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Weekly Report

Business Over Tapas

By Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner y enviado por José Antonio Sierra (CCLAM)

viernes 03 de junio de 2016, 00:20h
Business Over Tapas

03JUN-16.- A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners: with Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner - 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:

We could almost start a regular section in BoT called Venezuela. Like the anti-Castroists living in Miami, there are many ‘exiled’ anti-Maduro Venezuelans living, usually in some comfort, in Spain. They are right to excoriate the Revolución Bolivar (although Hugo Chávez had his moments), and Venezuela, thanks to rock-bottom oil prices (96% of the country’s exports is oil) and the ineptitude of the Venezuelan Government (a video from comedian John Oliver explains), is in collapse. The current president Nicolás Maduro is out of his depth; before his ascent to power, he was a bus driver (Wiki).

Why is this of interest to a news-letter about Spain? - Because the Podemos hierarchy has been identified with Venezuela and its disastrous policies. Chávez is said to have financed Podemos (now the even larger Unidos Podemos) or its predecessor CEPS (for some unexplained reason) and several past visits to Venezuela and sightings of Pablo Iglesias (and others) with the Venezuelan revolutionary leaders must have some basis in fact.

A visit to Caracas just last week by the President of Ciudadanos Albert Rivera (following another recent visit – from ex-PSOE leader José Luis Zapatero), in Spain’s pre-election period, was without doubt a political act, although whether this was a Ciudadanos initiative or one from the Partido Popular is still unclear.

Much, therefore, has been written in the Spanish media about Venezuela, identified strongly – and negatively – in the mind of the electorate with Podemos. An editorial from El País (in English here) is titled: ‘Venezuela and Spain’s general election. The main political parties are making their positions clear about the crisis in the South American country’. The editorial calls for Podemos to ‘own up’ to whatever relationship they have with Maduro. ‘There is a terrible violation of human rights in Venezuela’, says the Partido Popular here.

Indeed, so much ink has been spilt on this subject, some people might wonder if the upcoming vote is for Spain or somehow for Venezuela. The respected journalist Iñaki Gabilondo (in a video) thinks that the Spanish election could be won or lost in Venezuela: ‘...let’s talk more about Spain, and less about distractions and rumour...’, he says. 200,000 Spaniards live in Venezuela, so Spain’s concerns are reasonable – but how much truth are we offered? A story in the ABC, suddenly removed (after it had already gone viral) shows a Spanish businessman in Caracas, posing in a supermarket in a recent photograph taken in a wealthy part of the city. The shelves are full.

Housing:

‘Foreigners buying more property in Spain than ever. The latest report published by the Council of Property Registrars has confirmed that foreigners are buying more property in Spain than ever. In numbers, international investors acquired almost 48,000 properties in the last year, which is an increase of more than 13% from the previous 12 months. The report also revealed that the British are still the top buyers of Spanish real estate, and make up 21% of the total of all purchases made by foreigners...’. From Expatica.

‘In some regions of Spain, buying and renovating a second hand home can work out much more economical than buying a new home ... While the average price of a new build home of 90 square metres amounts to 184,680 euros, a second hand property of comparable size requiring some refurbishment is around 138,282 euros, which leaves the considerable difference of 46,398 euros to cover any necessary reform works...’. From Kyero.

‘A Descent into the Hell of Camposol’ (an urbanisation in Mazarrón , Murcia). Thus the title of an article in La Opinión de Murcia, regarding another decayed urbanisation full of unhappy Brits. To start with, 550 homes there were built in a rambla – a dry river bed. Floods are an occasional disaster. Camposol, says the article, has over 4,000 homes, and lacks basic services, besides having the street breaking up and many houses cracked. After many years of complaints, an official investigation is now under way. The suggestion from the provincial PSOE is to remove the authority of the local town of Mazarrón from the stricken urbanisation. The situation also receives coverage in the Costa de Almería News.

‘The associations AUAN and SOHA and the confederation CALU have expressed their concern with what they consider to be the delay in the progress of the parliamentary bill. Said bill which will provide a solution for illegal land divisions, a planning infraction that currently prevents many properties from becoming regularized...’. Typically Spanish has the full story here.

Tourism:

Tourism is up again, with 18,100,000 of them visiting Spain through to the end of April; up, that is, by 13% over the same four months in 2015.

Not, of course, that everyone makes money with tourism. A story in El Diario says that over seven thousand hotel maids in Andalucía are paid less than two euros per hour for room cleaning. The clients pay an average of 75€ for that same room, which a cleaner has prepared for an average of one euro, says the news-site indignantly.

The Diario de Mallorca has an essay on tourism. On the islands, there are graffiti saying ‘Tourist Go Home’ and so on, but of course tourism is the main industry: it pays for the many services and brings much wealth. The essay is called ‘Tourism doesn’t kill, but...’. How nice to be able of complaining about having too many clients...

‘Six reasons why Benidorm is so much better than you think’, from The Local.

Finance:

‘Spanish rail firm files for bankruptcy after being hit by €34m fine. A train operator set up by Spanish contractor OHL to build and run a public-private partnership rail scheme in Madrid has filed for insolvency after completing only 30% of the line in nine years. A €34m fine imposed by the city is blamed for sending the firm, Cercanias Móstoles Navalcarnero (CMN), over the edge, but the commercial viability of the suburban commuter link had been fatally undermined by the property crash that followed the financial crisis of 2008...’. The report comes from GCR.

Wolf Street says the Spanish banks are in trouble, and centres on the Popular: ‘Spain’s sixth largest financial institution, Banco Popular, on Wednesday evening (last week) announced that it was urgently seeking to raise €2.5 billion in capital in order to shore up its finances. The news took many of the firm’s investors by surprise given that just a month ago the bank’s CEO Francisco Gomez had breezily reported that the bank had a very comfortable core capital level above the regulatory minimum and “one of the best” leverage ratios in the sector...’. Something called Lionheart News is even more alarming: ‘...If investors lose much more confidence in the Spanish banking system, the country’s heavily indebted economy could start to wobble...’. Finally, returning to the Banco Popular, we read at Economía Digital that the two main shareholders in the bank – Sogefi y Unión Europea de Inversiones – need to stump up a further 247 million euros to hold their 9.85% share as the bank calls for a share capital increase.

‘Spain is the country with the highest quality of inactive population in Europe. In other words, people who are of working age, but are not looking for a job. Those who do look for work are referred to as the active population, and this is divided up into those who are working and those who are unemployed. The 18 million people in work maintain the 4.8 million jobless, as well as the inactive. There are a total of 38 million people of working age, 20 million of whom are jobless or inactive...’. From The Corner.

...and from Money International comes: ‘Expats Flee Spain to Avoid Tax on Overseas Assets. Tax changes are believed to have forced thousands of expats to flee their new home in the Spanish sunshine. Official figures show the numbers of European Union expats moving to Spain have fallen year-on-year since 2012 in line with the introduction of the new tax rules...’.

General Elections June 26:

There will be a televised four-way debate between the party leaders on June 13th.

Mariano Rajoy’s Partido Popular should be doing well as the electorate gingerly approach the polling stations later this month, if it wasn’t for a couple of things. These are summed up by Sabemos Digital as ‘the letter to Brussels, the squabble with Aznar and the galloping corruption within the party’. The letter is an agreement with the EU to make further cuts following the elections. The problem with Ex-president José María Aznar comes from his criticism of Rajoy’s economic policies (the right-wing is well represented by Aznar), and the corruption issues include the Bárcenas bail on the PP headquarters in Madrid.

The strategy for the Partido Popular, according to El Diario, is to go up against ‘the coalition of communists’ (that’s to say, the Unión Podemos), since the PSOE, in the view of the conservatives, ‘is sinking fast’.

No mucking about this time. Pedro Sánchez says, if his PSOE get the most seats ‘there’ll be a new government within a week’. Story at El País. Sánchez’ main problem in this election is the polarization of Spain between the two extremes of the Partido Popular and the Unión Podemos, says El Diario.

From Lenox’ page The Entertainer Online, the twelve parties asking for your vote in Almería. There are many other, mainly regional parties elsewhere, but here are the basic suspects...

Politics:

‘Confused about the Spanish political situation? Unsure who the current Prime Minister is? And what is all this talk of yet another election? A new video has been created to explain everything you need to know’, says The Olive Press (video and article here). The video nevertheless fails to note the recent merger of Podemos and Izquierda Unida.

A story is going around in the Spanish press about how, if Britain were to leave the EU, Gibraltar would consider co-sovereignty with Spain (a mistranslation of an article that first appeared on Sky News). The Prime Minister of Gibraltar Fabián Picardo, is now reported in El Español as saying that the Foreign Minister Margallo can ‘shove his proposal’ for joint sovereignty up ‘where the sun don’t shine’. Most un-statesmanlike behaviour! (The story is also covered in The Independent here).

Courts:

With just four weeks to go before the elections, Manuel Chaves and José Antonio Griñán, the two past presidents of the Junta de Andalucía before the present incumbent Susana Díaz, have now been officially accused by the judge Álvaro Martín in the case of the illegal EREs in Andalucía (850 million euros were apparently misappropriated within early retirement pay-outs). They will both stand trial together with 24 other ex-officials. Both politicians have asked to resign their membership of the PSOE. Full story in El Mundo. ‘Five years, 275 people imputed and not a single céntimo returned’, says the ABC.

A throw-away line in a recent sentencing showed that the police now have the capacity to use bugged telephones as microphones. Even when they are switched off. Apparently, however, the ‘bugged’ lines may only be used for evidence between the dial tone and the signing off by the caller. The story here.

Brexit:

A good article on the Brits in Spain (well, in Orihuela Costa) and their worries about the ‘Brexit’, appears in The Guardian. Its title and opening read: ‘I don’t want to go back with nothing: the Brexit threat to Spain’s little Britain. In Spain’s biggest British enclave, the EU referendum looms large over an expat Shangri-La based on bowls, beaches and high-quality free healthcare. But is there any real love for Europe there?’. The better than 3000 comments that follow, written presumably by UK based readers, are almost uniformly hostile. The comments in Spanish over at Meneame in reference to the article aren’t any more friendly either. (Sigh, does nobody like the British ex-pat?)

An ugly propaganda piece from El País, with video, regarding the British expats who live in San Fulgencio (Alicante), a giant urbanisation which is facing up to the threat of a ‘Brexit’. There is a rather more fact-filled article on the concerns of many Europeans regarding the referendum for June 23rd, at El Huff Post here.

Media:

The Spanish equivalent to Stephen Colbert is the news-providing comedian (and oddly named) El Gran Wyoming. The political jokes are a bit too close for comfort sometimes, and now the popular TV show ‘El Intermedio’ on LaSexta which stars Wyoming has been abruptly cancelled until after the summer is past. Government pressure? So it would seem.

Various:

‘In a cave in northern Spain’s Basque country, at least 70 cave paintings have been hiding for thousands of years. Axturra cave was first discovered in 1929, but a recent survey, in the fall of 2015, uncovered a series of drawings dating back approximately 14,500 years, to the later part of the Upper Paleolithic period...’. Found at Atlas Obscura.

‘Facebook and Microsoft to install “megacable” between Spain and US. The undersea connection will be managed by Telefónica affiliate Telxius, and will enter Europe through Vizcaya’. Headline at El País in English.

‘Top 10 undiscovered start-ups from Spain’, from Geektime. Some of them seem fun!

From July 1st, any untoward or critical comments regarding Spain’s Royals posted in the social media can get one into trouble. The report on additions to the Penal Code is here.

Mojácar (principal home to the BoT) is in most of Spain’s newspapers this week after its recent decision to control the behaviour of both its residents and its guests. From now on, no bathing costumes off the beach, no funny attire (including the type favoured by stag parties) and no ‘parquet’ (an alarming form of exercise involving stairways, roofs and sudden drops). Fines up to 1,000€ should do the trick. Here (for example) at El País in English.

In a step away from the modern approach towards marijuana in many modern countries (even the USA!), ‘...the national delegate for the National Plan on Drugs, Francis Babín, recently warned of a high probability that cannabis will be the third "major epidemic" of drugs in Spain, after heroin and cocaine in the last three decades...’. More here.

‘Taxpayers are to pay for health service transgender treatment in Murcia to ensure the ‘full identity’ of people with their sexuality and prevent homophobic behaviour....’. says the Round Town News here.

‘Burglaries are on the increase around Spain so it helps to know what thieves are after to avoid offering an easy target...’. Found at Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight.

A history of the Basques in ten minutes on YouTube (en castellano).

That thing from April last year about hiding the new traffic rules behind a promise to allow certain stretches of motorway to be increased – as circumstances permitted – to a speed limit of 130kms. What happened to that?

See Spain:

Lonely Planet has included Extremadura as one of the top ten destinations in Europe, says Europa Press here. ‘...one of the least known parts of one of the best known countries in Europe’ and ‘the best Roman ruins in Spain at Mérida, plus the medieval joys of cities like Trujillo and Cáceres, which still haven’t been touched by the curse of mass tourism, and the spectacular natural concentration of birdlife and the beauty of the Monfragüe National Park’. The only other Spanish selection in the list is the west coast of Tenerife.

Common Spanish birds and how to recognise them (article and song recordings).

Letters

On the new rules for letting out one’s apartment.

Next the restaurant lobby will try to get supermarket shopping for food and cooking at home banned! How many properties won’t get sold if the potential buyers were relying on holiday-lets to cover part of their expenses? And isn't denying the letting of your house a breach of human rights? John.

Finally:

Rocío Jurado died ten years ago on June 1st. One of Spain’s great singers and known to her fans as ‘La Más Grande’, here she is with ‘Señora’.

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