Energy Nordic Rotation Home pager banner

Date Published: 06/09/2015

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September

Murcia Today weekly news round-up

To start with, welcome to the new-look pages!
It’s been a pretty heavy summer, but at last the new-look Spanish News Today page has gone live this week, joining the new Murcia Today page which was set introduced during August, offering a fully responsive format, several new sections and a wider choice of good reading for users. The Spanish News Today site now includes sections for International News, UK News and Sports as well as an extended property section.

The sites have been designed to improve navigation and better showcase the vast amount of information held on the sites, as well as the high volume of material which is written every week, with a new scrolling format better suited to the use of mobile devices, such a vital part of modern communication.

This has also created space to position extra features, such as the Menu del Día guide on the Murcia Page, the community section in which club, charity and volunteer information can be better displayed, the new weather search, the new what’s on search and to position our social media pages.

The Murcia Today Facebook page is for all those who would like to receive weather notifications, selected what’s on information and key news stories. Volumes will be kept tight on this page so as not to overwhelm your timeline, so if you’d like to join this one click: Murcia Today Facebook.

We have also added on a new Community Group page. This is for you, the readers, to participate in this product as a group page, and we welcome posts from clubs, charities, groups, those involved in sporting activities etc who would like to encourage more participation or keep the community up to date with their information. It is also for all those who would like to post photos about their area, ask questions or share experiences relating to this region or give information about non-commercial and community events. It’s non-commercial and non-political, a down-to-earth and practical noticeboard which all readers are invited to join and participate in. Click for Murcia Community Group page to join the group.

Finally, we’re adding the same two pages to the Spanish News Today product: one for NEWS NOTIFICATIONS and the other in which you’re all invited to discuss topics relating to living or working in Spain, debate current affairs and share your experiences of living in Spain with a wider, NATIONWIDE COMMUNITY. There are issues which affect all of us: the debate over whether the UK should leave Europe, for example. Have your say and join this wider national group.

Naturally, the heavy workload all these changes have generated, as well as the school holidays and the heat have impacted on the amount of copy produced in the last month, but hopefully normal service can start to resume as the programmers stop causing problems which can only be fixed by laborious article crunching.

For this reason the news element of the bulletin this week is limited and normal service will resume on Monday morning.

Brief summary of Murcia news this last week.
The weather has dominated the news this week: last weekend characterised by the problems of the lingering heat of summer and this weekend by its conclusion. The week began with fire as the cyclists of La Vuelta a ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September España shot through the region and firefighters raced from one area of central Murcia to another extinguishing a series of fires seemingly started by someone intent on blazing their own trail along the course of the River Segura. A pile-up in the Vuelta left one rider in a coma and contributed to the decision of Briton Chris Froome to pull out altogether, extinguishing hopes of claiming that coveted double title of the Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

August concluded with a gasp, the state meteorological agency confirming that the month had indeed been warmer than normal: in fact August was the second hottest recorded since 1941. This has hit the Murcian agricultural sector hard, as the heat has damaged tomato crops, pushing prices upwards.

Midweek the debate about water supply was once again dominating the news as agriculturalists clamoured for a solution to the drought of this summer. Much of the water used by farmers in this area is supplied by the Tajo –Segura canal network which manages the distribution of rainfall caught and stored in reservoirs nationwide, and transferred from the wetter regions of northern Spain down to the drier south. Arguments over how much water is released from the north are a constant feature of Spanish politics, as although there is enough water for everybody in Spain, millions of litres flowing into the oceans every time it rains, water ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September control has been made more difficult by the complicated political structure of having 17 autonomous communities, each with their own regional government.

Neighbouring Castilla La Mancha, which is higher than Murcia and catches more water due to its natural geographical landscape must authorise the release of water supplies from its reservoirs to the drier regions below it of Valencia, Murcia and Almeria ( Andalucía), a source of constant friction, the northern regions maintaining that the southern regions are more prosperous because they take the water which they believe belongs to them. In the south meanwhile, they maintain their actual consumption per head is lower, and much of the water used is destined for tourists from the north who come here on holiday, as well as watering the fruit and salad crops which feed the north. This is all complicated by the problem of desalination, as billions was spent building desalination plants along the coast which are currently working at well below capacity because the water they produce is too expensive to be used by the agricultural sector.

One calculation this week put the true cost of desalinated water at ten times the cost of water transferred from the Tajo system, and although promises were made this week by the national president to look at the cost of desalinated water, in truth, little can be done to reduce the cost as the plants were built using European money, which expressly forbids the water being further subsidised. Although the Murcian regional president raised the thorny issue of the cost of desalinated water with the national president this week during a meeting, there is realistically little chance of this water being sold more cheaply to the agricultural sector. At the beginning of this week the CHS authorised the opening of emergency wells, releasing water for agricultural use from subterranean supplies.

By the end of the week councils were busy clearing drains, and demanding that their ramblas be cleared by the CHS as the first storms touched the north of the region bringing hail the size of golfballs, which smashed windscreens in Moratalla and slightly higher up in Albacete ( just over the border into Castilla La Mancha), killed over 300 flamingoes. All week the weather cooled and on Saturday night torrential storms hit coastal areas of not only Murcia, but also Alicante and Almería, dropping significant volumes of rain in the first real downpours of the autumn.

Other news: Mazarrón found itself as the focal point of regional media attention for the latter part of the week ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September due to a major brawl between two gipsy clans sparked off by two opposing female members arguing in the indoor market. As a consequence of this argument, one person was deliberately run over in the street later in the day and a major fight between the two families broke out, the result being one death, several stab injuries and multiple arrests. Five of those involved remain in police custody.

Unemployment rose in Murcia Region
August unemployment figures were not the best for Murcia, a rise of 2.83% being the second highest percentage in the country.

Cartagena mayor standing up for healthcare
Cartagena council have been on the warpath this week over the ongoing issue of the Santa Lucía and Rosell hospitals. While the former Mayoress was accepting of the partial closures of the Rosell and transfer of services to the Santa Lucía, the new administration have wholeheartedly thrown their weight behind the campaign to restore more services at the Rosell. This week they met with the regional health authorities to ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September discuss options for the future, with a view to ensuring more beds are available in the future.

Elsewhere, the summer holidays having officially concluded last weekend, the region has launched itself into a round of fiestas and ferias. Murcia Feria has just begun (sorry, haven´t been able to translate programme this year due to changes mentioned above and lack of resource, will attempt to do reduced version on Monday) and up in Calasparra the bullruns have also been underway during their annual feria. Interesting little story here, showing how children are brought up with bullrunning as part of their traditions, and in spite of the growing opposition to bullfighting ( which of course, is what happens to the bulls who run in the morning and die in the evening) these encierros and various bull events continue to grow in popularity. It has, however, been a black summer and 12 members of the public have died in bullrunning spectacles this summer.

Murcia property news
News for Murcia was positive this week as figures released by the property registrars shows that property sales in Murcia during the second quarter were 5% higher than in the previous quarter and 4% higher than in ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September the same quarter last year.

The number of mortgages being granted by the banks is also evolving in a positive fashion, the number of mortgages granted 21% higher than during the first six months of 2014. Average loans are also larger, positive news for the Murcian property sector.

Price data is all pointing towards a stabilisation of prices and although there’s no sign of an upward movement in Murcia at the moment, price falls have slowed considerably. This week Tinsa confirmed that Mediterranean coastal properties have fallen by 49.1% from peak levels at the end of 2007, meaning there are bargains to be had for those buying. Recent exchange rates have helped to fuel increased interest in Spain and this week the rate closed at 1.37 Sterling / Euro, which makes prices cheaper for purchasers transferring Sterling to Euros, rates better now than they have been for the last 7 years.

Have a look at some of the good buys available in the Murcia Region via www.murciapropertypage.com which brings together properties from a number of agents and private buyers right across the Murcia Region.

Spanish property news
The property service has now been extended with the addition of the www.spanishpropertypage.com to Spanish News Today site, increasing the range of properties on offer to nationwide level.

The positive property stats this week were also reflected in national figures, the registrars reporting that 335,163 properties were purchased during the first six months of this year, and prices declared on sales nationwide increasing by an average of 5.1%. Non-Spanish buyers are certainly boosting the figures, foreigners accounting for 12.8% of all sales in Spain. The British remain the biggest buyers: over 19% of all sales to foreigners were to British nationals, although other markets are also developing. A separate report highlighted that Belgians, for example, are buying nine properties here a day.

The Tinsa figures again pointed to price stabilisation nationwide and the mortgage figures nationwide were again, positive, reflecting increased lending both in terms of volumes of mortgages and their value. The Euribor started the month at 0.161%, a highly attractive rate for those looking to buy and requiring a mortgage.

Spanish national news
Economy
Just before the end of August figures were released which show that consumers in Spain are once again beginning to release their purse strings and spending more money, a set of statistics echoed by retail sales figures which showed a 4% rise during July. This week consumer confidence stats showed that a feeling of ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September positivity is once again starting to increase the perception of the general public that the Spanish economy is on the road to recovery.

However, unemployment figures released this week showed unemployment rising again during August. The figures can be interpreted in several ways, as although August is traditionally a bad month for unemployment the summer tourist figures show that visitors are spending record amounts and there are more tourists providing work for the tourist sector, so theoretically, there should be a smaller rise than normal. However, this year the rise in unemployment was three times higher than in August 2014, although the overall figure is 8% lower than a year ago, so there is noticeable progress.

However, a story which did achieve quite a bit of press coverage this week was a small ad placed in a newspaper in the Aragón area by a pensioner offering to pay 5,000 euros to anyone who would give his son a job. The pensioner, a retired lawyer, said he couldn´t sit there any longer and watch his unemployed son suffer, “The advert might look undignified, “ he said, “but I lost my sense of shame a long time ago.”

Date for General Election?
This week Prime Minister Rajoy indicated that December 20th was a possible date for the General Election. The PM said there was one other date under consideration and confirmed that the election would take place once the 2016 budget had been approved. During the interview in which he brokered this as a possible date he expressed his opinion that a coalition government would be bad for Spain, being “not the most democratic way to behave.” In Spain, he said, the party which wins the most votes should govern. There is a strong possibility that although the PP are being tipped to maintain power in the forthcoming elections that the size of their majority may well be reduced, and some are even predicting a coalition government, following a major loss of support for the PP in the local and regional elections held in May this year. Electioneering is already well underway, with political meetings taking place across the country. For most foreign residents the elections are of little interest, as we are unable to vote, although the outcome will affect all of us to some degree.

Catalan elections
However, the international, and particularly the financial communities, are extremely interested in the outcome of the regional Catalan elections at the end of September.

This week debate has been endless about the forthcoming regional elections which are being positioned as ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September an opportunity for the Catalan electorate to vote according to their stance on the Catalan separatist issue. The Spanish government maintains that Catalonia will remain part of Spain and refuses to allow a referendum about the independence issue, while Artur Mas continues to campaign for the “right to decide”.

Artur Mas said this week that the Catalan election is a “last resort” and that Cataluña faces a “granite wall of Spanish indifference”. Yet in the same week accusations were hurled at the Spanish government of trying to influence voters following police raids on the headquarters of the CDC party, the current ruling pro-separatist party in relation to a corruption investigation into another cash for contracts scandal. The government were accused of timing the raids to cause maximum political embarrassment, an accusation which was stringently denied. This week is the Diada, the national day of Cataluña, and is expected to be the focal point of election campaigning for both the pro-separatist and nationalist causes, as a result of which the Mayoress of Barcelona has opted not to attend any events. “It’s better to separate things out in my institutional role, “she said this week.

One person who will be there, however, is one of the privileged few selected as an extra for the “Game of Thrones” cult series which started filming series 6 in Girona, Cataluña, this week. Filming schedules made no allowance for the fact that the Catalan national day occurs in the middle of filming and the request for an extra to take the day off so he could attend a pro-separatist march was refused. The final outcome was the replacement of the extra in question and incredulity amongst the followers of the show that anyone could even consider missing a second of being a part of the Game of Thrones legend. The Spanish media, however, saw things differently, and the “unfortunate “ young man was portrayed as a victim.

Weather
The end of summer storms hit central Spain last weekend, the week dawning with images of hundreds of trees uprooted in Madrid and the village of San Asensio in La Rioja caked in mud following a torrential downpour of rain and hail which damaged 5,000 hectares of vineyards just as the harvest was beginning.

But at least the rains dampen dried foliage minimising the risk of fire. This week the big fire was in Galicia, where over 3,000 hectares were burnt in a large-scale fire which started on Sunday and spread at breakneck speed, fuelled by the strong winds which preceded storms elsewhere.

Bulls
This week the 12th death of a spectator in a bull-running event continued to highlight the extensive nature of the bull-related events which are such a major part of summer fiestas in Spain. The death of a spectator on ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September the first day of the bullrun in Cuéllar in Segovia attracted widespread attention, these fiestas being unusual in that the bulls run 5km across country pursued by riders on horseback before reaching the city, at which point they are herded into the streets to run the final kilometre to the bullring. The spectator died at the point where the bulls are funnelled down into the city. However, the next day virtually no coverage was given to the fact that three of the bulls being herded across the countryside were literally run to death, dying before they reached the city. Two more escaped altogether, and although the official version is that only one bull reached the ring, and a further five had to be “sedated”, the image of a dead bull covered by a sheet achieved very little press coverage for the true victims of this festive activity.

This week protestors delivered a letter to Pope Francis asking him to intercede and save the life of the Toro de la Vega which is due to die the week after next, their logic being that the fiestas are celebrated in the name of the Virgen de la Pena yet show little Christian compassion. Next Saturday thousands of protestors will converge on Madrid to join in the “Rompe una Lanza” protest against the act of hunting and killing this bull in the hope of stopping this act of barbaric cruelty. Whether they will succeed remains to be seen as the clock ticks down for Rompesuelas on the 15th September.

Zaragoza firework factory explosion
This week six people died in a major explosion which rocked a firework factory in Zaragoza, in the Aragón region. The factory is one of the oldest and most prestigious in Spain, manufacturing fireworks for export across Europe. Investigators are trying to piece together where the first explosion originated, and at the moment the theory being put forward is that the trigger explosion occurred in an area processing coloured gunpowder, but that the major explosions occurred when two lorries loaded with fireworks ready for delivery were caught in the first explosion, setting off the larger explosion which claimed six lives.

Six people also died on Saturday afternoon when a rally car veered off the track in A Coruña killing six spectators due to excess speed. Three of these were women, two of whom were pregnant, married to another of the deceased. A child also died.

Migrant crisis
Spain, along with other countries in Europe, will be accepting refugees as the migrant crisis deepens, ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September although the major issue this week has been that there is no clear indication from the government of how many refugees Spain will accept. The main driving force behind the campaign to welcome refugees has come this week from the 2 major councils of Madrid City and Barcelona, both of whom are now run by Podemos, and slowly throughout the week other councils have expressed their willingness to take in refugee families. Over 50 councils have now joined the initiative and started creating registers of those offering accommodation, but thousands more are waiting for instructions from central government before embarking on schemes to offer accommodation. There are several major stories about the migrant situation in the International news section, which covers the ongoing crisis. Click for International news section

There are many more stories in the Spanish news section and the site now also incorporates an International news section, main UK news and Sporting news.

Lots more Spanish News stories on www.spanishnewstoday.com

Finally, congratulations to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for 63 years on the throne.

And to Wayne Rooney for equalling Bobby Charltons 49 goal record.

Currency Exchange rate: Get more Menu del Días for your money!"

This week the Pound Euro currency exchange rateclosed at 1.37

This is a good rate, meaning those who transfer their pensions or buy a property across Spain are getting more euros for every pound sterling at the moment than they have for many years. This also makes Spanish property even cheaper for those buying with Sterling, because with the historic currency exchange trading rate for the Pound Euro having been at 1.18 / 1.16 not so long ago, if you exchanged 100,000 Pounds now to Euros you would be over 20,000 euros better off. But rates change constantly, so you need to keep an eye on currency rates if you are planning to make a transfer any time soon.

Click for this weeks currency round up showing the exchange rate between Sterling and the Euro.

If you still use a Bank to transfer money, ask our currency experts for a quote to use a money transfer service, youll be amazed how much more you get for your pounds using this method and its really easy to do!

Click here for a No-commitment quote to transfer money to Spain . Find out how much you can SAVE!

Would you like to receive this bulletin?
If you enjoyed this free weekly round-up, then please forward it on to your friends. If you have received ARCHIVED - Murcia Today Weekly Murcian and Spanish news round-up 6th September this from a friend and would like to have it sent directly, then click Register for weekly bulletin to sign up.

NONE OF THE TODAY PRODUCTS HARVEST, OR SELL EMAILS IN ANY WAY and we GUARANTEE your details will not be passed on, sold, or used for any other purpose, and are maintained in an off-site facility from which you can unsubscribe at any time.

We also welcome contributions from local charities or clubs, including post event reports, news items and forthcoming events. Use the contact us button in the top header to contact our editorial team.

Images: Copyrighted Murcia Today, Reuters and Efe. Full or partial reproduction prohibited.

Murcia Classifieds

Why not give Murcia Classifieds a try?
It,s FREE up to €500 for non commercial ads.

Childs Car Seat

Childs car seat by Mothercare. In Good Condition Suits Children Weight categories, 9-18Kg, 15-25Kg, 22-36Kg

Area:	Murcia Region, Mazarron Country Club
Listed:	September 6th, 2015 11:40am

Area:	Murcia Region, Mazarrón	Listed:	September 4th, 2015 18:05pm

Area:	HOME PAGE, Isla Plana
Listed:	September 4th, 2015 12:02pm

Area:	Mar Menor & Cartagena
Listed:	September 4th, 2015 09:02am

Area:	Murcia Region, Mazarron
Listed:	September 3rd, 2015 11:43am

Area:	Mar Menor & Cartagena, Los Urrutias
Listed:	September 2nd, 2015 15:47pm

Area:	South West Murcia, El Pareton / Cantareros
Listed:	August 31st, 2015 11:50am

Area:	Murcia Region, Corvera/Fuente Alamo
Listed:	August 29th, 2015 16:31pm

Area:	Murcia Region, Puerto de Mazarron
Listed:	August 27th, 2015 15:24pm

Area:	South West Murcia, Camposol
Listed:	August 24th, 2015 14:35pm