ARCHIVED - Murcian and Spanish weekly news round-up W/e 7th February

Another week and still no new prime minister in sight for Spain, prompting the king to cancel his state visit to the UK

Never mind....it's Carnival time!

The last seven days have been rather unusual in the Region of Murcia in the context of recent months as there has actually been some fairly wintry weather, but after just a couple of days of cloudy skies and a light sprinkling of rain to whet the appetite of farmers the Costa Cálida has now returned to the conditions which made last month the warmest January in 50 years. In addition, the combined months of December and January have this week been confirmed as the warmest since comparable records were first kept in 1942.

The warm weather has been in the news recently as it causes crops to grow and trees to flower far earlier than usual, and in addition it also appears to attract flocks of camper vans and mobile homes to the coast of the Region of Murcia. This has been the subject of some controversy of late, and the regional government has announced that it is to tackle the issue of “clandestine tourism” in all its forms as well as helping Town Halls to clamp down on illegally parked vehicles of this type. In the city of Murcia, though, one constructive scheme has been devised to encourage campers to visit the regional capital through the provision of a “camp and ride” car park at the large shopping malls in the northern outskirts of the city: this would enable the visitors to avail themselves of the frequent tram and bus services into the centre of Murcia while leaving their mobile homes securely parked just a few kilometres away. 

It's a rare recognition of how much the occupants of these vans actually contribute to the regional economy during the seasonal lows of winter in spite of their natural reluctance to pay for campsites after investing into their self-sufficient camper vans and is certainly an angle which could be considered by all those who fail to grasp that instead of viewing this as an opportunity to create tourism revenue, clamping down on them will achieve little more than assuring that they go to another area of Spain, or even France, where they are welcomed by businesses with open arms.

Of course, the fact that Murcia is the warmest area in the Spanish mainland at this time of year is why there are so many camper vans here at the moment, although work also continues during the quieter months to increase the number of static attractions for tourists throughout the year.

One of the major projects currently being undertaken is excavation in the area of the 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre in Cartagena, and this week it was reported that this is actually larger than it was previously thought to be. This has been discovered through the use of geo-radar techniques which allow archaeologists to ascertain the level of the rock underneath the amphitheatre, and therefore establish exactly where the wall if the structure is.

A study carried out prior to the resumption of excavations this summer has shown that the wall of the amphitheatre is 11.4 metres high, making it two metres higher than was originally thought, and it is now estimated that the Cartagena arena held up to 11,000 spectators. With a length of 104 metres, this could lead to it proving to be one of the largest remaining Roman stadia of this kind in the world.

During the week it was also announced that a new rural tourism route is being designed in Los Puertos de Abajo, and at the same time the city centre will gain a new sculptural monument in honour of the Infantería de Marina in the Plaza del Rey. Sculptures of the returning seaman and traveller on a bench near to the Palacio Consistorial being hugged by a suncream soaked tourist probably feature in more holiday photographs than any other attraction in the city!

In Mula, on the other hand, the attempt to make it possible to visit what ought to be the town’s main attraction is still stalled. The 14-century castle is closed to the public for safety reasons, and the Podemos political party has joined those who are clamouring for it to be forcibly expropriated from its owners in order for repair and maintenance work to be taken on by the local and regional governments. The regional government meanwhile, continues to push through the complicated legal processes required to legally regain control of the castle from its absentee owners.

This battle for control of the castle has been underway for centuries, Mula residents documented as having been militant and unco-operative from the moment the town was first awarded to the Fajardo family in 1430, documents written in the 17th century complaining that the militant townsfolk continued to campaign against the ownership of the Marqués de los Vélez "this attitude seeming to be passed on from one generation to the next by their mother's milk".

Fortunately no such problems affect Murcia’s regional parks, where staff dealt directly with over 60,000 visitors last year: for those not keen on the Carnival celebrations planned for the weekend, a relaxing trip out to the countryside might be an attractive option!

For those who prefer to plan ahead, the SOS Festival planned for 6th and 7th May will this year feature the Manic Street Preachers at the top of the bill, a real blast from the past!

Zika and crime news

Unfortunately the Zika virus scare has spread to Murcia with the confirmation of one case in Lorca, where a man aged between 35 and 40 contracted the virus during a recent trip to Honduras. If you keep hearing about Zik and want a bit more background information about how it is spread, whether it can be treated and what are the symptoms, then read our special report about Zika.

However, other fears affecting residents of the Campo de Cartagena were at least partly allayed during the week as progress has been made in combating a wave of theft and burglary which has affected the area over recent months. Partly as a result of increased police and Guardia Civil patrols, particularly at night, three men were arrested on Tuesday night in La Aljorra, and will face charges related to at least seven robberies in the town and in Pozo Estrecho and El Albujón.

Two of the arrested are Moroccan nationals aged 21 and 22, and among the incidents with which they are believed to be linked are the hold-ups of a petrol station in August and a gaming salon in October, as well as various thefts from motor vehicles. At the same time, the Guardia also arrested a third Moroccan in the same area in connection with at least five burglaries which were committed in the second half of 2015.

Another illegal activity detected during the week concerned the illegal haul of over 100 kilos of flathead grey mullet which was being offered for sale from the back of a van in El Algar, and in La Manga the explosives unit of the Guardia Civil were called in to dispose of 25 nautical flares: last year the unit deactivated a total of 118 explosive devices in the Region of Murcia and their services are constantly in use.

However, the most widely reported crime related to the Region of Murcia took place in southern France on Tuesday, where 18,000 kilos of leaf vegetables and fruit were destroyed by French farmers in the latest attack on a Spanish truck transporting produce to Europe.

The incident concerning a truck from Lorca occurred on Tuesday on the A-54 near Arles in the south of France, where a driver heading for Vienna in Austria was stopped by over 100 farmers and twenty tractors. It is reported that the driver was threatened while the angry farmers tipped half of the goods being transported onto the road and set fire to them, before ensuring that the rest were unsaleable by spraying them with a fire extinguisher. 

The Murcian government joined those condemning the attack and this week also announced that it would be investing into drones to use in the campo for a wide variety of jobs, including vigilance and monitoring of a number fo problems.

The government is also clamping down on "clandestine tourism activities" and is stepping up its activities to target those illegally renting out properties who are not registered to carry out this activity and are not declaring their income to the tax authorities. This whole subject has been a major topic of debate nationally for months, as the national government is leaving it to each individual autonomous government to monitor its own tourist accomodation. In some areas of the country fees are now being levied on "tourist apartments" as a response to complaints from fully legal hotels and registered apartment owners against the "unfair competition " of those who rent out accommodtion without declaring it to the regional authorities and Hacienda.

Tourists generate a vast amount of activity in the region, sometimes in the most unexpected wys. Last weekend two UK nationals were fortunate to escape unhurt when their light aircraft crashed on landing at the aerodrome of Los Martínez del Puerto. The extent of their good fortune is clearly visible in the photographs of the plane after the incident, but arguably the most arresting images of the week were related to pre-Carnival events in the Region of Murcia. 

In Cabezo de Torres they take their celebrations seriously, and last weekend the Holi Run event attracted as many as 13,000 runners aiming not to win the race but to have as much fun as possible. But even more colourful than the Holi Run was the first ever Drag Queen gala in the city of Cartagena, which was won by Drag Sirio (also known as Rubén López) with a performance based on the sea and featuring tridents, dancers, fish and fishnets. Sitting in the front row, wearing rather more conventional attire, were Mayor José López and various other local dignitaries, but according to some reports Sr López eventually stole the show by dancing on stage with the winner and the compere, Marlene Mourreau.

What's on Murcia

This week Carnival is top of the agenda and a large number of programmes with parade times and associated activities can be seen in the What's on section of Murcia Today. A separate What's on Bulletin is now being sent every week so if you would like to see the huge range of activities on offer this coming week in Murcia then click : What's on Bulletin Region of Murcia

Murcia property news

See a wide range of properties for sale or rent in Murcia:

Currency Exchange Rate this week

It's important to keep an eye on the exchange rate if buying a property or transferring your pension

Anyone exchanging their pension from Pound Sterling to Euros or buying a property will be aware of just how much difference the rate can make to the amount they will have to spend and for major purchases, such as a property, transferring cash at the right moment can make a difference of several thousand Euros.

Spanish news round-up

Once again the news in Spain this week has been dominated by one topic, namely the increasingly urgent need to establish whether or not it will be possible to form a new government in the wake of the inconclusive results of December’s election. 

Tuesday was a historic day in Spain as the Monarchy stepped into politics and the King requested that Pedro Sánchez of the PSOE attempt to form the next national government, despite the party having won only 90 of the 350 seats in Congress. As a result Sr Sánchez now faces the almost impossible task of garnering sufficient support from rival parties in order to be sworn in as president of the government. 

It is estimated that within approximately three or four weeks an investiture debate will be held in Congress, and if no President has been elected within two months of that date then parliament could be dissolved.

All of this could mean that by June 2016 another general election will have to be held, although many will be hoping that an agreement can be reached by which a government can be formed and such a long period of political uncertainty can be avoided. The next month will be an intriguing time in Spanish politics, and with the latest opinion poll showing that only the Podemos party stand to make any significant gain if another election were to be held it is to be expected that the other groups will attempt to reach agreement.

The urgency of the political situation was underlined on Thursday when Felipe VI cancelled a visit to the UK, preferring to monitor the situation at home, and at the same time EU authorities have emphasized that whoever forms the next government must implement policies to cut the nation’s deficit: this would almost certainly mean further unpopular spending cutbacks. In the meantime, the uncertainty has had a clear negative effect on consumer confidence, with the index recording its sharpest fall since 2012.

While attention focuses on the lack of a government in Madrid, an example of how seemingly irreconcilable differences can be resolved in order to form a parliamentary majority can be found in the region of Catalunya. This week, perhaps taking advantage of the fact that at present there is no national government to take action against them, the new government in Barcelona headed by Carles Puigdemont passed resolutions to begin drawing up three new laws which contribute to laying the basis of a new independent State, two related to the setting up of independent tax collection and social security systems and the other concerned with “judicial transition”.

Speaking in the regional parliament in Barcelona, Sr Puigdemont risked a jibe at his counterparts in Madrid, commenting “Here we have a government which has started work already: take note”. Some might find this rather ironic given the difficulties experienced by the JxSí coalition in reaching an agreement with the CUP party which allowed them to form a government only after three and a half months of negotiation.

Sr Puigdemont would also be well advised to remember that not all Catalans are in favour of independence, as was made clear last Sunday, when thousands of people took part in an anti-secession demonstration in Barcelona. It is sometimes overlooked in the midst of all the coverage about those supporting secession that in the regional election last year the majority of votes were actually cast for political parties which do not support the idea of creating a separate State.

Meanwhile the British Government has begun a publicity campaign to make sure all residents who have been on the UK electoral roll in the UK within the last 15 years can register to vote in a UK referendum on membership of the EU, somethign which will directly affect all of us living here in Spain.

The UK news section of Spanish News Today has a vast thread running with dozens of stories about the great BRexit debate raging at the moment: Brexit debate

This week a Eurostat report concludes that English is the language of the future in Europe, 97.3% of all secondary school students in the EU studying English as a foreign language, while fewer than one in seven students study Spanish.

Zika cases in Spain

Two worrying topics in the news over recent weeks are receiving more and more coverage. One of these is the Zika virus, which is in danger of becoming endemic in Spain due to the presence in parts of this country of the tiger mosquito, and on Thursday concerns were heightened when it was confirmed that the latest case in Catalunya involves a woman who is three months pregnant.

Equally disturbing for parents are the high-profile cases of “cyber-bullying” which are making the news, not just in Spain but seemingly a world trend. Last month the suicide of an 11-year-old boy named Diego in Madrid was put down to cyber-bullying after he left a note to his parents explaining that he could no longer bear going to school, and now a new case has come to light in the province of Girona, this time involving children of the tender ages of nine and ten. The fact that in this case pre-pubescent youngsters were able to torment a classmate without their parents noticing is extremely worrying, although unfortunately the parents’ attempt to blame the teachers is an all too familiar story.

However, perhaps the most heated debate in Spain this week surrounded the case of a young child, variously reported as being four or five years old, who has been allowed to legally change “her” name to Lucía on the grounds that she is transsexual. 

According to a statement issued by Chrysalis Euskal Herria, an association representing the families of under-age transsexuals in the Basque Country, “Lucía’s parents mistakenly gave her a boy’s name on the basis of her genitalia, but as soon as she was able to express herself it soon became clear that she was a girl.”

Bárcenas back in the news

Another long-running theme which continues to fill the Spanish papers is corruption. This week the former PP treasurer Luis Bárcenas returned to the spotlight to re-kindle controversy over the alleged systematic corruption which contributed to the large-scale loss of support enjoyed by both major parties in the December General Election, and apart from claiming that high-ranking party officials received money “on the black” via the false accounting system he ran, Sr Bárcneas is now adamant that the party’s Secretary General ordered his computer hard discs to be wiped in order to destroy evidence. 

Bomb scare at Barajas airport

Similar, terrorism is never far from the news in Spain these days, and on Thursday a bomb scare at Madrid-Barajas, the country’s busiest airport, provided a reminder of the fact that the country is still on Level 4 Terrorist Alert status.

Fortunately, this was only a scare and there was minimum disruption to airport traffic and passengers as the plane and area around it were locked down and cleared.

Spain remains on terror alert as it has done for several months due to the attacks which have occurred in other parts of Europe.

While these issues preoccupy the Spanish public, there is also plenty of good news around, not least in terms of the economy. This week the January unemployment figures were published, and while the number of people registered as unemployed in Spain rose during the month by 57,247 it has to be borne in mind that January is always a bad month for employment due to post-Christmas layoffs. A far more meaningful statistic is that the total is now almost 375,000 lower than in January 2015, a decrease of 8.28%, and at the same time there has been a decrease of 12.2% (or 46,671) in the number of under-25s registered as looking for employment over the last twelve months. The unemployment rate is still the second-highest in Europe, but at least it’s on its way down.

Record tourist spending

Additional good news was published on Friday with the foreign tourist spending figures for 2015, which showed that over 67 billion euros were spent in Spain by visitors from abroad last year, a new record. As is to be expected, the largest single market for international tourism last year was once again the UK, with British visitors spending 14,057 million euros in Spain, an increase of 10% and an average of 38.5 million euros per day.

Yet there is still room for improvement and Spain is being urged to make further efforts to capitalise on its foreign tourists and target those who spend more per capita.

Efforts to increase tourism in Spain still further are constantly being made, and one to hit the news this week was the country’s first underwater sculpture park in Lanzarote. 400 works by British artist Jason deCaires will be on display at a depth of 12 metres under the surface of the Atlantic, and the first visitors will be welcomed in March.

More accessible to most of us, although only on two mornings of the year, is a rather older spectacle which attracted visitors on Tuesday to the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca to admire a spectacular medieval light show: ingenious 14th century architects created a phenomenon known as “the 8”, which consists of the sun shining through the main rose window and projecting the coloured stained glass design onto the opposite wall directly below the secondary rose window.

Elsewhere, exhibitions are always a draw for visitors and this week a new Chagall exhibition opened in Madrid, a Sorolla drawings exhibition opened in Valencia and the Bishopric of Madrid finally won a long-running custody battle to claim a series of 16th and 17th century tapestries.

The Civil War is still hot news in Spain

In April it will be 77 years since the end of the Spanish Civil War, but this is another topic which remains ever-present in the Spanish press for various reasons. One is the continuing attempts to exhume and re-bury the bodies of those buried in mass graves both during and after the conflict, a task which is often made more difficult by the resistance to exhumation procedures offered by local and regional authorities. In Navarra, however, the regional government has adopted a policy of collaboration, and the remains of 14 Civil War victims who were shot in 1938 when they broke out of Fuerte del Monte Ezkaba prison were found in a mass grave this week.

Unfortunately the same attitude does not prevail in Guadalajara, where the intervention of an Argentinian judge was necessary in order for the bodies of 22 people who were shot in 1939 to be exhumed this week. Requests for these exhumations to be authorized in Spain proved unsuccessful for many years, and in the end descendants of the victims had to take their case to the Argentinian courts to obtain a disinterment order.

The issue of the Civil War is also still very much a trending topic due to the determination of some Town Halls to implement the Historical Memory Law, which stipulates that commemorations and glorifications of the years of Dictatorship are to be removed from public places and buildings. In Madrid the new local government is taking its responsibilities in this regard especially seriously, but their zealous approach has landed them in hot water twice over the last few days, firstly with the erroneous removal of a plaque commemorating  eight Carmelite monks who were shot in 1936 from the cemetery of Carabanchel Bajo, and then a couple of days later when it emerged that the monument to the Alférez Provisional, which was removed from its site near the Casón del Buen Retiro, may have infringed protection regulations.

As the animal rights and ecological movements gradually gain more support in Spain there was good news for a turkey in the Jaén town of Cazalilla when it was spared the ordeal of being thrown from the top of the bell-tower of the local church following a concerted campaign over several years by animal rights protestors, and the issue of birdlife in the wetlands of this country was also given prominence to coincide with World Wetlands Day on Tuesday. Although significant efforts are being made to protect these natural spaces SEO Birdlife says more must be done and says 40% of Spains's wetlands are in a "worrying condition".

Supporters of animal rights will also be interested to know that there are demonstrations on Sunday in 15 major cities all over Spain, including Murcia, to call for hunting with greyhounds and other dogs to be banned in Spain. Spain is currently the only country in Europe where hunting with greyhound and podenco dogs is still permitted, and unfortunately this is related to the fact that the maltreatment of these animals is rife among hunters and breeders. 

Elsewhere residents of Alicante are amused or offended, depending on their sensibilities, by an aggressive anti-dog pooh campaign which invites dog owners to eat the mess left by their pets with chips.

Some of the most spectacular images of the week were provided by the arrival in Bilbao of the stricken Modern Express cargo ship, which was towed to port from 148 miles off the coast of Galicia despite listing at an angle of 40 degrees, although less welcome were those of police divers still seeking the bodies of two fishermen who disappeared when their boat sunk last week off the Galicia coastline

Currency Exchange Rate this week

It's important to keep an eye on the exchange rate if buying a property or transferring your pension

Anyone exchanging their pension from Pound Sterling to Euros or buying a property will be aware of just how much difference the rate can make to the amount they will have to spend and for major purchases, such as a property, transferring cash at the right moment can make a difference of several thousand Euros.

Currency rates went into freefall last week as the markets were unsettled by the prospect of a possible BRexit, with fears that the UK could leave Europe adversely affecting the Sterling-Euro exchange rate.

This week, currency markets have started to recover and the exchange rate for those converting Sterling to Euros has improved.

Spanish Property news

The main statistical indicator of the week was published on Friday morning by valuation firm Tinsa, who report a 1.1% nationwide increase in Spanish residential property prices during the twelve months ending in January 2016. The data produced by Tinsa are especially encouraging in the Balearic and Canary islands, where the rise of 3.2% reported in January is the fifth in six months, while almost equally positive is the 2.2% increase found in “capitals and large cities” (the fourth rise in six months).

In Mediterranean coastal areas a modest 1% price increase is reported, although the fact that this is the fourth consecutive rise gives grounds for optimism.

Such small price rises might disappoint some, but in general they are welcomed. Few people hope for a repeat of the over-ambitious boom years prior to 2008, when huge urban development projects were started and then left unfinished when the market collapsed. One example of this to feature in the news this week is in Torroella de Montgrí in the province of Girona, where one of the side-effects of a failed urban development was that the survival of the marshes in this part of Catalunya was placed under threat. In repairing the damage over 48,000 tons of material has already been removed from the area, and once the work is fully complete the three lagoons already defined will be connected to each other and all traces of the development planned for the area disappear.

Elsewhere, although sales figures are rising there is still little growth in the construction sector, as second-hand properties dominate the market except for isolated pockets such as Orihuela Costa in the province of Alicante. As a result, construction giant Sacyr announced that more layoffs are planned in its domestic building wing, as the company and others like it rely on contracts outside Spain to survive until demand picks up at home.

However, one piece of good news for the sector is the low cost of borrowing: on Friday the Euribor entered unchartered territory and dipped below zero for the first time ever, making it even cheaper for borrowers seeking to buy property.

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