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Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Oct 30
Another month, another public bank holiday in Spain. This weekend is a long weekend because November 1 is a national holiday in Spain for All Saints Day. Most shops and business, some supermarkets and all the banks will be closed on Monday but don’t worry – plenty of bars and cafés should be open so you can still partake in the Spanish national pastime.
Only thing is… there’s a booze shortage in Spain! You wouldn’t know it to look around at the bars’ shelves and the teenagers drunk on rum in the parks, but there is actually less hard liquor arriving to Spain. Spirits like vodka, gin and rum are being affected by the transport crisis affecting heavy goods vehicles, but thankfully news hasn’t yet come through of not enough beer. It isn’t just the UK that has a shortage of lorry drivers due to Brexit and rising petrol prices; Spain and the rest of Europe have been hard hit by a lack of HGVs and drivers.
But not as hard as orcas in the Spanish seas are being hit by threats to their habitat…
Animal Magic
Killer whale attacks on sailboats are becoming a more common occurrence in the Strait of Gibraltar and the waters off Galicia in the north of Spain. These orca attacks were virtually unheard of before the summer of 2020 but now dozens of sailors have reported being chased and harassed by the whales.
That’s why scientists are now launching an investigation into why the animals are suddenly on the attack, and what can be done about it. While 15% of the whale attacks have resulted in serious damage to the boats, as yet no aggressive behaviour towards humans has been reported.
Some suggestions volunteered for the reasons behind these attacks range from the benign (the whales are just deciding to play with the boats all of a sudden) to the far-fetched (revenge for whale hunting), while the most likely explanation seems to be that whale habitats are being threatened by increased human activity, pollution and overfishing. As for the measures the study will suggest to stop this problem, it remains to be seen whether the suggestions will focus on protecting the animals and their habitat, or prioritising the safety of the boats at the expense of the animals.
Someone is on the side of the animals, though, as a Murcia court has demanded “disciplinary action” be taken against the owner of high-voltage power lines that have electrocuted at least six eagle owls in Sierra del Buey, Jumilla. Unfortunately for many bird species in Spain, death by electrocution is not uncommon, so it’s high time the law stepped up and punished those private individuals and electricity companies who don’t take the necessary safety measures on their electricity pylons and power stations.
The animals can’t fight to defend themselves and the injustices done to their natural environment (although kudos to the whales for trying), so we humans have to be the ones who step up and enforce measures to protect nature.
This is exactly what groups of ecowarriors like ‘SOS Mar Menor’ and ‘Por un Mar Menor Vivo’ have been trying to achieve with the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) petition to grant legal personality to the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia. This week, campaigners reached the threshold of half a million signatures that are needed to force the issue to be debated in the Spanish Congress, and bring wider awareness to the need to protect the lagoon’s ailing ecosystem.
After several demonstration marches, 11 months of collecting signatures and a last-minute extension to the deadline, the citizen-led groups have used pure people power to voice their concerns about a problem in the local area that they feel strongly about and ensure that politicians take their demands seriously. Now that’s democracy in action, but just to be sure the ILP released a statement asking people to keep signing the petition, just to reach an extra 10% margin of error.
Despite such wins, human environments continue to impede on animal habitats, sometimes forcing them into what we think of as “our spaces”. A case in point is the enormous vulture that brought traffic to a standstill in Benidorm city on the Costa Blanca last weekend, which was captured on video. The poor animal was discovered sitting in the middle of the road and refused to budge until a brave animal rescue worker came and scooped it up with his bare hands.
Motoring news
Last week we thought we were in for an early Halloween fright with the fast-approaching deadline for UK driving licences to no longer be valid in Spain from October 31. Well, it seems like Jack Skellington has come early this year and has brought a Christmas treat… at the last minute, the Spanish and British governments agreed a reprieve for Brits driving in Spain. UK driving licences will now be recognised until at least December 31 and it’s anyone’s guess if there’ll be another extension then. This is the second time the deadline has been pushed out amid complaints that waiting times in Spain make the process of exchanging licences really difficult.
The rule is still in place though that anyone who didn’t register their details and their desire to exchange their licence for a Spanish one with the DGT will need to redo their driving test in Spain. Good news on that front, too, this week as a new Traffic Law will let learner drivers practise for their theory test online instead of at a driving school. Even better, the theory test can be done in English! Not so the practical, which requires those taking the test to understand spoken Spanish to follow what the driving instructor tells them to do.
The DGT has been very busy recently, announcing a wave of new driving-related rules and regulations to make Spanish roads safer. The traffic authority has launched a huge nationwide campaign that will run until November 7 aimed at cracking down on scooters travelling on footpaths. Increased surveillance and fines are expected to be strong deterrents for this dangerous rule-breaking.
It has also been revealed that all new cars in Spain will have a mandatory black box fitted in the next couple of years, capable of analysing the vehicle’s data in the event of an accident. Information relating to speed and driver behaviour will be anonymously transmitted to experts for investigation in an attempt to drastically reduce the rate of road traffic fatalities, which have almost reached pre-pandemic levels in Spain.Coronavirus
The newest variant of coronavirus, known as ‘AY.4.2’ or simply Delta Plus, which was first detected as having originated in the UK, has now spread to Spain. The variant, which is said to be 15% more contagious than the first Delta variant and to account for up to 10% of all Covid cases in Britain, has been found a handful of people in Madrid and Barcelona.
Spanish authorities have voiced their optimism in the face of this new strain, however, thanks to the 88.5% of people over 12 who have already been fully vaccinated in Spain, and the continuing vaccination efforts to give third booster jabs to the elderly and infirm at the same time as their annual flu jab. From November 15, all those originally vaccinated with one dose of the Janssen vaccine will be eligible to receive a booster jab of Pfizer or Moderna.
Despite best efforts, however, the national cumulative incidence rate has gone back up to its highest point since October 7. The 14-day incidence rate now stands at 49.62 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 46.28 on Monday, once again approaching the medium-risk category of over 50. Nonetheless, hospital pressure has remained stable enough.
With the Constitutional Court declaring the first state of alarm back in March 2020 to be unconstitutional, the Spanish government has begun refunding fines doled out to those accused of breaching Covid restrictions last year. People who have already paid out for infractions such as leaving their home for non-essential travel will have their money returned, while fines not yet processed will be cancelled.
In the Region of Murcia, the level of new daily cases of coronavirus is around the same as last week, when there were frequently 60 or 70 new cases per day, and there has not been a drastic change in the number of deaths, meaning the overall situation is relatively stable.
The Community of Valencia, on the other hand, has registered its first cases of the Delta Plus variant, in the General Hospital of Elche, while the 14-day cumulative incidence rate again increased to 54.40 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, above the 49.62 national average. Valencia has now jumped up from low risk to medium, with a total of 2,712 active cases. Despite the ongoing surge in infections, the regional president, Ximo Puig, had ruled out introducing new anti-Covid measures earlier this week, in the short term at least, but it remains to be seen whether the government will backtrack in the face of the latest data.
There was also a big spike in Benidorm this week, which is now in a situation of “extreme risk” with a cumulative incidence rate of a whopping 286 cases. Whether fairly or unfairly, this is mostly being put down to British tourists in the city not observing Spanish Covid restrictions. To try to stem new infections, then, hoteliers in Benidorm have launched an anti-Covid campaign aimed at British holidaymakers. The Costa Blanca sectors' business association, Hosbec, has published a guide of Covid protocol in English, to “avoid a season damaging rebound”. The guide will “make it clear to all tourists” that facemasks must be worn, social distancing respected and that smoking is banned on the outdoor terraces of bars and restaurants.
In Andalucía as a whole, the 14-day cumulative incidence rate is 33.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, creeping up a few tenths of a point day by day, but only two provinces – Huelva and Almería – are above the 50-case threshold to stand in the medium-risk category. Thankfully, there is currently no significant presence of the Delta Plus variant in Andalucía, but there were six more deaths recorded this week in a region that remains relatively stable for coronavirus, at least in comparison with the Valencia region.
Property news
A controversial new law has recently been passed by the Spanish government regulating various aspects of housing and real estate taxes in Spain. While the new legislation has been hailed by conservative politicians as dangerous to the level of real estate investment in the country, young people and vulnerable families have welcomed the help that is afforded to help them live in affordable and stable homes.
Because the ins and outs of the New Housing Law (‘Nueva Ley de Vivienda’) can be a bit confusing, we’ve drawn up a quick guide to understanding the changes that are being introduced in the Spanish housing market. The main points include a freeze on rental prices charged by any person or company who owns more than ten properties, tax breaks for those homeowners who rent their homes out at reduced rates and an increase in income tax deductions for areas where rents are more than 30% of household income. Such measures are aimed at helping create a stable and secure living situation for young people and low-income families.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court has also declared this week that capital gains tax in Spain is unconstitutional (on top of its ruling that the first state of alarm for Covid-19 was unconstitutional – do any Spanish politicians actually know what’s in their constitution before they start making rules?) and has demanded that the Treasury reform the way this tax is calculated to take into account market fluctuations. In the meantime, property transactions in Spain are exempt from having to pay this tax until the situation is decided.
Another measure proposed in the New Housing Law is to build more new council homes and affordable housing, but this may be more complicated in some areas like the Murcia Region due to a shortage of construction workers. Fewer people are choosing to work in the construction industry, and the cost of raw materials has increased by 50% in the last year alone, all of which is leading experts to predict a hike in property prices in the Murcia region.
While golf has always been popular in the Region of Murcia, especially among expat residents and tourists, there seems to be an upwards trend as a new golfing school and course has opened just a few kilometres away from the capital city, creating a new hub for novice, amateur and pro golfers. And, real estate data from the last trimester reveals that the demand for luxury golf resort properties in Murcia is through the roof, with buyers preferring the natural open-spaces found on and around golf resorts to apartments and city-living. Some have suggested that this changing preference towards houses with large outdoor spaces could have been partly caused by the first and second Covid lockdowns in Spain, which left people in apartments and gardenless properties trapped inside for months at a time.
Property prices are also set to go up in the Valencia region, where the residential housing market will gain momentum when expat buyers return in full and begin buying again at pre-pandemic levels by 2022. Other factors which will impact on house prices, according to the Association of Real Estate Agents (API), are the “current favourable” conditions for getting a loan since fixed-rate mortgages are currently being signed in Valencia at around 1% interest.
As a spokesman for the API put it, “There is still a long way to go for house prices, so anyone thinking of buying shouldn’t wait too long.”
Murcia
In a show of solidarity, local residents in Alhama de Murcia arranged a supply collection for victims of the volcano on the island of La Palma, which, as we all know, is located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. However, news sources across the pond in the United States seemed a bit confused about the whereabouts of the actively erupting volcano when American TV network CBS showed viewers a video placing the Cumbre Vieja volcano on mainland Spain, specifically in the small town of La Palma on the outskirts of Cartagena. Fortunately though, we have yet to see any rivers of lava running through the Region of Murcia.While there aren’t any active volcanoes in Murcia, the municipality of Fortuna has been plagued by a series of earthquakes over the past two weeks, with the latest tremor on Wednesday October 27 forcing the authorities to extend their seismic risk plan, which establishes the protocol to be carried out in case of a significant earthquake. Please be safe out there!
In an effort to combat rising cost of living, we’re determined to help local people get the best deals possible. With this in mind, we’ve focused this week on listing the cheapest places to get petrol in the Murcia Region (little tip: for Unleaded 95 it’s Expoaguilas in Águilas and to fill up with diesel go to Plenoil in La Unión).
We’ve also got the cheapest places to shop in Spain, with the Murcia region tying with the Valencian Community for the cheapest autonomous communities to go to the supermarket in Spain. At the town level, though, you’re better off going across the other side of the south coast to Jerez de la Frontera in Cádiz, Andalucía, although the journey there might possibly just make your shopping trip more expensive.
While the price of electricity, fuel and other necessities rises across Spain and Europe, three local men from Portman looked to offset the increasing cost of living in another way: by stealing incredibly pricey bluefin tuna from a fish farm. The thieves stole around 175,000 euros-worth of the high-quality fish to be sold in a fishmonger’s on the other side of the region, in San Pedro del Pinatar.
Sticking with animal farming, Greenpeace has hit out at a Murcia-owned industrial pig ‘farm’ located in Granada, Andalucía. The environmental group accused the farm, which is run by meat giant Cefusa, of being the most polluting in all of Spain and of substandard animal welfare. Shocking images taken by Greenpeace show dead piglets abandoned on the floor and sows giving birth with no assistance in dirty conditions. Cefusa, of course, claims it meets with all existing standards and has even boasted of the 55 million euros they have invested in “maintaining” their pig farms.In other news, the regional Health Department has announced that flu jabs will be available for over 70s in Murcia from Tuesday November 2, at the same time as they receive their Covid booster vaccine. After that, it will be the turn of the over-60s, who can book their appointments in two weeks’ time.
Spain
The rising cost of everything from electricity to food remains a hot topic, with President Sánchez this week appealing to the EU to recognise the extraordinary situation by allowing Spain to change the electricity pricing system to reduce the cost of energy bills.
With petrol and diesel prices also skyrocketing, it may come as no surprise that drivers are turning away from name-brand fuel in favour of cheaper alternatives, with self-service petrol stations now accounting for one in every eight in this country. Airline giant Ryanair is also getting in on the automated action, announcing this week that eleven airports, including several in Spain, will now feature fully-electric baggage handling equipment. It is hoped that this move will significantly reduce carbon emissions, which is just as well since Spain has fallen way behind its agreed target as part of the Paris Agreement.
The Canary Island of La Palma continues to battle with the ongoing effects of the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano last month. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed while infrastructure and farm land has been decimated. In an effort to prevent further destruction, the government is considering the seemingly drastic move of dropping bombs on the lava streams to divert them away from civilisation, a tactic that has been used on the Etna volcano in Sicily in the past with varying degrees of success.
As if bombing volcanoes weren’t enough for you, ecologists have broken the unsettling news that deadly Asian hornets are on the verge of taking over the country, expanding throughout Spain at a rate of 100 kilometres per year. These killer wasps can cause a serious allergic reaction and have even been responsible for seven deaths in Spain since 2019.
Alicante
More sad animal news in Alicante, as the week began with an upsetting and bizarre discovery on an Alicante beach after the carcass of a 600-kilo dead cow washed up in El Campello. The bloated animal was found with a rope tied around its leg, prompting some to point out that it had most likely died while on a transport ship out at sea and been unceremoniously (and illegally) dumped in the water to save the crew the trouble of keeping a decaying animal on board, a practice which unfortunately is not unheard of in seafaring animal transportation.As well as the cow, 10 donkeys sadly starved to death at a Costa Blanca natural park, prompting an investigation into what went wrong and the resignation of the regional environment boss for the oversight. It seems like it doesn’t matter where in Spain it is, injustices against animals are endemic.
It was devastating week for caravan owners after a blaze broke out at a campsite in Benidorm, following on from a series of fires in caravan parks in Murcia in recent weeks. Whilst the fire brigade managed to extinguish the flames very quickly and nobody was hurt, it does raise questions about the safety measures in place both by manufacturers of mobile homes and in the camping sites where they are stationed.
Elsewhere in Alicante province, there’s been a certain positivity in terms of local activities and events, from San Fulgencio town hall announcing its festival of tapas and cocktails and an international cricket tournament in Alfaz del Pi to campaigns to boost local trade like a slowshopping initiative and open-air Halloween celebrations in Alicante city.
In terms of crime news, police in Alicante arrested a 29-year-old man after an off-duty policeman was brutally beaten on a bus far away in the Aragón region of Spain. The victim suffered facial and other injuries after being kicked and punched by a passenger he had asked to put on a facemask. The perpetrator tried to flee the country, according to reports, but was identified thanks to a video taken by another of the bus passengers.
And in what has been described as one of the “biggest and most important” heroin trafficking operations in recent years, Alicante police arrested 21 suspected members of a criminal organisation in the city of Elda.
Andalucía
While it may be a shortage of hard spirits that is affecting the country as a whole, Almería is especially desperate because the province has seen wine production fall by 20% this year. Due to drought, the grape harvests have been inferior to previous years, meaning Andalusian wine producers can’t even drown their sorrows.
Also in Almería this week was a fire that raged through a local shanty town, destroying 30 shacks where people were living. While the cause of the fire is not known, it did leave two people needing medical attention and others homeless.Better news in Málaga city, which hosts its 35th annual International Jazz Festival next week, while in the coastal town of Marbella a local man made national news after winning custody of his child in a divorce for the mere fact that his mother lived in an isolated village in rural Galicia in northwestern Spain. The judge ruled that the child had more possibilities of receiving a good education and access to a better life living in the big city, which may or may not be true but hardly seems a good reason not to grant joint custody.
Not even the weather will be a good enough reason to be in Marbella rather than rainy Galicia this bank holiday weekend, as the Andalusian weather is set to turn sour. The State Meteorological Agency, Aemet, has warned of heavy rain and has issued yellow weather warnings in the Andalucía provinces of Seville, Cádiz and Huelva as the bad weather travels from west to east. However, temperatures are expected to remain mild at between 15 and 25 degrees.
You may have missed…
A 70-year-old Finnish man has been arrested in Torrevieja for murdering and dismembering his 68-year-old partner after parts of her body were discovered in several containers.
The body of a young woman was spotted off the coast of Águilas by a cruise ship on Tuesday October 26 and the authorities have launched an investigation.
The Local Police in Granada have fined the driver of an electric scooter who was clocked travelling at 47 kilometres per hour on Calle Luis Miranda Dávalos last week.
A Spanish judge has made an uncommon ruling in a case concerning the separation of a couple in Madrid by granting them joint custody of their dog.
At 3am on October 31, the time will officially change back to 2am, meaning we all lose an hour of sleep.
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