South Of Watford

Cafe Para Todos, But Who Got The Cream?

2009-07-14T19:28:00.003+02:00

Arriving slightly behind schedule, only by a year or so, it looks as if Spain finally has a new model for financing the activities of the regional autonomous governments. Although it might seem a dry and boring issue, and only the masochistic really want to read all of the details, this could well be the most significant Spanish political event of the whole year. The origin of the new scheme lies with the reform of Cataluña's autonomy statute a couple of years back. As part of that deal it was agreed that Cataluña would get an improved financing deal, meaning inevitably that the scheme for the whole country had to be revised. Not a bad idea in principle as the old scheme was not keeping up with the realities of the country and its devolved system of government.

The reason why it has taken so long to reach an agreement has been the difficulty involved in giving the Catalans a better deal whilst at least maintaining the appearance of not discriminating against anyone else. Maybe this would not have been so difficult in the times of economic bonanza, because the solution lies in making sure that every region gets more money. However, with the current crisis biting hard the financial balancing act has become seriously complicated and the new scheme really only comes fully into effect after 4 years when the hope is that public finances will be in a healthier condition. The percentage of tax revenues that will go to the autonomias has now risen to around 50%, up from 30% in the previous deal and 15% in the times when Felipe Gonzalez was in power. It's the way things have to go if the regions are going to have an ever greater share of responsibility for provision of services.

Nobody seems to have ended up with less money than before, the detail of the new scheme depends on the weight given to different factors such as population, age distribution, the size of the region and so on. The process has been criticised for not being transparent, but transparency is the last thing the government wants in such a sensitive matter. The more complicated the system the better, as it makes it harder for anyone to pick holes in it. It's a highly political fix and everyone knows it. The funding will not discriminate along party lines, the new divide is between the politically powerful regions and the rest. The criteria used to benefit Cataluña also work in favour of Valencia and Madrid, which has made it much harder for the PP to maintain a common line of opposition to the new scheme. Andalucia has been compensated as well. The "less important" regions are left with some extra scraps.

This time around the government does not seem to have played the Catalan nationalist parties against each other, as it did in the case of the autonomy statute. Instead, Esquerra Republicana have been allowed to take the credit for raising the final amount of money that the region gets while their rivals in Convergencia i Unió have been left on the sidelines. CiU have adopted a contradictory approach, accusing Zapatero of plunging the state into more debt whilst at the same time claiming that Cataluña should have received much more money. Things in the PP are not so different as the national party tries to organise frontal opposition to the plan whilst at the same time acknowledging that the regions under its control will stampede anyone who gets in the way of their extra funds.

This often tedious and drawn out wrangling does more than decide the destiny of much of the state's income, it also potentially changes the whole political outlook for the government. Odd though it may seem, the government has recently been getting more support for its measures from the Partido Popular than it has from any other party. The hope now will be that other parties, particularly Esquerra Republicana, will show themselves more willing to vote on the government side. The one thing that could still spoil the celebration is the even more long awaited verdict of the Constitutional Court on the Catalan autonomy "Estatut". It's rumoured that we could get this verdict before August so that the judges get their holidays, and the rumours also suggest that the verdict will be a generous one. Maybe Zapatero will enjoy his summer break after all.

A 21st Century Swindle

2009-07-12T09:00:00.000+02:00

Spain's trade unions and employers have been engaging in talks recently with the aim of agreeing measures to deal with some of the effects of the crisis. It was said that the discussions were going quite well and the government hoped to make an announcement soon concerning an agreement. Both sides had an understanding that they would not present any demands that they knew in advance to be unacceptable to the other. Then the main employers association had lunch with Partido Popular leader Mariano Rajoy, their representatives left directly from this lunch to a meeting with the trade unions and suddenly there were new proposals on the table.

The employers want what they call a 21st Century employment contract as well as a significant reduction in their social security contributions. The new contract would make it cheaper to dismiss employees as well as putting all new employees on what is effectively a two year probation period. Rather than a model for the 21st Century, it really takes things a step backwards towards the 19th. As for the social security contributions, for anyone who doesn't know how this script works I think I can help. Having achieved the reduction in contributions, the next step is for the same employers association to proclaim that the social security system is unviable and wouldn't it be a good idea if we let the banks take care of pensions. The talks, unsurprisingly, have now reached a dead end.

The Camps Line Of Defence

2009-07-10T00:01:00.004+02:00

The decision this week by an investigating judge to proceed with the case against Valencian president Francisco Camps is being seen as a severe setback for one of the Partido Popular's most successful politicians. The judge has decided that there is significant evidence that Camps accepted the gift of expensive clothing from one of the ringleaders involved in the Gürtel case. There was a widespread belief within the PP that the case against Camps would never get to trial, and the accused has been quick to present an appeal against the judge's decision.

One thing the judge makes clear is that the size of the bribe is not the issue, knocking back the idea pushed by the PP leadership that no serious politician would ever sell himself for such a low price. What many inside and outside the party are asking now is why Camps didn't just admit to being given a couple of suits by his amiguito del alma Alvaro and say so what? Instead he continues to insist that he paid personally for the suits, in cash because he doesn't use credit cards. One of the local papers in the region did little to help this alibi the other day when they reported that Camps was busy on official duties in Valencia on the days when his defence claims that he was in Madrid paying his clothes bill. That's one local newspaper likely to see a sharp reduction in their income from the regional government. Much of his own party doesn't seem to believe him either as they search desperately for reasons to justify his acceptance of the gift.

Television viewers who depend for their news on the regional channel controlled by the Camps administration are unlikely even to be aware that the beloved leader is going to court. Valencia has applied a model of news management similar to that of Madrid under Esperanza Aguirre and Canal 9 apparently didn't even mention that Camps has been formally accused. This is even less surprising when you consider that the political appointee in charge of the channel also seems to have been a good friend of Alvaro "El Bigotes". It looks like the legal defence for Camps will now be an attempt at character assassination of the tailor involved in the preparation of the famous suits. I saw a report in El Mundo suggesting that they are going to try and claim that this man pocketed the money paid by Camps, and that this is why there is no evidence of the payment having being made.

Even in the worst of all possible cases Camps is not going to end up breaking rocks in the hot Valencian sun, you don't go to prison for accepting bribes in Spain if it's your first offence. The problem he faces is that his version of events is not supported by any evidence, and the suspicion that he has lied about the issue could end up being far more damaging to his political prospects than the verdict of the court. Meanwhile, I'm thinking of offering my own "Gürtel" series of expressions and associated hand gestures to The Guardian for their Spanish language phrasebook. The first one would be "poner la mano en el fuego", a phrase that appears to be going rapidly out of fashion in the case of Camps and which would be illustrated with a drawing of someone frantically blowing on the fingers of their hand. Number two in the series would be the characteristic outstretched palm behind the back, ready to receive envelopes full of crisp €500 notes. A variety of expressions could be associated with this gesture, but it usually follows "Que hay de lo mio?".

Talking With Your Hands

2009-07-07T18:35:00.004+02:00

If the number of guiris making strange hand gestures in Spain seems to rise a lot this summer then it's probably the fault of The Guardian. Teaching foreigners to use native hand gestures seems like a dangerous game to play, in the same way as Spaniards using their fingers to ask for two beers in an English pub. Over at El País they don't seem too impressed with the selection. The phrase "estoy a dos velas" and its accompanying gesture is completely new to me. Also, I have never heard anyone in Spain using "huevón", although I've come across it in South America. The commenters in El País seem to think that it could be common in Andalucia too. Doing a quick Google check on its usage I came across the Wikipedia page on Spanish profanity. I like the redirection advice at the top of that page about Joder, Nebraska!

The Spy Who Hated Me

2009-07-04T15:47:00.004+02:00

With the resignation of the head of Spain's intelligence service, the CNI, the newspaper El Mundo is celebrating another head on a stake following that of the former justice minister Mariano Bermejo a few months ago. The man who resigned this week, Alberto Saiz, was accused of abusing his position as boss of the intelligence agency to fund fishing trips and work on his house. It's still not clear how much truth there is in the accusations, but what seems to be beyond doubt is that they came from within the agency itself. Saiz was finally forced to resign when it became clear that the government was not going to support his plan to clear out all of his numerous enemies within the CNI.

It seems that the CNI, formerly a military agency, is full of people who have been removed from their posts by Saiz but who remain as part of the CNI. Now the government has appointed a former general to be the new head of the agency and it is clear that he has a tough job ahead clearing out some of the autonomous factions that have developed in the CNI. I've always felt that infighting in what is often misnamed the "intelligence" service can have benefits for the rest of society. Based on the British experience many such agencies are full of far right political fanatics who are much happier spying on people whose politics they dislike than they are doing any job which might be considered useful. Either that or they are secretly working for rival agencies.

The conclusion you reach with the resignations of Bermejo and Saiz is that hunting and fishing at public expense is seen as a serious crime, whilst filling your bottomless pockets with public money for other purposes is not. It remains to be seen how long that situation can be sustained.

Every Meatball Has Its Price

2009-07-01T22:57:00.003+02:00

One of the more entertaining aspects of the Gürtel corruption case comes from the documentation detailing many of the illegal payments made by the organisers of the ring to various politicians in the Partido Popular. A few weeks ago we learnt that Valencia's Francisco Camps had the code name of "El Curita". Back in Madrid we have something even better. The former mayor of Boadilla del Monte, Arturo Gonzalez Panero, was given the name of "El Albondiguilla" (The Little Meat Ball). A very expensive little meatball he seems to have been, Panero and Boadilla are at the heart of the case. Then we come to "Luis el cabrón". This nickname has been found in the documentation and it is believed by the prosecutors that it is a reference to Luis Bárcenas, the national treasurer of the PP. The name clearly suggests that he wasn't held in great esteem.

The accusation against Bárcenas has now been referred to the Supreme Court, because of his status as a member of the Senate rather than his position with the PP. This means the case is now divided between three separate courts, as the regional equivalents of the Supremo are already dealing with their part of the case in Madrid and Valencia. Whatever the people behind Gürtel may have thought of him, the charge is that they paid huge sums of money to Bárcenas. The PP's treasurer is certainly a very wealthy man, having accumulated riches that go well beyond the limits of his salary from the PP. His predecessor in the post offered us an insight into the ethical yardstick being used inside the party when he claimed that the fortune Bárcenas has accumulated is not an issue, because he had managed to obtain much more!

Inside the PP there are now plenty of people who think it's time Bárcenas resigned his position, but party leader Mariano Rajoy doesn't seem to be one of them. Boosted by his recent election victory, Rajoy has been carefully avoiding any comment at all on the Bárcenas issue, waiting as he always does for developments to solve the affair for him. A lot of the pressure for Bárcenas to go is coming from interested parties on the bitter and twisted right, with El Mundo leading the charge, but other PP figures who can't be so easily classified have also expressed their doubts about keeping him in his job. There is of course also the question of how to justify forcing Bárcenas to resign whilst so many others continue to occupy their political positions. In reality, although the PP has taken measures against some of those accused, nobody has yet resigned from an elected post and those who have had their PP membership suspended continue to form part of the party group in town halls and regional governments like Madrid.

The Basque Weather Forecast

2009-06-30T19:16:00.002+02:00

You wouldn't have thought that the weather forecast on television could really be that great a source of controversy, but with the change of government in the Basque Country comes a change in the map that viewers will see when they want to know how hard it will rain tomorrow in Bilbao. When the nationalists were in power someone decided that viewers of ETB, the Basque regional TV channel, should see a weather map that includes Navarra and the French Basque Country too. In other words, the entire area of what nationalists regard as historically being part of Basque territory. With the change of administration comes a change in those who run all of those organisations that depend on the regional government, ETB included. The winds of change mean the weather map should also change, but then the dilemma has been how to make the change without completely offending nationalist sentiment by excluding Navarra and the French areas. It seems the solution adopted will be to show half of northern Spain and the frontier area with France on the grounds that Basques also want to know about the weather in La Rioja or Burgos for their weekend getaways. Expect sunny intervals with frequent showers if you're near the coast.

Turn Left, Turn Right, Then Go Back To Where You Started

2009-06-29T21:38:00.002+02:00

The problems of running a minority government were on display for all to see last week in Spain. The government got itself into a mess over taxation as it became clear that measures which suit one potential parliamentary ally can make some of the others withdraw their support. That nice sounding phrase "geometria variable" has been overused as an attempt to spin the reality that Zapatero's administration still has no reliable understanding with other parties to guarantee that it wins votes.

Last week's fiasco came with what seemed to be an agreement between the PSOE and Izquierda Unida on the need to make the tax system more progressive and deal with some of the more blatant inequalities. In the end the agreement lasted about 6 hours, it seems that the right wing Catalan nationalists weren't going to accept it and they have enough votes to give the government a majority. The government is starting to prepare the budget for next year and is looking for support. With income declining because of the crisis, and spending rising for the same reason, taxation has become a key issue and there have already been recent increases in some indirect taxes.

Zapatero famously claimed a few years ago that reducing taxes "es de izquierdas". There are of course circumstances where this could be true, for instance with measures specifically designed to reduce the tax burden on low incomes. However, getting rid of a tax only paid by the wealthier sections of society (the impuesto de patrimonio) and replacing it with increases in indirect taxation that affect everyone equally doesn't fit this description. The short lived agreement with IU wasn't very specific but focused attention on a number of areas. One candidate for change is the general €400 rebate which was introduced prior to the last election and which was never a very effective measure in any case; in the light of what has happened since it no longer seems to make much sense.

Then there is what is known as the "Ley Beckham". This is a very special tax rebate, David should be proud to have it named after him. It means that a top ranking and high earning foreign footballer in Real Madrid or Barcelona ends up paying the same percentage rate of income tax as someone who only earns €17000 a year. The Spanish finance minister, Elena Salgado, came up with the rather silly justification that the law is intended to help those whose professional career is short. Most Spaniards will not earn in their entire working lifetime the amount that Cristiano Ronaldo will save in a single year from the application of this measure. There would be no shortage of volunteeers to have a short working life with that sort of benefit, form an orderly queue.

For the moment the government has parked the issue for later in the year, but a lot of commentators are starting to wonder whether the lack of a stable majority is going to mean that we have a government notionally in power but unwilling to take any risks or present measures that might expose the lack of support. The fear of losing votes has already seen the PSOE vote with the opposition on some occasions rather than face defeat. The reality of Spanish politics is that minority governments are more common than majority ones, but with as much as three years still to go before the next election has to be held the geometry needs to be a bit less variable.

The Police Reveal All

2009-06-23T19:32:00.004+02:00

Here's one of those stories that couldn't really be invented. Madrid's municipal police held a demonstration last week calling for better retirement conditions. All those years they spend sitting in their patrol cars takes its toll. As the demonstration began, a couple of hired strippers set about doing the job they were paid to do. At least they did until the protests of some of the demonstrators forced the performance to come to a premature end. The explanation offered for the surprising turn the demonstration had taken was that one of the organisers had requested "speakers" and the person on the receiving end of the message had heard "strippers". Why they were trying to organise the event in English has not been explained. Perhaps they were worried about being spied upon, this is Madrid after all.

Once, Twice, Three Times A Loser

2009-06-22T22:30:00.002+02:00

I often have to get up a bit too early on Monday mornings these days to catch a flight to Germany. This morning I was clearly on autopilot, and it wasn't until I was almost inside the security check at Madrid's Terminal 4 that someone kindly pointed out that I wasn't flying with Iberia today and that my Spanair flight would leave from the old terminal. As I say, it was early in the morning and it's been very hot this weekend.

Now I know there are buses connecting the terminals but I just turned around and went back into the Metro station. Of course, to get back into the Metro with my normal bonobus ticket I had to pay the infamous Aguirre tax, the €1 supplement that we have to pay at the airport so that this privatised stretch of network keeps the Lideresa's friends from the brink of starvation. I'd already paid it once to get out at the wrong terminal! I was too concentrated on getting to the right place to catch my flight to even think that on arrival at the other terminal I was going to have to pay the same supplement a third time.

I know there are probably still some sentimental people out there who think that travelling between two terminals of the same airport should be free. Welcome to Madrid. After all of this I hope that in whichever sun kissed Caribbean tax haven they use to store the profits of this extortion they can at least name a palm tree in my honour. Or maybe it should be a cocktail. I'll have another Barajas Rip Off, but go easy on the ice because I like that long lasting bitter after taste.

Credit Crunch? Not In Madrid

2009-06-21T12:54:00.003+02:00

Something happens when Florentino Pérez is in charge of Real Madrid that means that most of what is written about the club is only incidentally about football. As Pérez assembles his latest random collection of galacticos, the press is full of reports on the commercial benefits of having players like Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo. Florentino himself seems confident that these expensive purchases are going to pay for themselves. He'd better be right because otherwise the club he runs is eventually going to have its own financial crisis. Pérez himself got elected as Madrid president without any rival candidacies, apart from one disastrous venture that lasted 24 hours. Interestingly, for a club that is supposed to be owned by its members, any candidate intending to stand was required to deposit 55 million euros to be able to stand for election. Now that's what I call an open contest.

This time around there is no massive property deal to fund the new signings, and it appears that most of the cash is coming from fresh loans from the banks. Caja Madrid, said to be one of the Spanish cajas facing problems because of its involvement in the construction industry has nevertheless managed to loan Pérez 75 million euros. This is surprising at a time when most individuals or small businesses looking for loans are finding them hard to obtain. Even more surprising was the revelation that the loan is interest free for the first two years. Caja Madrid justified the generous deal by saying that they loan money to those they know will pay it back. An odd statement when you consider that Real Madrid is already estimated to owe 4-500 million euros and we have businessmen climbing up cranes in Madrid to protest that the club doesn't pay them. Never mind, the rest of the customers will pay for it.

Looking at the team itself, so far it is not all going as Perez wants, despite the capture of Kaka and Ronaldo. It is said that Manuel Pellegrini was not his first choice as coach for the team, and although I think Pellegrini did great things at Villareal I don't see Madrid as being his kind of team; especially as Perez will be calling the shots on team selection, mostly motivated by the shirt sales of each player. The signing of David Villa from Valencia has stalled, despite the reported eagerness of Villa to go to Madrid. Valencia are in a desperate financial situation, provoked by their own attempts to ride the construction bubble. They need to sell players and their problem is that everyone knows it, so whilst they prefer a bidding war between Chelsea, Manchester (*2) and Madrid for Villa, Perez is trying to use the preference of the player to force down the price. It will be interesting to see how the survivors from last year's Madrid team will react to the new arrivals, especially with Ronaldo set to earn almost twice the salary of captain and club icon Raul. Not that Raul is having problems paying the rent.

Elsewhere, 70000 people took to the streets of Sevilla last week in a huge protest. Perhaps they were marching to demand action on unemployment and the economic crisis? No, instead the protestors were supporters of Real Betis marching to demand the departure of Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, the businessman who is the main shareholder in the club. The club was relegated to the second division at the end of last season and the fans are furious at Lopera. This, however, is the same Lopera who a few years ago the same fans would call "Don Manuel" and acclaim as a hero. Presumably if they get promoted again next season all will change again? Much as I like football as a sport, there are times when you wonder whether it is worth it.

When Hospitality Can Become A Crime

2009-06-18T23:33:00.003+02:00

Whilst the immigrant whose appalling treatment at the hands of a Gandia bakery owner looks like he will get his residence papers as a consequence of the publicity the case received, many others will continue to face an uncertain future. Slowly making its way through the parliamentary process is a reform of the Ley de Extranjeria, the law that controls immigration in Spain.

The initial draft of this law contained a shocking proposal that would make the act of hospitality towards an illegal immigrant an offence on the same level as that of the employer who exploits the situation of the sin papeles by not giving them a contract or paying social security. Showing hospitality could result in a fine as high as 10,000 euros. This proposal rightly provoked a significant protest, very well expressed in this article from El País by Soledad Gallego-Díaz. As a result of the protests it looks as if this clause may not make it into the final version of the law, but you can't help wondering about the mindset of the people who come up with such proposals in the first place. A Berlusconi would be very happy with the notion that those who offer assistance to illegal immigrants can be treated so harshly.

The same law looks likely to maintain an extension to the maximum time during which the illegals can be held in detention centres awaiting probable deportation. When the Spanish government supported the European move to prolong detention times, they then sent envoys to Latin America to placate those countries protesting at the measure. We may have supported the change, but we won't implement it in Spain was the reassuring message delivered. Yet here it is, a 50% increase in the maximum detention time. Yet all of this is happening when the signs are that the economic crisis has effectively put an end to recent trends in immigration. The Canary Islands recently went two months without a single boatload of immigrant hopefuls arriving from the African coast.

The Age Of The Mileurista

2009-06-13T16:00:00.000+02:00

I usually read the salmon coloured economic supplement that comes with El País on a Sunday fairly quickly, just skimming to see if there is anything particularly special. This article (entitled Adiós clase media, adiós), published a couple of weeks ago, makes interesting but not very encouraging reading. The article describes how what might be called the Spanish Dream has evolved into a much starker reality where almost 50% of the country’s workforce belongs to that new social category popularly known as the mileuristas, those who earn less than €1000 a month.

As the writer points out, the phenomenon of the mileurista is not just a Spanish issue, it’s something that has emerged in several economies. It forms part of the trend towards greater inequality and insecurity as many well qualified members of the workforce come face to face with a reality that leaves them both poorly rewarded and in permanent fear of not having a job at all. This is not something that is a product of the economic crisis, but the situation as we emerge from that crisis will be even worse if those who enjoy the benefits of it get their way.

One of the most shocking statistics in the paper version of the article came from a table showing the evolution of average salaries in Spain. You would have thought, following several years of economic boom, that at least some of the benefits of that boom would have reached the people who actually do the work. Not so, there was some increase in the average salary between 1995 and 2002 (from €16,416 to €19,808). Since then the average has declined slightly to €19,680 in 2006, even though it would need to be around €24,000 a year if it had kept pace with prices since 1995. Forget the tired mythology of the trickle down effect, if it works at all it goes in the opposite direction. You have to remember that the average salary calculation includes those at the top end who have of course not done quite so badly over the last few years. Then they tell us that the problem is that workers have too many rights in Spain.

Hard Times For Spain's National Parks

2009-06-12T15:00:00.000+02:00

Life’s not always easy for a national park. Even more so if the resource on which the park depends can be removed by people without even entering the park itself. Take the example of Las Tablas de Daimiel, a once important area of wetlands in Ciudad Real province and a national park since 1973. I visited Las Tablas a few years ago on the way back from a trip to the town of Almagro, and it was a sorry sight then with only a small area covered by surface water. Now it seems that the situation has got worse, and UNESCO has warned the Spanish government that the area could lose its status as a biosphere reserve if they don’t do something to protect it.

The situation is not a result of drought or other natural circumstances. It is instead a consequence of the over exploitation of water resources, particularly for agriculture. Las Tablas de Daimiel have always relied on the excess water of underground aquifers but now these have been drained of much of their water. The only solution the Spanish authorities could find to continue justifying the description of wetland was to transport water into the Tablas. In fact this is what they thought they had done but the villagers of nearby Villafranca de los Caballeros had other ideas, and diverted the water intended for Las Tablas into their own lagoons! The Guardia Civil had to be sent down to close off the diversion to the village.

Meanwhile there is the equally sorry case of the area that should be a national park but which never quite seems to make it. The Sierra de Guadarrama, the range of mountains just a short distance from Madrid, is a hugely important natural wilderness. Yet the project to convert the area into a national park has been systematically obstructed by the regional authorities for years. Just in case you think I’m going to put all the blame on Madrid’s Esperanza Aguirre, let me point out that her party allies in Castilla y León also deserve their 50% of the blame. Neither of these administrations is happy with a project that would limit their ambitious plans to replace once savage wilderness with the neatly tended lawns of the now compulsory golf course that comes with every new urbanisation. Although, when you look at Las Tablas de Daimiel, you can’t help wondering whether it’s worth it to have the park declared in the first place.

Employer Of The Year

2009-06-11T10:36:00.005+02:00

He worked twelve hours a day in a bakery for the grand daily payment of €23, without a contract or social security. At least he did until the 28th May this year. On that day Franns Rilles Melgar lost most of his left arm, cut off by one of the machines in the bakery. The employer in question drove him to the hospital, well almost. In reality he left him some 200 metres from the hospital, drove back to the bakery, cleaned up the blood and....tossed the amputated limb into the rubbish so that production could continue. The spirit of free enterprise.

European Elections 2009....The PP Smells Blood

2009-06-08T16:04:00.004+02:00

Yesterday's election in Spain had a clear winner, and that was the Partido Popular. With a margin of over 600,000 votes there is little doubt about the victor. In percentage terms, the PP had an advantage of around 3.7% over the PSOE, which is at the higher end of what the opinion polls had predicted. This was the PP's first electoral victory at national level since the year 2000, and the party leadership will be doing all they can to try and present it as the turning point in the electoral cycle; the beginning of the end of the Zapatero era. A general election producing the same results would not give the PP a parliamentary majority, it would simply reverse the current positions of the PP and the PSOE leaving the former to seek an alliance with one of the conservative nationalist parties.

Despite the claim by PP leader Mariano Rajoy that this was their best ever result in European elections the reality is a bit different. Jose Maria Aznar secured more votes and a much bigger advantage over the PSOE in 1994, a result that was seen as the prelude to the PP gaining power in the following national elections. A closer look at yesterday's results suggests that the PP's advantage relies much more on the declining vote for the PSOE than on any significant increase in support for the PP. Rajoy's internal opponents had suggested that he needed to win by a 10% margin, although obviously if they thought he would get near that then the target would have been placed even higher. For the moment Rajoy's quiet strategy of letting the economic crisis erode support for the government is producing results, but perhaps not as much as many in the PP had hoped for.

Both the major parties based their campaigns around convincing their own supporters to turn out and vote, there wasn't really even a token effort to attract other voters. The result demonstrates what many already suspected, that the PP is finding it easier to mobilise their electorate, whilst the PSOE has lost a significant section of its support due to the crisis. Regardless of what anyone else might think, this was a big win for Mariano Rajoy. Unless something fairly dramatic happens to affect the PP's support it looks as if Rajoy has achieved his aim of consolidating his position within the party and remaining as leader. Even Esperanza Aguirre was there on the balcony for the victory celebration last night, although the ranks of party supporters on the street below looked a bit thin.

One depressing aspect of the vote is that the PP are trying to use their strong support in Madrid and Valencia to pretend that the voters have absolved them of any involvement in corruption. This is a Berlusconian strategy, that says you can do what you want as long as the electorate is prepared to vote for you. We just have to hope that the courts don't decide to go along with it. It is further evidence of what we have already seen in previous elections, corruption seems to have no impact on the willingness of PP supporters to vote for their party. Meanwhile, Zapatero needs to combat the idea that the tide has turned against him, and to try and stabilise his parliamentary support so that the talk of a motion of censure being presented doesn't become anything more than a wish on the part of the PP. The key to this will be Cataluña, which yesterday had a significantly higher abstention rate than most of the rest of Spain, and recorded a dramatic drop in PSOE support.

Of the other parties, Izquierda Unida will be pleased to have kept two members of the European Parliament but the fact that they have made no impact at all in terms of attracting disillusioned PSOE supporters means that their result is not being celebrated. The new party UpyD failed in their objective of overtaking IU as the fourth party, although they did get a single representative elected. Madrid still provides one third of their total support in the country. The regional nationalists maintained their representation and the PNV in the Basque Country will be pleased to have maintained their position as the largest party in the region. The almost illegalised Iniciativa Internacionalista failed to get anyone elected, but they did take over 100,000 votes in the Basque Country; just 600 short of the PP's total there.

European Elections 2009....The Results From Spain

2009-06-06T20:00:00.001+02:00

These are the votes of the Spanish jury. Oh sorry, wrong contest. Where there's a widget there's a way, and I've taken advantage again of the skills of the soitu.es technical team to offer the full results of the European elections in Spain as they are announced. According to the widget, this should start happening some time after 20:00 (Madrid time) on Sunday June 7th. In the meantime, you can check out the results of the equivalent 2004 election.

A neat summary of the campaign between the two biggest parties from Peridis in El País.

Update June 7th 19:00

The figures released on participation so far show it to be almost exactly the same as the elections in 2004 - which ended up around 45%. It seems there won't be any official results before 22:00 tonight because they don't get announced before the polls have closed in other countries. By that time much of the Spanish vote will already have been counted. All we will get before then will be exit polls.

A Judge On Trial....Manos Limpias Versus Garzón

2009-06-06T12:40:00.002+02:00

Spain's most famous judge, Baltasar Garzón, is facing the possibility of having to appear at the other end of the court following the acceptance of a case presented against him. He is accused of prevaricación, an offence which I'm unsure how to translate directly into English but which seems to come down to the deliberate issuing of unjust resolutions. The case has been presented by an organisation known as Manos Limpias, which as the name suggests likes to present itself as fighting against corruption in public life. They have brought the case against Garzón over his unsuccessful attempts to take forward a judicial case concerning the victims of Franco's repression and the thousands of bodies that continue to lie in unmarked roadside graves around the country.

Manos Limpias is in reality an extreme right pseudo trade union which dedicates almost all of its resources and time to clogging up the Spanish courts with a series of cases brought against figures associated with the left or regional nationalist causes. Its leader used to be part of the leadership of the Francoist Fuerza Nueva and it's hardly surprising in this context that they would take offence at Garzon's efforts. This is not the first time they have tried to get Garzón either, far from it. Other targets of the organisation have included Barcelona footballer Samuel Eto'o, Guardia Civil officers who have revealed their homosexuality and last but not least, childrens TV favourites Los Lunnis. I'm not making any of this up.

Most of the cases brought by Manos Limpias don't get very far. However, in this instance it seems that the judge leading the panel studying the accusation against Garzón is an honorary patron of the DENAES (the Foundation for the Defence of the Spanish Nation), another far right organisation which has been critical of any attempts to re-examine the events of the Civil War and the dictatorship. So the case has been put in motion, although it seems that the state prosecution service will not be lending their support to it.

Whether or not Garzón had the right to take the case as far as he did is a controversial legal issue, eventually it was ruled that he was not competent to proceed with the case. Even though his fellow judges ganged up against him to more or less bring an end to the issue, there were still a significant minority of judges who voted against this move. The real target in this case is not necessarily just Garzón, it is a message to any judge who might get the idea that crimes committed under Spain's dictatorship are as worthy of judicial investigation as those committed in countries far from home. That those who attempt to lift the lid on what happened during that period should be subjected to judicial persecution is surreal.

Scandal In Madrid....Aguirre Obeys The Law!

2009-06-04T22:34:00.002+02:00

Although some think that I do it with malice aforethought, it's not for nothing that Madrid's president is known as Santa Espe (de Mumbai). Esperanza Aguirre came to the rescue today of those who have fallen on hard times recently, by announcing in a press conference that the unemployed who were no longer eligible for their unemployment benefit would still be allowed to receive free healthcare in what remains of Madrid's formerly public health service. Sounds almost excessively generous, perhaps she will pay for it from her own meagre salary or from the abundant resources of Fundescam? Annoying though details can be, it seems there is a tiny flaw behind this apparent act of generosity; the law states that those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits cannot be denied health care. It's not something that the autonomous comunidades can decide for themselves. Much as she will probably hate it, The Outlaw Espe has been caught in a rare instance of obeying the law. Let's hope it's not the beginning of a trend.

Via NetoRatón 3.0

European Elections 2009....Still Unsure How To Vote?

2009-06-01T20:08:00.003+02:00

The opinion polls published over the weekend in Spain show the Partido Popular with an advantage over the PSOE with only one week of the campaign left. Whether this advantage is big enough to give the PP a clear victory is open to doubt, especially now that El Mundo has decided that anything less than a five seat advantage for Mariano Rajoy will be considered a failure. The estimates on participation suggest that it will not be much over 45%. Europe doesn't get mentioned very much, and the main campaign issue between the two major parties is whether flying to your campaign meetings in a military jet is better than using the same service to go on holiday or to your daughter's wedding.

For those who are intending to vote but still unsure who to support, South of Watford comes to the rescue by recommending the EU Profiler. Unfortunately, in my case I didn't end up very close to any of the parties, but maybe you'll have better luck.

Génova Vice

2009-06-01T09:24:00.002+02:00

An action packed blockbuster featuring many of your favourite characters....

via A Sueldo de Moscú

Six Routes In Ponga And The Picos De Europa

2009-05-31T13:21:00.012+02:00

Tell most Spanish people that you are going to spend a holiday weekend in Ponga and the chances are that you'll get the kind of look that says "just what is this idiot guiri trying to tell me now". Yet the Parque Natural de Ponga lies just beside the much better known Picos de Europa. We went there for the May 1st puente, to do a weekend of walking in fantastic surroundings. Ponga still seems to be living in another age, with tiny villages located in what were once almost inaccessible river gorges. The terrain justifies the description "complicated", and as with much of Asturias the differences in altitude between the valleys and the surrounding peaks are impressive. A tough place to live, and the area has traditionally been one of emigration.

Our base for the weekend was the small town of Cangas de Onis, which I liked a lot although the number of shops selling regional products suggests that in summer it can be a lot more crowded. Try some of the local cheeses, it's not just cabrales country. A perfect way to relax in Cangas after a hard days walking is to head down to the terraza by the roman bridge and order a bottle of cider. The food in the restaurants is good, filling and reasonably priced. Given the proximity to the Picos, I've included the routes we did on the map I prepared in 2007 of routes in the Picos de Europa. At this rate I only need another couple of hundred years to have the area well and truly mapped. Click on each route on the map for a description.

View Routes in the Picos de Europa and Ponga

Day 1 was a relatively gentle route known as Las Hoces del Río Pendón. It's a circular route starting from the well known mineral water spring of Fuensanta. Just us, the cows, and the Picos de Europa in the distance.

Day 2 was tougher, although with all of these routes it's always possible to do part of it and return. The weather was amazingly good, not least because it had rained solidly for the two days prior to our arrival. The views all along the route are spectacular, and for those who find an 1100 metre ascent insufficient, there is always the option of continuing up to Pico Tiatordos.

Day 3 was another simpler route, along the valley of the River Cormenero. We returned to Madrid following the road down from where this route finishes. This road takes you through some of the best scenery of the Picos, including the area round Riaño.

A Chronicle Of Incompetence....The Yak-42

2009-05-29T18:49:00.002+02:00

On the 26th May 2003 a Yakovlev Yak-42 plane carrying 62 Spanish soldiers crashed near the Turkish city of Trabzon. All of the soldiers, who were returning from a mission in Afghanistan, as well as all of the crew died in the accident. The dead soldiers were of course given a solemn state funeral just two days after the accident in the presence of the King of Spain and the prime minister at the time, José Maria Aznar. Much was said about the sacrifice they had made in serving their country.

In the immediate aftermath of the accident much of the attention was focused on the lamentable condition of the plane used to fly these soldiers home, and the nature of the contracts which were signed for transport of troops on missions overseas. Worse was to come, much worse. Months after the accident it was revealed that almost half of those who died were wrongly identified, and that the remains handed over to many of the families of the victims were not those of their loved ones. Some of these families subsequently began a long and difficult campaign to find out what had really happened in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

The campaign was not welcomed, either by the politicians or by the higher echelons of the military. The judges weren't much help either, as the earliest attempts to take the issue through the courts were brushed aside. The arrogance of the response by the authorities only added to the tremendous hurt already felt by those who sought the truth about what had happened. A chain of evasion of responsibility began, starting with the then Minister of Defence, Federico Trillo, who blamed subordinates for the errors. Those subordinates in turn blamed the Turks, there wasn't much concept of military valour in the responses received by the families. Eventually the pressure of the campaign led to the bodies being exhumed and correctly identified, and to the courts finally getting involved.

It emerged that senior military officers sent to organise the recovery of the victims had signed a document in Turkey acknowledging that 30 bodies had not been correctly identified. Only after the judge Grande-Marlaska had been ordered by a higher court to carry out a proper investigation was the path cleared for at least some of those responsible for the handling of the issue to face legal consequences. The officers responsible for organising the return of the bodies were charged with falsifying documentation as none of the formal requirements for repatriation of the dead had been correctly followed.

The trial finished last week and three of those accused were found guilty. The trial itself became a battleground over the attempts to get to the bottom of just why the officers involved were in such a hurry to repatriate the victims of the crash. Despite a widespread suspicion that political pressure was on to hold a quick funeral, the trial judge rejected all attempts to get the politicians involved to give their account. Neither did he seem willing to permit evidence from the Turkish pathologists, only after the families of the victims arranged for these witnesses to travel to Spain did he finally give way. The Turkish evidence was crucial to the case.

There are still unanswered questions about this case, many of them concerning the political responsibilities. Federico Trillo continues to occupy a senior position in the Partido Popular, despite his disgraceful handling of the issue. The man who was happy for anyone except himself to get the blame was quoted after the trial as saying how sorry he was to see his subordinates convicted. The politicans, the military and much of the judicial system would happily have buried this uncomfortable case. It is a tribute to the determination of the families, treated so contemptuously by the accused and their political masters, that we now know as much as we do.

The Ghosts Of Telemadrid

2009-05-28T11:28:00.004+02:00

Telemadrid, misinforming the Spanish capital since 2003, has been having some industrial relations problems recently. There have been a number of 24 hour strikes which have taken the channel off the air, leading to no appreciable decline in programming quality. Distressingly, and I think I've mentioned this before, even when the channel shows nothing more than a blank screen it continues to register a share of the viewing audience. This leaves us with the conclusion that some viewers have perhaps been left paralysed by repeated uncontrolled exposure to images of the Lideresa's activities, and are no longer able to operate the remote control. The current dispute is over plans to sack some of the workforce. There are employees of the channel who have effectively been left without work for some time because of their unwillingness to bow to the political manipulation of Telemadrid's programming. The campaign against these sackings has now taken an imaginative turn, as you will be able to see from these video extracts. The second one is particularly good, as the presenter struggles to explain the reasons for the interruption of coverage.

European Elections 2009....Has Anyone Noticed?

2009-05-26T10:43:00.006+02:00

With the European Parliament elections just around the corner, there is plenty of activity on the part of the political parties in Spain. The only question is how much of this is going to reach a not very enthusiastic electorate. Aware that their voters may be more likely to stay at home than those of the Partido Popular, the PSOE have opted for trying to scare their supporters to the polls. This was their campaign video from last week:

Some polls show the PSOE almost neck and neck with the PP, after the pollsters have made their adjustments - on direct intention of vote the PSOE is usually some way ahead. All of this is a bit worrying for the government as it puts them in danger of losing their best asset....Mariano Rajoy! I still think the PP will win, just because of the greater motivation of their electorate, but Rajoy really needs to get momentum from a resounding victory. Too close a result may just open up the PP's internal divisions again. After all, Rajoy's strategy of relying on the economic crisis to erode support for the government may not be quite so effective if it really does turn out that the worst of the recession has passed. He really needs those unemployment figures to keep making dramatic upward leaps. The PP's candidate, Jaime Mayor Oreja, seems to have forgotten his differences with Mariano in return for being allowed to continue his gilded pre-retirement in Brussels and Strasbourg. Some were surprised that Rajoy allowed him to continue as candidate but it does permit the PP to appeal to their more ultra disillusioned supporters who were being attracted by the nationalist tub thumping of UPyD.

The general expectation is that apathy will win, with a continuation of the trend of ever lower participation in these elections. This will be followed by the ritual couple of weeks of hand wringing about the distance between the voters and the European project, then everything will return to normal. In some ways it's a pity, because the European Parliament is now a force for change, and often not for the better. It seems to have become a place where measures which governments don't really want to present themselves can be quietly passed with hardly anyone noticing. A lobbyists dream, as hardly anyone is aware of what is going on and how their representatives are voting. The recent attempts to legislate on Internet and downloading were a clear indication of how industry lobbies can exercise their influence without it being quite so obvious. Unless it's an issue that really mobilises people to make a noise they can get away with it.