Editorial:
Just to prove that that the Catalonian politicians are as corrupt as the Madrid or Valencia or Seville ones (something that with Jordi Pujol and his family, we already knew), there was a surprise raid by the Guardia Civil on the offices of Artur Mas’ CDC party in Barcelona on Friday, and the production of the alarming and fully-expected news that the party took illegal commissions. In this case produced by El Mundo on Tuesday, a builder called Teyco was paying a three percent ‘bung’ for the chance to obtain public tenders worth some seven million to them – and 344,000€ going to the Party – back, apparently, in 2009. All this, of course, just before the Catalonian elections. The CDC leads a coalition called ‘Junts pel Sí’ which plans/hopes to break from Spain. Will the news make any difference? Did the scandals about Bárcenas and Rato hurt the Government?
Housing:
‘Spanish rural holiday villas are falling out of popularity, a leading developer claims. With 80% of properties sold in Spain in 2014 being flats or apartments, according to General Council of Notaries data, the days of the rural holiday villa are numbered, according to Taylor Wimpey España. In addition, apartment buyers want shops and restaurants and internet access just as much as beach access, says the developer, which has seen cumulative sales rise by around 28% year-on-year in July 2015. Sales and Marketing Director Marc Pritchard says, “Buyers are much more discerning than they used to be when it comes to property type and location. Remote, isolated villas are falling out of favour as second homeowners’ demands have changed...”’. Find more at Opp.Today.
From Typically Spanish: ‘Málaga leads the national index for the number of house sales in Spain in 2014. Between June 2014 and June 2015, (the latest figures available) Málaga province saw a total of 23,326 property sales, up by 11.7% on the year. It translates to 14.4 sales for every 1,000 inhabitants, and compares with Alicante (13.46), Almería (10.12), and Girona (10.03)...’.
Tourism:
A useful new direct train service – from Atocha (downtown Madrid), via Chamartín, to Barajas, the Madrid airport, will begin this month. The train, every half hour. More here.
Finance:
‘The Spanish economy grew 1.0% in the second quarter of 2015, according to data released Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). The figure is one tenth of a point higher than in the first quarter, and the highest in the last eight years, reflecting the kind of growth experienced prior to Spain’s economic crisis...’. From El País in English.
Unemployment rose in August by 21,679 people to 4,067,955, says Europa Press here. On Monday 31st August, a further 333,107 people lost their jobs, says El Mundo.
A second recession to begin next year? EcoRepublicano seems sure of it.
Politics:
The President of Spain writes for Handelsblatt (in English). ‘Spain Has Much to Offer By Mariano Rajoy Brey. The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tells how his country went from the sick man of Europe to a model for reform in a short time, and explains what the European community can expect from Spain moving forward’.
Headline from The Local: ‘Rajoy: 'We’re proud to be referred to as the Germans of the South'’. The article includes ‘...It was clear that Rajoy’s visit was designed to shore up international support for the ruling Popular Party ahead of the general election later this year and to promote Spain as an economic success story thanks to the government’s reforms...’.
‘Spain’s ruling Popular Party (PP) on Tuesday presented an urgent proposed bill in Congress that would give the Constitutional Court powers to fine or suspend elected officials and civil servants who fail to comply with its rulings. Though applicable to all public administrations, the initiative has been devised to deal with a possible unilateral declaration of independence from Spain in Catalonia...’. From El País in English. The Catalonian CDC party has described the initiative as ‘the greatest attack on democracy in Spain since 1978’ and later Artur Mas called it ‘the music of the Inquisition’. Another party, the Unió, says the Government should apply the law to its own members since (they say) there are plenty of populares who have failed to comply with court rulings... The Secretary of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, says that ‘Rajoy is legislating for the extreme right-wing of his party’. On Wednesday, El País published an editorial critical of the Government’s plan to change the Constitutional rules titled ‘Un grave error’.
The Government, claiming we have enough, says it will resist EU pressure and only take in a small number of refugees – some 2,749 (a nice round number). More at El País here. Horrible photos of that dead child here. Certainly, there are enough Facebook posts reminding Spaniards of the exile of many of their tearful grandparents back in 1939...
Spain’s first deaf senator is Polar Lima, from Podemos, who gave her first ‘speech’ (she has two sign-language interpreters) earlier this week. El Mundo introduces her here.
‘Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has accused the Spanish Foreign Minister of ‘lying’ to his country over Gibraltar. The PP’s Jose Garcia-Margallo announced last week that his policy on Gibraltar – ultimately returning the British territory to Spain – was ‘bearing fruit’. However, Picardo has issued a scathing defence, claiming Margallo is ‘pulling the wool over the eyes of the Spanish people’ as relations between the two sides sink to a new low...’. Found at The Olive Press. ‘Gibraltar criticises Margallo for his ‘lack of diplomatic skills’’, says El País here. A press release from the Gibraltarian Government here, includes this comment dripping with the renowned British understatement: ‘Proper cooperation remains our aim. The sooner the Spanish authorities adopt a similar cooperative posture the better.’
Corruption:
...and now for some light entertainment. The ‘black money account’ over at the PP headquarters is now to be the subject of a movie. Luís Barcenas will be played by Pedro Casablanc who is cross-examined by Judge Pablo Ruz (Manolo Solo). The film will be released on September 18th. It’s simply called B. Here’s a video teaser.
‘Users of the ‘black’ cards have turned to experts to justify their nocturnal costs. Two lawyers from the Complutense University in Madrid have published a report on the wishes of two previous board members of Caja Madrid Alberto Recarte and Luis Gabarda which concludes the spending on alcohol and ladies lingerie ‘forms part of their labour contracts’’. Story at Typically Spanish.
Catalonia:
‘Felipe González has urged Catalans to turn away from the path towards independence, likening the movement to the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy in the 1930s. The socialist prime minister of Spain between 1982 and 1996 waded into the political row, just a month before Catalonia goes to the polls to urge the north-eastern region not to turn away from Spain...’. From The Local. Felipe’s letter (in English) in full here. An answering letter from senior Catalonian politician Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida (in English) here.
‘September will be a make-or-break month for Spain’s richest region, Catalonia. In 12 days’ time the streets of its capital Barcelona will once again broil with uncountable crowds of local people solemnly marking the Diada, a national day for a nation that doesn’t officially exist. Two weeks later, on September 27, the region will hold its most important elections since Spain’s late dictator Francisco Franco passed away 40 years ago. If the pro-independence parties win a majority of seats (68 out of 135) in Catalonia’s parliament, they will unilaterally declare independence from Spain. That’s the plan at least, although the chances are that Madrid will have something to say in the matter. And that something is unlikely to be pleasant...’. From the ever-readable Wolf Street.
Essay:
Valencia Politics with Peter Gooch
It has now been several months since Ximo Puig and the Socialists alongside Compromis with Podemos on the sidelines have managed to ouster the Partido Popular from one of their main strongholds - the Valencian Community. I think that particularly hard hit was Rita Barbera who has been the much-loved (or so I thought) Mayoress of Valencia for the last quarter of a century. Against her (official) wishes, she is now set to become a Senator, as is Alberto Fabra, the little-known successor to Francisco Camps as President of the Community. Along the way, many of the PP representatives inside the former Valencian Government have been jailed, penalised or not allowed to serve in public office. The list is very long and includes Carlos Fabra, Rafael Blasco and Sonia Castedo.
For my part, I worked alongside these people for years and I must tell you that I had absolutely no idea that any of this skulduggery was going on, and I spent quite a lot of time in government offices. I don’t think that means I was naive, but what was going on was so very well hidden it was extremely difficult to spot. I was even more surprised when two of the people with whom I had a lot of contact (Pedro Garcia, the press head under Eduardo Zaplana) and Serafin Castellano (a long-serving Conseller) were jailed as well. Also during this time, the Terra Mítica theme park has now been swallowed up by MondoMar, and many of the banks have simply disappeared such as the Banco de Valencia and CAM (the latter probably because Mr Zaplana pushed that organisation into financing Terra Mítica and the City of Light in Alicante). Oh well, time to move on.
Now under Ximo Puig the Community seems to be treading water as he finds his way, whilst he and his press office is losing no opportunity to slam the PP on every occasion, the latest being the recent robbery at the San Pio V Museum in Valencia. “Ah well,” according to Mr Puig, “that was because the PP failed to put in burglar alarms to protect the exhibits.” In all honesty, however, Mr Puig and his crew are not doing too badly: firstly, they are finding their way very slowly without wanting to offend anyone and it’s all working out rather well considering and secondly after the election that Mr Puig won, he did not officially take office for some time so that the party squabbling could be sorted out. I don’t know who really won or lost in all this, as there were political fights and divisions over who would become the President, who would become the next Mayor or Mayoress of Valencia and so on. Some spin doctor must have given these intrigues plenty of thought.
However, there may be some good news for the PP: the birth rate in the Valencian Community is rising, so maybe there is a large amount of possible future members of the PP in the making, but that’s maybe a bit too far off. Meanwhile, it does seem that uncertainty is about to hit Spain as a whole in the next General Election at the end of November, as the most recent opinion poll gives the PP just 127 parliamentary seats when 176 are needed for a majority. According to this same poll, the Socialists would get 93 seats, Podemos 56, Ciudadanos 33, CDC 12, Esquerra Unida 8 and the Basque Nationalists 6. This means that if they want to rule, the PP are going to have to make some sort of arrangement with the Socialists. Well, they do say that politics does make strange bedfellows!
Various:
Although you may not know it, there’s a small additional fee when you call Europe from Spain. Indeed, Spain is the only European country which makes this charge, currently at 20c whether the customer uses Movistar, Vodafone, Orange or Yoigo. And it’s soon going up...
Spain abandons more pets to their fate than any other EU country, says El Ventano here. Last year, some 140,000 dogs and cats were taken in by agencies...
More than 100 public employees used their Ashley Madison accounts from their workplace, with government e-mail accounts, says El Español, including workers at The Ministry of Defence, the National Security Council and the Senate. At least another 3,000 public employees have so far been traced as being customers of the Service (which, of course, deals with ‘cheating’).
‘The accidental destruction of an ancient tomb in northwest Spain was best summed up by an archaeologist in one perfect, if unintended, pun: "monumental error." Workers in the town of Cristovo de Cea in the Galicia region mistook what is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Neolithic tomb for a broken stone picnic table and "repaired it."...’ From NPR.
Headline at gCaptain: ‘A Concrete Sample Was Pulled from the New Panama Canal Locks and It Does Not Look Good’. Indeed not, with leaks pouring through cracks in the concrete. The contractor is ‘Grupo Unidos por el Canal’, a consortium lead by Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso.
One of the unexpected expenses – as it were – of Spain is the ludicrously expensive school books. Now the Generalitat Valenciana has ordered that all text books for Primaria and Secundaria will be free for school children resident in that community.
Here we meet nine of the most terrible champions of the Nationalists, during and after the Civil War. All of them have streets named after them... Story at Diagonal Saberes.
Twitter has closed down a network of false accounts which allegedly pumped out fake messages supporting the PP, the right-wing La Razón newspaper and the Royal Palace.
Is Spain turning its back on bullfighting? El País in English is unsure.
A powerful hail storm in Pétrola, Albacete, killed over 300 flamingos on Monday.
H.D. Jenken, the Englishman accused of being a vampire in Lorca, Murcia.
Now if there is one thing that’s popular at the Business over Tapas headquarters in Wall Street, New York (especially after the story above), it’s a nice cold glass of horchata.
Finally:
Rick Steves introduces us to Andalucía. Rick is an American authority on visiting Europe and he provides an hour-long TV show about his chosen area – here it’s Andalucía. He seems to do a good job...
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