Uncovering Lorca

One consequence of the census of Franco's victims set in motion by Baltasar Garzón could be the exhumation of the remains of the poet Federico García Lorca. The burial place of Lorca, who was executed at the beginning of the Civil War, has been known for some time. It lies between the municipalities of Viznar and Alfacar near to Granada. Despite this, the grave was never opened because members of Lorca's family did not want this to happen. The problem they have now is that Lorca does not have the grave to himself, he was killed as part of a group and relatives of at least one of those buried alongside him are now seeking permission to open the site.

Meanwhile it is becoming clear that a final count of those who were victims of summary executions by Franco's supporters will go way beyond the the estimates of 20-30,000 often given for those who still lie in unmarked graves around Spain. According to a report from El Pais the number of victims identified by different “historical memory” associations could be as high as 130,000. It remains to be seen whether the information provided by other bodies who have received requests from Garzón will have the effect of raising this figure even higher. No wonder so many on the right are nervous about Garzón's initiative, as the full extent of the killing becomes clearer.

La Liga 2008-9....Who Will Provide The Competition?

With the Spanish Liga about to see its second round of games this afternoon, I'm a bit overdue with my pre-season post and wildly inaccurate predictions. The truth is I'm not very optimistic about this season, I have the feeling that it could turn out to be one of the most boring for several years. The reason behind that feeling is that La Liga seems to be heading towards an English style league where the title is disputed by a small elite group of teams, and the rest are simply dedicated to ensuring their survival in the top flight. Obviously football in Spain has long been dominated by Barcelona and Real Madrid, but the last few years have at least seen other clubs that have been able to challenge the supremacy of the big two. There's the problem, the number of candidates likely to do that this season is smaller, and the best chance for a bit of tension lies in Madrid and Barça failing to live up to expectations. This is always possible and the first day of the season was encouraging in this respect as the big two both lost.

So who else could be a contender come the end of the season? I would argue that there are only three other teams capable of mounting a serious challenge; Villareal, Sevilla and Atlético Madrid. Villareal continue to demonstrate what can be achieved with limited resources but good management. Having survived the departure of players like Riquelme and Forlan they managed to make it all the way to Champions league qualification last season. Fortunately, they have held on to key players like Senna and Cazorla although their problem could always be that they lack the squad strength to maintain form throughout the season. I would still make them the best outside bet. Sevilla are another team that have a system for discovering inexpensive talent and which allows the club to survive the departure of key players. Last season they were rocked by the death of one of their players at the very beginning, and then the departure of Juande Ramos to manage Tottenham. They are still there as contenders but don't seem to be the team they were two or three seasons ago.

Atlético Madrid have had the most dramatic start to the season, they got a tough preliminary round draw in the Champions League but produced a thrilling second leg performance to make it through to the main part of that competition. The word was that any chance of strengthening their squad this season depended on that qualification, said to be worth €20 million. The big question is still whether they can reproduce that kind of form week after week, and they seem to be very dependent on the mood of the Argentinian “Kun” Agüero. An almost traditional lack of consistency, coupled with the distraction of being back in the Champions League, rules them out for me as potential title winners. Who else is there? I don't include Valencia amongst the top group at the moment. Despite the appointment of a promising coach the club is so badly run that they ended up flirting with relegation last season. Most of the summer was taken up with a farcical battle for control of the club, and it just doesn't seem to be a stable outfit at the moment; anything could happen.

Madrid and Barcelona have also provided plenty of entertainment during the summer. The Guardiola era has begun at Barcelona and the future of club president Laporta is still under threat as he only narrowly survived attempts to unseat him. It's a curious demonstration of how quickly people go from being heroes to villains. Talking of which, we saw the expected departure of Ronaldinho and Deco, although Samuel Eto'o was reprieved as the club failed in their attempts to attract a big name striker to replace him. Guardiola is a sterner figure than Frank Rijkaard and is already attempting to impose a bit more discipline than the laid back Dutchman was able to do. Given his legendary status as a player he should be given time to prove whether he can deliver as manager of the team. Unless things go very badly, he will probably outlast Laporta.

The spectacle at Real Madrid has ended up being about much more than their fruitless attempt to attract Cristian Ronaldo. In the end they were turned down by Villareal's Cazorla and Valencia's David Villa, and were said to have launched all sorts of desperate last minute bids for players. Their only significant signing was Van der Vaart, and Bernd Schuster is reported to be extremely fed up with the way he has been ignored when it comes to decisions about which players to buy. He should have known this might happen, it's the Real Madrid way and the man who selects the team usually has to accept that he will have little choice on the players who make up his squad. Finally, there came the ultimate humiliation for Madrid with the sale of Robinho, once touted as the “new Pele”. Although I don't really like the trend towards clubs being owned by mega millionaires, there was a certain satisfaction in seeing Madrid on the receiving end of tactics which they have used themselves to get players from other clubs. Their traditional method has been to unsettle players without openly bidding for them so that the player then declares his desire to go to Madrid. This is more or less what Chelsea did with Robinho, even if things didn't turn out quite the way they planned. It was a humiliating experience for Madrid, they are not used to players declaring that they don't want to stay at the club.

The failure of Real Madrid and Barcelona to attract big name players, together with the Robinho saga, is revealing about the shifts in economic power inside European football. The English league is far outspending Spain at the moment, not that this necessarily means we will see better football. Clubs that are not owned by the super rich have to generate income, Madrid and Barcelona have been good at this but are now finding it may be enough when there are people around who can always outbid them for a player. As for the rest, you won't find a Spanish club that has spent truly significant sums on new players. Which is why, in the end, the best hope for a bit of excitement in what I am very reluctant to call La Liga BBVA lies in the big two performing less well than expected. On the topic of sponsorship, I wonder whether Spain will end up with an equivalent to England's Coca Cola Cup. How long before we get the Copa Chupa Chups?



P.S. One very encouraging sign from the first day of the new season. Newly promoted Sporting Gijon were reported by the referee because of racist chanting from some of their fans. They were fined, the club accepted the fine without complaint and quickly published on their web page a condemnation of what had happened without making any excuses. A model for other clubs to follow, and a small lesson to those who would have us believe that such things are just an anti Spanish Anglo-saxon plot.

Basque Vote Is Ruled Out

The decision announced yesterday by the Constitutional Court to prohibit the Basque government's planned “popular consultation” has not surprised anyone, not even the promoters of the initiative. The membership of the court is decided in a similar way to that of the Consejo General del Poder Judicial and there was never any real possibility of it finding against the national government on this issue. The stage is now set for what promises to be a lengthy and hard fought election campaign in the Basque Country, this election is expected to take place next spring. The nationalist led administration there is likely to make the “right to decide” the central issue of their campaign in what is going to be a close fought battle with the Basque wing of the PSOE.

The court's judgement doesn't accept the distinction the Basque government tried to argue between a non binding popular consultation and a referendum; the latter can only be convoked with the agreement of the national government. That may solve the issue in the Basque case, but it promises to cause problems in other parts of Spain as the new autonomy statutes for Cataluña and Andalucia both contemplate the possibility of being able to hold popular consultations. The Constitutional Court still hasn't ruled on the Catalan statute, for some reason it always seems to come last on their list of priorities, but logic suggests that they will not accept for Cataluña what they haven't been able to accept for the Basques.

The Night In White

Tomorrow sees the third edition of what has become one of Madrid's biggest cultural events, La Noche En Blanco. With over 150 activities to choose from, there is a mixture of music, spectacle and art with open nights at many museums or notable buildings. There are even bicycle or roller skate tours organised around the different events. A route which takes you from the Templo de Debod via Plaza de España up the Gran Via, then on to the Puerta de Alcala, returning via the Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Vistillas and the Royal Palace will take in several of the events organised. Not recommended for the impatient, those who like to go to bed early or those who feel claustrophobic in big crowds. The full program is available for download here.

Here's One I Prepared Earlier

“What have you come here for?” was the contemptuous question tossed at Prime Minister Zapatero by PP leader Mariano Rajoy yesterday after Zapatero's speech in Parliament on the economic crisis. Rajoy went on to talk about the “sincere perplexity” he felt after paying close attention to what Zapatero had said. The only problem with this demonstration of sincerity is that these same words were included in the copy of Rajoy's speech distributed to journalists before Zapatero had even uttered a word.

The PP is determined that all political debate shall focus solely on the issue of the economy and the alleged failings of the government in dealing with the crisis. So any other issue is routinely dismissed by the PP as an attempt to divert attention, an excuse which PP representatives then use to avoid talking at all about the issue concerned. Now that governments have effectively surrendered most of the control they might have over economic developments this would make life very dull indeed, as the PP insist on trying to suggest that it is only Zapatero's administration that is to blame for the current economic troubles.

Now although it's likely that the government is relieved to be able to talk about other things than the economy, it's not so likely that they are reforming the abortion law or proposing legislation on voluntary euthanasia with this as the sole objective. Which is not say there aren't political forces at play, but the objective is almost certainly to try and force the “new model” PP to define itself. The strategy of the PP is to avoid putting off any potential voters by appearing to represent only the most reactionary sectors of society. The government's announced measures put them in the quandary of deciding whether they will take to the streets again, or just vote against the new legislation with the pathetic argument that it is not about the economy.

Bird's Nest Soup

It was in the time known as the Years of Vak Asflak As. The Pharaoh Gayadonn had gathered together in his palace and post office his most trusted advisers to talk of the future. “We shall build a mighty stadium the like of which the world has never seen, not even in China!” he proclaimed. There was silence in the room, all of the Pharaoh's advisers knew there was no money to pay for such grand works, but how to tell this to their ruler. Finally one of them broke the silence. “My Pharaoh, such a monument to your glory should not just be paid for by the grateful citizens of Madrid, many others across the nation should surely contribute also.” Gayadonn was convinced, and asked “Who shall deliver to me these funds?” “You must speak with Sol Bes, high priest of the national treasury” was the reply. “Bring him to me!” demanded Gayadonn. “Er, I think you must go to him, my Pharaoh” was the reply.

So Gayadonn dressed in his finest robes and set off to the Temple of Money. Sol Bes received him and listened patiently as Gayadonn explained his exciting plans for the city. Eventually, and when Gayadonn had finished talking, Sol Bes spoke in his characteristic monotone. “Gayadonn, can you not see that the people have no work and there is famine across the land? No longer do the great machines roar day and night, the high cranes stand silent and every day brings more signs of hardship and trouble.” “Yes, I know”, said Gayadonn impatiently, “but my projects shall bring work for all who want it.” “You have not spent wisely”, declared Sol Bes, “your tunnels fill with water every time it rains and still no trees grow by the river. Must the whole country pay for your extravagance?” Sol Bes fingered the key to the treasury that hung from his neck. “The people must eat Gayadonn, they cannot live with circus alone.” Gayadonn tried to reason with the old man, promising him that he would receive an even finer position when Gayadonn became supreme ruler. “I am old and weary” replied Sol Bes, “soon I will return to my village and tend my garden. Then you must deal with Seba Styan, who once tried to depose you. I can do no more.”

Gayadonn returned empty handed to his palace and locked himself inside his private chambers. His advisers were not worried, this was not the first time their ruler had behaved this way. Only a few months before he had declared that maybe he didn't want to be a Pharaoh anymore. Three days later Gayadonn emerged and called his advisers together for another meeting. “What news do you have?” he asked wearily. One of those assembled spoke. “My Pharaoh, we have received reports there are still residents of the city who do not have chariot meters outside of their homes." Gayadonn's expression brightened as he pondered this news. Perhaps all was not lost. “Are they many?”, he asked.

The End Of The World

With all the talk of the CERN particle accelerator in Switzerland destroying the world, it seemed like a good enough excuse to post this.

Montesquieu's Ghost

It all sounds so impressive, the grand talk of Montesquieu and the separation of powers. Politics shall not interfere with the judicial system and judges shall act as independent custodians of the law. Now for the reality. The institution formally responsible for governing the judicial system in Spain is the Consejo General del Poder Judicial (CGPJ), although there is a Ministry of Justice too. The CGPG is supposed to be formed by a mixture of experienced judges and eminent jurists, and to be above the party political battle.

However, the current members of the CGPJ have overstayed their welcome by a long way, their term of office expired two years ago. This situation arose because the Partido Popular systematically blocked any renovation in the last parliament in order to try and preserve the conservative majority in the institution, at least until the general election when the PP hoped to be returned to power. These same conservative members effectively acted as a judicial wing of the PP throughout the last four years, and in the process left the institution itself severely discredited.

Now, with the long awaited renovation of the CGPJ, it seems that the government is prepared to do its bit to remove any left over shreds of credibility for this body. The new members appointed divide evenly between members close to the PSOE and those close to the PP. Two other members have been nominated by the conservative nationalist parties in the Basque Country and Cataluña following the same model of political loyalty. The nationalist representatives have been allowed in on the understanding that they won't ever gang up with the other conservative representatives. As you can see, the very model of judicial impartiality. The almost 50% of judges who do not align themselves with any professional association are feeling a bit put out, none of them have been chosen.

It gets worse, one of the PP's appointees stands out in particular. Judge Gemma Gallego was responsible for one of the most ridiculous farces arising from the conspiracy theories about the Madrid bombings. She was the judge who laid charges against several senior police officers over the insane “boric acid case”, indeed those behind this piece of nonsense manoeuvred very hard to get the case into her hands. Now she gets her reward for party loyalty, but who can seriously pretend that someone who behaves in this way is demonstrating the qualities needed to oversee the judicial system? It also puts talk of the change in the PP's attitude into perspective.

Now the only question is how long it will take before one of the CGPJ's members treats us to a stern lecture on the impartiality of their decisions. It all raises the issue of whether it's necessary to have such a body at all, apart from its usefulness in rewarding loyalty and in putting a barrier between the government and the chaotic state of the judicial system. The latter has been illustrated today when the outgoing CGPJ finally dealt with the case of a judge who had failed to execute a sentence against someone who then subsequently murdered a little girl. The CGPJ has fined the judge €1500 for what they appear to see as a slight oversight, think about that if you ever come before the courts accused of negligence.

Hailstones The Size Of Houses!

Not really that big, but big enough to persuade me that sticking my head out of the window during last night's thunder storm in Madrid was probably not a wise thing to do. The noise they made as they landed on the balcony was impressive.

Un Ajuste De Cuentas

The Spanish police didn't take long to reach conclusions about the murder of a Senegalese immigrant in the Almerian town of Roquetas de Mar on Saturday night. An “ajuste de cuentas” (a settling of accounts) we were told, probably involving drugs. I've often heard this given as the motive for a crime here. At first I marvelled at the rapidity of the police investigations, the bodies would barely be cold following a shooting and already the police had come up with the motive for the crime. Then with the passage of time I realised that this conclusion was hardly ever the result of any investigation at all, and seemed to simply be a way of explaining away crimes that might otherwise be difficult to solve; usually involving foreigners killing other foreigners. I even found that I could more or less guess when it would be used, with practice I have a fairly good success rate.

Those who know the victim of the weekend's events claim that he had no involvement of any kind in criminal activities, he had a job and was close to securing legal status in the country; the dream of all of those who continue to undertake the tremendously dangerous journey by boat from Africa to the Canary islands or the southern coast of Spain. Some press coverage has also focused on the miserable conditions in which many of these immigrants live as they collect the fruit and vegetables produced under plastic in Almeria and other areas on the Mediterranean coast. At the same time the native population does very well from the steady stream of cheap labour. One of the best columnists in the Spanish press, Javier Ortiz, writes eloquently on the subject today. The police crackdown in the town contrasts sharply with the events of El Ejido a few years ago, then the police watched with folded arms as the locals burnt and chased hundreds of immigrants out of their homes.

The Outlaw Esperanza, Part One

I was planning to compensate for the inexcusable absence of recent posts about the Lideresa by writing a slightly jokey post along the lines of “Does anyone remember Esperanza Aguirre?” Of course I should have realised that the silence was deceptive, with only a few days left before her coronation as Supreme Leader of the PP in Madrid, Espe has made her presence felt to such an extent that I need more than one post to deal with it all.

So what has she been up to? Breakin' the law seems to be the answer to that question. Just as the new school year is about to begin Aguirre's administration has challenged the government over the new Citizenship module which has now been introduced nationally. This new, and innocuous, subject has been a particular target of the Catholic right who are perfectly happy to have priests indoctrinating all and sundry, but hate the idea that any teaching falling in the sphere of ethics might be taught without the aid of a Bible.

So Madrid has announced that it will offer an alternative to those who declare themselves as “conscientious objectors” to the new subject. Such an escape clause isn't contemplated in the legislation, but has received support from courts in other regions of Spain. This is sufficient justification for Espe to defy the government. One of these judgements, in Andalucia, was delivered by the son of a prominent campaigner against the government's plan, and the sentence itself was close to being a copy and paste job from his fathers writings. The issue is up before the Supreme Court, and you would have thought that the PP would respect that given that they like to pose as the party of law n' order.

Not wishing to be left out of the fun of using education as a means of opposition to the national government, Valencia's PP led administration intends to teach the new subject in English even though it is not a subject which can be taught by English teachers or have the exams set in that language. Other PP controlled regions such as Castilla y Leon have decided to abide by the law and teach an obligatory subject. It's all a bit of a throwback to the previous parliament, with Madrid's PP seeking to be in the forefront of all out opposition to the national government. Because of this we now have the concept of educational conscientious objection as being the preserve of a small number of religious fanatics.

Since we're on the subject of education I came across confirmation in El País of Madrid's policy of using the state schools for children of immigrants whilst encouraging Spaniards to use the publicly (well) funded concertados. According to the latest figures only 23% of immigrant children in the region go to concertados or private schools, whilst the equivalent figure for all children of school age is almost 45%. Given that this 23% figure will include many of the offspring of the wealthier (and whiter?) expatriates the true picture of this undeclared policy of segregation is likely to be worse. Meanwhile, a long established parents association faces eviction because they have been too critical of Espe's gang, who upped the pressure by cutting off the electricity. Just another day here in the badlands, nothing more can be expected in such a lawless region.

Austerity Begins At Home

Touched by the evident difficulties that the Partido Popular has been having in identifying areas of public spending that can be cut back to pay for their tax cuts, I've decided that South of Watford should come to the rescue. Our crack team of specialist investigators has come up already with some stunning results. You know that rumour that was circulating the other day about a well known Spanish intellectual and statesman? It was interesting to see that the statement issued in denial of the rumour came not from the great man himself, but from the foundation that he set up to propagate what I suppose we are obliged to call his “ideas”. This foundation is called La Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales, or FAES for short. Now it turns out that the FAES receives a somewhat generous public subsidy from the Ministry of Culture, this year's figure is no less than €2,861,302.29. I'm not sure whether the 29 centimos is there just to distract attention from the rest. That's not bad for an organisation that dedicates its time to issuing statements on behalf of its founder, and reheating any neocon garbage they can find on the Internet.

You would imagine that PSOE might make something of this scandalous waste of public funds, but there is a slight problem. At number two on the list of political foundations receiving huge wads of public money comes the PSOE's very own Fundación Pablo Iglesias which gets a somewhat rounder figure of €2.8 million. Now it's possible that this foundation is the intellectual powerhouse behind the Zapatero project, but then why would Zapatero have entrusted former minister Jesus Caldera with setting up yet another think tank? Maybe the other parties could take up the issue? Alas, it seems that CiU, the PSC, the PNV, IU, ERC and even the BNG would all end up losing a bit of free cash.

Nevertheless, it's interesting to see further evidence that those who preach the idea of minimal government always seem to be first in the queue when it comes to getting public subsidies. So there we have it, the total amount saved by getting rid of these concealed subsidies to political parties is a bit over €7 million, which even allowing for my 10% commission for identifying the saving is still not a bad start. All Mariano has to do is call Jose Maria and tell him it's about time his foundation was exposed to the chill winds of market forces. It may not seem like much money compared to total public spending, but often getting started is the difficult part. Alternatively, and this is where we get really radical, instead of cutting the money from the budget the Ministry of Culture could use it for promoting the arts. For example.

Church To Garzón....Go To Hell

As it's Sunday it seems like a good day to examine the response of the Catholic Church to Baltasar Garzón's request to help in constructing the census of those who disappeared or were executed during or after the Civil War. Garzón directed his request to the Conferencia Episcopal, which is the assembly of Spain's Catholic bishops. You might have though that it was a good place to start, after all the hierarchy existing within the church would then ensure that orders were passed from each bishop to the individual parishes under their control to ensure that any information they possess was passed on.

Well no, the Conferencia Episcopal has instead decided not to collaborate, the bishops claim that their assembly is not the competent organism to carry out the task. Apparently, when it comes to uncovering some of their darkest secrets the bishops suffer a sudden loss of authority and are unable to issue any instructions. The aim is clearly to try and make Garzón's task as difficult as possible by forcing the judge to direct his request to thousands of individual parishes.

It's interesting, in the light of those who claim that the judge is “reopening the wounds of the past”, to take a look at the church's attitude to Franco's regime. I may be wrong but I have the feeling that this is the same organisation that holds regular and lavish martyrdom fests in St Peter's Square in Rome, where praise is heaped upon carefully selected religious victims of the war. One was held only last year. You would imagine that this would have Mariano Rajoy, Manuel Fraga and company protesting for raising the ghosts of the past? Instead of protesting, they put on their Sunday best and catch the first flight to Rome. Or how about those plaques on so many church walls that commemorate the Falangist leader José Antonio Primo de Rivera? It's not just a case of the transition to democracy being insufficient, in the case of some institutions it's as if it never happened.

Three Valleys In Huesca

Taking advantage of the mid-August “puente” in much of Spain, we managed to do 3 days of walking in the Pyrenees of Huesca, using the village of Benasque as our base. All of this left me a bit footsore, two of the routes we did were a bit longer than what I'm used to. Fortunately, the scenery compensated for the effort involved. Day one started with a walk up the valley of Ballibierna, which is one of the possible approach routes for climbing the peak of Aneto. There is a bus service that will take you up to the refuge of Coronas, we found out about this service about 10 minutes after the bus left and the alternative is a 9 kilometre walk. The weather wasn't very promising as we set off, it had rained for most of the previous day and the clouds coming down the valley looked threatening. As it turned out we were lucky and after a brief shower the weather cleared.


The walk up the valley is easy on a good trail, and we made it to the refuge in less than two hours. From there we decided to go up to the Ibones de Coronas, a steep climb up to the lakes lying below the summit of Aneto. This was as close as we would get to the highest peak in the Spanish Pyrenees.


It was cold up there, forget any ideas of summer as a biting wind brought back memories of other seasons. We even got a bit of sleet at one point. The stop by the lake was short, we admired the determination of those who climb up there to camp overnight for an early ascent of Aneto, but we didn't feel tempted to follow their example.


Going down the mountain by the same route, we decided not to wait for the bus and walked back down to the campsite where we had left the car. All of this effort had to be compensated for by the big chuleton we ate at night back in Benasque.


Day two took us to the valley of Estós, which leads to the other major peak of this area; Posets. A trail leaving the main path up the valley makes for a beautiful detour around the Ibones de Ballisielle.


Here we got a bit over confident, trying to do a circular route of all of the lakes left us improvising a path across a field of huge boulders; just when it started raining. Boulder hopping is one of my least favourite activities, a combination of vertigo and a keen survival instinct mean that I avoid it whenever possible. This time there wasn't much choice and it made the round route a bit more exciting than I needed it to be.


From the bottom lake there is a path that leads up the valley to the refuge of Estós. This is what I call a proper mountain refuge, it sells beer. The return route was a path gently returning down the opposite side of the valley. Another long route, but amongst the best we have done.


On the third day we went to the frontier. From the inappropriately named Hospital de Benasque (it’s a hotel) a path goes up to El Portillon, a historic crossing point between France and Spain. This route passes opposite the other side of Aneto, and offers as convincing a reason as I need for not trying to climb it; the glaciar that runs across the breadth of the peak.


They predict it won't be there any more in 50 years time, the glaciar that is, the views from the border side were stunning and we could see all the way up the valley to the beginning of the Catalan Pyrenees.



Benasque makes a great base for walking, we only had to do a few kilometres in the car to cover all three of these routes. As always, GPS recorded routes are available on request for those who want them.

Hard Times, And It's Going To Get Worse

The unemployment figures for August have shown a sharp increase in the total. It's normal for unemployment in Spain to increase in August as seasonal work starts to dry up, but the increase this year has been way above the average and the total of those out of work has topped 2.5 million for the first time in 10 years. That's not the end of it, the figure to watch out for will be that for next January which is seen as something of a peak month even when the economy is expanding.

The government chose this moment to mix immigration into the economic debate, with a decision to stop employers in Spain contracting labour from overseas. The decision was soon modified as it was pointed out that the only people queuing up to pick next year's strawberry crop were going to be immigrants. This highlights a significant detail concerning unemployment in Spain, if you look at the figure for the boom years since the late 1990's you will see that once the total got down to around 2 million it didn't change very much at all even though the economy was growing rapidly. The reason in the end why there are so many immigrants working in Spain is because they are doing jobs that Spaniards don't want to do. This makes it all the more depressing that the government should try and suggest that immigration is the problem.

The Partido Popular are of course delighted that the government has raised the issue of immigration, they see it as a vindication of their opportunistic attempts to use the issue in the general election campaign. Meanwhile, PP leader Mariano Rajoy has been invited to spell out his solutions to the country's economic troubles, and a fairly uninspiring set of proposals it is. Whilst most economists would probably argue that the state running a deficit in difficult times is normal, the PP focus their attack on government spending at the same time as they argue for tax cuts. Rajoy and his team crucially always dodge the question of what spending they will cut to pay for these tax cuts. The main tax they want to reduce is the Impuesto de Sociedades (on company profits), a tax which is already contributing significantly less this year to government coffers and which has been significantly reduced anyway in the last few years.

The PP have preached austerity but so far there is little sign of them practicing it in areas where they govern. The PSOE have made a smart move to highlight this by calling on all of their mayors around the country to take the lead with a bit of belt tightening. The problem is that municipal financing is in even more of a mess than that of the autonomous regions. With the housing boom over, a key source of revenue has disappeared overnight for many municipalities, and mayors of the larger cities are now uniting to try and get more money from the government. One PP mayor who certainly isn't interested in austerity programmes is Madrid's Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, a man with Olympian ambitions who refuses to see his dreams knocked off course by such trivial details as a global economic crisis.

Otegi Gets Out Of Jail

Last weekend saw the release from prison of Arnaldo Otegi, the man who would probably like to be seen as the Basque Country's equivalent of Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams. Otegi went to prison as part of the backlash following the breakdown of the last attempt to persuade ETA to dissolve itself.

Otegi finds himself in a complicated situation. The political party he led, Batasuna, is illegal and the next few weeks are almost certain to see the illegalisation of those parties who have taken much of Batasuna's support in recent elections; ANV and the PCTV. Otegi himself faces the possibility of returning to prison as a result of other charges that have been laid against him. The political climate at the moment does not favour any resumption of attempts to get ETA to give up the armed struggle, government ministers moved quickly following Otegi's release to make it clear that they saw no prospect of resumed negotiations.

Meanwhile there have been reports of discontent amongst ETA prisoners and exiles in South America. Some of these reports have to be taken with a pinch of salt, there are several hundred ETA prisoners in Spanish jails and the fact that some of these may now reject violence as a way forward doesn't necessarily mean that this is the general opinion. Nevertheless, there are expressions of discontent with the direction which ETA has taken, in the case of the exiles it seems that some have simply become tired of spending years far away from home. There are exiles who would not even face charges if they returned, given the time that has elapsed since they left.

ETA's leadership made a significant miscalculation in the last negotiations, and now it is difficult to see them forcing the Spanish government back to the negotiating table; assuming that this is what they want to do. Whilst this remains the case there is little role for someone like Otegi to play, he has been given permission to take a holiday in Italy and could probably make it a long one. Which is not to say that his time will never come, at some point ETA will have to face up to the reality of their situation and the futility of their continued existence.

Aznar, Sex Machine?

Wonderful. A Moroccan newspaper has attributed the pregnancy of the French justice minister, Rachida Dati, to none other than José Maria Aznar! Disappointingly for those thinking that here we have the macho ibérico in all his glory, Aznar has flatly denied the rumours. He is threatening legal action against those responsible for the original report and those who echo it - which already covers more or less the entire Spanish press and a good part of the blogosphere. You never know what might happen, now that he's become a long haired intellectual!

The hero of Perejil and the Azores recently put aside his onerous workload with Murdoch's News International to tell us that his (minor) participation in the declaration of war against Iraq was the most important event to have happened in Spain in the last 200 years. He's obviously not a football fan then. It was always clear that his interest in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was really just a product of his own desire to strut the international stage. I always thought he was a mediocre politician but he insists on confirming it with this kind of nonsense.

Garzón Breaches The Wall Of Silence

A suitably heavyweight topic to mark what Blogger tells me is my 500'th post on this blog. No sooner has everyone returned from their holidays than judge Baltasar Garzón has grabbed national attention with his move to assemble a census of information on the victims of Franco's regime. The request by Garzón marks the beginning of a process which will determine whether there is a case to be pursued on the grounds of genocide. Several town halls in major cities have been requested to provide information they possess on those who were summarily executed or who simply disappeared without trace. The same request has also been made to the Church, which holds much of the data as well as having been an active and keen collaborator with Franco's regime.

The estimates of those from the Republican side who remain buried in unmarked graves around the country is generally put at around 25-30000. However, the number of victims of reprisals by Franco's regime is estimated at a much higher figure, Garzón's move should hopefully ensure that the available data on those who were killed is at last united. It is something that has been commented on ever since Garzón himself sought the extradition of General Pinochet, how can Spain actively take up cases concerning the disappeared in South America if it doesn't do the same with those who have never been accounted for here in Spain?

The reaction from the political right to Garzón's move has been utterly predictable. Partido Popular leader Mariano Rajoy reacted with the now traditional cliché about not reopening the wounds of the past. This popular right wing argument is always wheeled out when reference is made to Franco's victims, those who use it are not shy of coming to the defence of Franco's regime when it suits them or of fighting to maintain the public symbols of that regime. The dictatorship buried and honoured their dead, those whose political roots lie in that same regime have always argued that the dead on the other side should simply be forgotten. El Mundo led the charge against Garzón yesterday to such an extent that his fellow judges in the Audiencia Nacional came out publicly in his defence.

Once again the issue puts the spotlight onto the question of just how model a transition Spain really had from dictatorship to democracy. An implicit pact of silence during 30 years of democracy has meant that the mass graves lie largely untouched even though many of them are common knowledge in the nearby villages or towns. Much of the work that has been done to excavate some of these sites has been carried out by volunteers. An interesting piece by Jesús Maraña in Público at the weekend described quite well the unbalanced nature of the transition as agreements were reached under the ever present threat of military intervention if democracy looked like going too far. That the constitution and political arrangements resulting from that process should now be regarded as untouchable makes no sense. There is unfinished business, something that the case Garzón has opened demonstrates very clearly. Whether or not this case eventually proceeds, the census of Franco's victims marks a historical turning point.

Making Money While The Sun Shines

It's time for some new vocabulary on South of Watford. Today's word is cazaprimas, or “car-thar-primars” for speakers of SSAE (Spanish Standard Airport English). A cazaprimas is a subsidy chaser, someone whose money goes into those sectors of the economy that attract the highest level of public subsidy. The classic model of cazaprimas took full advantage of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy in the days when half of Europe's budget was dedicated to agricultural subsidies. A famous case in Spain involved the production of linen which was then mysteriously destroyed in a series of fires once the generous subsidy had been claimed.

Nowadays the cazaprimas has diversified, which brings me to the topic of solar power. It was strange, for years I was wondering when Spain was going to start showing some interest in energy produced from the sun. A country with so many hours of sunshine seemed dedicated to ignoring the possibilities of the technology, whilst wind farms seemed to cover every available hillside. Then things started to change, and this summer on my travels around different parts of the country it's been hard not to notice the solar power plants that have suddenly emerged. The reason for the change is simply because of a very generous subsidy scheme that guarantees the purchase of all electricity produced by these plants at high rates.

A not so subtle variation on the theme has emerged in the region of Castilla Leon where it seems that evolution of the species has taken a further step with the introduction of what we can call the funcionario-cazaprimas. Several people in senior positions in the regional government there seem to have fallen into the common trap of confusing the public good with their private gain, and have ensured that the permissions for new solar power plants go to companies with which they are directly or indirectly involved. All of this is now coming to an end, the government has decided to cut the subsidies from this month and solar power is expected to lose its attraction. The cazaprimas will move on to something else while Spain continues to grapple with an increasingly urgent need to diversify its energy sources.

La Ley De Costas

I spent the last few days of August in the swanky Mediterranean resort of Benidorm. I went equipped for blogging, but then I found that the ritual of beach, aperitivo, lunch, siesta, watching football, going for a walk and then dinner didn't leave me quite as much free time as I expected to have. All of this and the reality that many of the places supposedly offering free Wifi are often not able to actually provide the connection. Still, I engaged in some important tasks of cultural “mestizaje”.


Now the Ley de Costas, the law theoretically governing what can be done with the land bordering the sea in Spain, tells us that the strip immediately by the sea is public domain. Benidorm has obviously adopted a slightly more restrictive interpretation of this law, try getting round the front of these new skyscrapers seen through the palm trees without getting your feet wet.


I suppose not much else can be expected in the town which launched the political career of Eduardo Zaplana. I wonder what the shepherds make of it all?


Those who travel to this part of Spain might be interested to know that there is now a very efficient light railway line linking Alicante and Benidorm, eventually it will reach Alicante airport. It's a lot more comfortable going from Madrid to Alicante by train than going directly by bus to Benidorm.

Galicia Prepares For Elections

Is it election time again already? Well only in Galicia, if press predictions are accurate the elections for Galicia’s regional government are going to be brought forward to the autumn even though they do not need to be held before next year. Although the voting will only take place in that region, the results will have an impact on national politics, as it is the first major electoral test since the general election in March.

The reasons for bringing forward the elections are purely political, the current alliance between the PSOE and the Galician nationalists (BNG) is quite capable of seeing out its full term; but the PSOE in particular has strong incentives to go for an earlier poll. Reason number one is that the economic situation is expected to get worse next year, and the Galician PSOE will be keen to avoid as much as possible a punishment from voters aimed more at the national government. If circumstances are not going to get better then you might as well go for it. Number two is a possible clash between the Galician election and the equivalent elections that need to be held in the Basque Country. This is where things become a bit of a gamble, because the possible timing of the Basque elections is also variable and depends on the legal wrangling over the proposal by the Basque government to hold a referendum. This issue is currently up before the Constitutional Court. Again, the Galicians will not want events elsewhere to overshadow their own campaign.

Not so keen on early elections in Galicia is the Partido Popular. PP leader Mariano Rajoy has been quick to downplay any suggestion that his position might be affected by a poor result in his home territory. He doesn’t sound very confident about his party’s chances, making it clear that he is not the candidate and distancing himself carefully. Of course a bad result there could restart the campaign against him, Galicia used to be a PP stronghold and a failure to recover control will renew criticism of Rajoy’s lack of electoral appeal. Galicia could hurt him much more than the results of the Basque elections or those for the European Parliament where heavy abstention could easily mean that the generally more loyal voters of the PP give Rajoy a victory.

Colin over at Thoughts from Galicia thinks that there will be a backlash against the nationalists because of their policies on language use in the region. I’m not so sure, their vote held up very strongly in the general election in March, and nationalist voters are generally more motivated in the regional polls. Those who voted for the BNG are not those likely to object to greater promotion of the Galician language, but we shall see. As yet, we still don’t have the official announcement.

Madrid Airport Accident....The Reactions

Following last week’s crash at Madrid airport, there has been an interesting debate taking place in sections of the Spanish blogosphere and press about where the limits lie for media coverage of this kind of disaster. Much of the discussion focuses on the invisible line that exists between genuine journalism seeking to bring the reality of events home to people, and the exploitative variety that squeezes tragedy for every drop of sensationalist content it contains. Unfortunately, those who participate in such debates are not usually those responsible for the worst variety of ambulance chasing coverage, or the endless harassment of victims relatives.

A different brand of sensationalism is seen from El Mundo’s reporting, from the moment of the crash the paper has sought to tie the accident to Spanair’s internal crisis. This has now developed a stage further to (predictably) aim fire at the government with suggestions that a lack of control has enabled defective planes to operate. They seem to have decided that a combination of company and government negligence is the most newsworthy explanation for the crash, even though there is as yet no evidence to support any of this. They weren’t the first on the loony right to try and blame Zapatero for what has happened; they almost certainly won’t be the last.

Personally I believe that it’s only a matter of time before a major accident results from the current trends in the aviation industry, if it hasn’t already happened. A business model based around constantly cutting costs and minimising the amount of time aircraft spend on the ground is just not compatible with passenger safety taking priority. That doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the case here though. Indeed, the fact that the captain was able to abort the first take-off because of what seems to have been a minor technical alert is in some ways more reassuring than worrying, as it shows that those in control of the craft had the last word on when it should take off. Less reassuring is the report that the problem, in an anti-icing temperature control, was solved simply by disconnecting the offending item.

The investigation can easily take months to conclude its work, especially given that not much remains of the crashed plane. The initial reports of the crash being caused by an engine exploding have now been refuted, a video taken by AENA (the Spanish airports authority) shows no sign of an explosion before the plane hit the ground. It seems that for some reason the craft lacked sufficient power to take off, managing to leave the ground for a matter of seconds before coming down again and catching fire as a result of the impact with the ground. There have been reports that one of the black boxes has been damaged, and Spanair have announced that the tapes recording what was said by the pilots in the cabin just before the crash will never be made public. Meanwhile, the AENA video seems to have been shown to everyone from the King to the government to the Mayor of Madrid, but the judge investigating the crash had to demand to be given a copy for his investigation.

The identification of the victims is taking much longer than expected, this is because of the effects of the fire in the aftermath of the accident. Nevertheless, there is a determination to ensure that correct identification is done wherever possible, DNA tests are being used as confirmation. The disastrously hurried, and erroneous, identification of many victims following the crash in Turkey of a plane carrying Spanish troops a few years back has left its mark. All of this creates further anguish for families of the dead as they await the official confirmation of their loss, and there have been several stormy meetings between representatives of the company and the families.

The Things You Achieve With A Bit Of Iniciativa

We’ve been given another lesson this week on the dangers involved in trying to run a minority government. Only a last minute deal with Iniciativa per Catalunya, the Catalan wing of Izquierda Unida, avoided an unwanted appearance by Zapatero in the Spanish parliament to explain the government’s position on the funding of the country’s autonomous comunidades. Iniciativa’s deal with the government earned them some criticisms from the Catalan nationalists for breaking the common front they had tried to maintain in the battle to get a better funding deal. The same nationalists could have sided with a proposal from the Partido Popular to force Zapatero’s appearance, but in the end they decided that it wasn’t so essential and so it will be Finance Minister Pedro Solbes who will gently induce a parliamentary coma with his detailed explanation of the finer points of the issue.

The real danger for the government is that failure to present a funding plan acceptable to the Catalan parties means that they may not have sufficient parliamentary support to approve next year’s budget. It’s not the end of the world, the existing budget can always be extended, but it would be a highly symbolic demonstration of isolation for the government. Apart from that, with the economic situation expected to be even worse next year then the government budget needs to be adapted to deal with that. With tensions running high between the governing PSOE and the Basque nationalist PNV, the quickest route to a parliamentary majority still lies in an understanding with Convergencia i Unió.

All the coverage of the funding issue might lead people to believe that it’s just an issue between the government and Cataluña. This is not really the whole story, the current funding mechanism is based on a 10 year old census which doesn’t take into account the impact of most of the immigration that Spain has received in that period. Given the uneven distribution of immigration, that means that some regions are more affected than other in terms of greater demand for services that is not being adequately funded. The other key issue is that of how redistribution of income is calculated between the wealthier regions and the poorer ones. This has led to some strange alliances as the richer regions call for a system which prioritises population and which restricts the redistributive effect to key services. The poorer regions want more weight given to other factors such as geographical extension or age distribution in the population.

In the boom years the way out for the government would have been to inject more money into the system so that everyone was kept happy. Now tax revenues are falling and there isn’t a huge pot of money to solve the issue. The way forward probably lies in creating a system so complicated and with so many different factors that nobody can really understand it. This would be a Solbes kind of approach to the issue, but it may not be enough. According to their agreement with Iniciativa the government now has a three month deadline to reach an agreement with Cataluña, it’s not going to be an easy task but the chances of this government seeing out its full term could possibly depend on the outcome.

Madrid Airport Accident....The Aftermath

In the end the worst fears about the scale of yesterday’s accident have been realized, only 19 of those on board the plane have survived. The serious condition of some of the survivors suggests that the figure of 153 dead may still rise further and official identification of the victims is expected to take several days to complete. The IFEMA convention centre in Madrid has a grisly secondary role as an emergency morgue and reception centre, a role that it first played in the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings. Madrid now has a protocol based on the response to 11-M for dealing with major emergencies like yesterday.

The atmosphere in Madrid is not the same as that of 2004, even though the number of fatalities is not far short of that event. Accidents are not the same as bombings in their impact, even if the result is the same. Also, the train bombings affected many more people and caused a sense of shock in the city that yesterday’s accident has not provoked. Some of the media are being heavily criticised for their reporting, especially those that have published images of the wounded. It is quite common in Spain to see images from these kinds of event that you might not expect to be shown elsewhere, but it seems that some media have gone too far in this case. There are also some criticisms of the parade of politicians who now feel obliged to get in the way of the emergency operations in such cases, lest they be accused of not showing sufficient concern.

According to reports from witnesses, the explosion in one of the engines of the plane still appears to be the cause of the accident and the tremendous fire that followed inside the fuselage. A lot of questions are being asked about a delay to this plane leaving because of a fault that was detected and repaired before it tried to take off. It’s not at all clear whether this fault has any relationship to the cause of the accident. Spanair, the operator of the flight, is going to come under close examination too for its operational methods. The company had to suspend yesterday afternoon a meeting with the trade unions to discuss its plans to sack over 1000 employees in an attempt to cut costs. Questions will also be asked about the age of their fleet, although there is no suggestion at the moment that this has anything to do with the crash.

Accident In Madrid Airport

There has been a serious accident in Madrid's Barajas airport this afternoon. A Spanair plane that was taking off for Gran Canaria seems to have left the runway, maybe as a result of a fire in one of the engines, and depending on which media outlet you read the number of dead is being estimated at between 7 and 50, with many more injured. The plane was carrying 170 passengers, and the airport is currently in a state of emergency.

Update 17:00 - The latest estimate I have heard of the number dead in the accident is 45, although El Mundo cites a much higher figure of over 100.

Update 18:00 - The official figure of fatalities still seems to be around 45-50 although some media are still quoting much higher figures. The thesis still seems to be that of an engine that has exploded on take-off and it seems that this and the crash landing provoked a serious fire in the plane. Some reports have suggested that the airport is still operating partially, but the journalists reporting from the scene suggest this is not the case.

18:05 - I've just heard on CNN+ that the new estimate is over 90 fatalities

Digital Liberties

Having finally got round to buying my shiny new television I discovered to my delight that I am now able to watch Libertad Digital TV! Frankly, it's been a bit disappointing so far, every time I turn to it I just seem to get those tacky home shopping type adverts that you get on lots of these new channels. For things like vacuum cleaner attachments that can see round corners. Maybe the Reverend Losantos is still on holiday in Miami where he wishes pain and suffering on all of his many enemies.

The reason I am able to get this channel is because I live in the enlightened Comunidad de Madrid where television licences are distributed on the basis of loyalty to the Condesa. Those of you living in areas of Spain where TeleLosantos is not available should know that this is because you live in a region controlled by rojos, masones or nazionalistas. Or perhaps a combination of all three. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted on any developments.

Atleti's Olympic Riddle

It seemed to be a perfect plan. Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardón would get his Olympic arena as a result of a giant property deal involving the demolition of Atlético Madrid’s Vicente Calderón stadium and the refurbishment of the Peineta stadium on the other side of the city. The football club would get a new stadium, which would be paid for from the flats built on the site of the old one, and this new stadium would also be the centre of Madrid’s 2016 Olympic bid. A huge amount of money would pass, albeit briefly, through Atleti’s bank account on its way to the construction companies who would do so nicely out of building the new flats and upgrading La Peineta. It was the ultimate Madrid deal, the happy convergence of speculative construction with a city administration in permanent need of ever grander projects so that no one will ever forget the reign of the pharaoh. That the club doesn’t really need a new stadium matters little, Atleti’s fans have put up with so much else in recent years this seems almost insignificant by comparison.

Suddenly the plan doesn’t look so good. Problem number one, the rights to the redevelopment of the land occupied by the Vicente Calderón are in the hands of Martinsa-Fadesa. This company is not showing much enthusiasm for building new blocks of flats at the moment. Problem number two, nobody is showing much interest in buying new flats anyway; a situation that looks unlikely to change in the near future. The funding behind the whole deal doesn’t look very secure. As if that wasn’t enough it has been reported that Gallardón no longer regards a revamped Peineta as being sufficient tribute to his wisdom and power. Following his recent trip to Beijing he now wants to have the biggest and best Olympic stadium the world has ever seen. Even with a bit of creative accounting the proceeds of the Atlético pelotazo may no longer be enough to fulfil his wishes. The search is on for companies to take the place of Martinsa, there are certainly many volunteers who will be interested in building the lavish new stadium, but those new flats down by the river are not so enticing at the moment. As for the funding gap, if the city debt is already so high who will notice anyway if they add a bit more? It’s all for a good cause.

Behind The Mountain Lies Another Mountain

I'm off to the Pyrenees again for the puente. This time the destination is Benasque and the (very imposing) peaks of Posets and Aneto. We'll see how I get on, in the meantime these are some of the images from my trip to the Valle de Tena the other week.

When you stay in the Valle de Tena, the classic accessible high mountain route to do is that which takes you up to the Refugio de Respumoso, surrounded by the high peaks of the French-Spanish border. You can start this route from the village of Sallent although you might find it easier to drive up to the Embalse de la Sarra and start from there.


As we'd done the Respumoso route at least three times, we decided to take a variant of this that shares the beginning of the route but then goes up to the Ibones (lakes) de Arriel. Don't confuse the turn off for the ibones with an earlier one that takes you up to the peak of Arriel, the lakes path comes further up the Respomuso walk. It's a steepish but not very long climb to the first lake.


Walking past the first ibon there is a second one slightly higher up, and then in turn there is a further lake surrounded by the peaks of Arriel, Palas and Balaitus.


If you walk around the final lake there is a path, slightly difficult to spot, that takes you up to a ridge and suddenly you are in France! It's a bit colder on the other side, the lake you see in the image below was still partially frozen even though we were there in the middle of July. This was one of the best walks I've done in Spain, and with the late rains this year I had never seen the Pyrenees looking so green.


We stayed in the village of Lanuza, which is not even supposed to exist. It was supposedly doomed by the construction of the reservoir on the River Gallego and part of the old village now lies beneath the water. However, the lake never reached far enough to engulf the entire village and what remains has been restored in typical Pyrenean style for tourism. This was the view from our hotel, La Casueña is not the cheapest hotel in the area but its a lovely place to stay.

Some Of My Best Friends Are Chinese

I don’t believe it, it must have been my general indifference towards the Olympics that meant that this one passed me by. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Spanish basketball team presents its “respects” to the Chinese nation!


In Spain, as in China, there is a certain resistance to losing face so incidents like this get made much worse by the excuse machine going in to overdrive to try and explain away what has happened. So we are told that they did this picture as a “gesto cariñoso”. Now I know that Prince Philip once told a group of British volunteers in China that they would go slitty eyed if they stayed any longer in the country, but he at least has the excuse of being a Royal and is therefore expected to say stupid things.

I have a piece of advice for the Spanish football federation. The next World Cup will be held in South Africa. If any of your sponsors suggest that the players black up their faces and dress as Zulu warriors to show the South Africans how much they love them, confiscate their passports and leave them in Madrid. Believe me, it's for the best.

Nice Palace, Where Did You Get It?

A wedding took place last Friday at the Pazo de Meirás in Galicia. What made the event newsworthy was that the bride was the great granddaughter of Franco, and the Pazo forms part of the dead dictator’s family fortune. The palace was a gift to Franco as a result of the local authorities organising a “voluntary” popular subscription to buy it, and it became the summer residence of the Franco family. The grounds were found to be a bit small for such a grand dictator, so it then became necessary to expropriate additional land surrounding the palace. It seems that those who were unwilling to surrender their land were threatened with being sent to Asturias! I can think of much worse alternatives to having to live next door to a fascist dictator, but I suspect the exile probably wouldn’t have included a lifetime’s supply of cider and fabada.

More recently the Xunta, Galicia’s regional government, have been trying to inspect the property with the intention of declaring it to be a Bien de Interés Cultural; a historic monument. This move has met with open opposition from the Franco family as it would compel them to open the property to the public for a certain number of days every month. Eventually, the Xunta’s inspectors were able to gain access to the property but the holding of last week’s wedding has been widely seen as the Franco family asserting their control over the property. It’s a curious situation, if the King of Spain is given a present then that passes to the state, but the family of a dictator is allowed to hold on forever to a property which in theory was presented to Franco as (illegitimate) head of state. It more or less confirms what we could probably call the Pinochet Principle whereby self appointed “saviours of the nation” always seem to find time to assure that being a saviour brings with it substantial economic benefits which are not always available to more conventional rulers. The spoils of war.

A Gourmet Masterclass

The mystery of the missing Swiss gourmet, Pascal Henry, has finally been solved. Henry was said to have disappeared in June after eating at Ferran Adriá’s El Bulli restaurant in Roses. He left without paying the bill and leaving some of his possessions behind in the restaurant. His departure sparked a manhunt in the area around the restaurant, but then last week it emerged that he was alive and well and back in Switzerland.

The Swiss police confirmed that he was in the country via security images taken at cash machines where Henry’s card had been used. What happened next has caused a little bit of embarrassment for the Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra. Interpol informed the Spanish police almost a week ago that Henry had been located. However, the contact for the Mossos was not at his desk and so the news was not passed on to Cataluña. So two days later, the Mossos organised an expensive search of the area around the restaurant which apparently even included the deployment of a helicopter.

Henry left behind a bill for €250, and I can understand him leaving given that he was probably presented with a tiny portion of some unrecognisable substance aerosolled onto an enormous plate. For that sort of money you can still eat well for a whole week in Spain.

Playing Games With The Olympics

Whilst some athletes have been able to sign a petition addressed to the Chinese president, Spain’s competitors in the Olympics had the riot act read to them a few days ago by their own Olympic chief. No politics, or you go home, was his message as he repeated the old chestnut about it being time for sport to take priority over everything else. I’m not sure the Chinese government sees it that way, but in the best traditions of the Olympics making political use of the event is seen as being the prerogative of the host nation. At first it was thought that no blogs would be permitted for the athletes, but that now seems to be not the case as long as they steer clear of anything controversial.

Spain of course is an aspiring host for the games in 2016, and foreign minister Moratinos claimed yesterday that Spain was now China’s best friend in Europe. To celebrate this great leap forward we got agreement from the Chinese for the first Spanish companies to export ham to China. Let’s hope they don’t get to like it too much as it’s expensive enough already. Perhaps if they smear the ham with cabrales that will act as a deterrent. During all the protests over Tibet earlier in the year Madrid’s very own Pharoah, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, disappeared off to Beijing for a few days. He had little to say about human rights but when he saw the Olympic Stadium he was said to have uttered words along the lines of “I want one of those for my city”.

Meanwhile, back home, one of the few judges not involved in chasing De Juana Chaos instead decided to accept a case against several members of the Chinese government for their repression of the protests in Tibet. Moratinos claimed that the subject was not even raised in his meetings with Chinese representatives, so we can safely assume he won’t be attempting a citizen’s arrest during his stay in China. Maybe he will find time to watch some sport instead.

Spain At A Glance....Languages In Cataluña And The Basque Country

With all the fuss being made about the language issue in Spain, maybe its useful to see some data about which languages people actually choose to speak in different parts of the country. The CIS, which does all sorts of data gathering exercises, has carried out a study of national identity throughout the country and as part of this they asked people to state which language they considered to be their main one.

Charts code courtesy of soitu.es

Hard Times In The Bunker

It's hot outside, so come with me down into the cold - even frosty - underworld of the Foro Ermua. One of these satellite organisations set up in the past few years to agitate the issue of terrorism principally on behalf of the Partido Popular, the Foro has recently fallen victim to the same sort of infighting that has kept the PP so busy since the general election. It is a grouping that has never really excelled when it came to political tolerance. A member who wanted to stand in an election for a party that was not the PP was informed that this was incompatible with his continuing to occupy any position of responsibility in the Foro. Now however, this sectarianism has been taken a step further with the removal of the president, Iñaki Ezkerra, for having the temerity to be supportive of the new, relatively less hard line, leadership of the PP in the Basque country.

The Foro Ermua has been turned into a bunker of the extreme right. Now wait a minute. For those of you who think that this description is just South of Watford labelling decent upstanding anti-terrorist folk as being crazed rightists I should perhaps make it clear that the words are not mine; the description came from Ezkerra himself. If the cap fits you might as well use it. Ezkerra has also claimed that the Foro has been excessively generous, even careless, with some of its cocktail receptions, getting the association into some financial difficulties. Step forward the Comunidad de Madrid who have offered a significant injection of funds to help the Foro get over this difficult patch. It’s time for a Frequently Asked Question!

Q. “This Comunidad de Madrid, the one that is picking up the tab for the cocktails, is it by any chance related to the one that denies any funding at all for the main victims association of the Madrid bombings?”

A. “Yes.”

The Judicial Silly Season

It was a little bit like old times on Saturday with the noise surrounding the release of the ETA prisoner Iñaki de Juana Chaos. All the usual suspects gathered in Madrid to protest at the release, and it was inevitable that the target of the protests would be the government for not having “done enough” to keep De Juana Chaos locked up. What the government should have done in the view of these people is invent a legal pretext to stop him from going free, given that he has served his sentence and is entitled to be free. The new secretary general of the Partido Popular, Maria Dolores de Cospedal, showed up at the protest too although it was a sign of how things have changed in the last few months that she was also a target of criticism and abuse from some of those gathered.

That could not be the end of the matter, and sure enough the duty judge at the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid has now decided that a letter from De Juana Chaos to his supporters is sufficient grounds to open a fresh case against him for allegedly praising terrorism. The letter does no such thing, but in this situation the political requirements far outweigh any nonsense about what the law might say. The judge could easily have devoted his time this summer to doing something to reduce the chronic judicial backlog, but the fatal attraction of the De Juana Chaos case promises far more media attention. Sending De Juana Chaos back to jail will be undoubtedly popular amongst those who believe that someone’s freedom should be decided by opinion polls, newspaper editorials and political preferences. At the same time it promises to make the law look ridiculous in its vengeful pursuit of a single ETA prisoner whose relationship with that organisation is now said to be distant.

Some Days Are Hotter Than Others

If this blog seems to have been to be a bit quiet in the last few days it's not because I've gone away. It's just that I've had a visitor here in Madrid, and we've been enjoying - if that is the right word - as hot a weekend as I can remember since I came here. It's not over yet either, another two to three days of extreme heat awaits us in the city. I've always felt that I could manage life here in summer without feeling the need to invest in air conditioning to keep cool, days can be hot but nights hardly ever seemed to be so tough as the influence of the altitude and the sierra cools the night time temperature and lets you sleep. Last night wasn't like that, tonight won't be any better, and even going close to any equipment generating heat (whether it's the laptop or the coffee maker) is no longer as easy as it was just a week ago. I think I need to go for a glass of water, maybe I can take advantage of the relative coolness tomorrow morning to write a slightly sleepy rant about terrorism and the right. As if I haven't done that before.