Editorial:
What would another president have done? '...But Sánchez is stubborn and wants sole command. He demonstrated this in his fight against his own party and now, in addition, he governs in coalition with those who will not put ahead of the scientists the pressures of Big Business and those of the conservative media....'
The de-escalation of the Stay at Home rules is coming along slowly and cautiously. Children under 14 were allowed out as from last Sunday (with a responsible adult and for a short period, observing safety rules) and now it appears that from this weekend the rest of us can also enjoy a walk. But if those infection numbers start to rise, we’ll be back behind the front door soon enough and getting ready for a fresh marathon of watching TV serials.
We read with cautious hope that ‘Sánchez will maintain the state of alarm until the end of May as he takes steps towards the de-escalation’.
The fear is, of course, that it could all come crashing back, like the Spanish flu which began in January 1918, becoming far more virulent as time went on and only receding in December 1920 (wiki).
The message from Fernando Simón, the scratchy-voiced Government expert, is to be careful and not flout the safety rules as ‘a step backwards will be a terrible thing to undergo’ (video). Antena3 says that German virologists claim that we are at the beginning, not the end, of the coronavirus pandemic.
So far, says El País, the experiment seems to be working, with ‘no generalised or serious cases of non-compliance of the rules’.
But, the warm weather… the beaches… the thirst for company and a beer…
One of the apologists for a speedy return to normal is the regional leader Juanma Moreno, the President of Andalucía. The region has seen relatively fewer infections than other areas (34 per 100,000 as against national average of 138), and understandably worries about its tourism. ‘Andalucía should be the first region to return to normality’, he says.
Nationally (and more responsibly), Pedro Sánchez ‘will avoid setting dates for de-escalation measures’ (here) but in a televised speech on Tuesday, he explained the new plans to gradually open up Spain once again. The Olive Press explains here the process, with the caveat that ‘the de-escalation will be ‘gradual and asymmetrical’, done so on a provincial or island basis, depending on the curve of the coronavirus’. *A graphic showing the dates of the four stages of the desecalada is at the bottom of this week’s bulletin.
However, with luck, we should be back to normal (más o menos) by the beginning of July.
For small business, a gradual opening, with (for example) ‘the inside of restaurants to open for table service with capacity limit reduced to a third’ (Phase Two) is not going to inspire confidence since "The whole business model, the whole point of a restaurant, is to get as many people as possible into the space on a given night," Edouardo Jordan, owner of JuneBaby and other restaurants in Seattle, tells the NYTimes.
Frustration but caution. Let us not be revisited with a second and more dangerous return of the Coronavirus.
Housing:
‘What is a Spanish home worth? Bank of Spain issues new guidance on property valuations in a market with no transactions’. An article from Spanish Property Insight here.
From El Periódico here: ‘Home-prices will take between 2 and 7 years to recover the 2019 figures. A report indicates that the coronavirus will devalue the price of the house but its impact will depend on how the recovery comes about’. From Diario Progresista here: ‘The price of a home in Spain will fall between 20 and 40%.
Tourism:
Tourism in Spain, says Wolf Street ‘is on its knees’. As the executive director of the World Tourism Organization says. “It was the first sector to be afflicted by the virus crisis and, unlike other crises, is likely to be the last to recover from it.” The article says ‘…Spain’s government plans to gradually relax the country’s lockdown conditions, among the harshest in Europe, on May 10, but there will be little relief for the country’s tourism industry. Spain’s Minister of Work, Yolanda Diaz, said in a statement this week that the sector would not be returning to any semblance of normality until at least the end of the year. While her words infuriated some in the sector, most tourism businesses are grudgingly accepting that the summer season is as good as lost…’. Indeed, The Conversation says that ‘Global tourism industry may shrink by more than 50% due to the pandemic’.
From 20 Minutos here: ‘Germany warns its citizens that this summer they will not be able to go on holiday to Spain’. The article says ‘The Tourism Commissioner of the Federal Government of Germany, Thomas Bareiss, has warned citizens that they must start to get the idea that this year they will not be able to go on vacation outside their country, not even to the Spanish beaches, because of the coronavirus epidemic’. Eleven million German tourists visited Spain last year. LaSexta says that the British ambassador agrees that the British also won’t be coming to Spain ‘in the coming months’ either. (18 million Brits visited Spain in 2019).
From the Mallorca Daily Bulletin here: ‘Alice Weber, Head of International Policy for the Més per Majorca party, has waded into the row over whether German property owners should be allowed to return to the island during the State of Emergency. … "In times as dramatic as those we are now experiencing, the last thing we need is tourists demanding to be able to use their golf courses; many people live in Majorca, it is not their theme park." Weber continued, “Right now the whole society of Majorca is making vital and superhuman efforts to try to get everyone back to normal. All this should not come to nothing just because some people want to come to the island for a vacation,” she said…’.
From El Mundo: ‘Spain is leading an initiative at the European level, in which nine member countries participate, to jointly propose a recovery plan "to support and re-launch the tourism sector", with the same protocols for all. This request is signed by the Tourism Ministers of Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria. It is a kind of common front from Southern Europe to re-launch the sector. During an informal meeting of tourist ministers that took place this past Monday, these countries have presented a joint declaration to ask Brussels for a recovery plan aimed at alleviating the negative impact caused by Covid-19 and re-launching the sector…’.
The Spanish government will not allow each autonomous region in Spain to decide its ‘reopening policy for tourism, says El Mundo here.
‘The Government already plans on a Spain without hotels, bars and restaurants opened before Christmas. Tourist Minister Yolanda Díaz contemplates measures for the reactivation of employment in two phases and warns that the second will extend throughout 2020 and will cover tourism, culture and leisure’. A report from El Mundo here. Around one in six bars and restaurants won’t open again after the crisis has passed says La Información here. Hosteltur is unimpressed: ‘The de-escalation plan devised by the Government for the hospitality sector could lead to the closure of 85,000 bars and restaurants if it is not accompanied by other measures and support, according to the hospitality industry in Spain. The reduction of the capacity of the terraces in a first phase, and the reduction of the internal capacity of the premises in a subsequent phase, could lead to the ruin of many businesses, according to the Hostelería de España association (here). They await clarifications from the Government to avoid the closure of 30% of the establishments in Spain…’. Finally, an even grimmer piece from El Confidencial here: ‘The hospitality industry is bleak: "80% of the bars will end up in the hands of the banks"’.
Seniors:
A Government issued ‘Guide to prevention and control against Covid-19 in nursing homes and other residential social service centres’ (pdf).
‘Spanish sicavs (wiki) have 55.4 million euros invested in the three largest listed European groups dedicated to the businesses of private healthcare and nursing homes…’. ElDiario.es reports here. It continues, ‘…by sicavs, the one with the highest investment by far, is that of former Telefónica president César Alierta and his family, Lierde. Eleventh in Spain for assets managed at the end of 2019 (more than 220 million), it has more than 5 million euros invested in Fresenius (a leading health-care company).
Diario16 looks at the business of care homes in Spain here.
Finance:
From BBC News here: ‘A plan for injecting billions of euros of emergency aid into Europe's battered economies has been agreed by EU heads. Meeting via video, they agreed to set up a massive recovery fund, closely tied to the bloc's seven-year budget. They also confirmed that €540,000 million (£470bn) of financial support would be released through existing mechanisms from 1 June…’. .
The Government has asked supermarkets to prioritise Spanish products over imports says ElDiario.es here.
Politics:
El Confidencial looks at the virulence of the attacks on the government on social media.
The far-right Vox got as good as they like to give, when on Wednesday Pablo Iglesias told them from the parliamentary pulpit, ‘You’re not even fascists, you’re just parasites’. Video from RTVE here.
‘Pedro Sánchez opined this Tuesday that a constitutional reform will have to be made to "shield" public health, as one of the "lessons" that he believes can be drawn from this coronavirus pandemic "beyond ideologies "…’ Item from Público here.
The Coronavirus:
'Visits and meetings between family and friends living in the same province will be allowed from next May 11, as long as that province meets the requirements to be able to go to phase 1 of the 'Transition Plan towards the new normality' that the Government has designed and that has to do, among other things, with the evolution of the epidemic in that geographical area and its ability to react to a flare-up, sources from the Government have specified'. This from La Voz de Almería here. When can we cross into another province asks Nius here.
A large number of Madrid health workers have found their contracts have not been renewed. From El Español here: ‘The 10,000 nurses and other health professionals who fought against Covid-19 in Madrid, on the street: "They treat us like cattle". "We appreciate the applause, but we are neither heroes nor victims, we do our work responsibly and we should be treated in the same way," they say’. A similar item comes from Digital Sevilla here: ‘Andalusian private healthcare applies an ERTE (unpaid leave) to more than 21,000 workers in the middle of a pandemic. Most are professionals directly linked to hospital, medical, dental and other health areas’.
El Periodico, citing a preliminary investigation in Italy, says ‘Coronavirus detected in airborne contamination particles. Scientists are now investigating whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains in the environment in sufficient quantity to cause infection’. City smog at work?
‘Imagine what might have happened with the coronavirus if there was no public health system, says Costa-Gavras in an interview with El Mundo here.
Last Wednesday April 22nd at midday, the figures were 208,389 diagnosed, with 21,717 deaths registered and 85,915 recovered. A week later, 12.00h 29th April, with things now beginning to slow down (we hope), the reports claim 232,128 diagnosed, 23,822 dead and 123,903 pronounced cured.
Where are you locked down? In a farmhouse maybe, or a casa, an apartment, or perhaps like a few unfortunates in Ibiza, in a car. El Mundo here.
The Local asks: Coronavirus: How safe is it to pay in cash in Spain?
Courts:
‘The PSOE is suing in open court the founder of Vox Cristina Seguí for incitement to hatred. The socialists are thus broadening their judicial horizon after complaining against Vox and initiating legal actions against Santiago Abascal, Hermann Tertsch and Julio García’. The story is at El Plural here.
El Correo wrote a story (here) about three underage children who murdered an elderly couple in Bilbao in January 2018. The unfortunate newspaper fell foul of the laws by describing the homes of the kids in a ‘true but improper way’, and must now pay 90,000€ to them in damages. The kids incidentally (who were 14 to 16 years old at the time), were charged with homicide, placed into custody for six years and ordered to pay 60,000€ to the survivors of the murdered couple – rather less than the unfortunate Correo has to pay to them! Las Provincias has the details here.
Ecology:
‘The Organization of Farmers and Ranchers of Andalucía (COAG) complains of the brutal drop in prices at the origin of vegetables, as paid to the farmers, despite the increase in household consumption. For example, vine tomatoes are paid at 18 cents per kilo, cucumbers at 23, aubergines at 27 and zucchinis at 33…’ AgroInformación here. Prices in the supermarkets are nevertheless ‘robust’, with tomatoes at 1.92€ the kilo (La Verdad here) and El Corte Inglés at €2.25 kilo (here). (A local Almería farmer we know says it’s now cheaper to throw his tomatoes away that haul them to the distributor)
The Laguna de Fuente de Piedra Natural Reserve (Málaga) will host this year one of the largest flamingo breeding colonies in Europe and North Africa. The current water level has allowed the establishment of a large colony of the birds, currently occupied by 19,413 specimens and an estimated 8,000 breeding pairs. The item is at 20 Minutos here.
‘The population of brown bears in the Pyrenees surpasses 50 for the first time in almost a century’ says La Vanguardia here.
Various:
El Faro de Ceuta says that Morocco claims it will keep its two frontier posts with Melilla and Ceuta closed ‘until the autumn’. This will affect the annual return by tens of thousands of overloaded Moroccan vehicles from all over Europe as they normally drive through Spain in the summer on the way to the ferries.
After speaking to a few restaurants, Molly from Piccavey has made a list of small ways that we can support them through this difficult time.
Correos has fallen behind on its package deliveries with more than a million in its warehouses. Service will resume next week, apparently.
Sugar Overload – a video about the dangerous levels of sugar that’s in our food and the sugar lobby that defends them - is here.
‘The Madrid Health Observatory (OMS) has presented a report that reflects the ten years of the privatization of health care in the Region. This balance highlights, among other things, how during the last decade the opening of eleven new hospitals has meant, against all odds, the reduction of 300 beds across the Comunidad de Madrid. In addition, the OMS has requested the Court of Accounts to investigate these hospitals for the extra costs that their privatization has caused for Madrid residents…’. Item from Madrid Diario here. The fake news that the health cuts organised by the PP is nothing more than fake news (Público).
There were once 40,000kms of Roman roads in the Iberian peninsula. A detailed map here.
The Spanish adventurer Blas Ruiz almost became the king of Cambodia in 1596. It’s quite a tale as told by El País. Wiki does the honours in English here.
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela here and its XIII century version here.
Michael Robinson, the Anglo-Irish footballer from Liverpool and Osasuna, and later a popular TV sports reporter here in Spain, has died of cancer. The Olive Press reports here.
See Spain:
Cuenca: ‘Forming a labyrinthian stone maze are the natural karst formations of the Los Callejones de Las Majadas or “Alleys of Stone.”…’ Item from Eye on Spain here.
From España Fascinante comes ‘Nine spectacular landscapes you’ve never seen’
Finally:
The Rolling Stones are Living in a Ghost Town here.
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