Editorial:
The somewhat quixotic idea of an extra payment for the workers, the paga extraordinaria – now extended to two payments in June and December – began as a Christmas bonus (known as un aguinaldo) of a week’s wage to workers, ordered by Franco’s Government in the winter of 1944. The edict was extended the following year and declared to be permanent. Two years later, in 1947, a similar payment was ordered to celebrate what would now be May Day, but was then the 18th of July (the date of the 1936 Coup d’état). Later, after Franco’s death, this second payment was moved to June. In 1980, a new agreement with the unions, never changed to this day, changed the system of the ‘fourteen payments’, which could, as agreed by the workers, be paid either as twelve regular monthly or fourteen (irregular) payments, but, from a previously accorded annual payment. In reality, the workers are no longer paid more, but by spreading the payments in this way, the tax paid by the employers is actually slightly reduced. Further, as the Government dropped the extra payments for the funcionarios in 2012 (part of which they promise to make up just after the December 2015 elections), workers are effectively having the wool pulled over their eyes. One thing which we can expect from the Troika sooner or later will be an end to this odd system originated as a workers’ bonus by Franco.
Housing:
‘As British property investors resume their love affair with Spain, it’s the Costa Blanca which is proving to be top choice, accounting for 27 per cent of Spanish mortgage enquiries received at Conti over the last three years. And Spain continues to be top of the list for British buyers in general, accounting for just under half (45 per cent) of enquiries received by the company in the second quarter of 2015...’. From The Economic Voice.
‘Foreign and Commonwealth Office urges overseas property hunters to seek advice before they buy. With British nationals buying more than 16,000 properties in Spain over the past three years, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the overseas property exhibition ‘A Place in the Sun Live’ are teaming up to ensure those considering moving abroad to do their research, and avoid costly issues. Prospective buyers will be able to get advice from British Embassy staff who will be at A Place in the Sun Live at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham from 25 to 27 September...’. From A Place in the Sun.
Moving or retiring abroad. Advice from The British Government here.
An interesting survey by HSBC is analysed by The Local in ‘12 reasons why Spain is (and isn't) a brilliant place to be an expatriate’. Spain, according to HSBC, comes 13th out of 39 countries for criteria such as quality of life, politics, career progression and health. The best things about Spain – the quality of life, social life, health and culture. The worst – work, savings and politics.
Opp Today asks ‘What is the profile of a typical British buyer of Spanish property?’
Time to put up or shut up? A Murcia promoter is offering 220 free homes for Syrian refugees in the luxury Corvera Golf urbanisation. La Verdad has the story here.
Tourism:
‘A massive 47.2 million tourists hit Spain between January and August. These are record figures, 4.1% up on the same period last year and indicative of a recovering economy. There were 9.2 million holidaymakers heading to Spain in August alone, 1.6% up on the same month in 2014...’. From The Olive Press.
The Spanish RIU hotel chain is to sell off its nine hotels in Tunisia following the terror attack on one of them in June. Story at El Mundo.
Finance:
So, how much is your bank (and the issuing bank) going to take when you use your card in the ATM? See the helpful graphic from El Diario here.
‘A valuation drawn up by Ceslar Corporation, has placed the value of El Corte Inglés between 14.8 billion and 16.4 billon €, after a request from a ‘rebel shareholder’. According to Ceslar Corporation their valuation is almost double the between 6.5 billion and 8 billion € mentioned in the signing of the investment agreement with the ex Qatari Prime Ministry, Hamad Bin Jassim when he took a 10% share in the company for 1 billion € and with the option of a maximum capital holding of 12.5%’. Item from Typically Spanish.
Politics:
A debate between the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, the (slightly out of control) José Manuel García-Margallo, and the Catalonian leader of the leader of the ERC (partner in the breakaway Junts Pel Sí formation) Oriol Junqueras was held last night (Wednesday) on 8TV. Margallo’s position was that an independent Catalonia would have unemployment of 37% and that pensions would fall by almost half (44%). Junqueras dismissed these claims as ‘apocalyptic nonsense’. El Mundo has the story (plus video). ‘Junqueras trashes Margallo’ says Libertad Digital here. On the other side, the ABC gives it to Margallo.
After just 100 days in office, the Mayoress of Madrid Manuela Carmena has slimmed down city costs by 30 million euros. This by cancelling unnecessary contracts, wage adjustments, privileges removed and a reduction in perks and official cars etc. Story at El Confidencial.
Corruption:
The ex-treasurer for the PP prior to Luis Bárcenas was Álvaro Lapuerta (between the years 1993 and 2008). Lapuerta has recently told a journalist that he would bring the party cash, mixed in with paperwork, straight to the President of the PP, José María Aznar. The revelations in a book called ‘Queríamos tanto a Luis’, by Ernesto Ekaizer, were aired on the Cadena Ser radio on Monday. (Audio and report here and here). Screening of the feature film about the interrogation of Bárcenas by Judge Ruz, called simply ‘B’, has run into censorship issues. Only sixteen cinemas across Spain were prepared to screen the film on its release last Friday following unofficial displeasure from the Partido Popular. The makers of the film say that such a thing should not happen in Spain in the XXI Century (here).
Catalonia Elections:
‘In Spain’s north eastern region of Catalonia, the fear-mongering and doom-saying is reaching a deafening crescendo. If voters return a majority of pro-independence politicians in next Sunday’s regional elections, all manner of economic disaster will befall the region — according to the defenders of Spain’s established political and economic order. The doomsayers include the Spanish government, the main opposition party, PSOE, Angela Merkel, David Cameron, Barack Obama, John Kerry, the spokesperson of the president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, and just about every business lobby representative in Spain...’. There’s a ‘but’ later on in this article at Wolf Street.
It seems that, while the Spanish media from Madrid and Seville is understandably against the Catalonian idea of breaking away from the Motherland, El País is going just that little step further. Here we read that an Independent Catalonia would be not only ejected summarily from the EU, the Schengen Treaty and the Single Currency, but would never be allowed to rejoin.
From the Russian Sputnik News, we hear different: ‘The European Union will force Madrid to recognize a Catalonian secession from Spain should local parliament and government agencies in the region unilaterally declare independence, the coordinator of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) in the State of Florida told Sputnik..’. (Florida?)
Unsurprisingly, one of the sectors of Catalonian society that would like to see the Independence groups win is the scientists (no doubt in the search for proper state funding). Here is La Vanguardia on the subject.
‘...Raül Romeva, who leads the Junts pel Sí ticket, sees the unwieldy coalition backed by the conservative Democratic Convergence party, the leftwing Catalan Republican Left and grassroots independence activists, as a sign of the extraordinary moment Catalonia is experiencing. “This is a movement that goes from left to right, spanning conservatives, liberals, ecologists, sociologists and many others ... It’s a consequence of necessity.” For the past decade, he argued, the Spanish state has failed to represent the plurality of the country: “What we have is the opportunity to change all this.”...’ More from The Guardian here.
No one believes they’ll do it, says Vozpópuli, or else they aren’t worried. Foreign investors have tripled their speculation in Catalonia over the first six months of 2015. At 1,649 million euros, that’s about a third of all foreign money invested in Spain during the period.
El Confidencial says that ‘Rajoy rejects the idea that the most-voted party should govern in Catalonia and warns that the Law will be followed’. The site points out that Rajoy was strongly in favour of the most-voted party automatically being declared the winner as recently as May this year, when the PP did poorly in the local elections.
‘The Spanish Catholic Church said on Tuesday there was "no moral justification" for Catalonia to seek independence from Spain and urged its faithful to pray for unity ahead of a regional election on Sunday. The church is the latest institution to wade into a stand-off between the government and the wealthy northeastern region, whose leaders have cast the election as a proxy for a vote on secession...’. From Reuters.
The interview with Mariano Rajoy on Onda Cero: a fragment in English (Video on a Catalonian site called Vilaweb. Would Catalonians lose their Spanish and European nationality? Also available as the parody Mariano Simpson here.
These key elections, being watched across Europe (notably by the Scots, Corsicans, Basques, Galicians and any other group that believes that their own particular brand of nationalism somehow shows their apparent superiority over their heathen neighbours) are held on Sunday. At least, unlike the proposed ‘Brexit’, they all have the democratic chance to vote...
Courts
The Supreme Court has established that a worker is not obliged under law to give his employer either his mobile phone number or his email address. Story here.
Various:
‘Molly Sears-Piccavey, Managing Director of Girls in Tech (GIT) Spain: “Feminine values are good for business”. Girls in Tech (GIT) is a global non-profit focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of influential women in technology. They are focused on the promotion, growth and success of entrepreneurial and innovative women in the technology space...’. From Money Market. Molly, who lives in Granada, also finds time to keep up an interesting blog about food, culture and travel in Spain called Piccavey.
From The Nation: ‘“The great problem of the Spanish press is the truth,” a Peruvian colleague once told Alfonso Armada, a former El País reporter who currently works for the conservative newspaper ABC. Armada can’t help but agree. “The press routinely twists the facts to fit the venue’s ideology,” he says. “The media themselves have helped spread the notion that there are no indisputable facts, just partial views of reality. As a result, what has taken root is the idea that, just like politicians, all media outlets lie.”...’. Now, a few new sites committed to transparency have appeared in recent years to change that perception.
El Confidencial spends a jolly day with the Odinists, a peculiar pagan religion with around 10,000 Spanish members and a temple in Navas de Jorquera, Albacete. (Pictures and text here)
An Argentine judge called María Servini de Cubría was tricked in Madrid airport out of 5,000 euros, while on the way to Brussels to participate in a conference on human rights. She is best known here as a critic of Francoist Spain. Story at Tiempo Argentino.
‘Travelling by bus, metro or train can be as much as 30% cheaper in Spain than in the rest of the major European capitals, according to data collected by the urban transport association Atuc, which also reveals that Spaniards use public transport more than the rest of their European neighbours...’. From Kyero.
‘Once again and for the 11th year, the London Spanish Film Festival returns with a selection of some of the best recent films from Spain including feature films as well as documentaries and shorts. This year some of the feature films will be in competition and the winner will be decided by a Jury. ... Filmmakers and actors from nearly all corners of Spain will come to present their work and bring to the screenings some extra background and insight...’. 24 – 30 September 2015. More here (Thanks to reader J Antonio Sierra)
Carmen López, an opposition councillor for the Ciudadanos Party since the May elections in Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville, has moved home from the town to her new residence in Chicago, USA, for employment. She had asked the Town Hall to fly her to Spain once a month to attend the plenary session. While this may be legal and proper, the story, understandably, raised a few eyebrows across the country, starting with the El Digital de Castilla La Mancha (here). The Party Chairman in Barcelona for Ciudadanos Albert Rivera opened a disciplinary expedient against the councillor for an ethics violation, saying that the next one on the list should take her place. Ms López went on record on Antena3 to say that she was the only person who could represent the party in Castilleja, then it emerged that she had been dismissed from the party by Albert Rivera as ‘a person on a political list must expect to complete their obligations, and if not, then to withdraw from the list’. However, she would continue as a non-aligned councillor unless she resigned. ‘My party has betrayed me’, said López on an American Spanish-language radio station. She says she must appear in video-conference in the plenary sessions ‘or be in breach of the law’. All good fun.
See Spain
The beautiful Cabo de Gata has a cactus infection. From Spanish Shilling here. ‘...The bug in question is the tiny cochineal fly, which lifts off in its millions at night, to uncomfortable effect. The infection, the sticky white stuff, is carried by birds. It is slowly wending its way westwards towards Granada and Málaga. The plants do not recover although the roots seem to be OK: fresh shoots are soon consumed by the pest...’.
Úbeda, a delightful town in Jaén, is visited by Molly at Piccavey, here. ‘The Plaza Vázquez de Molina is a large square in the historic centre of Úbeda. This vast space is dotted with emblematic buildings and this area alone takes a while to cover due to the rich details and grandeur of the space. This is the best example of Renaissance architecture in Spain...’.
Finally:
Not all protests work, as an Israeli news site called Y Net News reports: ‘Pro-Palestinian Spanish activists posted photos online last week, naked except for red clown noses in front of the West Bank separation barrier in Jerusalem, meant to show opposition to the wall dividing Israelis from Palestinians. The group witnessed a somewhat unexpected reaction online however, as members of the conservative-leaning Palestinian community slammed them for lack of respect...’. Silly pictures and report here.
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