Editorial:
Spain is windy this week. Windy and cold. Snow in the north. Ferocious wind in the south. Brrrh! While we wonder what it must be like in the rest of Europe, we are still wrapping up well to go outside. Spain is warm most of the year, but not right now!
Housing:
'British home-buyers in Spain outstripped Spaniards in 2014, and the trend looks set to continue this year, according to new development promoters. And in fact, more buyers from the UK beat every other nationality for some estate agencies, but northern Europeans in general continue to be the most prolific purchasers...'. From Eye on Spain. Time to buy in Spain? The Telegraph thinks so.
The descent of the numbers of Europeans on the town hall padrón (adjusted every five years by Government decree) means that some towns, such as Mojácar, have suddenly lost up to 20% of their entire population. While this may not be so bad on one hand (in an election year), it does open up some questions about the strength of the residential market in Spain. An interesting article in the Diario Sur (here in pdf) is called 'The Fall in the Number of Registered Names on the Padrón Sets off Alarms in Town Halls on the Costa del Sol'. Mijas, good example, has lost 8,079 inhabitants (apparently) in just one year. Marbella is down 3,338 persons. You see, a fall in inhabitants means a fall in Government funding and a drop in licences for nurses, police and other essential services. Mijas, again, stands to lose 1.4 million euros in subsidies. Indeed, three Málaga towns lose two councillors each with the adjustments. Fully eighty eight pueblos across Málaga may lose government income warns the article. An editorial follows on the pdf version called 'Has Spain stopped being a good destination to retire to?'. So, perhaps its time to create a budget to attract home-buyers rather than five-day tourists, or even a department... or perhaps a Ministry...!
Gerardo Vásquez, the British-born lawyer for the AUAN, will join various politicians and others on Friday in Seville to discuss the 'Modelo Territorial y Urbanístico: Especulación Vs. Sostenibilidad'. Country planning and 'illegal houses'. The round-table is being organised by the Izquierda Unida / Los Verdes and it looks like Gerardo is going to be stretching those debating skills! More here.
Tourism:
Strikes at the airports against the partial privatisation of AENA, means 27 days of strikes between now and August. Story at The Local.
A positive spin on 'all inclusive'? According to a triumphant article in Preferente, the war in Greece against 'all inclusive holidays' (where the holiday is paid for in the country of origin and all extras are included, leaving precious little for the resort) can only benefit Mallorca.
The Minister for Tourism, José Manuel Soria, wants to 'de-professionalise' Spanish Tourist Offices abroad, allowing senior ex-politicians to take some of the plum jobs as they become available. More here and here.
Finance:
'Spain is one of only two countries to have their growth forecast raised by the International Monetary Fund which said the country had entered a ‘virtuous circle’. Spain is considered to have emerged from economic crisis, but the IMF warned that recovery may be threatened by high unemployment and the rise of populist parties...'. From The Olive Press.
The Irish RTÉ notes the Spanish recovery: 'Spain's recovering economy grew by 1.4% in 2014, provisional official data showed today, after shrinking by 1.2% in the previous year as the country remains plagued by mass unemployment. It is the first time there has been full-year economic growth in Spain since 2008 when a labour-intensive property bubble collapsed, pushing millions of people out of work...'.
The Banco de Santander saw its profits rise by 39% in 2014 to 5,816 million euros.
'...As a result of the strengthening and effectiveness of international mechanisms of information exchange between tax organizations, the Spanish authorities have discovered that there are many residents in Spain at tax purposes (they stay more than 183 days per year in Spain) receiving pensions from abroad of the country and they are not correctly declaring their annual personal income taxes. Due to the characteristics of these people: elderly pensioners, who have greater difficulty in knowing the Spanish legislation, living many years abroad and, in general, not having great fortunes; the Government has approved for these groups an extraordinary period of grace of six months from January 2015, to rectify the situation...'. From Eye on Spain here.
Ex-pats who own property and work in Spain face new taxes in 2015, says a slightly unhelpful article in ExpatForum here.
In a month that always shows job-losses, this past January is no exception with almost 200,000 people removed from the Social Security, however, compared to this time last year, Spain has 400,000 more registered in the system, at a total of 16,575,000. Jobs themselves fell in January by 77,980 persons. More here.
19 of the 20 Spanish towns over 10,000 inhabitants with the highest unemployment are in Andalucía, says La Voz de Almería. La Carolina in Jaén takes the prize with 64.6% unemployment. The lowest unemployment in Spain is Rojales in Alicante at a svelte 9.4%.
Politics:
An interesting result. A partner of Gallup gives Podemos 30.8% followed by the PP at 24.5% and the PSOE trailing at 18.6%. Graphic here. On the other hand, here's another poll, giving the lead to the Partido Popular. A third one, from the CIS, puts Podemos in second...
Is the PSOE preparing itself to be a coalition partner with the PP? After all, they've just signed a joint agreement on terrorism, including perpetual prison-time. Might the Andalucian PSOE, unable to get an absolute majority in the March elections, fearful of Podemos and sick of the IU, turn to the PP as their partner? Would Rajoy expect the favour to be returned in a General Election? Does the 'PPSOE' have a certain satisfying ring to it?
The Minister for Culture, Education and Sports, the notorious José Ignacio Wert, through approval from the Council of Ministers, has ordered universities to cut their courses from four years to three, and to increase Master's from one year to two (away from the old 4 +1 system) in an effort to harmonise with the majority of European Universities. Meeting at an emergency reunion at the 'Conferencia de Rectores de las Universidades Españolas' to discuss the issue, the university deans decided unanimously that they were not amused and called for a moratorium on the new system until at least 2017. El Mundo has more here.
Title from an interesting article at Foreign Policy: 'The Twilight of the Spanish Monarchy: The House of Borbón’s credibility is in shreds. Can King Felipe restore shine to the throne and protect the monarchy from an onslaught of left-wing republicans?'.
The Podemos demonstration, the 'March for Change', is covered below under 'Essay' by Per Svensson, who was present in the Puerta del Sol that day. Here are a few links to the event: From Reuters comes the story; Radiocable, which notes that there was far more TV coverage in the foreign media that there was here; El Ventano, which reproduces a Tweet from a Financial Times journalist: 'Spain´s public @TVE channel surprises once more with its news judgement. Prefers irrelevant PP and PSOE events over mass @Podemos rally'; and The Local, which starts by remarking on the 'young and old, rich and poor' who joined the demonstration last Saturday.
'Now can Podemos win in Spain? Syriza in Greece has a natural ally in Spain’s Podemos, the left-wing party that grew out of the demonstrations of 2011 and challenges the political status quo'. Article from Le Monde Diplomatique.
'If Podemos wins, they could be the last democratic elections in Spain', says a PP deputy called Agustín Conde on El Cascabel on television here.
On Wednesday, Tania Sánchez, a senior member of the Madrid IU and well-known to TV viewers, announced that she had left the party to start another, called Recuperar Madrid. More here and here. Tania is married to Pablo Iglesias (yes, him).
The Izquierda Unida: '...There will never come again the opportunity lost by the party that defines itself as the United Left. In just six months, the left-wing coalition has seen how a small group of academics has built up their project of popular unity which the IU had always dreamed of. The probable dissolution of the IU appears to be just around the next corner...'. Found at La Información.
Juan Manuel Moreno, head of the PP for Andalucía, has spoken of his plans for the community if his party wins the regional elections on March 22nd. 'We will lower taxes, reduce bureaucracy, create judicial security and promote fresh investment. We are going to open both the doors and the windows'. More at Euro Mundo Global here.
Gibraltar's Fabian Picardo finally got his speech in Madrid, although at an event organised by the Gibraltarian Government at the Hotel Palace on Tuesday. Story here.
Corruption:
Hacienda claims three tax offences in the reform of the Partido Popular headquarters in Madrid back in 2007. The architects accepted being paid in cash – around 1.7 million euros – which was evidently paid from the party's 'black account'. The case against the architects will now go to trial, although the PP, despite Luis Bárcenas confirmation of the payments, will not be called. More at El Mundo.
The Spanish Fraud Squad, the UDEF, now thinks that the amount of European funds for training workers that went astray in Andalucía in the 'Operación Edu' could be as much as 3,000 million Euros, making this the biggest case of corruption in Modern Spain, even bigger than the 'Caso Malaya'. More here.
The Ex-President of Valencia, Francisco Camps, is now facing a fresh investigation, this time into his dealings in the Formula I case. More at El Diario.
'The judge in charge of the Andalucian ERE fraud case is fighting to keep the investigation in her control. Anti-corruption prosecutors at Andalucía’s Supreme Court insist that the only way to deal with the enormous case is to divide it into more manageable pieces. But Judge Mercedes Alaya – who is leading the investigation of the region-wide Junta fraud case – is demanding that all files remain together...'. Found at The Olive Press.
Fifteen artists salute political corruption in Spain at a curious exhibition at the 'Espacio Trapezio del Mercado de San Antón' in Madrid. The exhibition, titled 'Querida Corrupción' features homage to many of our most corrupt public figures. The artist Eugenio Merino says of his commemorative medal featuring Jordi Pujol and the message '30 years robbing', 'Spain is amazing: thirty years of public theft and nothing happens'. More here.
Nepotism:
A list of 644 advisers to the Government has recently been published. It includes 'dozens' of family and friends of important people who really should know better. There's the son of Esperanza Aguirre, the ex-girlfriend of Alberto Núñez Feijoo and the daughter of Eduardo Zaplana, for example. All doing well.
Courts
The far-right Manos Limpias group is suing Pablo Iglesias (the leader of Podemos) in court for ten counts of mischief... The story is told at El Español.
Crime is down in Spain, according to El Mundo, with violent crime falling by 14.1% over 2013 and armed robbery down by 17.3%. In all, reported crime fell by 3.6%.
'Google has removed an Olive Press article about a corrupt Marbella judge from all searches following a data protection ruling from the European Court of Human Rights. The global search engine insisted the story – concerning Francisco Javier de Urquia – was being erased due to a request under data protection law...'. From The Olive Press (just sayin').
Essay:
An Encounter with Spanish History
By Per Svensson
On two occasions I felt that I have met Spanish history directly: The first occasion was in 1982, when Spanish friends brought me to the closing meeting of the socialist party in the famous Las Ventas bull ring in Madrid, where the young Felipe Gonzalez and Alfonso Guerra harangued an ecstatic audience of 25,000 supporters to do their uttermost to win the pending parliamentary elections.
The socialist party went on to win.
The second occasion was last Saturday when I took part in the rally on the Puerta del Sol in Madrid of the party Podemos, which was constituted only 12 months ago. The youthful party leader Pablo Iglesias and others harangued 100,000 (estimated by police, Podemos say 300,000) frenetic supporters to go all out to win the elections of this year 2015.
All who saw on their TV, their computers or in the newspapers photos of the enormous flood of people coming up from the imposing Plaza de Cibeles to absolutely fill the great public square of the Puerta del Sol and surrounding streets may have a strong feeling that Podemos will be the winner of the upcoming elections. This feeling is confirmed by recent opinion polls, giving the new party 27.5% of the vote, against 24.6% for governing Partido Popular (down by a dramatic 20% from last elections in 2011) and 19% for the socialist party PSOE.
The 'indignados' are coming back
On the 15th May 2011, the Puerta del Sol – the traditional geographical centre (km.0) of Spain – was the scene of protests from the many hit by the recent crisis: the ones sacked by the thousands of companies going broke, by the army of young people not finding a job and the many families dislodged from their homes due to the impossibility of paying their mortgages. Hundred of protesters lived in tents on the square before finally being evicted by the police. They formed an informal protest movement, resounding all over Spain. And just one year ago, that movement gave birth to a political party.
In his emotional speech during the rally, party leader Iglesias stressed that now the party of the indignados were not there to protest, but to display its strength and to initiate a historical change from the corrupt policy of the two dominant parties, placing the people in the driving seat of Spanish politics.
The fear of the growing strength of Podemos is illustrated by the intense smearing campaign against the Podemos leaders (mostly young professors) launched by the financial-political combine that brought the crisis to Spain and have permitted that a small minority of very rich has become even richer during the crisis.
The fear of the new force has prompted the ambitious leader of the socialists in Andalucía, Susana Díaz, to convoke anticipated elections to the parliament of Andalucía. The region has been the stronghold of the socialists since 1982 when they won an absolute majority with 52.54% of the votes. Díaz, who wants to use a strong election result in Andalucía as a springboard for becoming the PSOE candidate in the national elections later this year, wants to have elections before Podemos have had time to organise itself in the region.
Podemos and the European citizens
What is the program of Podemos for the European citizens in Spain? The crude answer is: it does not exist. Too many other pressing tasks in a short time, and lack of initiative from the Europeans themselves, have left a hole in the programming that need to be filled. Podemos may cruse to power on the national level, in the regions and many municipalities without the assistance of the active Europeans. But when the leaders of the many European groups along the coasts and on the islands wants to argue for just solutions to the problems of the European settlers, they may meet decision-takers from Podemos.
The time may have come to shake off our lethargy and take an active part in the re-founding of Spain.
Various:
'Con el Culo al Sol' – the full documentary about solar energy in Spain.
'Figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE) last week showed a huge drop in the number of foreign residents in Málaga province, suggesting a mass exodus of ex-pats, but a closer look reveals that the numbers may be misleading...' begins an article in the Costa del Sol News under the title – '‘Expat exodus’ statistics may be misleading. Drop in foreign residents is due largely to culling of old census listings, says councillor'. The article is unfortunately not fully available to readers outside, presumably, the Costa del Sol distribution. In short, the Government has asked for EU citizens to be checked (and perhaps removed) every five years, coinciding (perhaps) with the municipal elections for May 24th. True numbers are always hard to find (despite the massive budget for the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas) and many Europeans are not recorded on the padrón, the basic tool for population statistics, for any number of reasons. How many Britons live in Spain, for instance? Anything between the horribly exact 300,286 from the INE (here) to the 'just over one million' from the Financial Times (Feb 2014). In Mojácar, the population fell in election year from 8,360 (Dec 2013) to 6,838 (Dec 2014): found at The Entertainer Online.
Telefónica has been told by the Competition Authority (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia) to share its fibre-optic connections with other networks. Result: it has stopped installing them, leaving some two million homes with slow Internet. The PP has asked the CNMC to drop the order against Telefónica, to save jobs and allow investment of around 800 million euros from the company. More at El País.
Air Europe cancelled its flight to Baghdad on Wednesday saying their were concerned about terror threats. Fair enough, although the passengers were all Spanish Legionnaires being sent by an indulgent Minister of Defence to assume duties in a base near the Iraqi capital.
The Olive Press helps you find a school on the Costa del Sol.
Sufis in Granada: an article in El País in English about 'the quiet devotion of the Sufis'.
The ten most useless buildings in Spain, from Habitissimo.
The poor old lady who wasn't received by her bank for five days, money and factura in her hand, and her without electricity or heat at home. Indeed, 'The banks', says El Diario, 'have arranged things so that no one can live today without having an account. Everybody needs one to receive their wages or pension and to pay out receipts for water, light, income or insurance. Al least, only when there is enough in the account. If they are short then that is when citizens start to have problems and are taken advantage of by their bank...'.
'News sites in Spain have seen their traffic drop by 12 percent since Google shut down its News service in Spain on 16 December, according to data from Spain's association of newspaper editors, AEDE, reported in El Confidencial...'. Found at Telecompaper.
Time to visit Barcelona's Hash, Marijuana, Cañamo and Hemp museum, here. Or perhaps another time... And here's a soothing trip to Jeréz de la Frontera.
Naughty insults in Spanish. (there's a handy translation among the comments) Waaagghhh!
The Left are Coming. Yikes! No toilet paper... (comical article from The World Post).
Letters:
Dear Lenox,
We are regular readers of Business over Tapas and are writing to you because you appear to have your finger on the pulse and are obviously very knowledgeable with regards to the political situation in Andalucía and Spain as a whole.
As you know, the regional election is just over a month away and the dreadful situation regarding the so-called illegal property situation in Andalucía is still very much alive and kicking. We think this election is 'last chance saloon' for organisations like AUAN and SOHA to get some real and beneficial changes and failure to do so will probably lead to something that does not bear thinking about. We have written to SOHA asking them to contact all the political parties in Andalucía and demand that they clearly state their policies with regard to this matter but as yet, we have not heard anything back from them. If regular readers of The Olive Press are anything to go by, many people are placing a huge amount of faith in the newly formed Podemos party, no doubt out of sheer desperation but, for various reasons and not least their admiration for countries like Venezuela, we fear this could be misplaced optimism. It would be wonderful to be wrong but we fear it is unlikely that a far left political party will have a great deal of sympathy for the cause of retired northern European ex-pats with property legality issues. As you know, the current Junta coalition has fallen apart and one of the many problems they encountered was reaching an agreement on the proposed PSOE planning law changes and the IU/Greens' opposition to it. Knowing what we do about Podemos, and admittedly our knowledge of their policies is somewhat limited, we think it is highly likely that they will adopt the same stance on this matter as the IU/Greens - they have very strong links to environmental groups. Sorry if this sounds negative but it must be borne in mind.
Information on this issue is scarce to say the least and of course foreigners cannot vote in this election anyway but we feel that this issue needs to be vigorously debated and someone, somewhere needs to enter into some sort of dialogue with Podemos. It is dangerous to assume that they will be any better than PSOE or IU just because we want them to be, they could actually turn out to be worse particularly if they hold the same views as IU. If that were the case, you can look forward to more rural properties being demolished. On the other hand, they may surprise us but we need to know for sure, it would be dangerous to guess.
Much as many seem to despise them, the party most likely to make real and effective changes to the planning laws in Andalucía are PP but they are not likely to win. Frankly, it will appear to be something of a no-choice, choice between a load of useless parties who will either do nothing or make things even worse.
Any input you may have on this subject would be greatly appreciated and it would be worth publishing as much information as possible either on BoT and/or other media. We don't want to sleepwalk into an even worse situation, hard as that is to imagine!
Many thanks and kind regards,
Jane G and Robert C
Finally:
One for fellow blogger Colin Davies who lives in Galicia. Dan ar Braz et l'Héritage des Celtes with 'Aires de Pontevedra' on YouTube.
...oh, and an advert for La Casera (heh!)
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