ARCHIVED - Murcia and Spanish news round-up week ending 28th June 2019
Murcia set to sizzle in 40-degree heat over the weekend!
There is little doubt about the hottest topic in the Region of Murcia and the Costa Cálida as the arrival of the first heatwave of the summer pushes the afternoon up towards 40 degrees and Aemet have issued a yellow alert for extreme heat on Saturday.
By Thursday the maximum had already reached 37 in Jumilla and highs of 39 or 40 are likely on both Saturday and Sunday before a little relief is expected at the start of next week. For once, though, Murcia is not suffering the worst of the heat, with northern and central Spain expected to see the highest temperatures, although on Thursday a temperature of 43.3 degrees was recorded in La Almunia de Doña Godina in the province of Zaragoza; as in numerous locations the highest ever June temperatures were reported.
As ever, it is important to stress once again that over-exposure to the heat can be very dangerous, particularly for those not accustomed to such conditions: physical exertion in the sun is to be avoided whenever possible and the authorities recommend drinking plenty of water and fruit juice to avoid dehydration.
As the school holidays start all over Spain and the peak season begins on the Costas there are plenty of related stories in the news. The first case of heat stroke in Murcia this summer was reported on Thursday when a man was taken to hospital after collapsing whilst working in the fields of Calasparra, warnings have been issued reminding drivers not to leave passengers or pets in cars parked in the sun as the temperature inside can rise to 70 degrees – there was a brief panic in Murcia on Wednesday before a baby was rescued at a petrol station - and extra traffic police are on duty in the Costa Cálida as hundreds of thousands of Spaniards head for the coast for the summer, with 4 million long-distance road journeys expected to include the Region of Murcia between now and 1st September.
At the same time outdoor municipal swimming pools are opening to the public throughout the public as the summer kicks in - this week it’s the turn of those in Totana and Alhama de Murcia, among many others – and the summer street markets begin next week on the coast in La Azohía, Los Urrutias, Islas Menores, Isla Plana and Los Nietos, while in San Pedro del Pinatar the 8-strong beach policing unit of the Policía Local is starting to patrol the 13 kilometres of coastline, the same story being applicable for the other coastal municipalities.
In addition, for those seeking the air conditioning in shopping malls this weekend, the start of the summer sales season provides another great excuse to get out of the sun!
Image showing discolouration of Mar Menor taken down from emergency services official Twitter account
The condition of the marine environment in the Mar Menor continues to be the subject of some concern as the heat turns on, as was highlighted on Thursday by the publication of an aerial photograph on Twitter by the Region of Murcia 112 emergency services coordination centre.
The image, which was taken close to Los Urrutias and Punta Brava, clearly shows discolouration of the water close to the inland shore of the lagoon but was removed from the Twitter account as soon as negative comments began to appear.
Continuing uncertainty over the next Murcia government
Just over a month after the regional election on 26th May it appeared practically certain earlier this week that the next government of the Region of Murcia will consist of a coalition between the PP, who have been in power for the last 24 years, and Ciudadanos, following the signing of an agreement between the two parties on Monday, only for the far-right wing group Vox to throw spanners into the works as next week’s presidential investiture debate looms.
By the terms of this PP-Ciudadanos agreement Fernando López Miras of the PP will remain as president of the regional government, but there will be plenty of changes in terms of the heads of department in that government, with Ciudadanos taking four of the ten ministerial posts at the head of government departments as well as the role of government spokesperson. At the same time, the responsibility of the department of Tourism, which is to be re-located to Cartagena, will be shared between the two parties.
But with 16 and 6 seats respectively the PP and Ciudadanos fall just short of an overall majority of the 45 members of parliament, and Vox are unhappy that they have been left out of the coalition, principally as one of the demands of Ciudadanos. During the week national leaders of Vox indicated that the party could yet jeopardize the PP-Ciudadanos alliance when they announced that they are breaking off all negotiations with the PP, raising the intriguing possibility that they could vote against Fernando López Miras in the investiture debate along with the PSOE and Ciudadanos – in that case the “nays” would outnumber “ayes” by one.
If that were to happen, Ciudadanos, who maintain that they will not contemplate an alliance which includes Vox, could switch allegiance to the PSOE, who polled most votes at the regional election on 26th May and won 17 seats in the regional parliament: with their 6 MPs the arithmetic would be favourable to such a pact.
At the moment, though, that is mere speculation. What is certain is that whoever forms the next regional government it will not have been without making significant compromises, and that although the PSOE won a historic victory in the regional election last month the “old days” of the two-party system and overall majorities appear to be a thing of the past.
Other items in the Murcia news this week
Parking controversy continues at Percheles beach in Mazarrón: a local landowner charges 3 euros for car parking and 5 euros for motor homes while the new Mayor insists that this is illegal.
2.5-metre albino python captured on the street in Guadalupe: no-one has claimed the snake and it is being held at the zoonosis centre.
Murcia government deficit is already 6 times over the limit set for 2019: the deficit reported at the end of April is the second highest among the 17 regions of Spain.
3.8 mbLg earthquake shakes Lorca, Águilas and Puerto Lumbreras: the Teatro Guerra theatre in Lorca was evacuated last Saturday evening as residents left their homes in the rural districts of Purias and Campillo in a state of some alarm, and the locations where members of the public reported the tremor to the authorities included Cartagena, Águilas, Puerto Lumbreras, Puerto de Mazarrón and various in the province of Almería.
Slovakian woman drowns at the beach in La Manga: three bathers got into difficulty at Playa Galúa last Saturday afternoon.
Red flag at Benidorm beaches as Portuguese men o’war spread to the Costa Blanca: seven treated for stings after the incidents last week in the Region of Murcia.
Tiger mosquito warnings reiterated with the insect present in at least 35 of the 45 municipalities in the Region of Murcia: the authorities are keen to raise public awareness despite reported chikungunya cases in Alicante turning out to be an “unfortunate error”.
Serial burglar caught red-handed in La Manga: a second robber escaped after a chase along the beach but the search is still on…
Cartagena port authority opens new walking route on Punta de Aguilones: a 6.8-kilometre walk with panoramic views of the bay of Cartagena.
142 incidents related to San Juan bonfires in the Region of Murcia: almost half of the incidents occurred in the municipality of Cartagena, 22 of them involving the mystifying craze of setting fire to the rubbish collection bins in the streets.
Barbary sheep rescued from the Tajo-Segura water supply canal: the animals were rescued from the water near Ojós in the Ricote valley.
Almost 10 per cent of Spain’s solar power is generated in the Region of Murcia: the electricity produced is enough for half of the homes in Murcia and more plants are being created.
Annual dig ready to start at the Cueva Negra in Caravaca: evidence has been found at Cueva Negra of the earliest manmade fire in Europe as well as evidence underlining the relatively advanced processes of working with flint and other materials. In addition, the remains of numerous mammals both small and large have been found, inclouding extinct species of rhinoceros, mammoth, bison and giant deer.
Driver seriously injured in collision near Santomera reservoir: the woman had to be freed from the wreckage of her car on the RM-423.
Mazarrón greenway linked to the town centre: 1.3 kilometres of footpath and cycle lane improve access to the Vía Verde de Mazarrón.
Seaweed lorry overturns on the mountain road between La Azohía and Cartagena: the road was partially closed in Cuestas del Cedacero while the truck and the seaweed were removed.
New motorway service station and rest stop on the A-7 near Alhama de Murcia: the new facility on the north-eastbound carriageway complements the one which recently opened on the other side of the road.
Spanish inflation rate dips to the lowest in 3 years: the retail price index is just 0.4 per cent higher than a year ago.
The remains of Moorish Murcia which can be visited in July are 100 years older than was thought: tests carried out in London date the inn and stables in San Esteban to around the year 1050.
Bryan Adams concert in Murcia already 80 per cent sold out: half of the tickets for the December gig were sold within 24 hours of their going on sale.
Murcia and Spanish property news
Two interesting sets of statistics were published during the week, both of them reporting downturns in activity in the Region of Murcia which are doubtless due to the extended Easter holidays during April in the regional capital.
On the one hand, in Spain as a whole the effect of Easter falling in April this year had no negative influence on the number of new homes for which building licences were issued, with the figure climbing by 36 per cent in comparison to last year and the residential construction sector having recovered to more than double the level where it bottomed out in 2014.
In Murcia, though, it is hoped that the decrease during the month of 43 per cent is attributable to Easter, or is a blip, and the indications are that this is probably the case. The longer-term view shows that here too there has been a sharp rise in the last few years, although both in the Costa Cálida and in Spain as a whole the numbers are far lower than at the peak of the speculative boom in 2006 and 2007.
Earlier in the week more figures relating to April showed that the number of Spanish residential properties on which mortgage loans were taken out in April was just 0.1 per cent lower than in the fourth month of 2018, very much in line with the fact that the number of sales registered fell by 3.1 per cent in a month which was shorter than last year in terms of working days. But again the Costa Cálida stood out for the wrong reason with the sharpest falls being reported in the Region of Murcia (-25.8 per cent) and the Balearics (-22.4 per cent).
At the same time, the average loan capital per mortgage in Murcia during the month was up by 1.8 per cent to 80,731 euros, the fourteenth consecutive year-on-year increase, and although caution should be exercised when drawing conclusions from this statistic as in Murcia it is currently extremely volatile, a long-term upward trend can definitely be said to be emerging.
Spanish news round-up: record June temperatures as wildfire rages out of control in Tarragona, and a poignant Civil War story which puts the current political manoeuvring into perspective
In Spain as a whole the big story of the second half of the last week has been the heatwave which has pushed temperatures up above 40 degrees in the northern half of the country and well over 35 in almost all areas, and on Wednesday afternoon a large forest fire broke out in the province of Tarragona in the south of Catalunya.
It is believed that the fire started in a dung-heap on a farm in La Torre de l'Espanyol, and it soon spread to other nearby municipalities as the authorities warned that a further 15,000 hectares or so are at risk. It is hoped that the flames can continue to be contained at the C-12 road, which acts as a firewall, but there is reported to be little chance of the flames being brought fully under control before the weekend. In the meantime, over 6,500 hectares of land have already been affected.
The Region of Murcia has been fortunate in recent years to escape major wild fires, as the above map provided by the Ministry of Agriculture shows, with the majority since 2013 being reported in Galicia in the north-west among allegations of systematic arson.
Coincidentally another large fire, this one at a plastics factory in the province of Cádiz, hit the headlines earlier in the week as a massive pall of smoke caused alarm in Gibraltar, Ceuta on the north African coast and much of the Campo de Gibraltar.
Elsewhere, as the machinations of politicians grow increasingly complicated while Pedro Sánchez struggles to guarantee sufficient support to be re-appointed president of the next national government, many eyes were caught by a poignant story related to the Spanish Civil War which could bring a smile to people’s faces but at the same time tears to their eyes.
Late in 1936 Martín Diaz was just nine months old, the youngest of the four children of 37-year-old Catalina Muñoz Arranz, who lived with her children in a small town in the province of Palencia. When hostilities broke out, though, she was one of the victims of the over-zealous Guardia Civil, who arrested her and hurriedly tried her before another local resident shot her. Her body was buried in the cemetery of La Carcavilla in Palencia along with over 100 others who met similar fates.
It was not until 2011, by which time the burial site had become a children’s playground, that her remains were exhumed and identified, and last Saturday a ceremony was held to commemorate Catalina, with Martín and his elder sister Lucía, aged 95, among those present.
Martín has no memory of his mother, but in a testament to maternal love her skeleton was found eight years ago with his rattle alongside her, and he held it tightly in his hand while Lucía was at last able to cry on the coffin of the woman she last saw as she was taken away in August 1936.
The Civil War may have ended in Spain 80 years ago this April, but this story underlines the fact that there are still those who remember it.
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