Another heatwave this weekend as the Costa Cálida enters the peak summer season

With the first week of July coming to an end the Costa Cálida finds itself in a similar situation to the last week of June, with another heatwave looming over the weekend at yellow alert warnings as forecasters predict temperatures of 39 degrees in almost the whole of the Region of Murcia on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

As ever in these conditions, the importance of drinking plenty of water and juice and avoiding physical exertion during the warmest hours of the day in the afternoon whenever possible cannot be stressed too much, especially for any visitors arriving and maybe being tempted to overdo the sunbathing. Last week the first case of heatstroke in Murcia this summer was reported in the countryside of Calasparra, and in Córdoba a young man died after collapsing from heat exhaustion before another fatality involving a 66-year-old man in Sevilla was reported on Tuesday, and by the end of the week the death toll from heatstroke in Spain had risen to five.

In the meantime, with the summer season now officially under way lifeguard services at the beaches of the Costa Cálida are now fully operational, including those at 26 beaches in the municipality of Cartagena alone, and those manning them will be reinforcing the warnings that it is essential to drink plenty of water and wear high factor sun protection cream!

Of course the high temperatures also bring an increased risk of wildfires, and last weekend there were various blazes in the Region of Murcia, the most frightening of them in the mountains between Cartagena and Mazarrón with others reported near Percheles and in Bullas before a lightning strike caused a scare in Moratalla. There were far worse fires in other parts of Spain, and members of the public are urged to take care dispensing of cigarettes and glass bottles in the countryside.

Another feature contributing to a feeling of déjà vu in the Murcia news this week is that the political future of the Region of Murcia remains uncertain six weeks after the regional election, with the attempts made this week by Fernando López Miras of the PP to be reappointed president of the regional government having been blocked for a second time on Thursday by the members of the far-right party Vox.

Sr López Miras’s candidacy in this week’s investiture debate was based on the assumption that he could secure the support of not only the 16 PP MPs in the regional parliament but also the 6 representing Ciudadanos and at least the abstention of those representing Vox, but despite frantic last-minute negotiations on Thursday evening Vox MPs voted “no”, making it impossible to him to gain a simple majority among the 45 MPs voting.

In the immediate future, what this means is that the Region of Murcia will remain without a government for at least the next fortnight, during which time Sr López Miras will attempt to find a way in which to guarantee himself the support of both the Ciudadanos and Vox parties. Another possibility is that Ciudadanos may somehow be persuaded to form an alliance with the PSOE, whose 17 seats in parliament would thus be sufficient to gain a parliamentary majority, and there is also the chance of a repeat election…

 

Tourism and beach news

Foreign visitor numbers down in Spain in May for the first time in 9 months, British visitors accounted for almost 25 per cent of the May total

Last summer was a relatively disappointing one for the international tourism sector of the Spanish economy last year - the number of foreign visitors was lower than in 2017 in both July and August – and after a more positive winter the data for May 2019 showed a year-on-year decrease, suggesting that a similar trend may be in the offing for the next couple of months.

The fall was of 1.6 per cent over the fifth month of 2018, although as is invariably the case the largest single source of these tourists was the UK, with 1.98 million. This equates to 24.9 per cent of the overall total, a significantly higher proportion than in the previous couple of months, but there were sharper decreases in the figures for Germany, France and Scandinavia.

Extra trains to and from Águilas for summer beachgoers: six extra services a day from Murcia and Lorca in summer 2019.

Defiant Percheles beach landowner vows to continue charging parking fees: battle lines remain firm in the conflict between David López and the Town Hall of Mazarrón.

Specialist disabled bathing assistance this summer at 15 beaches in the municipality of Cartagena including those on the La Azohía and Isla Plana coastline as well as Mar Menor beaches such as Playa Honda: amphibious bathing chairs are available . (other coastal municipalities are offering similar services).

Lifeguard and rescue services in operation at the beaches of Lorca: the beaches of Lorca include picturesque coves and wild stretches of the Mediterranean coastline.

Evening visits to Lorca castle in July and August: music, guided tours and entertainment in the cooler evening air at the Fortress of the Sun.

Roadworks bring chaos to La Manga traffic in the first week of July on what was temporarily "a sticky strip": Cartagena Town Hall explains that the re-surfacing was urgently needed and apologizes for the disruption in one of the busiest weeks of the year.

No doctor at Los Urrutias medical centre as the summer begins: patients had to travel to other surgeries in Los Nietos and El Algar this week and the solution promised by Cartagena Town Hall as of Monday is only partial and temporary.

 

Other items in the Murcia news this week

7.5 kilos of hashish found floating in the Mar Menor: the package was located close to kilometre 2 of La Manga del Mar Menor.

Axe murder victim found in Lorca ditch: the body was already decomposing when found in the rural district of Cazalla.

50-megawatt solar power plant to be built in the Lorca district of Almendricos: the plant will provide enough power to supply 30,000 people.

9 arrested after a series of burglaries in Lorca and Águilas: each of the members of the highly organized group had a clearly defined role.

Canine agility circuit and dog park opened in Torre Pacheco: the new facility is located in the Parque de la Constitución near the town centre.

New La Manga car park brings the number of electric car recharging points in Cartagena up to a grand total of 4! 75,000 euros were spent on creating 33 parking spaces close to the Gola de Marchamalo.

Faustino the blacktip reef shark moves from Murcia to the Oceanogràfic in Valencia: the plan is to introduce the shark to a new mate as he makes room for leopard sharks in Murcia.

Paramount and Polaris World included on list of millionaire tax debts in Spain: businesses owned by the former leader of the Paramount project in Alhama feature heavily in the list of tax debtors.

Wholemeal bread prices could drop in Spain as VAT is cut to just 4 per cent: new bread laws are welcomed by master bakers and consumer associations alike.

Yecla woman killed by falling rock at Mallorca beach: the woman was crushed and her partner suffered serious leg injuries but managed to raise the alarm.

Cartagena Mayoress suspended from PSOE party: Ana Belén Castejón negotiated a power sharing agreement with the PP without the blessing of her party.

Lorry driver dies in Cartagena-Murcia motorway accident: the crash occurred in the mountains just south of the city of Murcia on Wednesday.

Dos Mares mall in San Javier sold for 28.5 million euros: the shopping centre has been acquired by Murcia-born businessman Tomás Olivo.

Unemployment in Spain looks set to drop below 3 million for the first time in 11 years: the June unemployment figures were down sharply in Murcia and the whole of Spain as tourism generates summer jobs.

 

Murcia and Spanish property news

A variety of sources have published data over the last week reinforce the continuing improvement in the health of the Costa Cálida and Murcia market, arguably the most significant of them being the conclusion reached by leading property validation firm Tinsa, who have observed a 2.5 per cent rise in average values over the last twelve months.

This is a slightly lower rate of appreciation than in the country as a whole, but it seems that while the rise in values gradually gathers momentum in Murcia it may be slowing in other areas. This is the case, for example, in Madrid and Catalunya (down to to 5.1 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively).

There is still a great deal of disparity in the variation in regional property values since the peaks reached during 2007 and 2008, according to Tinsa: in Spain as a whole the overall figure is now 34.1 per cent lower than just over a decade ago, but the shortfall by regions ranges from 20 per cent in the Balearics to 52.2 per cent in Castilla-La Mancha (in the Region of Murcia it is calculated that prices are still 45 per cent lower than in early 2008).

Another consultancy firm, Gesvalt, reported during the week that average property values in Murcia had risen by as much as 10.1 per cent, the sharpest in any of Spain’s 17 regions, but until other sources back this claim up it probably ought to be treated with a degree of scepticism!

Meanwhile, across the country the residential construction sector is gradually coming back to life after grinding to a virtual standstill as the real estate market collapsed in 2008 and the following years, and consultancy firm DBK (which belongs to Informa) reports another 11.8 increase in turnover in 2018. This would appear to provide further indication that the excess stock which resulted from the frenetic speculative construction between 2003 and 2007 has now been eaten into sufficiently for the demand from new housing to reawaken, and breakdowns of sales figures reveal that gradually the number of new-builds being purchased is beginning to increase again although they still account for a minority of transactions.

 

Spanish news round-up: wildfires to start a week in which a British man fell to his death while attempting an ambitious selfie at a beach in Orihuela Costa

If the headlines in Murcia this week have been dominated by the failure to form a new government and the summer heat, the same can be said in Spain as a whole but even more so.

While temperatures in the Costa Cálida last weekend reached the high 30s in more northern parts of the country record figures of up to 43ºC were reached, and according to an Aemet study this latest episode is yet another illustration of the phenomenon of climate change. The data analysed show that June heatwaves like the one which hit this country last week are now more than eight times as frequent as in the later years of the 20th century, occurring once every 3.7 years rather than once every 30 years.

At the same time, the episode which marked the end of June 2019 was the most extreme for “at least 40 years”, and partly as a result of the high temperatures serious wildfires broke out in Toledo and Madrid to add to the damage caused by a slightly earlier one in Tarragona. In all over 10,000 hectares of land were affected in these three areas, and the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) reported that the spate of fires made it necessary to mount its largest ever simultaneous operation in various locations, deploying 725 staff and 191 vehicles as it takes part in the efforts to halt the spread of the flames.

A further similarity between the news in Murcia and Spain is the continuing lack of a national government 10 weeks after the general election: a repeat election is gradually looking more and more likely, although a poll published this week suggests that this would result in more sweeping gains for the PSOE party and this could cause other groups to be more willing to reach compromise agreements.

Also this week, the government confirmed that the number of unauthorized migrants reaching Spain so far this year is 23 per cent lower than in the first half of 2018, due largely to an increase in collaboration with the Moroccan authorities,

Elsewhere a Guardia Civil officer was arrested and spent his first night in captivity in the cells of the headquarters where is employed (for the time being, it can be assumed) after he was found to be collaborating with drug smugglers near Gibraltar, and a diplomatic row broke out between Spain and the smallest sovereign state in the world, Vatican City, when the ambassador of the latter in Madrid criticized the Spanish government for effectively bringing General Franco back to life by its controversial plans to exhume the mortal remains of the dictator and re-inter them in more modest circumstances.

75-year-old Archbishop Renzo Fratini, who left his post on Tuesday, made his controversial statements in an interview granted beforehand to Europa Press, expressing the opinion that behind the government’s policy is an ideology belonging to “people who want to divide Spain again”. In his view “it is dangerous to judge history using the mentality of today”: “some people call Franco a dictator, others say he liberated Spain from a Civil War – let’s not keep arguing over whether he was right or wrong”.

Finally, a sad sign of the times at the beach of Punta Prima in Orihuela Costa (Alicante), just short drive from the northern end of the Mar Menor. A British man died and a friend of his was seriously injured on Wednesday when they fell from a height of around 10 metres, apparently while attempting to take as impressive a “selfie” as possible.

The beach at Punta Prima is a narrow strip of sand which is sheltered on the north-western side by a steep cliff, over the edge of which they were leaning when the tragedy occurred. One of them died on the spot while the other was airlifted to hospital in Alicante by helicopter.

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