Last month saw the release of the film Alacrán enamorado, the story of promising boxer Julián and his group of heavily-tattooed, neo-nazi friends, who spend their days in the ring and their nights beating up immigrants and members of ethnic minorities. Despite some strong performances, instead of tackling the complexity of the subject full on, this adaptation of Carlos Bardem's third novel is ultimately a superficial story of love and triumph against the odds. All of which is a shame, as Alacrán enamorado raises some potentially interesting questions regarding race relations in Spain. Figures published by the Spanish Institute for National Statistics reveal that immigration has risen … [Read more...] about Spain still wrestles with immigration
spanish news
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
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
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…?
It’s Goya time
Perhaps fearful of another black-and-white silent film garnering a top prize for the second year running, Hollywood excluded Blancanieves from the Best Foreign Film category, but Pablo Berger’s overly long 1920s-set bullfighting take on the Snow White tale looks set to sweep the board at this year’s Goya Awards on February 17 in the Spanish capital. The film has been nominated in 18 categories, including picture, director, original screenplay, and editing. Six members of the cast are also in the running for prizes, including leads Maribel Verdú and Daniel Giménez Cacho, as well as newcomer Macarena García for her winsome portrayal of Snow White. Unit 7, from director Alberto Rodríguez, … [Read more...] about It’s Goya time
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
Has Spain’s economic contraction become self-perpetuating?
Spain’s political leaders are in cheerful mood at the moment. According to the country’s Economy Minister Luis de Guindos, the Spanish economy will return to growth in the second half of 2013. “The perception of the Spanish economy has improved and will continue to do so over the coming weeks and months,” he told his audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Earth-shattering it will not be, but grow it will, he insisted. Perhaps, he suggested, the economy will be stationary in the third quarter, with very slight growth in the fourth. And quite possibly he is right. The core of the problem is whether any faltering growth emerging in the last three months of the year will be sustained … [Read more...] about Has Spain’s economic contraction become self-perpetuating?