When Artur Mas embarked on his separatist bid for Catalonia last autumn, even he can barely have foreseen the repercussions it would have. The intransigent response in Madrid was predictable enough, but his CiU coalition’s loss of a dozen seats in a snap regional election was less so. And now another effect is being felt as Spain’s Socialists struggle to avoid a damaging schism between the national base in Madrid, the PSOE, and the PSC, the Catalan wing of the party in Barcelona. For 35 years, they have co-existed, not quite as the same party, but as something very close to it. Catalonia has been a stronghold for the Socialists in the democratic era and therefore the PSC has been a … [Read more...] about Another crisis for Spain’s Socialists
Archives for February 2013
Expats seize the day amid Spain’s property market uncertainty
With so much uncertainty in the Spanish property market, buyers are unsure whether property prices reflect what is really happening or whether it is a case of political propaganda putting on a good face, forum gossip from disgruntled boom buyers, or simply optimistic price-setting amongst hopeful sellers. The picture is further confused by demand factors and international interests that create differing influences in each of the local property markets across the country. What is happening in Barcelona, Ibiza or the Costa Brava, for example, may not be what is happening in Madrid or Marbella. Expat influences in property also differ from the demands and influences of local buyers. “The … [Read more...] about Expats seize the day amid Spain’s property market uncertainty
La Liga: Wins give Real Madrid and Barça belief ahead of clásico
More often than not it comes down to this. In a league dominated by the ‘Big Two’ of Real Madrid and Barcelona, when the business end of the season arrives, it’s the arch-rival that stands in the way. They are familiar foes and yet the rivalry does not dim, does not lose its edge, it only seems to get bigger and more meaningful, with more riding on their meetings every season. This week there will be two Clásicos in the space of five days, the first tonight, is the second leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final at the Camp Nou, while the other, on Saturday, is a league fixture to be played at the Bernabéu. Real Madrid will most likely be conceding their league title to the Catalans come … [Read more...] about La Liga: Wins give Real Madrid and Barça belief ahead of clásico
The great Portuguese hollowing out
As Portuguese President Aníbal Cavaco Silva once put it, "A country without children is a nation without a future." He was, of course, referring to his country’s ultra-low birth rate, which is just over 1.3 TFR and has been below replacement level (2.1 TFR) since the early 1980s. In 2012 only just over 90,000 children were born in the country, the lowest number in more than a century – you need to go back to the 19th century to find numbers like those we have been seeing since the crisis really took hold. But added to this longstanding, yet unaddressed, problem there is now another just as dangerous one. High unemployment levels and the lack of job opportunities are leading an increasing … [Read more...] about The great Portuguese hollowing out
Tales for Tapas: Trouble in the air
Striking Iberia workers this week held up banners saying their airline is not for sale – they believe the restructuring plan put forward by parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) is not really about restructuring at all but about letting British Airways, Iberia’s partner under the IAG umbrella, acquire the Spanish airline’s assets at knock-down prices. The prices, though, would not in fact be knock-down, because Iberia has continued to haemorrhage money since its merger with BA at the start of 2011. It lost a cool €262 million in the first nine months of last year. In their campaign against the 3,800 redundancies, 15-percent route reduction and across-the-board pay cuts … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Trouble in the air
In praise of ‘Soldiers of Salamis’
“I don’t remember who mentioned the name of Rafael Sánchez Mazas or how it came up […], but I do remember Ferlosio telling us: ‘They shot him not far from here, at the Collell Sanctuary.’” This passage near the start of Javier Cercas’ novel Soldiers of Salamis (Soldados de Salamina, in the original Spanish) is pinpointed by the first-person narrator as the starting point of an obsession, a quest. Before the 2001 publication of Cercas’s first masterpiece (he has written another since, The Anatomy of a Moment, on the failed Tejero coup attempt of 1981), local writing on the Spanish Civil War was conspicuously rare. The task had largely been left to foreign historians, writers and … [Read more...] about In praise of ‘Soldiers of Salamis’
The Catalan spy game
Earlier this week police took action on a political scandal that had broken several days before, when Catalan newspaper El Periódico published a recording and transcripts of a conversation between Catalan Partido Popular leader Alicia Sánchez-Camacho and María Victoria Álvarez, ex-girlfriend of Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, a Catalan businessman and son of former Catalan premier Jordi Pujol. The Pujol clan, an historic dynasty in the leading Catalan party Convergència Democrática de Catalunya, is presently caught up in a maelstrom of accusations of financial wrongdoing. Jordi Jr’s brother, CiU parliamentary leader Oriol Pujol, is embroiled in his own personal scandal, over alleged kickbacks in … [Read more...] about The Catalan spy game
La Liga: Pellegrini engineers Málaga’s miracle run
Málaga are the unlikeliest of Champions League challengers, following a summer of discontent during which they were forced to sell some of their best players, including Santi Cazorla and Salomón Rondón, while others had to be persuaded not to take legal action against the club for unpaid wages. But tonight is the biggest game in the club’s history, a last-16 meeting at FC Porto. The two-legged knockout tie is given all the more prominence given that this could be the only European action Málaga experience for up to four years regardless of where they end up in the liga table at the end of the season, after UEFA declared the Andalusian side will be banned from European competition due to … [Read more...] about La Liga: Pellegrini engineers Málaga’s miracle run
Ladies and gentlemen, the next prime minister of Spain…?
Should María Dolores de Cospedal weather the latest corruption allegations to hit the Popular Party (PP), there’s every likelihood she will progress from being its secretary general and premier of the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha to replacing Mariano Rajoy in the top post and go on to become Spain’s first female prime minister. Cospedal’s rise has been rapid. Born in 1965, she grew up in Castilla-La Mancha, training as a government lawyer after finishing university, and joining the Labour Ministry in 1997 after José Maria Aznar ushered in the first PP administration the previous year. During the PP’s two terms in office she moved up the ladder, making it to under-secretary … [Read more...] about Ladies and gentlemen, the next prime minister of Spain…?
Tales for Tapas: Turning points
Bowing to a campaign that gathered one-and-a-half million signatures, the People’s Party this week dropped its opposition to a debate on legislation intended to mitigate the social and financial impact of home evictions. The parliamentary initiative follows a rise in suicides associated with mortgage foreclosures – a shocking barometer of the human cost of economic austerity. Under the new measures, social housing would be made available to families that have been evicted, and mortgages would be cancelled when homes are handed over to the bank. Some argue that market forces will restore prosperity as long as they are allowed to work and that remedial social programmes are no more than … [Read more...] about Tales for Tapas: Turning points