Business Over Tapas (Nº 186)

Editorial

Another report tells of newspapers losing circulation to the Internet. This time, the story comes from El Observador and looks at the Málaga titles: The Diario Sur for example – it’s the provincial leader – fell in one year from 18,645 to 17,578. Back in 2000, they were selling over 50,000 copies daily. Almost all newspapers are reporting similar results, and the falling revenue that goes with them, and they are thus open to any change they can find – from exchanging institutional advertising for political or commercial compliance, to erecting ‘pay walls’ on their Internet versions, to fighting aggregators (the Google Tax), making efforts to limit ‘free news-sheets’ and other competitors, plus enjoying free promotion on the national TV news and in airplanes together with a range of give-away gimmicks (free magazines, sports papers, toys, tickets, tee shirts and even watches).

But, after all, as the ABC reminds us, they do have reporters. These days, as many readers chose the sites they wish to visit – sites which sometimes coincide with their preconceptions – there is more need than ever for a believable and honest Fourth Estate, reporting news as it happens.

We know of comic sites which spread humour mixed with a kernel of truth (let’s say Le Canard Enchaîné or Private Eye), others that spread gossip and manipulations (Breitbart is one) and others with a flat political bent through which all of their reporting must pass (Fox News might be a good example). We see or are sent many of their smaller cousins on Facebook and by e-mail. A useful site called Snopes filters through the worst inventions. Indeed Facebook and Google are working on reducing commercial opportunity for those ‘fake news sites’ as El Mundo puts it.

A Spanish cyber news-site called OK Diario is currently in trouble for what appears to be nothing less than politically motivated ‘inventions’. It won’t be the last.

In short, don’t believe all you read. Which takes us back to the daily newspaper. It’s worth reading the news and balancing and contrasting the stories and the opinion pieces therein.

Like we do at Business over Tapas.

(No reflection on the Diario Sur, by the way: the only daily Spanish newspaper to run a free weekly edition in English: The Sur in English)

Housing:

From Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight: ‘Spaniards buying more holiday-homes on the coast, reports developer’ (Headline).

Of use to home-buyers, Mark Stücklin posts ‘Buying Property in Spain – Ten Reasons to Hire a Lawyer’ here.

An ex-employee from the town hall of Zurgena (Almería) has been found guilty for allowing 94 houses to be built in non-buildable land in an area called Lemon Tree Island Botanic Resort in Los Cabreras (sic). The accused has been sentenced to three and a half years of disqualification for public office and a fine of 360 euros. The unfortunate owners of these illegal homes – without water or electric and under threat of demolition, appear not to have got off so lightly. More at Ideal. The property owners group AUAN in a press release says ‘...“it is a scandal if the law allows that purchasers in good faith could lose some nine million euros of their investment in an urbanization that turned out to be illegal and now the law says that the administration is the victim” For Maura Hillen this situation, “sends a message that the principles of responsibility and good governance have no place in public administration and another message; that nobody with the least bit of common sense should invest in an urbanization off-plan in Spain because there is no accountability”...’.

There was a time in the Valencian Region when an optimistic developer could collect together 51% of an area (whether his, or whether the local land-owners) and present a project called a programa de actuación integrada to urbanise the whole thing, with the costs and obligations shared between all the land-owners, willing or otherwise. This was known popularly by the foreigners as a ‘land grab’. Circumstances and a new political will in Valencia are finally putting an end to this unwholesome practice, says El Confidenciál here. Nevertheless, there remain about a thousand PAIs which have never been completed, or remain in litigation. A comment from someone closely involved with the land grab issues tells BoT that ‘The current coalition government in Valencia has changed course, much for the better at least for the small property owners, if not the construction industry or the land developers and/or promoters rackets that were so commonplace’.

Finance:

Headline from El País in English: ‘Spain unblocks €40 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The decision, delayed over fears weapons would be used in Yemen, comes on eve of royal visit’. An excerpt: ‘Saudi Arabia is one of the Spanish military industry’s top clients. In 2015, it purchased equipment worth €546 million’. Indeed, as El Español says, ‘Spain has sold 1,245 million euros in armaments to Saudi Arabia in the last three years’.

‘Economy Minister Luis de Guindos obeys Brussels and rushes to privatize Bankia after having rescued it with billions of euros of public money’: headline at Post Digital, which says ‘...the re-privatization of Bankia, nationalized in 2012, began in 2014 with the sale of 7.5% of the shares of the entity, leaving the State still in possession of 64.2%. i.e, public shares. Now, once sanitized and following the orders of Brussels, Spain must sell off the rest of the entity before the end of 2017, and the other publicly-owned bank – Banco Mare Nostrum – by the first quarter of 2018’.

‘The wages of the 10% of the Spanish population that earn the least (an average of 375 euros a month) fell by almost 28 percent between 2008 and 2014, according to a report from Oxfam Intermon, presented earlier this month under the title 'Wages fall, inequality grows: the impact of wage differentials on households'. The study shows that the 30% of the population that earns the least lost more than 18% of their purchasing power, which, according to Oxfam Intermon, meant that 60 percent of working people saw their payroll fall by 10 percent, while the top wages (€ 5,628 on average per month) have increased...’. Report at Yo Me Tiro Al Monte.

‘Spain’s Most Urgent Problem: Pension System About To Go Bankrupt. There is a lot of talk at the moment about Spanish pensions. But, it would appear, not enough. At least it is by no means clear that public opinion and voters are very aware of what is about to land on top of them: that in 2017 the pension piggy bank will be empty. And what will happen then?...’. From The Corner here.

What pension can I expect from la Seguridad Social when I retire? Expansión reveals all.

Rajoy needs to raise an extra 7,700 million euros in 2017. What taxes can he profitably raise to meet this figure? There can be little less to trim, so, to follow the diktat from the European Commission, the Government must look at new taxes. Perhaps by raising petrol taxes, or removing some items on the ‘reduced IVA’ list (some foods, bars and restaurant prices, health and transport) and pulling them up to the full 21%. At any rate, a raise in IVA above 21% is not on the drawing-board, says Economía Digital here.

Politics:

The Partido Popular is to hold its national congress in Madrid between the 10th and 12th of February. Mariano Rajoy says that ‘corruption within the party must be relegated to the past’. El País has more here. The policies of ‘adjustments’ will continue for the next four years, ‘since they are working’, says Público, referring to remarks by Rajoy regarding the economy.

Felipe Gonzalez is throwing his weight behind Susana Díaz as candidate for the leadership of the PSOE, who plan to hold their congress in the spring. More at El Boletín here.

Teresa Rodríguez, leader of Podemos Andalucía, has sent a letter to the head of the party Pablo Iglesias, saying that they will now be an ‘autonomous group’ within the party. This means the group will now have its own funding mechanism. More at El Mundo here.

‘The Podemos national leadership announced last week that pending the outcome of an investigation into corruption allegations it was suspending the party membership of three regional Podemos legislators, including Maria Consuelo “Xelo” Huertas, the president of the Balearic Islands regional assembly. ... This has thrown the three-party government led by Francina Armengol of the PSOE into conflict. The story can be found in detail at Progressive Spain here.

El País in English runs an article of opinion called ‘From Trump to Podemos, What Exactly is Populism?’ We look forward to seeing another article called ‘Media manipulation in the Popular Press’ (maybe another time...)

An archive of PSOE screw-ups and betrayals down the years is available here.

Corruption:

‘The ex-minister of the PSOE and former president of the European Parliament Josep Borrell has reported that he has been the victim of an internet scam for which he has lost an investment of 150,000 euros, Efe confirmed a report from police sources after the story was published by El Confidencial (here). The scam, which began in 2015 with an initial investment of 50,000 euros, came through a fake trading office that, after a year of allegedly managing the savings of the socialist leader, disappeared without a trace...’. From El País here. The company concerned, based apparently in the UK, was/is called ConsortFX.

‘The riches amassed by Juan Antonio Roca during his dodgy dealings in office tot up to a small fortune worthy of America’s super-rich family. And now everything must go – the vast portfolio of palatial properties, the Mercedes cars, boats and thoroughbred horses, the prestige watches, the armoury of guns and even the Picasso. Marbella’s discredited ex-town planning advisor, who has been languishing in jail for more than 10 years, has been forced to sell off his assets to pay his fines and civil liability responsibilities...’. The Olive Press has the story here.

Catalonia:

Headline from El País in English: ‘New Spanish ministers disappoint the Catalan government. Regional premier Carles Puigdemont insists that an independence referendum should be called’.

‘80,000 Catalans gather to back pro-independence leaders. Around 80,000 people rallied in Barcelona on Sunday in a show of support for Catalan leaders locked in a tug-of-war with Madrid over independence for their region, police said. The demonstration aimed in particular at supporting Catalonia's former president, Artur Mas, and the head of its parliament, Carme Forcadell...’. Story at The Local.

The Catalonian Government is (after all) quite prepared to promote bilingualism among public employees – but only in ‘Cataluña norte’, or ‘France’ as we prefer to call it. The story is at El Español here.

Courts:

‘The United Nations Human Rights Committee has asked Spain to respond to the complaint lodged by Baltasar Garzón, an ex-magistrate of the National Court, through the law firm ‘Rights in Practice’ directed by Helen Duffy, alleging the arbitrary nature of a series of investigations and criminal prosecutions brought against the judge that led to his disqualification...’. Story at Periodistas en Español here.

Brexit:

The Spanish think tank ElCano Royal Institute has published an article (in English) about the recent high court judgement over the Brexit and the power of the British parliament called ‘Brexit: a sentence that does not change (excessively) the horizon’. An excerpt: ‘...If (parliamentarians) demonstrate against the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU, a strengthening of May’s leadership and her choice of a “harsh” exit from the EU can be expected. In that case, May would be tempted to look for an electoral exit. Polls point to a crushing victory of the Tories, with very weak Labour supporters, a UKIP going through an existential leadership crisis and Liberal Democrats that are not there and are not expected to be. In this moment, Theresa May has no rival overshadowing her...’.

‘British tourists may soon be forced to pay £10 to travel to mainland Europe as part of a European Commission effort to boost security. The European Commission is discussing bringing in a system of electronic travel authorization, similar to the US ESTA, for Britons travelling to Europe. Under the new plans, vacationing Brits would not have to get a full-fledged visa, but would need to pay to register their travel online before entering any of the 26 countries in the passport-free Schengen zone...’. From the not always reliable RT here.

Media:

Business over Tapas is taking a break until December 15th, but there will still be posts on the Facebook page here. Why not visit (and press ‘Like’)?

Economics:

Brexit, the US, and Europe

by Andrew Brociner

The recent events in Europe, with the UK referendum vote, and the emergence of the far right sweeping across European countries, are part of a movement which have now also continued in the US. The victory of an improbable outsider with zero experience is a reflection of disgruntlement with the establishment, and its complacent, self-serving favouritism, but one has to question which direction this change is taking. There are other alternatives, which also represent anti-establishment across the political spectrum – Bernie Sanders was one such – but the choice made presents huge questions about what we do not know and very preoccupying concerns about what we do.

There are striking similarities between the US elections and the UK referendum. Both winning campaigns focused on immigration, with their leaders portraying themselves as the underdog against the establishment. The parallels too are striking among the types of voters these campaigns appealed to. In both cases the winning outcome got the white, older, and less educated vote, while the younger, minority and more educated voter tended to go with both Clinton in the US and Remain in the UK. This type of campaign polarizes opinions and divides people, incited by racist rhetoric. The UK referendum not only saw differences across the countries of England, Scotland and Ireland, but a division within, and the same thing is happening in the US, with great differences of opinion across the country.

One of the results is that there has been a rise in hate crimes recently. The Home Office reported a sharp increase of 41% in racial and religious abuse in the month following the UK referendum in June, with an abatement thereafter, but still at a higher level than that seen before the vote. The same thing is happening in the US, after electing a President with anti-immigration and protectionist tendencies, with numerous incidents reported in different parts of the country. Some people feel emboldened by the election results to make racist comments or take intimidatory action empowered by a certain sense of impunity and taking the example of their leader. This type of hate-mongering and incitement represents the direction taken towards a growing intolerance and ignorance, a direction which presumably people with the slightest good sense would know is for the worst.

The US election results were widely welcomed by the far right-wing parties in Europe. The FN in France, with its anti-immigration and anti-European stance, now feels that there is more of an acceptance of its policies and that it even has a chance of winning the general election in April next year. And far right parties in other European countries with elections coming up, including Austria and Germany, also now see a growing chance of either winning or garnering more of the vote.

The world would be a far different place if we continue to move in this direction. The various attempts at cooperation in the aftermath of WWII, to live in a more peaceful manner, are being threatened. That people are disappointed with the economy, with the establishment and with their leaders is legitimate, but using arguments of immigration and the like are convenient scapegoats for change in other areas, and fomenting intolerance and dismantling frameworks for peaceful dialogue is only replacing the status quo with something worse.

Various:

From The Register: ‘Spain's Prime Minister wants to ban internet memes. No, really

So you won’t be able to, you know, mock Mariano Rajoy…’. More on the ‘meme’ story: ‘Spain’s ruling party has presented a reform proposal aimed at banning internet memes which appear to mock politicians. Lawmakers from the Popular Party (PP) announced the measures to halt the “spreading of images that infringe the honour of a person” and presented a motion to the national Congress. The party claimed the reform will only involve memes which are “insulting, involve death threats or accuse a person of committing a crime”...’. From The Independent. In reality, the proposal is merely a ploy to discuss the subject in parliamentary time, but without proposing a law, explains Hipertextual, taking the wind out of our sails somewhat...

‘Brussels warns of low investment in education in Spain. It is the second country of the European Union, only behind Romania, that had less public spending dedicated to education in 2014...’. Report at El Periódico here.

‘Local linguist examines influence of Llanito and English on La Linea spoken speech.

Maria Ortega Amusco's new study follows Tito Vallejo's groundbreaking work. The cross-border ties between Gibraltar and La Linea have always been strong, shaping the very vocabulary spoken in the neighbouring towns...’. From The Olive Press.

See Spain:

Spain’s best Parador Hotel, according to the customers, is the Parador de Cangas de Onís in Asturias. Find the Top Ten at El Huff Post here.

The last Oasis in Western Europe is under threat of extinction. ‘Every drop counts – a story about the Río de Aguas’. Video at YouTube here.

Letters

Dear Lenox, With suggestions of an early General Election, Harry Shindler MBE, the veteran campaigner for expat citizen voting rights, is travelling to London later this month to meet with MP Chris Skidmore.

This is no mean feat for Harry at the age of 95, but it goes to show his dedication to securing voting rights for all citizens who have lived in the EU for more than 15 years. Harry lives in Italy and is a member of the ECREU team.

Mr Skidmore is Parliamentary Secretary (Minister for the Constitution). His responsibilities include constitution policy and democracy.

Please help Harry by writing to Mr Skidmore in support of his efforts. You will find more information and contact details on our Facebook page and on the ECREU homepage from this link: goo.gl/sMPP3X

The ECREU team.

Finally:

Here’s Formula V with ‘Vacaciones de Verano’…