros more and without having to register.

You can probably do all of this on-line but we go to the agencia de viajes around the corner...

¡Felices viajes!

Jake Lloyd-Jones

Finally:

Francisco Tárrega - Capricho árabe, performed on Spanish guitar by David Russell on YouTube here.

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