ARCHIVED - Murcia and Spanish news round-up week ending 24th May 2019
Local and regional elections on Sunday with major changes likely in Town Halls and the Murcia government
The news in Murcia and the Costa Cálida this week has been dominated, understandably, by the local and regional elections which are being held on Sunday 26th May, and as campaigning ends on Friday before a “day of reflection” on Saturday the only certainty is that there will be major changes in the make-up of the regional parliament and town councils after the results are announced.
Opinion polls suggest that in the Murcia parliament the conservative PP may no longer be the most represented party for the first time since 1995, with the socialist PSOE threatening to take top spot and the likelihood that as many as six groups could claim at least one of the 45 seats up for grabs. At local level it is improbable that a single party will be in the majority in any but the smallest of the 45 municipalities, and with the alliances and agreements needed in order to form a local government this means that all votes are important as the election of a single councillor could influence Town Hall policy for the next four years.
For this reason, those non-Spaniards who are entitled to vote on Sunday are urged to do so: in Mazarrón, for example, four years ago just 500 votes were enough for a candidate to secure a seat on the council with the 21 seats shared by 8 parties, and here as in other municipalities there are issues of great importance which expats feel are being neglected. It is very important that topics such as the problems in Camposol should be addressed, and a few extra votes for candidates who are aware of them could make a huge difference, not only in Mazarrón but throughout the Region!
The resignation of British PM Theresa May today will undoubtedly lead to more uncertainty about the resolution of the Brexit situation and what this means for those of us who have left the UK to live here in Spain. Obviously, most of us here will be affected in some way should there subsequently be a "Hard Brexit" and the composition of our regional government and local councils will also contribute to the final jigsaw which dictates the degree to which a UK Brexit will affect us directly.
Elsewhere this week, there was more bad news for those who are confident that the new Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera will provide an immediate boost to tourism in the Costa Cálida with the news that Ryanair have withdrawn their services to and from Luton and East Midlands airports for the 2019-20 winter season and potentially beyond that as well. Passengers who had already booked seats for the winter of 2019 on those routes have been re-allocated to Alicante flights and the airline offers no explanation for the decision, merely reminding them that Alicante-Elche is only 96 kilometres from Murcia International and advising them of their new flight schedule.
Needless to say, this has not gone down well with most passengers. In most cases, after all, when travellers book a flight to a specific destination at a certain time it is for a reason, and many will have good reason to feel upset about the changes in locations and flight times.
Unfortunately the airline chose to make its announcement on the same day as regional ministers were presenting the new airport to the representatives of 77 airlines in Madrid as part of the ongoing push to open new routes and bring more flights to the region.
Meanwhile, of course, summer is now just around the corner in the Costa Cálida. Temperatures have been up to 30 degrees in the city of Murcia over the last week but it is still too early in the year to say that the hot weather is here to stay for the summer, and on Tuesday there was ample proof as violent thunderstorms brought up to 40 millimetres of rain and hailstones to Jumilla and much of north and central Murcia in just over an hour. A man had to be rescued from the roof of his car after a flash flood in Blanca and more storms threaten on Friday afternoon, but with the weekend set to see maximums in the mid-20s it is a relief to be escaping the late spring heatwaves which can sometimes affect the Region!
Los Urrutias residents angry as foul-smelling mud re-appears on the beach
Frustration is growing in Los Urrutias as access to the sea is again blocked by the mud despite a pre-Easter clean-up on the beaches. Unsure whether to blame the regional government in Murcia or the Town Hall of Cartagena, some residents opt to criticize both, and one is quoted in a Spanish language regional newspaper as saying that at the local and regional election on 26th May they should all be sent “to the thinking chair”.
Their disenchantment with the authorities is increased by delays in other projects designed to attract more people to the beaches.: the construction of the old-style bathing stations which are to be created by the regional government has been delayed by bureaucratic complexities until after the summer, and although the regional government states that the environmental paperwork is “about to be completed”, when that is done further progress will still depend on the Costas department of the national government and the Town Hall of Cartagena allowing it to go ahead.
It was originally planned that the first bathing station would be completed in the autumn of 2018.
Similarly, there is a continuing lack of progress on work to complete the seafront walk, where 600 metres of pavement are still “missing”: it appeared earlier this year that the project could be under way by the summer, but as things stand the Ministry of Ecological transition is yet to put the 1.4-million-euro works contract out to tender. The latest word is that construction will be completed by summer 2020, but after being offered so many promises over the years residents could be forgiven for remaining sceptical until the last stone is laid!
Other stories in the Murcia news this week
Half of the tickets to see Bryan Adams live in Murcia were sold in just one day! The Canadian singer appears at the Palacio de Deportes in Murcia on 3rd December: book NOW before the event is sold out!
Search finds dead body of diver missing off Cabo de Palos: a 60-year-old man disappeared in the Mediterranean near Islas Hormigas on Thursday and his body was found on Friday at a depth of 52 metres below the surface.
Prestigious award for Jumilla winery Bodegas Alceño: Inédita 2014 is one of only 18 Spanish wines to win Grand Gold at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles.
Fighting dog breeders and trainers in Murcia among 23 facing up to 780 years in jail: over 30 dogs were confiscated from a trainer in El Palmar near the city of Murcia in a raid on his property two years ago.
Cement mixer overturns at Jumilla roundabout: only minor injuries for a fortunate driver on the road leading to Yecla.
Driver in hospital after car cartwheels down the mountainside in Puerto Lumbreras: a spectacular accident on the road between Puerto Lumbreras and Almendricos last Friday.
Dead man found covered in blood at Caravaning La Manga: no details concerning the man’s death have yet been released while the Guardia Civil investigate.
Improvements and repairs completed at the Charco del Zorro beauty spot in Jumilla: a popular vote decided on the allocation of 50,000 euros to the project by Jumilla Town Hall, improving facilities at this popular site behind the castle and increasing its attraction as a picnic spot.
Two migrant boats reach the beaches of Cabo de Palos: the first arrived on Monday carrying seven people including a mother and her sick baby, and 8 more Algerians followed on Wednesday night.
Otter on the streets of Murcia! The otter has returned to Murcia due to the cleaning up of the River Segura after becoming disappearing from the city last century.
Improvements under way on access roads in Calblanque: some of the roads were made impassable by the heavy rain over Easter.
7 members of San Javier drugs clan arrested: the family operated from five homes in San Javier and Los Sáez and were in possession of large amounts of drugs and 100,000 euros in cash when the properties were raided.
Unruly children in a Cieza bar will NOT be sold as slaves! A joke sign in a Cieza bar puts the owner and his establishment in the spotlight on social media as he unwittingly pulls off something of a publicity coup!
10-day submarine rescue exercise off the coast of Cartagena: the Spanish navy is highly active in the Cartago 2019 exercise off the Costa Cálida until the end of the month and the King of Spain visited the exercise this week.
19th Mazarrón century water works could be preserved as a historical relic: the structures have been uncovered during work in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento.
Compensation for Totana almond grower after Barbary sheep damage 700 trees: the species has been allowed to remain in Sierra Espuña in limited numbers only but agriculturalists are still upset by the damage caused to their trees.
Spanish ombudsman recommends ban on gambling advertising: awareness of the gambling addiction problem is growing and the council of Torre Pacheco has refused a licence for a salon near a school.
8 arrested in connection with 15 Los Alcázares burglaries: six of those detained are under the age of 18.
Murcia and Spanish property news
For a while now there has been increasing demand for residential property in the Region of Murcia, with sales figures rising sharply over the last two years, and this week at last statistical evidence has been provided to show that that demand may be leading to an increase in the value of homes in the Costa Cálida.
The Ministry of Development’s latest statistical bulletin shows that in the first quarter of this year while the average value of housing across the country rose by 1.1 per cent during the first three months of this year to 1,636 euros per square metre, 4.4 per cent higher than in the equivalent period in 2018, in Murcia the rise between January and March was significantly higher at 2.7 per cent. This was the most significant increase in any of Spain’s 50 provinces, and while the figures show an increase of only 1.3 per cent over the last year the first quarter average of 1,003 euros per square metre is the highest in the Region since late 2013, and there are grounds for optimism that a period of gradual appreciation in value is beginning.
There have been indications lately that a plateau in sales figures may be being reached in the regions of Spain where the recovery started earliest, such as Madrid, Catalunya and the islands, but if this is the case then it is not borne out by regional breakdown of prices provided by these latest data. The sharpest year-on-year rises are reported in Madrid (8.3%), Navarra (7%), Catalunya (5.9%), the Balearics (5.1%), and the Canaries (5%), while at the other end of the scale the only fall is in Extremadura.
Meanwhile, there was further evidence this week that the demand for new housing in Spain in continuing to fuel an increase in construction activity, with the sector now accounting for 5.88 per cent of Spain’s overall GDP, a proportion which has risen from 5.11 per cent in 2014. However, the scale of the slump which began just over a decade ago can be appreciated from the fact that in 2008 the percentage was as high as 10.14 per cent.
Similarly, the number of people employed in the construction sector reached 2.7 million in 2008, before plummeting to only 942,000 five years ago. As the recovery gathers momentum it has now recovered to around 1.3 million, but the sector is still providing only half as many jobs as it did just over a decade ago.
Spanish news round-up: tension and schoolboy antics at the swearing-in of MPs in Congress
Catalan separatist MP Oriol Junqueras is watched by Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, as he passes Pedro Sánchez
Proceedings in the national Congress of Spain on Tuesday during the inaugural session of the 13th legislature made for interesting watching (in the highlights summary, at least), with the overriding impression being at times that it was like watching a large group of children on the first day back at school.
There were certainly a lot of new boys and girls finding their feet, and on a day when the new Speaker (or class teacher) was voted in it soon became clear which MPs are shaping up to be teacher’s pets and which are most likely to be sent to the Naughty Chair.
Bizarrely, the issue of seating formed one of the key points of interest on the day. With members of Congress allowed to sit pretty much where they like on the first day of a new parliament, and the 24 MPs representing the radical right-wing party Vox (its first ever seats in Congress) arrived early and occupied the seats behind where acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sits. The aim appears to have been to ensure that they appeared in images on the front pages of all the newspapers, but the strategy was heroically sabotaged by a PSOE MP, José Zaragoza.
Sr Zaragoza hurried to the chamber on hearing of the situation, and spotting that Javier Ortega Smith, the general secretary of Vox, had temporarily vacated his seat, he promptly sidled in and planted himself in the vacant chair, right next to Vox leader Santiago Abascal. And there he resolutely stayed for the next seven hours, sandwiched between his political enemies and frequently mistaken for one of them until members of the press spotted his presence!
Among the few MPs not able to choose their seats were the four Catalan separatist leaders who had been released from custody while facing trial to take part in the inauguration proceedings. They were kept under close police surveillance, and when they entered they were “welcomed” with shouts of “Fuera! Fuera!” (Out! Out!) by some of the more unruly members of the class (particularly those representing Vox). These cries were repeated during the mandatory swearing of allegiance to the Constitution by each MP, when separatist Oriol Junqueras stated that he complied with the requirement only “out of commitment to the republican cause, as a political prisoner and compelled by the law”. This provoked something approaching apoplectic rage in Albert Rivera, the leader of the Ciudadanos party, who would later launch a vitriolic attack on new Speaker Meritxell Batet for tolerating such outbursts.
And then there then followed a curiously informal session of mingling in the chamber, during which Pedro Sánchez briefly greeted Oriol Junqueras in apparently cordial terms, before Congress gradually emptied. Sr Junqueras and his fellow prisoners were taken back to their cells in the jail of Soto del Real, knowing that there is a strong possibility of them being suspended from Congress in the very near future, and the other MPs made their way back home. No doubt Meritxell Batet spent the evening contemplating the prospect of designing a more conventional seating plan, and wondering whether her experience as a professor of Constitutional Law at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona has equipped her with the strength of character it appears she will need to make a success of her new job!
If the goings-on in parliament managed to distract attention from the build-up to the regional, local and European elections this Sunday, they also faced competition from other items in the national news during the week: in Málaga a Bulgarian man was in critical condition after being attacked by a pack of dogs, a swarm of 80,000 bees was removed from behind a bedroom wall in the province of Granada after their buzzing stopped the occupants of the house sleeping, in the Andes the mummified body of a Spanish mountaineer was recovered 29 years after his disappearance, and in the region of Asturias there has been widespread outrage at the inexplicable presentation to the winners of the women’s regional squash championship of gift packs containing leg wax, electric files and sex toys: by what process the management of Squash Oviedo reached the decision that this would be in any way an appropriate recognition of the achievements of the winners is impossible to imagine!
For more on these and other stories in the Spanish news, scroll down below...
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