ARCHIVED - Murcian and Spanish weekly news round-up 23rd December

Regional Symphonic Orchestra takes Christmas into local hospitals: OSRM brings Christmas cheer

British boat-owner severely injured in Los Urrutias accident:The man partially severed his arm while trying to drag his boat into the Mar Menor after the storm had beached it

Murcian regional government secures further financing to meet immediate payment demands

Political coup in Blanca which now has its first Mayoress: a vote of no confidence after the municipality was described as being in a state of "political paralysis" resulted in a change at the top mid term.

Bit of a pantomime season ding dong over the SOS Festival 2017; the former organiser has entered bankruptcy protection and says the festival won´t go ahead without it and it'll sue anyone who tries to put it on. Oh yes it will says the regional government, insisting that it owns the brand name and Cinderella WILL go the festival in April. Have to wait and see on that one. Sounds a bit like Corvera airport syndrome from here!

Drunk driver who rammed police car arrested: Oh yes he did!

El Gordo left a sprinkling of happiness across the Region as Murcia managed to scoop a few prizes: We didn´t win, but quite a few people did!

Murcia Today passes half a million absolute unique users mark for this year.

This pushes the group total to over 1.2 million unique users this year!

This warrants a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who supports the existence of this product in any way, shape or form. To those who read it, share it, recommend it, send in information or images or support through advertising. Without that vital revenue we would be unable to finance the high cost of writing this volume of original material, which adds up to more than 35,000 original articles written in English about the Murcia Region. This site is the biggest collection of information about the Murcia Region that exists in English and helps tens of thousands of people to get the most out of Murcia and stay in touch with it.

Over the festive season the writing team are taking a well-earned break and there will be no news bulletins until after Three Kings. We are, however, taking the down time to apply some new programming, so please refresh your screens ( hit Control and F5 at the same time) in the New Year to clear the old cáché and enjoy speedier delivery!

In the meantime, have a cracking festive seaon and thank you so much for your support this year.

Lots to do in Murcia this coming week: Click hre for What's on in the Murcia Region

Spanish National News

Christmas is coming and Spain is already in holiday mood

The festive season is already well and truly under way in Spain, and throughout the country thousands of lucky winners were celebrating on Thursday as the “El Gordo” Christmas lottery spread windfalls across the whole country.

Life changed abruptly for numerous lucky residents of Madrid at 11.57 on Thursday morning, when the number 66513 was announced as the top prize winner, bringing each 20-euro ticket holder a Christmas bonus of 400,000 euros.

The second prize, which was worth 125,000 euros per ticket, was sold largely in Pinos Puente in Granada, but the number 04536 also brought sudden wealth to punters all over Spain as a few tickets were sold in almost all of the country’s 50 provinces, and as the other prizes were drawn the result was thousands of happy faces in cities, towns and villages throughout Spain on Thursday afternoon.

In Madrid, though, the celebrations started the night before, when the shortest day of the year was marked by a parade under the name of “Gran Desfile de la Luz” (the Grand Parade of Light). For many the highlight was the “firefly cortege” featuring 1,600 decorative lanterns, and the end of the celebration, which was the curtain-raiser for the Christmas and New Year program in Madrid, was marked by a spectacular firework display.

Flooding

The flooding which affected the Region of Murcia last weekend also had disastrous effects on the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, where the first fatality was that of a 76-year-old man who was swept away by floodwater on Friday evening in the Cala de Finestrat, between Benidorm and La Vila Joiosa. It appears that he disregarded signs warning people to avoid a floodwater channel and parked his car there, and as the level of the water rose he went back to the vehicle, presumably with the intention of removing it from such a perilous location.

As he opened the car door he was knocked down by a surge in the current, and neither the police nor onlookers were able to do anything to save him as he was carried downstream into the sea. His lifeless body was spotted 20 minutes later, and was retrieved by a helicopter crew. 

Slightly further north in Valencia, meanwhile, two more fatalities were reported on Monday in the municipalities of Xàtiva and Enguera, while in Albacete tragedy was narrowly averted when a giant boulder fell onto the town of Alcalá del Júcar, destroying ten houses. The material damage was considerable, but fortunately there were no injuries reported as all of the homes were unoccupied at the time: had the boulder fallen during the weekend, when many of them are used as second residences, the outcome could have been a very different one.

Historical Memory Law still causing controversy

The Historical Memory Law of 2007, by which Town Halls and regional governments all over Spain are required to remove all glorifications of General Franco, his regime or his exploits in the Civil War, continues to cause controversy, and this week another case which is causing heated argument is that of a small town in Extremadura.

A judge in the provincial courts of Badajoz has ruled that the town of Guadiana del Caudillo must change its name, removing the last word in order to comply with the Historical Memory Law on the grounds that it was named after “El Caudillo”, one of the names by which General Franco was known in Spain. The town was founded in the 1940s as part of Franco’s policy of “colonizing” rural areas, and became a municipality in 2012, but ever since procedures began to segregate it from Badajoz the regional government has demanded that its name be changed.

Further fuel is added to the controversy by the fact that the Mayor of Guadiana, Antonio Pozo, was honoured by the Fundación Francisco Franco on 2nd December for refusing to obey the Historical Memory Law, along with Ana Rivelles, the Mayoress of the similarly named town of Alberche del Caudillo in the Castilla-La Mancha province of Toledo.

Also this week, the Fundación Francisco Franco was accused of inciting disobedience of the Historical Memory Law by offering legal aid to Town Halls who resist implementing the law.

Basque and Catalan nationalism

It is frequently reported by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior and the forces of law and order that the size of ETA, the Basque separatist group which for 40 years carried out terrorist attacks in Spain and France, has been whittled down so far as to become largely insignificant, but nonetheless the guard has not been lowered and efforts continue to round up the remaining members and former members.

Other recent arrests were followed on Saturday by the announcement that the Guardia Civil had detained five more people the evening before in an operation which also resulted in an arms cache in southern France being confiscated. The weapons included two hand grenades, 29 small firearms, nine assault rifles, twelve sub-machine guns and a large stash of explosives.

However, there are those who warn that the continued pursuit of ETA members could well be counter-productive, and one who falls into this category is Marian Beitialarrangoitia, the spokesperson for the Basque EH Bildu party in the national parliament. She maintains that for ETA to disband definitively it is first necessary for the group to hand over their weapons, and that therefore police actions like the one in Louhossoa last week actually have the effect of delaying the dissolution of ETA by preventing voluntary disarmament. Sra Beitialarrangoitia also compared the situation regarding ETA to that of the IRA in Northern Ireland, recalling that although the IRA has not officially disbanded in the wider scheme of things this really doesn’t matter, as society is aware that the group is not about to return to the violent methods it used in the past.

In Catalunya, meanwhile, rather than spending Friday making last-minute purchases to ensure that nothing is lacking at the Christmas Eve family dinner, Carles Puigdemont, the president of the regional government, has already celebrated the festive season with his party colleagues and is now metaphorically rolling up his shirt-sleeves and setting to work to prepare the referendum on independence which he intends to hold by the end of September 2017.

The Christmas dinner of the Partit Demócrata Europeu Català (PDECAT) party was held on Thursday evening in Barcelona, but on Friday it was back to work for the regional president at a “referendum summit” to which he invited separatist leaders of varying political allegiances. Among those present at the meeting were his predecessor as president, Artur Mas, and the controversial Mayoress of Barcelona, Ada Colau.

At present there are differences of opinion over how the referendum ought to go ahead: Sr Puigdemont is in favour of holding the vote without permission from the national government of Spain, while Sra Colau is one of those who advocate obtaining a pact in order to ensure that the result of the referendum is recognized as valid outside Catalunya, in other words both in Spain and in the EU.

Other environmental news

Seven months after the massive fire which caused considerable alarm and indignation in the municipality of Seseña, in the north of Toledo on the boundary with the region of Madrid, the last of the 90,000 tons of tyres which had been illegally dumped at the site are finally being removed this week.

When the flames broke out in Seseña in mid-May there was considerable controversy over how the incident was handled and whether it was safe to breathe the smoke from the smouldering rubber. Only after a week did the El Quiñón primary school reopen its doors to pupils, and even then only 105 of the 772 pupils registered there turned up to class as parents refused to expose their children to a possible health risk.

Once the ashes have been removed from the site of the dump in Seseña the remaining issue to be decided will be what to do with the land which was formerly occupied by the largest illegal dump of its kind in Europe. This will depend on the degree of contamination in the soil, but eventually the Town Hall hopes to convert the area into a large public park.

Back to the rain in Alicante for an environmental story, and one of the consequences is that the New Year grape supply could be under threat following flooding in the Vinalopó area of the province. This year’s crop of Aledo grapes, which are the variety usually used in the New Year celebrations, had already been seriously affected by the various episodes of rain which occurred in the month previous to the weekend, and the heavy rain of the last few days has in some cases merely hammered home the final nail in the coffin for the harvest.

Toledo man dies after eating poisonous mushrooms: every year in Spain the autumn rain and falling temperatures coincide with thousands of people undertaking excursions to wooded areas in the hunt for edible species of mushroom, but unfortunately, by the same token, every year there are numerous cases of ill-informed gastronomes biting off more than they can chew and suffering the consequences. The latest example came to light over the weekend in the province of Toledo, where a 72-year-old man from Santa Olalla died after eating mushrooms belonging to the Amanita family.

Guardia Civil pyromaniac confesses to setting ten fires in Madrid: he deliberately started 20 wildfires in 2013, and admitted that “I knew that the fire was bad, but I couldn’t help it”.

Madrid Mayoress advocates rooftop gardens on buses: bus shelters could also become flowerbeds if the proposal in Madrid prospers.

Madrid speed limits lowered as pollution levels rise again: nitrogen dioxide brings the limit down to 70 km/h on the M-30 motorway.

Uber launches first electric car fleet in Madrid: the company hopes the introduction of cleaner cars will help improve its image in the pollution-prone capital.

Two animal maltreatment cases in Cuevas del Almanzora

As living nativity scenes are set up all over Spain the attention of animal rights groups has focused on the need to ensure that animals are not maltreated during the festive season, an issue which has been highlighted by accusations of a donkey having been beaten prior to a Christmas event in the Almería municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora.

The incident in Cuevas del Almanzora occurred on 7th December when the local living “Belén” was inaugurated and Town Hall officials found that a female donkey was suffering various cuts and scratches. Despite the fact the Seprona wildlife protection wing of the Guardia Civil have concluded that there is no reason to suspect that the animal was maltreated by humans and could have injured itself, a view backed by the Town Hall, investigations are still under way by the police, and animal rights groups have thrown their support behind this cause.

At the same time, over 30,000 people have signed a petition demanding the removal of almost 70 animals from the Caja Rural Castilla-La Mancha nativity scene in the city of Toledo.

Unfortunately, Cuevas del Almanzora was also in the news this week when a 20-year-old man was handed a suspended 11-month prison sentence for “extreme cruelty” to animals following an incident in which he brutally killed a six-month-old puppy belonging to one of his neighbours. According to the prosecution, he first ordered his Alsatian to attack the Tuba, the dog who intruded on his property, before repeatedly kicking the helpless puppy, jumping on him and throwing him over the fence and onto the road.

Spanish property news

As 2016 draws to a close there is a feeling of generalized optimism within the Spanish property market that next year will see a continuation of the gradual recovery in prices and sales activity.

That, at least, is the opinion of R.R. Acuña & Asociados in their 20^th annual statistical analysis of the real estate market in this country. The firm states that in Spain as a whole prices will have risen by 2.3% by 31^st December this year, and that within two years that rate of increase will have gone up to a healthy 5%, where it will remain until the end of the decade.

This feeling of optimism was reinforced to a certain degree by the latest data published by Spain’s notaries, who report that during October the number of sales finalized was 1.7% lower than in the same month in 2015 at 35,743, but the average sale price per square metre rose by 1.5% to 1,275 euros. Neither of these variations is particularly dramatic, but a closer analysis of the data published on Monday shows that in general terms the trend is positive: during the last 8 months only twice have there been fewer sales than in 2015, while on just three occasions has the average sale price per square metre been lower than last year.

Another piece of positive news is that mortgage activity is still rising in Spain, with 16.8% more loans having been registered in October 2016 than in the same month last year, but for many who already have mortgages the most important news of the week was the EU floor clause ruling which means that banks will have to pay back an estimated 4,200 million euros more to customers. This is the result of the authorities in Brussels overturning a Spanish Supereme Court ruling which had limited the compensation to “extra” repayment instlaments made after 2013, extending the measure back to the year 2009.

To complete what has not been a good week for Spanish banks, Banco Sabadell announced on Friday that it will be closing 11% of its branches next year, resulting in the early retirement or relocation of around 800 staff.