Wednesday, 12 February 2025

BoT 570

 

Business over Tapas

A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners:

Prepared by Lenox Napier.  Consultant: José Antonio Sierra

For subscriptions and other information about this site, go to businessovertapas.com

email:  lenox@businessovertapas.com

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Business over Tapas and its writers are not responsible for unauthorised copying or other improper use of this material.

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February 13 2025            Nº 570

 

(Links are in grey for some reason)


 

Opinion:

 

In the bad old days, the village postman wasn’t much good with foreign names (although he liked to collect stamps, and would often remove them with a certain amount of bureaucratic relish from the corner of the envelope). It was no big deal: in those times, the twenty pound notes tenderly send by my dad’s sister would be folded deep inside within a sheet of carbon paper to fool the early X-Ray machines in Madrid.

I’d be sent to Old Martín with instruction to collect all the foreigners’ letters – at least those of the foreigners who were sat in the village square, drinking and gossiping.

It’s not as bad as it sounds.

The correos opened in those day at the reasonable hour of 3.00pm.

Anyone who wasn’t in the square drinking naturally risked losing his twenty quid.

(To explain: In the late sixties, the British only allowed one to take out fifty, later sixty, pounds a year on holiday, so we would all head to Gibraltar for a top-up until General Franco closed the border.)

It’s a far cry from today. Now we don’t know each other – there’re too many of us – and the post office wouldn’t give out the mail to some spotty foreign kid anyway. Now, it’s either delivered by a person dressed in a yellow uniform driving an equally buff-coloured three-wheel motorcycle, or its placed in a tin post-box and you come along during opening hours to see what – if anything – is new.

As for the folded twenty pound notes, now the British Government lets you take abroad as much as you like: to spend freely on rounds of brandy, weekends in a Parador or buying a second hand car with no MOT and the steering wheel on the wrong end of the dashboard.

Before they took to delivering the mail, I too had a post box: un apartado. Nº 35 it was. Then they started charging a heavy sum for its rental, insisted that each person who used the PO Box would have to pay separately for the same number, and they introduced (free) house deliveries anyway.

It was an easy call, although any letters which later arrived at my Nº 35 were solemnly returned to sender, unread.

I’m sure that as the result of the Person Unknown stamp on the repatriated item, the editors of my old school magazine were convinced that I had precipitously joined the list of ‘the dearly departed’.

Which, on the bright side, saved me continuing with my modest annual subscription.

The world moved on, and someone invented emails, which took the wind out of the sails of the Spanish postal system. Then along came DHL and their parcel-totting competitors, plus those fellows who whizz through the city traffic on their bicycles with an urgent message stuffed down their Velcro pouch.

The post office was on the ropes.

So it invented in own high-speed parcel delivery system, operated as a bank for a while, started to sell books by right-wing authors (have a look next time), sent and received money abroad, sold stickers, lottery coupons and magazines and generally moved, as they say, forward.

The postage stamps were another change. Instead of a stamp which one could lick and affix, the new ones have peel-off backs. Or, and more usually, they print out an inelegant sticky strip with numbers and bar-codes, and press it onto your envelope – as often as not hiding part of the first line of the address.

So today, I went to post a letter to foreign parts and said that I wanted a stamp rather than an adhesive label, if it was all the same to them.

There was a fuss, but eventually the clerk played ball and found two stamps. The first had a peel-off back, the second did not. It has to be glued on, she said, as – not finding the glue-stick – she sellotaped it onto the envelope.

But let me leave on a positive note.

I always used to joke that when I grew up, they would put me on a postage stamp. Now, it appears, you can take along a photo to the correos and they will run you up a set of 24 street-legal stamps, with a sticky back, and bearing your smiling image.

I think I could have some fun with that.    

...

Housing:

There are between 350,000 and 400,000 tourist apartments (available on the Internet) in Spain. DataDista brings you the breakdown by municipality (Mojácar, for example, has 812 of them – around 10% of the total number of homes).

El Mundo brings us an interview with Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago, the CEO of Airbnb: ‘"I am concerned that Sánchez criticises us and ignores the housing problems that are his responsibility". The head of the platform, which has been singled out by all administrations for uncontrolled expansion of tourist apartments, warns that the Spanish regulation in this sector is "broadly worded"’. One Q&A: ‘Does the almost 400,000 tourist apartments operating in Spain, according to the INE, seem like a reasonable figure to you?’ Rodriguez de Santiago answers: ‘Yes, quite reasonable’.

‘Two million tourists went "missing" in the Balearics in 2024. They didn´t stay in holiday apartments or hotels’ The Majorca Daily Bulletin answers with: ‘So where did they stay? One of the reasons put forward is that they all stayed with friends but hoteliers suspect that they rented illegal holiday apartments and villas. These means that an estimated two million tourists didn´t pay the tourist tax, the controversial holiday surcharge. What is more, an estimated one million tourists stayed in their own homes and therefore they didn´t pay the surcharge either…’ From the same source: ‘Tourist overcrowding: 7,000 apartments being rented out illegally in the Balearics. The so-called illegal offer has been blamed for tourist overcrowding’.

Hacienda will tax (or fine) those who own a second home (or more) which they aren’t using as a permanent residence says El Cronista here.

‘Salto de Castro, the abandoned town in Zamora that has been bought by a US businessman: “His intention is to build a rural tourist complex”. The town, built by Iberdrola in the 1940s for the workers of the Castro dam, has been sold for more than 300,000 euros’. Infobae has the story here.

A commercial presentation from Investropa here: ‘Seventeen tips for foreigners buying property in Spain in 2025’.

Idealista has ‘Ten mistakes landlords make when renting out a property. If you're thinking of renting out your property, knowing these ten questions can save you numerous problems in the long term’.

Murcia: ‘Spain's Florida or a Land of Broken Dreams?’ A YouTube video (with subtitles in Spanish). ‘This video looks at the history of the Residential Tourism Property industry in the region of Murcia. It starts by explaining the history of the industry, from the 1960’s through to the credit crunch and collapse of the market in the late 2000’s paying special attention to the developer ‘Polaris World’…’ (Thanks to Jake)

An article at Infobae warns against the negatives about moving to Spain for American retirees. These include the ‘…high economic requirements to obtain residency and what many perceive as a complex bureaucracy’.

...

Tourism:

Are too many tourists a good thing?

From Enrique Dans here: ‘An open letter to the Spanish tourist board’ (in English).

From The Express (January 15) here: ‘Huge blow to anti-tourism protesters as Spain braces for another record-year for visitors. Spain is preparing for even more tourists flocking to the country in 2025 after a record-breaking year, despite tens of thousands of people taking to the streets to protest against over-tourism last year’.

‘Málaga is approaching its limit and acknowledges tourist saturation for the first time. A municipal document highlights the negative consequences for the city of mass tourism and the City Council plans to create seven routes beyond the historic centre to distribute visitors’ says El País (paywall) here.

From TTW here: ‘2025 new travel rules: Europe, UK and global airports bring new ETIAS, APD Hikes, and cruise travel changes’.

...

Finance:

The minimum wage (SMI) goes up to 1,184 euros gross per month (in Spain, you get fourteen payments per year). Unfortunately, this makes those workers liable for income tax.

From The Portugal Resident here: ‘Iberian miracle amazes Europe: Spain and Portugal become engine of euro-zone economy. But economists warn it’s not enough, on its own, to avoid recession. The Spanish newspaper El Economista has described the “Iberian miracle” which has saved Europe from recession… so far.

With the economies of France and Germany in the doldrums, Spain and Portugal were responsible for 50% of the euro-zone’s growth in the last quarter. It’s a surprise that is intriguing economists. But according to investment bank JP Morgan, the dynamic is not sustainable: unless Germany and France start recovering, Europe is heading for recession. “Probably never before has the Iberian Peninsula been so important in keeping the euro economy afloat”, it says…’

From the BBC News here: ‘How Spain's economy became the envy of Europe’, with a report from Guy Hedgecoe. We read: ‘…"The Spanish model is successful because it is a balanced model, and this is what guarantees the sustainability of growth," says Carlos Cuerpo, the business minister in the Socialist-led coalition government. He points out that Spain was responsible for 40% of euro-zone growth last year. Although he underlined the importance of tourism, Mr Cuerpo also pointed to financial services, technology, and investment as factors which have helped Spain bounce back from the depths of the pandemic, when GDP shrank by 11% in one year…’ From The Express here: ‘Spain’s economy is booming as the UK and the rest of Europe watches with envy. Spain attracted one of the highest numbers of international tourists last year, and its economic growth has left the UK and the rest of Europe in the dust’.

The Banco Santander reports profit of 12,574 million (+14%) in 2024 says The Corner.

From elDiario.es here: ‘Big money is losing its desire to appear green. A battery of companies, banks and investment funds are abandoning their climate commitments, justified by a mixture of a political environment contrary to sustainability, desires for greater profitability and a lack of negative consequences when eliminating them’.

How much money can you give to a family member without paying taxes? Infobae has the limits on undeclared transfers here. According to current regulations in Spain, transfers involving a donation over 6,000€ must be declared for examination by Hacienda (with 10,000€ and above having automatic tax implications).

‘¡Gracias amigos! Britain spends five billion (5,000 million) on Spanish fruit and vegetables’ says the Majorca Daily Bulletin here. 

...

Politics:

The vote for the increase in pensions, public transport subsidies and aid for the DANA victims in Valencia finally went through on Wednesday (with some minor changes: this was the second time around), with first the Junts and later the Partido Popular agreeing to switch and support the passage. Vox alone continued to vote against the ‘ómnibus’ decree.

‘Pedro Sánchez announces that he will be firm and take the appropriate measures in response to Trump's trade war. The President of the Government presents the National Food Strategy and urges Europe to "show unity to respond to any eventuality"’. El Mundo has the story here. ‘Vox justifies Trump's tariffs and the PP downplays them despite the impact on Spain’ says Público here.

There was a meeting this past Saturday of Europe’s far-right leaders in Madrid. From Politico here: ‘Europe’s far-right leaders huddled in Madrid on Saturday as a show of force following Donald Trump’s re-election. On the menu? Scrapping green policy, battling Islam, taking down Brussels EU governance, migration, opposing gender and family diversity, and fighting “population replacement”’.

Sky News has ‘Trump-style victory the aim for Europe's far-right as leaders praise US president at Madrid conference.  Mr Trump's victory had "changed the world in just a few weeks," said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a rally where other speakers condemned illegal immigration, leftists, migrant rescue NGOs, and "wokeism" to the delight of 2,000 flag-waving supporters’.

El Huff Post says ‘The event of the European Patriots alliance, chaired by Santiago Abascal in the capital of Spain, consisted of countless compliments and displays of recognition for the American president, attacks on "socialism, progressivism or environmentalism" and a clear message: "Make Europe Great Again"’.

The Government is working on reducing the 40 hour week to 37.5. Directo al Paladar weighs in: ‘All the problems that hoteliers believe are caused by waiters working 2.5 hours less per week. The hotel and restaurant employers' association estimates losses in the millions, problems finding workers and price increases’.

…...

Europe:

While the European governments are adamant against the plan to turn Gaza into a Riviera, Spain’s Vox sees Trump's proposal for Gaza as "reasonable": "The first signs of his policy in the area are good", they say.

El Mundo reports that ‘China and EU move closer to cooperate in the face of Trump's threats: "Beijing and Brussels need each other". The US president's tariff threats have improved the perception of the always complex relations with the Asian giant in the eyes of the Twenty-Seven’.

An interesting video on YouTube here: ‘Why Spain is Trump's biggest enemy in Europe’.

...

Corruption:

The Government is about to finally ban those irritating commercial calls made with mobile phone numbers. I often get one – usually silent – until I say ¿Qué?, and then they ring off.

‘The Twitter and TikTok troll-farm that spreads hatred against the AEMET (Government weather bureau) and tries to make you oppose science: this is called the “fine rain” strategy. How to stop the advance of conspiracy theorists and denialists on social media? Experts are clear: you can only prevent, not cure’. An item from Infobae here.

A notification apparently from Endesa could be a scam to find your banking details says 20Minutos. Always check from where the email comes from (Zimbabwe in this case!).

The brother of Pedro Sánchez, who has a modest role leading a musical department in the provincial government of Badajoz, is another target of both the courts and the far-right crusaders at Manos Limpias. David Sánchez Pérez-Castejón has now thrown in the towel and quit his job says El Mundo Deportivo. 

‘The Supreme Court upholds the corruption trial on former Junts president and Catalan Parlament speaker. Laura Borràs faces 4.5 years for splitting IT contracts to avoid public tenders’ says Catalan News here.  

An email out of the blue from someone I don’t know. He says how are you doing, I say fine, he says ‘I am sorry for bothering you with this mail, I need you to get an Apple gift card for my niece, it's her birthday today and I promised to get it for her, but I can't do this now because I'm in the hospital. I have Arthritis in the knee and ankle and all my effort purchasing it online proved abortive. Can you get it online or from any shop around you for me? I'll reimburse you when I am back home’. I say: please don’t try and scam me, Brother.

...

Various:

The CIS pollsters report that almost half of Spain’s police and military forces vote for far-right parties. According to this compilation, 33% of the members of this sector opt for Vox, while 14% like Alvise Pérez's Se Acabó la Fiesta. NacioDigital (in Catalán) has the breakdown of votes by career.

The 21-storey Hotel Algarrobico outside Carboneras (Almería), blocked in 2006 just as the builders were putting on the final touches, is to be expropriated and demolished, says the Government – probably this summer. The cost of this demolition would probably be enough to provide for a new hospital somewhere, but there you go. Returning the land: rock, scree and shrub, is more important. Will it look like it did 25 years ago: another two hundred metres of empty national park? Probably not. From elDiario.es, we read that there are a lot of other hulks, ruins and illegal buildings all over Spain (we can think of a few nearby). One day, they’ll be removed, perhaps. Here, we read about the murky background of the promoter of the ill-fated Carboneras hotel.

Only a Brit newspaper could ask – ‘Are British tourists really to blame for Spain’s housing crisis? Spain’s housing boom began in the 1960s’. Headline at The Independent here.

Sur in English says that ‘Spain's Directorate-General for Traffic (DGT) has stated that it will further reduce alcohol limits for driving in 2025 – by three fifths! Fine and dandy if you live in the city, with a bar downstairs to visit, but a bother if your nearest place is a twenty minute walk (and perhaps a trifle longer returning home).

‘King Felipe slams Donald Trump for removing Spanish language from the White House website and its social media postings’ says The Olive Press here.

Which are the most popular new cars in Spain? El Órden Mundial says that more Dacia Sanderos were sold in 2024 – with almost 33,000 – than the next most popular cars, the Toyota Corolla and the Seat Ibiza (both at 22,000).

From El País in English here: ‘The recovered newsreels that recounted the Spanish Civil War in the US: ‘A nation divided threatens to destroy itself’. A foundation is digitizing the nearly 300 films that the Hearst Corporation recorded during the conflict and were shown at the time in American movie theatres’. Find some of them at News Reels here. Later, here’s one I found on YouTube – Toledo scenes of the Civil War in 1936 (silent).

Eye on Spain has ‘The Knights Templar in Spain: Following the Trail of a Secret Order’.

...

See Spain:

From El Confidencial here: ‘The unknown Romanesque jewel guarded by thirteen residents: a treasure recognised by National Geographic. This little-known corner of Guadalajara shelters an architectural treasure that has captivated lovers of medieval art. Carabias, a district of Sigüenza, is home to the church of San Salvador, a 13th century temple’.

The seven wonders of Ronda (Málaga), with España Fascinante here.

...

Finally:

Ricky Martin – Livin’ la Vida Loca on YouTube here.

 

 

Friday, 10 June 2022

Did We Just Lose Our Vote?


There's a big fuss going on in expat circles (or at least, there should be) about a news item saying that the European Court of Justice has ruled on a case in France regarding the remaining voting rights of the British residents living in the EU.

The ECJ ruled on Thursday that the British, being non EU-members following Brexit, have no voting rights within the block.

In Spain, there are some bilateral agreements allowing votes in municipal elections for a number of countries. These include several Latin American states (but not all), plus Norway, New Zealand, South Korea and - for some impenetrable reason - Trinidad & Tobago. 

With Brexit, the Brits lost their vote in the European elections (not that any continental MEP was going to speak for the 800,000 or so Brits living in Europe), but, we were assured, we would not only keep our vote in local ('municipal') elections, but would be able to continue to run as a candidate. 

Indeed, despite the fact that most foreign residents don't tune in to their local municipality, there are a modest number of foreign and even a few Brit councillors here and there in Spain. 

Now it would appear, if the ECJ authority takes precedence over any bilateral arrangement, that all non-EU foreigners - not just Brits - would lose whatever modest suffrage that they had enjoyed since 1999 (the first municipal elections in Spain where foreign EU citizens, including Brits, could vote).

The problem is obvious. If the town hall must choose discrepancies or squabbles between voters and non-voters, it's clear which way they will go. Why waste time on people who can't vote for you - or indeed, against you?

The question is whether this is a storm in a tea-cup, or the future European policy. 

The next local elections will be held in May 2023. We need to know: will we have the vote. 

One Spanish friend wrote - give us back Gibraltar, and we'll let you keep your ballot-paper. Ah, if only it were that simple.

Monday, 6 June 2022

Useful News about Spain, in English...

 I've been writing Business over Tapas for about ten years now. 

I'll continue to do so as long as I enjoy reading the newspapers and reporting on what's going on in Spain.

The English-language reporting here is awful, frankly. Much of it is not even about Spain, but leans towards pro-Brexit poppycock, puzzles, TV listings (Brit TV naturally), or fuzzy articles about cats or British galas. 

They remind one of the on-board news distributed on cruise-ships. 

No wonder we call ourselves ex-pats. Most of us don't even know the name of the Spanish president.

News about Spain should be the news that affects us as foreigners, whether investing or living here. 

For those who wish to learn about the politics, the history, the geography, the culture, the language, the gastronomy and the key issues, BoT is the solution - and there are no adverts, no corporate owners, no lies, no fake recommendations and no fluff.

Thus, if anyone wants to read Business over Tapas, then ask me nicely...

Wednesday, 1 June 2022

BoT 448

 

Business over Tapas

A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners:

Prepared by Lenox Napier.  Consultant: José Antonio Sierra

For subscriptions and other information about this site, go to businessovertapas.com

email:  lenox@businessovertapas.com

***Now with Facebook Page (Like!)***

Note: Underlined words or phrases are links to the Internet.

Business over Tapas and its writers are not responsible for unauthorised copying or other improper use of this material.

Subscription and e-mail information in our archives is never released to third parties.

 

 

June 2 2022            Nº 448

 

 

Editorial:

 

The summer hols are upon us. We shall pack our bags (or our hand-luggage if we are travelling with one of the cheapies) and jet away to somewhere warm, where we shall get drunk, have a brief romance, buy a souvenir, punch someone and be sick in a flowerbed. Perhaps we shall look wistfully at a property if there’s a rainy day, or discover to our surprise that the holiday business has become an industry.

Spain is no exception.

Ludicrous newspapers like The Express are always full of stories about why readers shouldn’t be holidaying here for one reason or another: whether it’s a limit to six drinks a day in the all-inclusive hotel, the ignominy of having to queue in the Non-EU line at the airport or the bar-staff that can’t understand you when you ask for a bacon sarnie.

The Spanish probably couldn’t care less what The Express thinks, short of a few small hoteliers who are worried that anyone is going to change their mind because of some inflammatory article about Etias visas and decide to stay this year for two weeks in Southend instead.

Meanwhile, Easyjet and other airlines cancel large numbers of flights from the UK for some reason or other. More queues, more anger, less time around the pool.

There are several issues of slightly more weight that worry the Brit tourist, such as the 90 / 180 day deal in the Schengen Zone, and the agony of whether a resident can use a British driving licence (both subjects sublimely ignoring the self-inflicted punch of Brexit).

Some of Spain’s destinations are crashing out of the tourist stakes – such as La Manga, which overlooks the Mar Menor: now a dying lagoon. Under extreme threat too from illegal wells from the strawberry growers is El Parque Nacional de Doñana in Cádiz.

So, tourism changes: it diversifies and it evolves. Now we read that the second kind of tourism, what might be called city-visitors – is facing a crisis as China considers halting all Chinese holidays abroad. They may not be much for bucket and spade tourism, but they do appreciate a flying visit to Madrid, Granada and Barcelona to see the sights.

Better news comes from Germany, where the travel agencies are mooting the idea of sending their senior citizens en masse to Spain for the winter months to save on energy (a sensitive topic in Germany at the moment). If Spain tuned in, they could convert some of their abandoned villages into merrie North European retirement centres (and get some funding from abroad to pay for it).  

...

Housing:

From Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight here: ‘Experts forecast market slowdown in second half of this year’. 

(There are two types of property that figure in certain analyses – city apartments for Spaniards, and coastal casas for foreigners. We generalise and we exaggerate). On the first type, this story: From Xataca here – ‘In the last five years, the price per square metre in the sale of homes has increased in Spain by 15.6%, while salaries have barely increased by 5.9% in the same period and, in fact, during 2021 they decreased 2.5%, according to a joint study carried out by the Infojobs employment platform and the real estate portal Fotocasa. For this report, both companies based their figures on the adverts published on their respective websites…’

Much is written of the abandonment of the forgotten pueblos – understandable as the local services (bus, bank and post office) diminish. No province has a higher loss of inhabitants than Burgos says the local paper, with no births recorded at all in the last twenty years in 37 municipalities there.

As potential buyers look in the display windows of the estate agents, here’s a place to consider at The Robb Report: ‘This 20 million euro Spanish estate outside of Seville has a bonkers 185 acres of gardens. Just an hour from Seville, the sprawling Andalusian estate borders a natural park, an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the Huéznar River’.

...

Tourism:

20Minutos is buoyant. ‘The tide of tourism in Spain: visits by foreigners skyrocket by 755% and visitor spending grows by 840%’. Over last year, understandably. A graphic shows that we are in fact somewhere between the 2016 and 2017 January to April figures in spending and considerably lower at 24.2 million than 2016 (29.3m) in visitor numbers....

Spanish News Today says (screams) that ‘Sun-seeking Brits To Splash Out More Than 10 Billion Pounds On Spanish Holidays This Year’. That’s 10,000 million pounds or a bit more in euros. British holidaymakers, says the article, spend an average of £630.78 during their holiday (how much of that stays with the airline?).   

...

Finance:

Southern Spain is of course poorer than the north. A map here shows the average income and the level of unemployment in cities of over 20,000 inhabitants across the country. It has also emerged that the State underspent in its budgets last year for Andalucía, Valencia, Asturias and Catalonia, while Madrid received almost double the projected budgetary investment. Both items are from elDiario.es. La Vanguardia says that the State investment in Madrid is three times that for Barcelona.

From Financial Post (copied from Bloomberg) here: ‘Rooftop solar takes off in Spain, aiding Europe's bid to shun Russian gas’. We read, ‘The rush for the rooftops comes amid soaring energy prices across Europe and a host of new financial incentives by the Spanish government to encourage homeowners to invest in cleaner technology…’ Meanwhile, ‘According to the solar energy cooperative Ecooo, it takes between seven and ten years for a single-family home to recover the investment in photovoltaic panels. A calculation that does not take into account incentives or subsidies and is, according to its coordinator Laura Feijóo García, as conservative as possible…’ Item from El País here.

Tax collections are up (thanks to the zeal of the Ministry of Hacienda). El Confidencial has the story here. ‘With an 11,000 million euros increase, tax collection shoots up 17% in the first four months of 2022 and leads the State to a surprise surplus. The IVA contributing 20% more than it did a year ago while personal income tax is also up by 13%. Expenditures remain contained despite a 4% increase in public salaries’.

From The Corner here, ‘The Social Security allocated a record 10,810 million euros to the payment of contributory pensions this May, 4.8% more than in the same month of 2021, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration said on Friday. The Department headed by José Luis Escrivá estimates that spending on pensions stood at 11.8% of GDP in the fifth month of the year…’ The average pension paid in Spain is 1,252€ monthly – as broken down by region and province by Bankinter here.

A large number of fines – said to be around 5,000 of them – originating from the 2012 rule of holding monies, properties or credits abroad to be declared in the Modelo 720 tax-form, ruled improper by the European Court, must now be re-assessed by the Supreme Court.

...

Politics:

Celebrating Spain’s 40-year membership of NATO, Pedro Sánchez told the General Secretary of the organisation Jens Stoltenberg on Monday of the need to increase defence spending in these troubled times, led by the growing Russian threat, and that he was willing to raise the amount allocated to this matter to a full 2% of the Spanish GDP. The next summit for the NATO (OTAN in Spanish) will be held in Madrid at the end of June. The story here. Much to the President’s disappointment, the non-ministerial deputies of Unidas Podemos – there are 29 of them – say they will not be attending the NATO summit. However, the Minister of Labour Yolanda Díaz will be present (representing the ‘Loyal Left’, as ECD reports here).

President Sánchez is to review the rules under which the Spanish Secret Service may operate and to sign a new law on official secrets says El Huff Post here.

The PP plan (Pablo Casado’s plan) to sell the headquarters in the Calle Génova in Madrid following the problems of dirty money used in its refurbishment during the Rajoy years have been shelved. ‘It’s not the building’s fault’, says the party spokesman.

...

Andalucía Elections June 19:

Another day, another survey. From the Centro de Estudios Andaluces and posted at elDiario.es, we read that The PP is doing well, but will almost certainly need the Vox to govern. The numbers: PP: 39.2%; PSOE-A 24.2% and Vox 17.3%. Many observers are worried about the growth of the Vox vote (especially in areas where there are lots of foreign agricultural workers who of course can’t vote).

The official two week long campaign begins on June 3rd with candidates and their supporters putting up posters everywhere from midnight Friday. The elections (after a day of sober reflection) are on Sunday June 19th and the new Andalusian parliament will be inaugurated on July 14th. An item at Público here.

If Ciudadanos loses badly in Andalucía then it’s adiós, says elDiario.es here.

According to this, the first measure on Vox’ Andalucía shopping list is to suppress the Catalonian autonomy. From Andalucía. They also (it says in a comment) call for anyone living in Spain for less than ten years to have no public health coverage. Whatever Vox is or isn’t, Steve Bannon’s Iberian followers aren’t exactly a benevolent party of the people.

Only 4% of Andalusians resident outside Spain have bothered to register to vote in the 19J. It’s cumbersome to register abroad in the consulate (and then return there to place one’s vote), although a new simpler system will soon be in place.

...

Catalonia: 

From EuroNews here: ‘Can Barcelona shake off its reputation as the ‘bag-snatching capital’? Inside the city's new plan’. We read that ‘The Catalonian capital is notoriously rife with pickpockets. In 2018 there were an average of 12 robberies an hour, according to Spain’s interior ministry. The large drop-off in street robberies in 2021 - plummeting by 56 per cent compared to 2019 - suggests the ebb in tourists was a big contributor…’ 

The day the 21,000 cruise-ship passengers visited Barcelona. The Wonder of the Seas gives you ‘enough time ashore to see a couple of things, then it’s back to the ship’. Does Barcelona take much out of these visits (besides the contamination)?

...

Gibraltar:

From Sur in English here: ‘Spain is reportedly unhappy about the upcoming royal visit to Gibraltar on June 7th to 9th. The Spanish media are claiming that foreign minister José Manuel Albares has made an official complaint to the UK government, saying the visit by Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex and his wife Countess Sophie is "inappropriate" at the moment’. More on the background to this issue is at El Confidencial here.

…...

Europe:

(To cheer up readers) The Express reports that ‘Brexiteers give Boris 2,000 ideas to obliterate EU rules. From allowing fracking to building super-powered vacuum cleaners, the British public has handed the Government 2,000 ideas on how to reap the benefits of Brexit and get rid of hated EU red tape’.

The ‘Sanchista inflation’ (as the PP would have it) currently suffered in Spain is, in fact, overtaken by a number of other EU countries says InfoLibre here. Including Germany (8.7%), the Netherlands (10.2%) and Belgium (9.9%). Spain is at 8.5% year-on-year.

...

Health:

‘Tourists from outside EU can now enter Spain with a negative Covid test. Rules altered to now no longer only require a certificate of vaccination’ says Catalan News here.

Just behind Murcia, and ahead of the Valencia Region, Andalucía has the second-worst health service in Spain says Diario de Sevilla here. One can certainly expect a long wait between the family doctor and the visit to the clinica… (The País Vasco is the best). NB, the scoring is between 32 and 130, so Andalucía’s 63 or Murcia’s 60 isn’t that great. 

‘Spanish LGBTQ groups wary of monkey-pox stigma as Madrid Pride festival nears’ says The San Diego Union Tribune here.

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Corruption:

The normally sober El Confidencial has a story that claims that ‘The Police have seized from the Russian mafia the audio of an operation to silence Luis Bárcenas (the corrupt party treasurer) and save the PP. A Russian mafia lieutenant arrested in 2020 had in his mail the recording of a meeting in which he negotiated to extort the former treasurer so that he would not provide more information about the famous black accounts held in the party headquarters in Madrid’.

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Ecology:

‘Spain's Doñana National Park under threat as groundwater pumping continues’. An item with video from EuroNews here.

The Olive Press looks at the plight of the immigrant agricultural workers in Almería in a well-researched article here.

There is a third type of land beyond private and public, and that’s community land, or la propiedad colectiva. The Conversation (it’s in Spanish) looks at the advantages of collectively-owned land: which can’t be divided, sold off, embargoed or traded. New shared-owners are possible – as newcomers join the community, they can be attached to the Cooperative, and if people move away, then they will lose their ‘membership’. Galicia is the leader in this type of collective property, with around 20% of its extension held in this way. The communal land can be used – as voted upon by the ‘owners’ – for any agricultural or commercial use.

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Various:

From ITV News here: ‘Spain's parliament has voted to approve a bill that's been heralded as making the country a "freer place for women" after years of campaigning.. The proposed law, known as "only yes means yes", makes consent a determining factor in rape cases…’ 

‘Tired of speaking to a machine when you call the bank or power company? Spain’s government wants to end those nerve-shattering, one-sided conversations with a computerized answering service by making it obligatory for companies to offer a real, flesh-and-blood customer service worker when so requested by a caller. That is one among a battery of measures included in a customer service bill presented by Spain’s left-wing coalition government on Tuesday. The bill will need the approval of Spain’s Parliament before it can become law…’ Item from The San Diego Union-Tribune here.

LaSexta is showing a six-week documentary on Los Borbones, from the coronation of Juan Carlos I forwards. It’s said to be hard-hitting. You can see it on their player here.

From El Español (paywall disabled) here: ‘Felipe González takes out Dominican nationality at 80: This is how he helps his wealthy friends on the island. Felipe, who began as 'Isidoro the Sevillian’, on the 40th anniversary of his ascension to the presidency of Spain in 1982, has taken out citizenship of the Dominican Republic. A book called Cap Cana: los osados aprendices de Donald Trump by Miguel Ángel Ordóñez reveals the business reasons behind the move. Cap Cana is a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic – ‘a sort of Caribbean Soto Grande’.

From 20Minutos here: ‘José Manuel Otero Novas, the Minister of the Presidency of Adolfo Suárez, narrates the ins and outs of how Spain's accession to the Atlantic Alliance was forged 40 years ago’. It’s a remarkable story. Felipe Gonzalez and other leaders of the PSOE (still in waiting in 1976) had been to Moscow to come to an agreement – the party would resist any union with NATO (very much in those days, an extension of the American military). The Russian ambassador then told Suárez in a private meeting in November 1976 (a year after Franco’s death) that the Warsaw Pact viewed any attempt by Spain to join NATO as a danger to world peace. A year later, a small terrorist independence group in the Canaries called the Canary Islands Independence Movement or MPAIAC (Wiki) came into view after the Americans told Suárez that they would support the group unless Spain joined NATO. ‘Either you join NATO or you lose the Canaries’ is the title of the article. Spain agreed that they were certainly in favour of joining the alliance and the leader of the Canary terror group was promptly severely injured by persons unknown and he duly retired from the armed struggle. The MPAIAC was never heard of again… When Felipe González, now president of Spain, called for a referendum on joining the alliance in May 1982, the PSOE inexplicably switched from recommending to vote against the proposal to calling for a ‘yes’ vote.

Feral cats can be a problem, and those kind souls who feed them only make things worse (Perhaps?). Anyhoo, the Councillor for Environmental Sustainability in Almería, Margarita Cobos, has issued (so far) 86 official cat-sitter cards to those Good Folks who tirelessly shovel food into these creatures. El Diario de Almería has the story.

An interesting subject here. Spain is the only country that prohibits the use of its place-names in Spanish where local versions/names occur. Mostly. Gerona or Girona? Sangenjo or Sanxenxo? Jávea or Xàbia? The local version often takes precedence, which is a bother if you don’t know that Iruña is another way of saying Pamplona (apparently it’s Pampeluna in English says Wiki) or Elx is really Elche. A few other cities have an English version (we use Seville over Sevilla and Majorca over Mallorca even if we have largely given up on The Corunna). Sometimes – in the Basque country at least, they just use both – like Vitoria-Gasteiz (well, officially anyway). Then there are the English-language newspapers that for some reason don’t have an ‘ñ’ on their keyboards, bringing us the joys of Logrono, Peniscola and Salobrena. And the seasonal Feliz Ano of course. Come to think of it, the Catalonians prefer Catalunya to Cataluña (they haven’t used the ñ since 1913).

Spain therefore bends over backwards (mostly) to accommodate regional variants – Lleida for Lérida, Eivissa for Ibiza (I mean, really!) and so on, whereas other countries just use the regular name (imagine the weather forecaster on British TV saying Caerdydd instead of Cardiff or Dùn Èideann for Edinburgh).

However, when they go abroad, it’s all Londres, Estocolmo, Nueva York and Pekín.

Finally, how about the Galician name for Xibraltar? (Spanish Shilling here)

The dioceses of Barcelona, headed by the powerful Cardenal Omella (Wiki), has proposed to the Vatican to allow both women priests and non-obligatory celibacy. Watch this space.

‘In these difficult economic times, money is short, so why not work for free? Joe King here. It could be an answer for people struggling to make ends meet. Joe has been working for free on and off for more than fifteen years and loves it. Is he nuts?’ Eye on Spain has the story here.

Over a Reddit, there’s a photo of the shortest frontier in the world. It’s the border between el Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera and Morocco.

From Think Spain here. ‘Spain gets ready to rock: Deluge of concerts, festivals and tours scheduled this summer. A mega music revival is set to hit Spain this summer as the backlog of live concerts the pandemic put paid to joins a list of those already scheduled for 2022…’

Pension Life scams are considered on their blog here.

A list of the International Schools in Madrid is here.

The British Benevolent Fund here ‘is a Spain-wide charity for when times are tough. We provide financial support to help Britons in Spain get back on their feet’.

A small rant: we have no fibre-optic here in our barrio and the service from the telephone provider is beyond hopeless. The Internet goes out many times a day. Grrr!

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See Spain:

The Times brings us ‘The 20 prettiest villages in Spain’ with some nice photos here.

A remarkable item from The London Post (‘powered by the Moscow Media Group’) about ‘The Best Cities for Tapas’. Er, it’s always nice to be guided by an expert…

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Finally:

Chasing up last week’s recording led me to a piece from Celtas Cortos I hadn’t heard before, a cover of The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues. Blues del Pescador on YouTube here.