ARCHIVED - Murcian and Spanish news round-up week ending 29th April 2016

Crosses, Cruisers, Cathedrals, Cockfights and of course....Corvera, a week in Murcia

Corvera airport and other infrastructures

Ana Pastor, the Minister for Development in the caretaker national government, visited the Region of Murcia on Tuesday to review progress on various of the important infrastructure projects which are currently ongoing, and although the new airport at Corvera was not on the agenda she found time to confirm that Aena, the State-owned airport management company, will submit a bid for the new contract when it is put out to tender. 

Most of the Minister’s attention on Tuesday was focused on the AVE high-speed rail line and the dual carriageway between Jumilla and Yecla in the northern Altiplano area of the Region. She visited the work on the new rail track at Camarillas, which is in the province of Albacete close to the boundary with Murcia, and informed representatives of the regional government that work the has now re-started and should be complete within 18 months. However, she was careful to avoid forecasting a date for the inauguration of the AVE line in Murcia, and was similarly cautious with respect to the incorporation of Cartagena into the AVE network and the Murcia-Almería line, much of which, of course, is due to the current uncertainty as to exactly who will be running Spain after the second General Election which has been called for June 23rd following the failure to form a government after the elections in December.

This lack of uncertainty makes it difficult for ministers occupying "holding " positions to commit to major infrastructural expenditure which will be financed by central government until a new government has been forned.

As for the A-33 Jumilla-Yecla dual carriageway, Sra Pastor reaffirmed that the funds are in place for the road to be completed as soon as possible, and professed to be impressed with the speed at which progress is being made, even hinting that the project could be completed by the end of 2016.

Elsewhere, work has begun this week on improvements to the RM-314 road which runs from Portmán on the coast of la Unión to Los Belones at the southern end of the Mar Menor, a project which will make the road which leads to La Manga Club safer not only for motorists but also for cyclists and pedestrians.  A budget of 2.4 million euros has been laid aside for improvements which include the installation of four roundabouts, the widening of the cycle lane and the construction of 2-metre-wide pavements for pedestrians. In all, the modification of the road will increase its width from around 6 metres to between 17 and 18 metres.

On the western shore of the Mar Menor the latest contribution to avoiding the runoff of toxic substances into the saltwater lagoon was officially opened on Monday, when regional and local dignitaries inspected the new stormwater tank in the town of Los Urrutias. The tank, which is designed to receive excess water in times of heavy rain and can hold up to 3,000 cubic metres of water, will not only syphon off substances from the agricultural land which lies behind the town, but will also contribute to reducuing the risk of flooding in Los Urrutias.

Economic news

The Active Population Survey for the first quarter of 2016 shows that the number of people in work in Spain fell by 64,600, but in the Region of Murcia the figure rose by 1.06% to 542,000, the best result in any of Spain’s seventeen regions and one of only five increases.

This means that over the last year 28,700 more jobs have been created in the Region, with the 5.58% increase being the second highest in the country behind the 7.7% of the Balearics, although at the same time the positive results in these regions can be partly attributed to Easter falling in March this year. providing more jobs in the services sector.

In terms of the number of people out of work, Murcia is also one of the best performers over the last twelve months. At the end of March the figure stood at 153,800, 17.72% lower than a year ago and an improvement which is bettered only by the Basque Country.

On the other hand, the crisis in the pork meat sector continues, and it is reported that many pig farms in the Region of Murcia are being forced out of business by falling prices and competition from other EU members where costs are lower and development is more heavily subsidised.

Tourism

Data produced by the national government’s central statistics unit show that the hotels of the Region of Murcia enjoyed their best first quarter ever in terms of foreign visitors in the first three months of 2016, and that the amount of domestic tourism also grew in the same period.

Certainly the figures will have been boosted by the fact that Easter fell early this year, but even so the increase of 13.1% compared to the same period last year is an encouraging one. While the figure for international tourists is the highest yet recorded the domestic total is also the best since 2008.

In Mazarrón the tourist sector is being boosted slightly by the arrival of groups of 40 Danish tourists every week as the result of an agreement which has been reached with tour operator Gislev Rejser, with parties arriving from now until the end of May and again in September and October, and in Lorca the new tourist office was officially opened on Wednesday morning in the Plaza de España. The expectation is that the move will enable more visitor enquiries to be dealt with as well as drawing more people into the historic centre of the “Ciudad del Sol”.

Environment and agriculture

The big environmental news in the Region of Murcia this week was the awarding of the contract to regenerate the contaminated bay of Portmán in the municipality of La Unión for the sum of 32.1 million euros to a consortium formed by Ciomar and Marco, with work expected to begin in the near future and last for 46 months.

After various false starts this has been greeted as “magnificent news” by Francisco Bernabé, the minister for Development and Infrastructures in the regional government.

The work to be undertaken consists of bringing the Mediterranean 250 metres closer to the town, thus removing just under half of the enormous landfill from illegal dumping of mining by-products in the 20^th century, and approximately 2 million cubic metres of materials will be removed and transferred to the old open-cast mine of San José in the mountains of the Sierra Minera.Hopes are high that this time, the regeneration may finally happen.

Just along the coast in the regional park of Calblanque the regional government has announced that it intends to re-start activity in the old salt flats of Rasall, within the boundaries of the regional park of Calblanque, Monte de las Cenizas y Peña del Águila, providing benefits to the wetland bio-system of the area.

The Rasall salt flats occupy an area of 18.2 hectares at the eastern end of the park, and are home to a variety of wildlife including invertebrates, bird species such as the Adouin’s gull, the flamingo, the common shelduck and the stilt, the Spanish toothcarp and the natterjack toad.

Meanwhile in Mazarrón a million euros are to be invested in an experimental program concerning the adaptation of plant life to climate change  over a five-year period in the Sierra del Algarrobo and Llanos de Ifre, both woodland areas in the municipality.

Elsewhere in the countryside 86 explosive devices were deactivated by the Tedax bomb squad of the Guardia Civil after they were found in Cieza, some of them in an old rural property and others in a truck-load of potatoes, and in Jumilla an unfortunate motorcyclist had to be taken to hospital in Murcia after he was injured on the RM-714 road in a collision with a wild boar.

Castles, cathedrals and cockfights in Cartagena

Among the news items in Cartagena over the last seven days two ruined monuments have been prominent, namely the old Cathedral and the Castillo de los Moros.

On Monday José López, the Mayor, and Bishop José Manuel Lorca visited the cathedral together to inspect its current condition, and the Mayor pointed out that this is the only Cathedral in Spain which has not been fully restored following bomb damage in the Civil War, which ended 77 years ago. He has therefore made a request to the Bishop for the Cathedral of Santa María, popularly known as the Catedral Vieja, to be restored and used as a place of worship.

At the Castillo de los Moros, meanwhile, access for motor vehicles was cut off on Wednesday by means of stone blocks placed there by council workers. The hope is that this will dissuade potential opportunists looking for building materials to contribute to the already advanced deterioration of the castle, which was occupied by James FitzJames, the 1st Duke of Berwick, to combat the forces occupying the Castillo de la Concepción during the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century.

Also in Cartagena, the Policía Nacional raided an illegal cockfight in the Lo Campano district of Cartagena on Sunday morning, taking note of the identities of around thirty people who were present and confiscating three birds which have since been placed in the custody of the Town Hall.

Historical Memory Law

The names of five streets in Totana are being changed this week in accordance with the requirements of the 2007 Historical Memory Law, which states that symbols of extolling General Franco’s dictatorship and his part in the Civil War are removed from public places.

For a transition period the new ceramic tile street signs will be in place alongside the old ones, giving all those concerned time to adapt 

Lorca road tragedy and other emergencies

Five north Africans lost their lives on Tuesday morning on the motorway between Lorca and Águilas, where they were due to spend the day working in the fields, when the van in which they were travelling left the road and crashed into a bridge. 

The accident occurred at approximately 7.20 at kilometre 12.2 on the RM-11 and it is thought that it was caused by the driver falling asleep at the wheel. Grieving relatives have bemoaned the long and tiring hours which are worked by immigrants in the fields of Murcia, blaming the accident on exhaustion. 

1,500 workers were evacuated from the main plant of El Pozo in Alhama de Murcia on Tuesday when a fire broke out at the factory, causing considerable alarm as an impressive pall of black smoke darkened the sky, but despite the spectacular nature of the emergency no injuries were reported.

Firefighters were also called out on Tuesday afternoon to the Rambla del Esparrillar near Casas de Tallante, in the west of the municipality of Cartagena, to deal with a fire which consumed undergrowth and palm trees, and the Guardia Civil has confirmed that two people are under investigation by the Guardia Civil for alleged negligence which resulted in forest fires which affected over 1,000 square metres of land in the municipalities of Archena and Abarán in February. 

Crime

At least seven people were arrested on Wednesday during a Policía Nacional operation to dismantle a drug trafficking ring in La Manga and the Mar Menor area, with detentions taking place in Playa Honda, El Algar and Los Belones as well as in La Manga del Mar Menor itself.

As many as 120 officers are reported to have been involved in the swoop, and as well as the ringleader of the group, who was found to be in possession of 150 grams of cocaine, the others arrested include his father and two married couples.

Book Day

An eye-catching commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes took place on Saturday in the Plaza de Santa Catalina in the centre of Murcia, where the façade of the Museo Ramón Gaya was decorated with numerous front covers of “El Quijote” and portraits of the author who created what is arguably Spain’s greatest literary masterpiece.

This was among hundreds of events marking World Book Day in the Region of Murcia, and the front covers donated for the purpose by collector Diego García López remained in place all weekend. Others were hung like leaves from the trees in the square, along with more portraits of Cervantes

Murcia and its foreign residents

For the first time in 20 years the population of the Region of Murcia fell in 2015, albeit by only 2,848, and the official figure now stands at 1,464,440.

The population decreases in Murcia and in Spain can be attributed largely to a decrease in the number of non-Spaniards resident in this country. In the Region of Murcia the figure fell last year from 208,355 to 200,714, although the trends regarding different nationalities are different.

By far the largest foreign population consists of 77,166 Moroccans, but the British population of Murcia fell during last year from just over 16,000 to just under 14,000 (although it has to be remembered that many British homeowners spend long periods here without being officially resident), while the Rumanian population dropped by 4% to 12,467.

Elsewhere, the high concentrations of non-Spaniards in some parts of Murcia are reflected in the fact that at the San Cristóbal primary school in Lorca headmaster Ginés Díaz reports that 62% of the pupils do not have a sufficient level of Spanish to be able to teach them. There are currently 546 pupils enrolled at the school, and Sr Díaz claims that 330 of them who are from various African nations and another 12 from European nations “do not speak Spanish”

Murcia-born Pope Gregory XVIII abdicates

54-year-old Sergio María Ginés Jesús Hernández, who hails from Mula in the north-west of the Region of Murcia, has abdicated from the Papacy of the Palmarian Catholic Church which is based in El Palmar de Troya, a village near Utrera in the province of Sevilla, to spend more time with an activities monitor in Monachil who is reported to be his sentimental partner.

Better known to his followers in the schismatic Palmarian church as Pope Gregory XVIII, Sr Hernández was made Pope by the sect in 2011 but has now left the Church abruptly, without even bidding farewell to his followers.

For those who are not aware, the history of the Palmarian Church goes back to 1968, when it was claimed that a group of schoolgirls had seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary on farmland near El Palmar de Troya. Follow the link above for further details of a Church which venerates Adolf Hitler and general Franco as saints!

What’s on in Murcia

A separate What’s On across the Murcia Region bulletin is sent weekly to those who would like to receive it, detailing the many events on offer across Murcia in the near future.This week there are stacks of events on offer, including the Running of the Wine horses and Moors and Christians in Caravaca de la Cruz, Los Mayos in Alhama de Murcia, Fiestas of the Cruz in Abanilla, Fiestas  in Yecla, Romerías in Águilas, Calasparra and Moratalla, DJ Festival in Cartagena,Feria de Abril and race from the Air Academy in San Javier, Kitesurfing and stand-up-paddle festival in La Manga, Mediaeval market in Alhama, free piano concerts in the open-air in Murcia City, and loads more!

Click here to see the latest What’s On Bulletin

Murcia Property News

A significant step forward has been made in the fight for justice for 1,500 people who purchased off-plan properties at the Trampolín Hills Golf Resort in Campos del Río, with a Valencia judge ruling that two of those affected must be paid back their deposits by Caixabank under the terms of bank guarantees issued.

The Trampolín Hills development was to be located on land in Campos del Río where building is not permitted, and the case which has been heard in Valencia concerns two of the purchasers. 

Elsewhere, in the national mortgage statistics for the month of February the Region of Murcia showed the fourth most significant increase: the 725 mortgages constituted were 27.2% more than in February 2015, a rate of growth exceeded only in Extremadura (56%), the Canaries (55.8%) and Castilla-La Mancha (29.4%).

Murcia property page: www.murciapropertypage.com

See some of the latest properties listed on the Murcia property Page:

Spanish news round-up

After only three months it appears that for the eleventh legislature of the Spanish government since the end of the dictatorship it’s all over bar the shouting, and there is likely to be plenty of that over the next two months: the country will now hold a repeat general election on 26^th June after King Felipe dissolves parliament early next week, and pre-campaigning has already begun as each of the major parties holds the others responsible for the failure to form a workable government after the election on 20^th December.

Acting President of the government Mariano Rajoy asserted on Sunday and Monday that he is ready, willing and able to lead the PP through the next two months, but speculation is growing in the press that should results not go his way in June, he may be ready to step down and hand over the party leadership to someone else, particularly if this is the condition stipulated by Ciudadanos to form a potential governing alliance.

Sr Rajoy has become inextricably associated with the numerous corruption scandals which have rocked the PP over the last five years. One of the latest concerns former Valencia Mayoress Rita Barberá, who this week was upset when a slogan reading “Rita corrupta al paredón" was painted next to the main entrance door to the building in which she lives. The phrase translates roughly as “Corrupt Rita to face the firing squad”, and has been reported as a death threat by the former Mayoress.

That another election is inevitable was confirmed by the latest round of meetings between the political leaders and Felipe VI, and although none of the politicians admits to being disappointed polls suggest that the Spanish public is distinctly disenchanted with their failure to reach any working compromise deal: polls suggest that turnout this time round will be significantly lower in spite of the urgent necessity to swear in a working government.

Possibly the last act of the 11th legislature will be to debate and approve the prolongation of the 426-euro-per-month supplementary benefit which is received by those among the long-term unemployed who have family commitments. Assuming it is passed on Thursday, this will most probably be the only legislation with the status of Real Decreto (royal decree) to have been implemented since the general election in December.

Economic news

While the political situation in Spain remains unclear, at least some of the economic data appear to suggest that the country’s economic recovery is continuing and the latest quarterly Active Population Survey, which was published on Thursday morning, contained positive results.

The first quarter of the year is almost always a poor one for employment in Spain, with the number of people in work falling and the number of unemployed rising correspondingly, but between 1st January and 31st March 2016 this trend was significantly less marked than in previous years, and the number of people in work fell over the three months by only 64,600 to 18,029,600, according to the survey.

The unemployment rate is now 21%, as opposed to 23.78% a year ago, and over the last year unemployment has fallen by a creditable 12% (or 653,000).However, this is still four times that of the UK and Spain remains right at the top of the European unemployment league table, beaten only by Greece.

The data also reveal that the number of households with no regular work income has dropped by 10.2% over the last 12 months, and that the figure for unemployed under-25’s has fallen over the last twelve months from 51.36% to 46.49%. However, the effect of emigration on this percentage should not be forgotten: a telling statistic showing how hard it is for young people to find a job is that while this age group accounts for almost 14% of Spain’s unemployed, they represent only 4.27% of those currently in work.

The solution for many youngsters of course, has been to leave Spain and seek work elsewhere, although concerns continue that should the UK decide to leave the umbrella of the EU, this could affect the open-doors policy for young Spaniards moving to England in search of work. In the UK there are now distinct pockets of Spanish migrants, and paella is as easily available as pork pies in some places!

Tourism news

Another positive sign for the Spanish economy is that the international tourism sector appears to be set for a bumper year in 2016, with the UK market at the forefront of the increase in visitor numbers.

During March the total of 4.82 million visitors to Spain from abroad was the highest ever for the third month of the year, and the number of people coming to Spain from the UK, the largest single market for international tourism in Spain, was a full 25% higher than in March 2015 at 1.12 million, accounting for 23.1% of the total. In March the UK was the leading source of foreign visitors in the Comunidad Valenciana, Andalucía and the Canaries, and was the second largest contributor in the Balearics (behind Germany).

Next week tourism expenditure figures should reflect the contribution made to the Spansih economy by British visitors.

One of the most spectacular tourism successes of recent months has been in the Castellón coastal town of Peñíscola: for many of us the news that Drogo, the dragon of Daenerys Targaryen, has appeared out of nowhere in Daznak’s Pit means little, but for fans of Game of Thrones it means the end of the fifth series and the beginning of the sixth and for local tourist authorities the success of the series puts the town firmly on the map for Game of Thrones fans. Is Jon Snow as dead as a dodo or is he about to undergo a miraculous resurrection: one episode in and the producers are still teasing viewers.

In addition, for the local economies of various towns in Spain it means a huge shot in the arm, with the estimated economic effect of the new episodes having been filmed in this country exceeding 1,000 million euros in Peñíscola.

A little further south, optimism for future growth in tourism is also apparent in Vaelncia, where the port authority has announced that 8 million euros are to be invested in a new terminal specifically for cruise tourism, the aim being to almost double the number of passengers stopping off in the city over the next four years.

Crime and punishment

A large number of crime-related stories have hit the headlines over the last seven days, one of the most commented upon being the case of a 31-year-old off-duty Guardia Civil officer who was arrested on Monday morning in Madrid after allegedly killing a Moroccan driver by firing no fewer than five shots at him with his regulation firearm.

Similarly shocking were the instances of gender violence which occurred last weekend in Catalunya, where there were three separate killings in the provinces of Barcelona and Tarragona. Those arrested were a a 53-year-old homosexual Colombian man who killed his 57-year-old partner a 36-year-old woman from Belarus who stabbed her partner at their home in Barcelona and a 39-year-old Rumanian who handed himself in to the Mossos d'Esquadra after murdering a 47-year-old female compatriot in Tarragona.

Also in Tarragona, the Mossos d'Esquadra (the regional police force of Catalunya) are investigating the violent death of a woman on Thursday, with the first signs indicating that she could have been the victim of a mugger. 

In Madrid, meanwhile, a group of kidnappers and killers who have been described by investigating officers as “evil” were arrested and will face charges related to the kidnap and subsequent murder of 50-year-old businessman José Luis Vázquez Escarpa two years ago. Despite a ransom of 80,000 euros being delivered by the victim’s parents, the kidnappers killed him, dismembered the body and boiled it in order to destroy the evidence.

Also in Madrid, part of the campaign to clean up public parks and pavements is an “excrement map” showing the worst affected areas of the capital. Mayoress Manuela Carmena is also backing a proposal for offending dog owners to be allowed to cancel their fines by opting instead to take on street cleaning duties. The duration of these weekend duties will depend on the payment waived, with a maximum of 28 hours for the worst repeat offenders.

In terms of drugs, the Policía Nacional seized what is reported to be the largest haul of heroin to be intercepted in Europe so far this year close to the border between Spain and Portugal in the province of Pontevedra (Galicia), taking into custody 56 kilos of heroin and arresting twelve people. The drugs, which have a value of almost two million euros, were stashed in various hidden compartments inside a Porsche Cayenne when the vehicle was stopped and searched in the town of Tui.

A similarly important haul resulted from what is being described as the largest ever designer drugs swoop in Spain, in which the Guardia Civil arrested 52 people and confiscated 130,000 doses of illegal substances. The drugs, which are sometimes described as “Legal Highs”, were being marketed under misleading descriptions as “legal euphoria-producing drugs”, “chemical research products”, “plant fertilizer” and even “bath salts”. 

Two issues regarding the moral side of legality and criminality were prominent during the week. One of them involved a gay Spanish national who won a rent-a-womb child custody battle in Thailand with his American husband, while the other concerns a woman who was arrested by the Policía Local of Santander on Tuesday for slapping her 10-year-old daughter and pulling her hair after the girl arrived home from school two hours late.

In a week when the parents of an 18-month-old boy who apparently died from blows to the head, have been in court, this case has caused much discussion, and it certainly illustrates the degree to which the issue of violence is now an extremely sensitive one in Spanish society, with members of the public are more and more keenly aware of the need to alert the police to possible cases of abuse.

Wildlife and the environment

A controversial decision by the Ministry of Industry to authorize a uranium mine in the province of Salamanca (Castilla y León) is to be investigated by the national High Court, following an appeal against the project by ecologist platform groups. 

The uranium project has been proposed by the Australian mining company Berkeley, and consists of extracting uranium from a mine in the small municipalities of Retortillo and Villavieja de Yeltes, close to the border with Portugal, and treating it at a plant next to the site. If it were to go ahead this would be the first active uranium mine in Spain since 2003.

In the province of Alicante, meanwhile, a 42-year-old building worker died on Wednesday at the Aitana Safari park in Penàguila when he was charged by a buffalo while repairing a fence in an area which is not normally accessible to members of the public.

On Wednesday an exciting archaeological discovery was made by chance in Tomares, in the province of Sevilla, where workers digging a ditch for water supply pipes chanced upon 19 Roman amphorae containing 600 kilograms of bronze coins.

Each of the thousands of coins, which date from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, weighs between eight and ten grams, and on one side the figures of the Emperors Maximiano and Constantine are featured, but for the time being only around a tenth of them have been studied and catalogued.

Basque and Catalan separatism

The Basque separatist movement was in the news on various occasions this week, one of them being on Monday when former ETA terrorist Fermín Vila Michelena appeared in court to stand trial for a bombing in Madrid in 2001, but refused to give evidence and attempted instead to quote the lyrics of a song in the Basque language.

In Catalunya, meanwhile, the regional government has made it clear that it intends to continue along the route to independence despite the cordial nature of the meeting between Mariano Rajoy and Carles Puigdemont, the regional president of Catalunya. This climate of civilized discussion has at least led to the reported resolution of five conflictive issues between the two administrations this  week, meaning that the Constitutional Court will not be required to pronounce judgement on the five issues concerned, but sources at the Generalitat (the regional government of Catalunya) dismiss the agreements reached as referring to nothing more than technical details.

This determination to proceed with the process of separation from Spain is reflected to some degree on the way in which the regional government of Catalunya and many of the leading Town Halls appear to be waging war on the Spanish language, favouring the use of Catalan instead.

The authorities in Catalunya repeatedly pay little or no attention to rulings which oblige them to ensure that education is offered in Castilian Spanish, and in addition it appears that the new regional government which was sworn in January has inherited a policy of stricter application of a law which requires signs in the region to be printed in Catalan. 

Last year the regional government’s revenue from fines on companies whose signs were produced only in Spanish came to 140,000 euros, almost three times as much as the 51,350 euros generated in 2014.

Another snippet from Catalunya, although unrelated to separatism, concerns the small town of Sant Jaume de Llierca in the province of Girona, which until now has been almost unique in that there have been no road signs spoiling the appearance of the streets. Unfortunately, though, a growing population and concerns over the safety of both drivers and pedestrians have now led to this policy being abandoned, and close to 100 “stop” signs and others are to be installed in and around the centre of the town at a cost of approximately 20,000 euros.

Immigration and refugees

Over 100 illegal immigrants managed to gain entry into Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta on Sunday, taking advantage of low tide and calm sea conditions to cross the frontier from Morocco by swimming around the headland of Benzú and on Friday morning seven migrants made it over the border fence onto Spanish soil when 150 people attacked the fence in the early hours of the morning.

In Palma de Mallorca, on the other hand, the new arrivals in the news were the first three of 42 refugees who will be relocated over the next few weeks to the Balearics, Two adults and their child spent Tuesday night in the hostel of the Playa de Palma, having arrived not from Syria but from Albania, from where they fled to avoid ethnic persecution.

The family are enthusiastic concerning their new life in Mallorca, and as they settle in the authorities in the Balearics are now awaiting the arrival of 38 Syrian nationals who are currently in Greece and one individual from Pakistan.

Sports news: a footballer, a tennis player and a bullfighter

At Fútbol Club Barcelona there are plenty of reasons to be worried at the moment, despite having scored 14 goals in two matches last week to halt a recent slump, and not least among them is the jet-set party lifestyle of Brazilian star Neymar.

The “problem” with Neymar began in March, when he traveled home to attend his sister’s birthday party. Observers claim that since then his form on the pitch has declined noticeably, and on Saturday, following Barça’s 6-0 win over Sporting de Gijón, Luis Enrique gave the side two days off training, and Neymar decided that he would make use of them by flying to a party in London. Once again the tabloid press followed his visit assiduously, and the fear is that he may follow in the footsteps of Ronaldinho, another Brazilian who was a star at Barcelona before his jetset lifestyle dragged his career downwards. 

Tennis star Rafa Nadal has been in the news almost constantly over the last week or so, notching up his ninth triumph at the Monte Carlo open, announcing that he will be suing the former French Minister for Sport for slander and buying a 3-million-euro yacht. Now, though, amid all of the controversy, he has been named to carry the Spanish flag at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In the world of bullfighting, meanwhile, Manuel Díaz González, the famous bullfighter who was born in Arganda El Rey (Madrid) in 1968, has won his 40-year-old battle to be recognized as the son of Manuel Benítez Pérez, another torero, who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s under the name of “El Cordobés”.

Throughout his own bullfighting career Manuel Díaz has used the same nickname on the grounds that he is the biological offspring of El Cordobés, and on Wednesday his long campaign to be recognized as such finally ended in victory when the result of a second DNA test confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt that Manuel Benítez is his father. As a result, the hot news in the celebrity press in this week is that at last it has been confirmed that El Cordobés is indeed the son of El Cordobés.

Spanish property news

The main property market statistics to be published this week concerned the number of mortgages registered in February, and in short it appears that in terms of loans on residential property purchases it appears that the failure to form a national government over the last four months is not slowing down the recovery of the market.

The total of 24,887 mortgages officially constituted was 15.9% higher than in February 2015, and at the same time the total loan capital of almost 2.7 billion euros was 14.4% higher than a year previously.

More encouraging news emerged from a property seminar this week where analysts from KPMG, Deloitte, N+1 and PwC were in agreement that residential property sales are likely to rise in 2016 by between 10% and 12%, reaching approximately 440,000 transactions with a total value of around 20,000 million euros.

Should it be the case that political uncertainty is affecting the property market negatively then there is still time for this to be reflected in the data for the next few months, but for the time being at least it seems that low interest rates, an increased willingness to lend on the part of the banks, low market prices and the decrease in unemployment are still outweighing the doubts over who might be the next President of the national government.

In the rental market, the latest region to join the list of those attempting to regulate undeclared rentals is Extremadura, where Francisco Martín, the head of the regional tourist board, has announced that steps are to clamp down on the practice. Sr Martín’s argument is that undeclared rental activity represents unfair competition for the 1,370 fully legal rental businesses in Extremadura, and that low-quality rentals damage the image of the region as a tourist destination.

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