Editorial:
It always seem to me strange that people, using old dusty stories, yearn to take your land, or your city, or your home… and make it theirs.
Historical examples abound, right enough – from Gibraltar to Palestine; from Comanche Territory to The Ukraine; from Belize to uh, Olivenza.
There’s always somebody waving an old document, or maybe a rusty key. My great-great-great grandfather used to live here and then the government threw us all out and now look, we want it back.
The Moors have claims to Córdoba, the Moroccans want Melilla and the 1,200,000 Miami Cubans are the cause of the sixty-six year old US blockade against Havana.
If they come in and take over, will they let me stay? Is there someone with a better claim to my farm because of an old deed, or a tradition of what’s written in someone’s Good Book?
The Moriscos lost their properties in Sixteenth Century Spain and were obliged to head off to North Africa – where none of them had ever been before.
The true gibraltareños living in San Roque, worrying all day long about getting their rock back.
Those who had to flee from their homes thanks to the Spanish Civil War, still living grumpily in France or Germany.
Refugees the world over: war, greed and politics.
Then, if that’s not bad enough, it must also be very trying for the folk who live in a house to know that the bank wants it – because of monetary considerations (the rent, the mortgage, the new tower block that someone plans to build on the same site).
But we were talking about Olivenza.
Olivenza, also known as Olivença, is, says Wiki ‘a town in south-western Spain, close to the Portugal–Spain border. It is a municipality belonging to the province of Badajoz, and to the wider autonomous community of Extremadura’. It was Portuguese for a long time, but it was ceded by treaty to Spain in 1801 following a squabble. Presumably the locally defeated Portuguese burghers have been talking of little else since then, Bless them, fingering their old iron padlocks and maybe a contract or two.
Maybe there’re a few well-oiled flintlocks in a chest somewhere in the attic held just in case. Two hundred and twenty years is but a moment in time, right?
And those 12,000 Spanish oliventinos who live there now? What to do with them – give them Portuguese identity cards and build a few flats? They’d rapidly become a nuisance.
See, Nuno Melo, the current Portuguese Minister of Defence (that’s to say: the man in charge of the Portuguese army) is now claiming Olivenza (or Olivença) for his country, because you know: the treaty/schmeaty.
For España for once, the shoe is on the other foot.
By the way, some idiot from the Vox party stole a breeze-block from Gibraltar in 2014 and it’s now taking pride of place in the foyer of that party’s head office in Madrid.
The Gibraltarians want it back.
Maybe the Portuguese could help…
Housing:
Item from The Weenie here: ‘Think Spain’s full of squatters? Think again. Despite the sensational headlines, squatting-known locally as ‘okupación’-is far less of a problem than many believe’.
‘Evidence emerges that politicians and political parties in Mallorca stirring up animosity towards foreign buyers and tourists have been happily selling property to foreigners themselves…’ From Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight here.
El Observador pulls no punches about the problems for residents in the old quarter of Málaga. ‘How to expel the neighbours from a neighbourhood with everyone's help. In the centre of Málaga they have suffered real-estate harassment, neglect and abandonment; they have endured noise from uncontrolled nightlife; and they suffer from the proliferation of tourist apartments…’ Blame for the situation appears to be on the mayor.
Tourism:
The Andalusian Councillor for Tourism anticipates that the tourist summer in the region will end as "the best in history". The period from January to July will end with revenues of almost 10,600 million euros (+5%) from international tourism’ says Málaga Hoy here.
From CNN here: ‘Authorities in the Spanish city of Málaga have posted billboards that aim to educate tourists on appropriate behaviour during their visit, including one that reminds them to wear clothes…’
The Guardian says that a ‘Third of people in Spain say local area has too many foreign tourists’. They also bring an exclusive report: ‘YouGov polling across Europe suggests most countries are sympathetic to protests against over-tourism’.
New rules for registering guests at hotels and other over-night stops means extra paperwork says the Confederación Española de Hoteles y Alojamientos Turísticos here.
Finance:
‘The Bank of Spain raises economic growth in 2024 by half a point to 2.8%. Since its June projections, the institution also adds three-tenths to 2025, up to 2.2%, and another two-tenths to 2026, up to 1.9%. In total, nearly 15,000 million more in one go for these three years’ says elDiario.es here.
Politics:
From El Huff Post here (Tuesday): ‘The Government will create a media registry and establish "limits" on institutional advertising. The Council of Ministers also approves reforming the law on official secrets, without giving further details, and modifications to the Penal Code to deal with crimes against freedom of expression, without specifying whether it will include those relating to insults against the Crown’. This is known as the Plan de regeneración democrática. The plan will be presented to the Cortes on a later, unspecified date for debate. ‘I hope’, says Sánchez, ‘that this will have the support of all the democrats in our country’. Or perhaps not. From 20Minutos here: ‘The PP says it won’t support any measure which affects the control of the communication media and stops them from reporting issues which are inconvenient to Sánchez’. In short, the idea is to look behind the curtains of the news-sites and to stop printing or repeating fabrications or bulos.
Despite the hoopla from the Partido Popular and its allies, ‘The European Union is avoiding recognizing the far-right Edmundo González (75 years old) as “president” of Venezuela, so as not to fall into the same trap as it did when it declared himself president of Venezuelan fugitive Juan Guaidó’ says La Iguana here. Well, so far, anyway
Indeed following his ‘recognition as the legal president of Venezuela’ in a vote steamrolled through Congress by the PP last week, the Venezuelan Government is in discussions in Caracas with its ambassador to Madrid – and it later arrested two Spaniards accused of being part of an assassination plot against Nicolas Maduro. The Spanish government has blamed the PP for the situation, saying that they won’t be swayed until they have seen the full summary of the votes in Caracas.
The opposition parties have long had an eye on Venezuela (without taking perhaps the same notice of other errant South American countries) since Pablo Iglesias was accused of being set up by the Venezuelan government in 2016, and even before – when a large number of wealthy (and no doubt conservative) Venezuelan exiles began to colonise Madrid.
The Andalusian president Juanma Moreno is looking for extra funding from the Government, despite, says El Huff Post in a critical article here, ‘…rejecting 112 million from the Government for building new nurseries’. Andalucía has stopped receiving 899 million euros annually due to tax reductions since 2019, says the news-site.
The Government lost a vote on Tuesday over controlling short-term tourist rentals when one of its junior partners – Junts per Catalunya – abruptly changed its support to the opposition.
‘The Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) estimates that Pedro Sánchez's PSOE is now farther ahead than Alberto Núñez Feijóo's PP. While in July the gap between the two was 2.7 percentage points, in September the Socialists' advantage over the Popular Party was increased to 4.5 points (33% v 28.5%), all in the midst of a controversy over the special financing for Catalonia and the migration crisis’. Item from 20Minutos here.
‘Immigration is the number one concern for voters in Spain, poll shows. According to the CIS, the topic has jumped unemployment to take the top spot. In June, just 11.2% of people surveyed named immigration as their biggest concern. In a poll in September, that figure has almost tripled to 30.4%’. The item comes from The Olive Press here.
Europe:
‘The future of European competitiveness: Report by Mario Draghi’ at EC web-site here.
From elDiario.es here: ‘Teresa Ribera, the current Minister of Ecological Transition for the Sánchez Government will be the Vice President of Green Transition and Competition of the European Commission, and she assumes one of the most sensitive portfolios in the midst of a struggle with the US and China over the green agenda, threatened by economic and political interests in recent years’. The new EU Commission, salve Teresa Ribera, will be further to the right than hitherto, says El País here, and will include 14 from the PPE (plus Van der Leyden), four socialists, five liberals and two ultras. The PP says its MEPs will (surprise!) vote against Teresa Ribera in her nomination. The Guardian also covers the subject here: ‘Spain’s deputy PM among six executive vice-presidents in Ursula von der Leyen’s next European Commission team’.
EU visitors to the UK will need to apply for the ‘Electronic Travel Authorisation’ (ETA) permit from next April 2025 says Murcia Today here.
Gordon Brown writing in The Guardian about the threat from the European far-right:
‘Of course, there are ways to frustrate the onward rush of right-wing populists. Not only did the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, defeat the right in national elections last year, but he has skilfully engineered a split between Spain’s centre-right People’s party (PP) and the far-right Vox over the fate of vulnerable child migrants. Until July the two were in coalition in five key regions: Valencia, Aragón, Murcia, Extremadura and Castilla y León. But it was not the centre-right PP that abandoned the extreme-right Vox; it was the extreme right that walked away from the centre right. And as long as the so-called moderates continue to play with fire – believing that by keeping their opponent close, they can eventually tame the beast – they will continue to lose. Sooner rather than later, the far-right poison will have to be countered with a progressive agenda focused on what matters to people most: jobs, standards of living, fairness and bridging the morally indefensible gap between rich and poor’.
Corruption:
Many of the councillors of a previous president of the Madrid Region from 2003 to 2012, Esperanza Aguirre (wiki), ended up being investigated for corruption, or worse, sent to jail. However, Aguirre, like the estimable and mysterious M.Rajoy, appears to be bulletproof. From Público here: ‘Esperanza Aguirre, the former leader of the PP who was surrounded by corruption but escaped all convictions. The 'Caso Gürtel', the 'Caso Lezo' and the 'Macrocausa Púnica' came under fire for the woman who was president of Madrid for nine years but in the end avoided sitting in the dock claiming to be unaware of the irregularities that surrounded her’. The latest from her cabinet to be jailed for corruption was her Councillor for Justice who has just been handed down seven years of prison. An overview from El País here: ‘PP officials have already accumulated more than 100 years in prison for corruption during Aguirre's leadership’. The editor of elDiario.es has something to say under the headline ‘Esperanza Aguirre, the matryoshka of corruption’. He writes – ‘In the entire history of Spanish democracy, it is difficult to find a more corrupt government, a more rotten organisation. The first vice-president, Ignacio González. The advisor to the Presidency and secretary general of the party, Francisco Granados. The deputy advisor to the Presidency, Ignacio López Viejo. The treasurer, Beltrán Gutiérrez… The complete list is even longer and the latest to be added is the second vice-president, Alfredo Prada, who this week was sentenced to seven years in prison…’ He further says that a judge (one of those judges) has somehow managed to completely whitewash her.
Courts:
From El Confidencial here (paywall): ‘The PSOE has been collecting supposedly sensitive information about members of the judiciary and the media in recent months to try to prove that the investigation into Begoña Gómez is part of a large-scale clandestine operation to oust Pedro Sánchez from La Moncloa and regain the political initiative for the rest of the legislature. According to sources from the Socialist Party, the party's Organisation Secretary is handling allegedly compromising data from Judge Juan Carlos Peinado, the instructor of the proceedings against the wife of the President of the Government; from the recently retired magistrate of the National Court Manuel García-Castellón, and from presenters and directors of La Sexta, among others…’
ABC breaks down the numbers of foreigners in Spanish jails. The largest group are the Moroccans (almost 30% of all foreign prisoners), followed by Romania and Columbia. Foreign prisoners make up 31.4% says the paper, quoting official figures, ‘…a reality that is completely different from what the Government wants to show’.
Media:
Atresmedia (Antena3 and LaSexta) is running a campaign against Dani Esteve, the far-right leader of Desokupa (a group of heavies who help remove those squatting in one’s building). This follows after Esteve threatened some of their reporters (‘we know where your kids go to school…’). Earlier items about Desokupa from the channel were much more favourable… The story with examples comes from Público here.
The okupa story in Spain is magnified to sell more security systems says Infobae.
A peculiar title from Spain Today here: ‘Diplomatic Crisis As Two Spaniards Caught Trying To Assassinate Venezuela President’.
Maldita says that the list of illnesses that would stop one from renewing one’s driving licence from next year is a bulo.
Ecology:
‘Spain is one of the European countries that wastes the most water: national supplies lose 30%’ through leakage and spills says 20minutos here.
‘From Doñana to Cabañeros: wild boars and deer ravage national parks. These animals threaten vulnerable species and the vegetation of some of the most protected ecosystems, where hunting is prohibited and alternatives are urgently sought’ says El Confidencial.
From Última Hora here: ‘The proliferation of houses on rural land increases the contamination of the Balearic Islands' aquifers. Until now, the incidence of nitrates was mainly attributed to agricultural activity’.
From EuroNews here: ‘Summer has increased by an average of 36 days across Spain over the last 50 years. Spain is slipping into a desert climate, according to a new study into the relationship between global heating and drought. The Mediterranean country is clearly on the frontlines of climate change in Europe. Now researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona have delved deeper into its climate vitals. By 2050, they predict that rainfall will decrease by up to 20 per cent compared to current levels. This would tip Spain from a temperate Mediterranean climate into a steppe- or even desert-like one…’
Various:
Some notes on Olivenza:
‘The treaty by which Spain may have to return a stolen town to Portugal’ says El Huff Post. A treaty signed in 1297 between the Kings of Castille and Portuga cedes Olivenza to the Portuguese. A second treaty, during the Napoleonic Wars, gives Olivenza back to Spain in 1801.
"The girls of Olivenza are not like the others, because they are daughters of Spain and granddaughters of Portugal," goes the popular song from Extremadura.
‘The Spanish town claimed by Portugal is considered by the CIA to be an area of international dispute’ says El Economista here.
‘The mayor of the town of Olivenza in Badajoz, Manuel José González Andrade, urges the Minister of National Defence of Portugal, Nuno Melo, to abandon "speeches that raise walls and cause divisions"’ says 20Minutos here.
‘Nobody in Olivenza wants to hear about its annexation to Portugal: "We are 'typical Spanish'"’ says El Confidencial here.
A list of territories claimed by Spain at 20Minutos here: Gibraltar, Isla Perejil, the Islas Salvajes and a few others…
The CIA has a full list of ‘International Disputes’ on its website here.
One wonders about the fate of the people who live in these places – you can’t nationalise them, or deport them, or shoot them… without somebody getting annoyed.
‘Real Madrid has cancelled or rescheduled all concerts at its Santiago Bernabéu stadium and is working to comply with council noise regulations after local people complained that a series of loud, late gigs had turned the arena into a “torture-drome”. Although best known as the home of one of Spain’s greatest football teams, the Bernabéu – which has just undergone a five-year, €900m refurbishment – has hosted a string of high-profile concerts over the spring and summer. Recent headliners have included Taylor Swift, Luis Miguel and the Colombian star Karol G…’ Item from The Guardian here.
From Murcia Today here: Spain considers lowering drink driving limits for all motorists. Drivers in Spain are “mature enough” to accept the changes, says the Minister of the Interior’. (who no doubt has a chauffeur).
From Up a Mountain in Spain here: ‘Se vende – or actually we could not care less if we sell or not!’ Stephanie writes from her home in Castellón: ‘Spain is saturated with “en vende” signs which seem to have taken on a life of their own. They come in all different forms; professionally printed, bought from a DIY store or just scrawled on whatever is to hand. For instance the crusty dried moss grey kind, complete with rusty blotches on warped wood. Then those just spray-painted across the crumbling facade of a house or wall. In contrast to the UK where it is always “For Sale”, they might also be called “se vende”, “es ven” or whatever else, depending on the Spanish idiom used…’
Karethe brings us ‘The Big Parasol War of 2024’ at Eye on Spain here.
Letters:
Talking about last week’s editorial about statistics, here’s an interesting video in Spanish called ‘Data doesn't lie, but you can lie with data’.
Finally:
After 17 years, Manu Chau has produced a new album called Viva Tu. Here’s a song from the album with Manu and Laeti called Tu Te Vas (on YouTube).
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