They call it the “bread war” and amid all the dramas of Spain’s economic crisis, it seems at first sight like little more than a novelty. But the decision taken by a Valencia bakery to slash the price of its loaves of bread is the cause of celebration for some and bitter recrimination for others. José Navarro is the local baker-cum-businessman who is behind the venture. He now has nine bakeries carrying his surname that offer a regular, fresh loaf of bread for just 20 euro cents each. With many of Navarro’s competitors selling at between 80 cents and one euro per loaf, his nine bakeries across the Valencia region draw long queues each morning that stretch out onto the street. In … [Read more...] about Valencia cooks up controversy with “bread war”
Resign? You must be kidding
When is it appropriate for a public figure to resign? After displaying gross incompetence? In the wake of evident policy failure? Being caught up in criminal acts? It’s not always clear-cut. Sometimes resignation is an option, but not necessarily the only one. An apology might be just as fitting, or a temporary withdrawal from front-line exposure to the limelight. But in the last few weeks in Spain, there have been several cases that would seem to offer strong candidates for the sack. The most recent is that of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. On Sunday, El País newspaper published photographs showing that the Partido Popular’s premier of Galicia had been a good friend of Marcial Dorado Baúlde, … [Read more...] about Resign? You must be kidding
Catalan police gunned down in Barcelona wild boar mayhem!
It’s not often that we sympathise with the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s regional police force. All too often recently, they have hit the headlines for truncheoning protesting young Catalans or beating up suspects, so it was rather refreshing to read this on Europa Press: A Mossos d’Esquadra agent was injured in the knee on Wednesday by a bullet that rebounded after another policeman shot at a wild boar which had ventured into Barcelona’s Sants district, according to police sources. This took place between 4am and 5 am, when the animal reached a populated area – it got as far as Calle Numància – and the agents started the search to shoot the wild boar in an open space. The presence … [Read more...] about Catalan police gunned down in Barcelona wild boar mayhem!
Farewell to ETA’s destroyer of peace
When Xabier López Peña was arrested in Bordeaux in 2008 on terrorism-related offences, he hardly looked like an archetypal leader of ETA. Portly, middle-aged and bespectacled, he didn’t even have the carefully sculptured mullet that so many Basque separatists insist on sporting. But as he was bundled away by French police, his wild shouts and screams at TV cameras hinted at the true nature of the man. López Peña, who died of a brain haemorrhage on Saturday, was held responsible by many for the collapse of the 2006 peace process that offered the hope of a lasting solution to the Basque conflict. As a result, many Basque separatists, as well as the mainstream politicians in Madrid, came … [Read more...] about Farewell to ETA’s destroyer of peace
The Chávez trap
It is January 2003, I'm in the Ecuadorian capital Quito, and my arm is aching. I am holding a tape recorder up to Hugo Chávez’s mouth and he won’t stop talking. Chávez is in town to attend the swearing-in of Ecuador’s new president, Lucio Gutiérrez, a man many expect to pursue the same radical leftist path as the Venezuelan leader (although, as it turns out, he doesn’t). Other Latin American leaders have come to Quito, but Chávez is by far the biggest draw. I am part of a scrum of journalists who surround him as he strides into the lobby of a smart hotel, smiling and sure of his own magnetism. I’m standing behind him, slightly to one side and I’d like to rest my arm by placing the tape … [Read more...] about The Chávez trap
March 11, again
Another year goes by, and still the poisonous legacy of the March 11 bombings remains. I wrote this a year ago, but sadly, it still applies: Another anniversary of the Madrid terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004, comes and goes and with it, another storm of acrimony that highlights, in the ugliest way possible, Spain’s divisions. It’s now eight years since bombs planted by Islamic radicals were detonated on trains in or near Madrid during the morning rush hour, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 2,000 more. Enough time, you would think, for society to digest and come to terms with the attack, if not the grief it caused. But as dozens of relatives of those killed gathered … [Read more...] about March 11, again
A closer look at the lost generation
On a day when Spain’s unemployment figures have once again broken records, I was drawn to another set of data which may be equally bleak, but which offers a more subtle insight into how the country functions. A poll commissioned by Cadena SER looks at the attitudes of Spaniards aged between 22 and 30, the so-called “lost generation” who, we have been repeatedly told, can’t find a job, can’t buy a house and hate their politicians. All of that is confirmed in this study, but a breakdown of the figures makes for fascinating reading. The most shocking finding for me was that only 38 percent of young people live exclusively off their own revenue; 21 percent survive with the help of family … [Read more...] about A closer look at the lost generation
Another crisis for Spain’s Socialists
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
Spain’s King Juan Carlos seeks to stem the opprobrium
Not so long ago, the boos that echoed around Vitoria’s Buesa Arena on the arrival of King Juan Carlos for the basketball Copa del Rey final at the weekend would have surprised many Spaniards and scandalised quite a few others. Such an open display of hostility towards the monarch would have been almost unthinkable. And yet on Sunday, when the booing was so loud that the playing of the national anthem ahead of the game between Barcelona and Valencia was cut short, it no longer seemed all that surprising or shocking, such is the sliding esteem of the Spanish royal family. The most defining moment of the reign of Juan Carlos now looks so far away it could be from another era. In 1981, the … [Read more...] about Spain’s King Juan Carlos seeks to stem the opprobrium
Rajoy is a liability for Spain if he can’t clear his name
“I didn’t get into politics because I wanted applause or money … I got into politics because I wanted to change things.” So said Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Saturday as he gave his first proper public response to allegations published by El País that he was among many politicians who took under-the-table payments from a longstanding Partido Popular (PP) slush fund. But it doesn’t take a cynic to observe that very little has changed during Rajoy’s first year of government, despite his fighting talk at the weekend. As if to remind us of the fact, today he travels to Germany to meet Angela Merkel and discuss yet again the woes of the Spanish economy, on the same day that new … [Read more...] about Rajoy is a liability for Spain if he can’t clear his name