Spanish Government plans to send troops to Haiti

According to an article in El Pais this morning, the Government is considering sending between 150 and 300 soldiers, helicopters, logistical support and a military hospital to join the Latin American peace forces deployed in Haiti (forces from Brasil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay y Peru)as part of the UN Mission to stabilise the situation in this country. The Latin American countries involved in the peace mission have specified that they need specialised military supplies rather than more soldiers. President Lagos of Chile and President Lula of Brazil have both formally asked Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to support the mission.

Haiti is the American continent's poorest country and until now US troops have tried without success to restore some sort of stability to a country caracterised by poverty, political instability and violence. Spanish involvement in the UN peace mission would serve to illustrate the Socialist Government's desire to strengthen ties with Latin American countries and to actively support United Nation resolutions and peace missions.

According to sources consulted by El Pais in Jose Bono's Defence Ministry, President Rodriguez Zapatero will make the final decision on whether or not to send troops after consulting Congress this week. One of the promises made by the Socialist Government is to always hold a debate in Congress, before committing Spanish troops to any potential military action abroad, so that all parties can express their opinion in contrast to the previous Government's refusal to debate decisions such as Spanish involvement in Iraq with opposition parties.

Meanwhile, Mariano Rajoy, leader of the PP party, has made public a proposal to triple the amount of time given to the leader of the opposition (himself) in the weekly debate held in Congress with the President of Spain (equivalent to Prime Minister's Question Time in Britain). During the Popular Party's eight years in power, Aznar and the Popular Party allowed Zapatero just 5 minutes to intervene with questions about government policies directed at the President during this weekly parliamentary session. Now in the opposition, the Popular Party wants to extend this time to 15 minutes. Rajoy said, not without sarcasm, during a political rally yesterday that in making this proposal he was giving Zapatero the chance to demostrate his desire for negotiation and consensus.

Unfortunately the European election campaign here looks set to be yet another Spanish campaign dominated by aggressive criticism and even insults aimed at other parties, rather than by constructive political debate centred on the different proposals made by different political forces. The Popular Party rally in Valladolid yesterday was an illustration of this. Rajoy spent most of his speech ridiculising the new Socialist Government to the delight of Popular Party supporters attending the rally.

ETA Terrorism

El Mundo publishes today an article about the Spanish terrorist group ETA - apparantly today is the first time in 30 years that the terrorists have gone a whole year without killing anyone (not counting the 1999 truce between ETA and the Spanish Government).

This does not suggest any new benevolence on behalf of the terrorists. Last year bombs planted by ETA in a carpark in Santander, hotels in Alicante and Benidorm, and other buildings and public transport in Pamplona, Madrid, the Basque Country, Navarra etc. Police also succeeded in finding explosives being transported to Madrid by two ETA terrorists just weeks before the Madrid train bombings. Since 1972, ETA has killed 848 people, according to El Mundo, and since breaking the truce in 1999, has caused the death of 46 victims and injured over 300.

It would be a relief for everybody in Spain if ETA were to rethink its violent policies in Spain's new climate of political dialogue and consensus. Many see this as a historical moment in Spain as, for the first time, political parties have agreed to negotiate constitutional change (even the King of Spain referred to this possibility recently).

The Madrid Book Fair

Yesterday King Juan Carlos opened the Madrid Book Fair, an annual event with over 370 individual stands selling all kinds of books. Organizers of the Book Fair want it to have a "European" flavour, as reflected in the title of this year's edition - "Europe is built with books". Book-lovers interested in attending this impressive exhibition of literature can visit the fair from now until 13th June. Opening hours are 11 -14.00 and 18.00-21.30 on weekdays, and 11.00 - 15.00 and 17.00 - 22.00 at weekends.

The Madrid Book Fair was first organized in 1933 and since then it has become an annual event. Euroresidentes has this section with book reviews, libros. They are in Spanish, but non-Spanish speakers can get a gist of the meaning with these free online Spanish-English translators. One of the biggest hits in this year's editions are expected to be the books released last month by Ana Botella (libro Ana Botella) or Jose Maria Aznar (libro Aznar).

Paul McCartney concert in Gijon

Paul McCartney's opening concert of his European tour in Gijon (North of Spain) on Wednesday night was not as successful as organisers originally hoped. In the end 25,000 spectators attended the concert, but thousands of these went after winning free tickets from big companies (mobile telephone operators, local companies..) in last-minute simple competitions, something which has angered fans who paid for their ticket. The organisers of the concert had expected 40,000.

Yesterday the mayoress of Gijon, Paz Fernandez Felgueroso, said that in the future she would consider cancelling concerts if not enough tickets were sold in advance.

Apparantly the concert itself was quite successful once it started, and McCartney sang five encores. He was on stage for two and a half hours and sang many old Beatles favourites, dedicating them to the two deceased members of the 1960s band, John Lennon and George Harrison.

European elections: The official election campaign starts today in Spain.

In Spain all election campaigns have an official starting and closing date. Before this date, political parties are not allowed to put up posters or hold public meetings. Official campaigns traditionally begin on the evening of the first day, when candidates take part in putting up the first posters and from then onwards until the day before elections, "reflection day", the election campaign is considered to be officially under way.

This year for the first time in 8 years, the two main political parties have agreed to organize televised debates between their candidates. When in was still in the opposition, the Socialist party protested strongly at the refusal of the Popular Party leaders to participate in televised debates which would have enabled other candidates to challenge the PP government’s most controversial policies. It will be interesting to see what sort of impact (in terms of viewer numbers) the televised debates receive during this campaign.

According to a survey published by the Cadena Ser today, the socialists start the campaign with an advantage of eight points over the Popular Party although a high 45% do not reveal their vote in the survey. This suggests that there may be a high level of abstentions in the European elections in Spain (as in other European countries). In the last European elections more than 35% of the electorate decided not to vote..

Yesterday in an interview the PSOE candidate, Josep Borrell, said that his main adversary in these elections was the possibility of electorate apathy, and he appealed to Spaniards to vote in the elections. A high turnout of voters usually favours the Socialist Party (as indeed was the case in the general elections in March).

Spain's participation in Iraq has cost 370 million Euros

Of the 370 million euros, 262 million correspond to military operations, the Spanish defense Minister, Jose Bono, told Congress yesterday. Bono also announced that all troops have now left the country and that the new Governments pledge to withdraw them as soon as possible had been fulfilled.

Bono was asked whether any members of the national intelligence bureau, CNI, remained in Iraq. After consulting with President Zapatero, he confirmed that none do.

Bono said that the return of Spanish troops should be met with joy, and he promised that Spain's Socialist Government will, in the future, consult with all other parliamentary groups any decisions regarding Spanish military involvement in conflicts abroad. He said that the Government has still not decided whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan but that he didn't think it likely they would.

Anti terrorism reforms in Spain

Yesterday Spain's Interior Minister, Jose Antonio Alonso, announced a series of legal reforms designed to control terrorist groups in Spain. In a move aimed specifically at fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, Alonso said the government intended to "triple the number of police and civil guards over the next one and a half years".

Alonso also announced reforms affecting citizens' private information to facilitate police control of passengers in planes and boats, bank transactions, the hire of vehicles, hotel occupation etc. He said the the Spanish Civil Guard would soon join Europol to facilitate information with their European partners, and that he would be proposing a change in legislation affecting telecommunications in Spain so that users of pre-payment mobile phone cards could be identified in the future.

The majority of Spaniards are in favor of first policies implemented by Spain's new Government

According to the latest results of the regular survey carried out by Cadena Ser to measure public opinion on political leaders and government policies, most Spaniards approve of the Socialist Government's actions during its first few weeks in power.

All 16 government ministers have passed this first popularity test, with Pedro Solbes, Jose Bono, Miguel Angel Moratinos and Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega proving to be the most popular ministers so far. As far as support for government policies, 3 of every 4 Spaniards support the decision to withdraw the Spanish troops from Iraq, and the majority also support the decision to suspend two controversial measures taken by the previous government - the Education Reform law and the National Hydraulic Plan.

The people interviewed in this latest pulsometro survey are more critical when it comes to the issue of domestic violence in Spain 45% think the measures taken by the Socialist Government are not enough to solve the problem, and only 39% think they are sufficient. Meanwhile more than 70% of participants in the survey support the decision to control the imans of clandestine mosques in Spain.

Royal wedding in Spain - the day after.

El Pais publishes an interesting editorial today about, inevitably, yesterday's royal wedding in Madrid. Of course all the Spanish media offer special editions today with photos and news of Prince Felipe's marriage to Letizia, now Princess Letizia, but the editorial of El Pais looks at it from a slightly different angle and talks about this being Spain's first democratic royal wedding.

El Pais remembers that yesterday was the first time since Juan Carlos became Head of State of Spain 30 years ago, that the Spanish monarchy was the centre of attention of the whole country because of who they are rather than what they represent constitutionally. As El Pais points out, the King and Queen of Spain have managed over the past 30 years to win the respect of most democrats in Spain and their popularity is reflected in the fact that most people in Spain would say they live in a democracy rather than under a monarchy. Even republican and separatist politicians respect the King, inspite of their differences, and have never refused to make the traditional visit to the Palace after elections when political parties who have won seats in the Spanish parliament are expected to present their policies to the King. Yesterday, and in the weeks leading up to the royal wedding, some republican criticisms of the cost of the celebrations and the disruption caused in Madrid by the event were expressed in the media and on websites, but it never turned into the big "monarchy si, monarchy no" debate it might have done given the diversity of Spain and the fact that the country was a Republic until relatively recently.

As El Pais points out, Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia will have a very difficult job in achieving the same degree of popular and political support enjoyed by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, but it is an achievement they will have to aspire to if they are to further consolidate the monarchic system in Spain and keep Republican demands at bay. Yesterday's wedding was very different from the weddings of the Prince's two sisters, in the pomp, the guests and the protocol. The Socialist Government has announced that in its plans for constitutional reform, it wants to include a change in the Spanish laws of succession so that females as well as males can be heirs to the throne.

The Palace wanted to convey that this was the wedding of Spain's heir to the throne, and they certainly managed that. The Royal Family also tried to tone down the ceremony out of respect for the victims of the 11-M terrorist attack in Madrid, and they managed that too. The main critics of the celebrations have come from the gossip side of the media (publications and programmes featuring news about famous people are very very popular in Spain). Commentators working for this kind of media have criticised how serious and tense Letizia was yesterday, how there was a somber feeling about the whole thing (made worse by the weather), how not as many people as expected lined the streets, how the dress wasn't romantic enough and how the couple did not express their joy as openly as they should have (i.e. the kiss wasn't long enough and they didn't cry with emotion).

El Pais puts the wedding into a political and historical perspective. It applauds the Crown's organization of the event in difficult circumstances, welcomes the fact that room was found for representatives of all Spain's parliamentary groups to participate in the event and thinks that the image Madrid gave yesterday to the rest of the world is exactly the one Spain needed to give. The editorial concludes by saying that yesterday's wedding, far from just being yet another social occasion for the gossip media to feed on, should be regarded as a further example of the stability and longevity of the Spain's democratic system.

The couple start their honeymoon in Cuenca.

Photos and onlince video of the royal wedding.

Video of the Royal Wedding in Spain

El Pais online newspaper is offering live coverage of the royal wedding via Internet. Non-subscribers can access the video of the wedding between Prince Felipe and Letizia here.....

Later on in the evening, the ceremony and celebrations are over and although the weather dampened celebrations in Madrid, the overall feeling among comentators seems to be that the wedding, the dress, the protocol, and the organization have been a success. Cadena Ser offers this link to a video of the best moments of the royal wedding in Spain.

The Royal Wedding ceremony has begun - Prince Felipe and Letizia are in the Cathedral

The royal wedding is under way under torrential rain in Madrid. Here is a picture of Letizia's dress.





And here is a picture of Prince Felipe and Letizia at the altar (they haven't said "I do" yet)

The last Spanish troops complete their withdrawal from Iraq today

According to reports on the radio and on newspaper websites this morning, the last 600 Spanish soldiers have left the military base in the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniya today. In a few hours time they are expected to cross the border into Kuwait and from there will start the journey home.

Most of the troops left the base on April 28th after withdrawing from the main Spanish base at Najaf, but 600 stayed to dismantle materials and supplies and to coordinate the hand-over of responsibilities to the US forces. Operations were formally transferred last Sunday.

The US Government has still not found any country prepared to offer troops to replace the Spanish contingent and will probably find it difficult to do so given the way they are handling the crisis. There is a general feeling of relief here amongst the majority of Spaniards not to be linked anymore to US management of this conflict.

Yesterday Spain's foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited the UK and had a meeting with Jack Straw. Usually whenever the Spanish and British foreign ministers meet, headlines in Spain inevitably refer to Gibraltar. This time they refer to the European Union too. Apparently both ministers admitted that they had minor differences of opinion about the votes system in the eventual European Constitution, but that they hoped to be able to solve them. They also said that no date has been fixed to start conversations centering around the issue of Gibraltar.

Royal wedding in Spain

As media excitement reaches fever-pitch here in Spain, and more and more space and time is dedicated to the imminent royal wedding, it gets more and more difficult to find an alternative news story, that is a story relevant to current affairs and life in Spain. All headlines this morning in Spain are dominated by international events, namely yesterday's two major horrors in the Middle East - Israel's apalling missile attack on a peaceful demostration in Gaza, and the massacre of about 40 civils attending a wedding in Iraq by US military forces. The royal wedding is, rightly, put into perspective when flanked by tragic events such as these on the international scene. Nevertheless the wedding ceremony of Prince Felipe and Letizia is increasingly the big domestic news story at the moment here in Spain.

We arrived in Madrid yesterday and the whole city is busy preparing for Saturday's wedding. All the trees in the centre have been pruned, flowers line the clean streets, lights are everywhere... Madrid always looks pretty in May, but this Spring it has entered into wedding-mode with typical Spanish enthusiasm, and it is obvious that the authorities have spent alot of money on making the city look its best. On some streets you can find descrete notices addressed to the Madrilenyos (residents of Madrid) from the municipal authorities, inviting everyone to enjoy the celebrations and to help to show Madrid's best side to the rest of the World.

At night time in the centre the streets fill up with people eager to see the special "wedding lights" and laser displays which have been installed around Cibeles and Alcala. Yesterday at midnight the streets were as crowded with cars and people as they usually are at midday on a typical weekday - at half past eleven p.m. the traffic on the wide Paseo de la Castellana avenue was at a complete standstill. The extra security measures which have been taken are also evident. Police seem to be everywhere, and the US embassy in particular is like a military bunker, surrounded by barriers, tanks and military police. Today police are going to remove all rubbish bins lining the streets near the wedding area, as an extra security measure. As from tomorrow more streets will be cordoned off, and on Saturday all metro stations near the Almudena Cathedral will be closed all day.

Most Spaniards are proud of their royal family, if anything even more so since the 11-M Madrid train bombings when all members of the family openly joined victims families in their grief, not only during the state mass held for them, but also in hospitals where victims recovered in the days and weeks after the attack.

El Mundo publishes a list of guests due to arrive today and tomorrow (together with airport and time of arrival). The list includes: Nelson Mandela and his wife (!!), Prince Naruhito de Japon, The Sha and Shahbanou of Iran, the Presidents of El Salvador, of Nicaragua, Colombia, Panama, Germany, Portugal and Ireland. Vaclav Havel ex-President of the Czech Republic, the Queen of Jordan, the wives of various presidents and prime ministers, the president of the World Bank, the kings, queens, princes and princesses of Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark and numerous other princes and princesses from small European and Arab countries. Apparantly the British authorities have still not confirmed the time of Prince Charles' arrival.

Spanish Government will raise the minimum salary

Yesterday the Spanish government announced that in July it will raise the minimum salary by 6.6% to 490 Euros per month, 14 months per year (workers' yearly salaries in Spain are divided over a period of 14 months rather than 12, because they earn a double wage at Christmas and in June). This will be the first of successive rises over the next four years. By the end of this legislature, the Socialist Government wants the minimum wage to stand at 600 Euros (x 14).

Meanwhile, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee voted on a shortlist of candidates to host the 2012 Olympic Games and ranked Madrid second in the list, behind Paris. Madrid scored well in all categories, and yesterday evening the Mayor of Madrid said he was confident that between now and July next year when the final vote will be cast in Singapore, Madrid would be able to improve the areas in which it scored less than the French capital. He said that the fact that Paris has already staged the Olympic Games and Madrid not would act in favor of the Spanish capital's candidature. The list of shortlisted cities in order of ranking is Paris, Madrid, London, New York and Moscow.

Aznar is back in Spain after his controversial trip to the USA. It has emerged that President Bush was not the only friend present in the meeting the two had yesterday. According to Cadena Ser, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney also attended this private meeting. When it concluded, neither Aznar nor Bush made any declarations to the media. Aznar left via one of the side exits of the White House. Back in Spain, according to El Mundo, when President Zapatero was asked by reporters on Monday to give an opinion on the declarations made by Aznar criticising the election results and the new Spanish government's policy on Iraq, Zapatero said Aznar's criticism had not made him feel "uncomfortable" at all, and that "each person has his own style of doing things". The Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, gave a similar opinion when asked by reporters. He said he was not concerned about Aznar's declarations which lacked "importance" and "influence".

Today President Zapatero receives the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei having yesterday held a meeting with the foreign minister of Israel, Silvan Shalom. Zapatero and Ahmed Qorei will give a press conference after their meeting and will then have lunch together with Javier Solana (EU Foreign Policy and Security Representative), Miguel Angel Moratinos and Marc Otte (the EU special envoy to the Middle East). Zapatero is convinced that there will be no viable solution to Islamic extremist terrorism until the conflict between Israel and Palestine is solved, and he wants Spanish foreign policy to concentrate on trying to put an end to the violence perpetrated by the Israeli government and Palestine extremists in this area.

Former president Aznar has secret meeting with Donald Rumsfeld in Washington

According to Cadena Ser this morning, Jose Maria Aznar held a secret meeting with Donald Rumsfeld in Washington yesterday, prior to his meeting with Bush today.

Aznar, who has gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times and spoken in several events since he arrived in the US last week has underlined each time his opposition to the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq. He has said that the withdrawal is a bad decision, which portrays Spain as a weak nation giving in to terrorism because of the 11-M bombings. He has not obviously mentioned the fact that withdrawel was official Socialist policy from the moment Aznar decided to send troops to participate in the invasion of Iraq in contrary to the wishes of over 90% of the Spanish population. Throughout his visit to the US, Aznar has preferred not to meet with Spanish reporters, saying that his visit is a private one and he does not intend to give a press conference. The Spanish Ambassador in the US, who was appointed by Aznar's PP government, has also declined to talk to the Spanish media about this private visit, although he has provided the former Spanish president with official cars and other logistical infrastructure.

According to the Cadena Ser, Aznar had a secret lunch meeting yesterday in Washington with Donald Rumsfeld and possibly with some members of the US Congress which lasted for one hour. Aznar was accompanied to the Pentagon by a member of the Spanish Embassy. Like people all over the World, Spanish people have been absolutely horrified by the photos of US soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqui prisoners, and Donald Rumsfeld has been strongly criticised by many political commentators for not resigning as a result.

Jose Maria Aznar's meetings with Donald Rumsfeld and President George Bush (he is scheduled to meet Bush today), and his continuous referrals to his personal opinion about the Socialist Government's decision to withdraw from Iraq have been received with alarm in some PP circles. Even the pro-PP newspaper, ABC, publishes an editorial today criticising Aznar's declarations during his visit to the USA. The ABC maintains that Aznar's constant references to Spain's role in Iraq are damaging the Popular Party's chances of winning the European Elections next month. "....It would be more prudent for Aznar to refrain from underlining his opinion about Iraq now that the new Government, the Spanish Congress and his own party have made irreversible decisions..."

Madrid is one of the candidates to host the 2012 Olympic Games

Madrid is one of the cities bidding to host the Olympic Games in 2012. Spain's capital city will be competing against other major cities (such as New York, London, Paris...) and representatives are hoping that the city will be one of the favourites. Madrid has included the following reasons for hosting the Games in its application:

- It is a city "open to the rest of the World", where thousands of people from other areas of Spain and the international community live together
- Madrid embraces culture and sport. It is home to one of the world's most famous football clubs, and is proud of its cultural and historical heritage
- As a modern European capital city, it has the infrastructure necessary to host an event such as the Olympic Games
- Madrid is the only great European capital city which has not yet hosted the Olympic Games


Photos of Madrid.

Alarm caused by OECD report on the Spanish housing market

Our Euroresidentes mailbox has been flooded this week with messages from Europeans who own a house in Spain and are worried by reports that the OECD expects housing prices to fall sharply during the next year.

In its latest EconomicOutlook Report released last week, the OECD says that in the medium term (in 2 or 3 years time) housing prices could fall suddenly and sharply in Spain.

The real estate market has been an issue in Spain for the past four or five years, and housing prices have risen annually here by a massive 17%. Last year in a special report on Spain, the OECD warned against offering futher incentives for future house buyers and suggested the Spanish government should introduce alternative policies such as rent subsidies for low-income families.

Pedro Solbes, Spain's Finance Minister said however that he did not expect there to be a sudden fall in housing prices in Spain and many experts consulted over the past week have tended to agree with him. The general feeling among economists here is that housing prices will start coming down in new urban areas which have sprung up around large towns and cities in Spain during the building boom over the past few years. But housing prices in coastal areas and consolidated urban areas are unlikely to fall.

Royal wedding in Spain - one week to go

Royal-fever is starting to catch on here in as the wedding between Prince Felipe and Letizia nears. Security in Spain is tightening up because of possible terrorist threats and one of the measures announced by the Government is to suspend as from today Spains participation in the Schengen Agreement. This agreement allows nationals from the following countries to move freely from one country to another, without having to produce identification on arrival at airports: Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Island. From today however, and until 24th May, people travelling between these countries will be required by Spanish authorities to carry an ID card or a passport. Also, no light aircraft will be allowed to fly over Madrid from the evening of 21st May to the evening of 22nd May.



Yesterday Letizia and Felipe attended the royal wedding in Denmark and the Spanish media examined from every angle possible Letizia's first appearance in a royal event (see photo above). As always, she showed herself to be very confident infront of the camaras (she used to be a television reporter and a news reader) and the Spanish commentators seemed very satisfied with her performance.

According to TeleCinco, the wedding in Madrid is expected to cost about 5 million euros (including the cost of repairs to the Almudena Cathedral where the ceremony is to be held, security measures and the cost of sprucing Madrid up for the event). This figure does not include the cost of wine and cava which is a gift from the bodegas, or the lunch which will be paid for by the royal family. The evening before the wedding, two of Spain's most famous chefs, Ferran Adria (to translate webpages from Spanish to English use one of these automatic translators) and Arzak whose respective restaurants are considered to be the best and second-best in Spain, will serve a dinner to guests.

The weather in Spain is still quite unstable and experts say it may well be cloudy with showers next Saturday in Madrid.

22.05.2004: They got married today. See photos here and video here.

Support for Spain's Socialist government rising.

According to the results of survey carried out by Spain's Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas, CIS and published yesterday, the Socialist Party has doubled its lead over the Popular Party during its first month in power. Since the March elections, the socialist's have seen their popularity rise steadily, and according to the results of the latest CIS survey, they now have a 10.4% lead over the Popular Party.

The Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas (CIS) [Centre for Sociological Research] is an autonomous state agency attached to the Office of the Presidency of Spain, whose purpose is to study Spanish society, primarily through survey-based research. It carries out regular surveys to measure the Spanish population support for political parties, leaders and policies. This latest report estimates that if elections were held now in Spain, the POSE party would win 45,8% of the vote and the PAP 35,4%. The most popular party leader at the moment is Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (6,61) and the second most popular party leader is Aznar's successor, Mariano Rajoy (4,83). The results of this first post-election CIS survey is one of the main headlines in all the Spanish press this morning, because of the proximity of the European Elections.

According to the CIS survey, 76,8% of Spanish citizens support the Government's decision to withdraw from Iraq. Yesterday the Spanish Congress voted to support the decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq. The PP was the only party that voted against the policy. The first contingent of Spanish soldiers arrive home this evening.

Finally, political commentators are, at the very least, rather surprised at the visit of ex-President Aznar to the US. According to press reports, Aznar travels to Los Angeles today, where tomorrow he will meet with Arnold Schwarzenegger and will be awarded the medal of the University of Chapman. On Tuesday he will have a meeting with George Bush and, possibly, Donald Rumsfeld. According to the Cadena Ser, the timing of this trip and especially the meeting with Donald Rumsfeld, has been criticised from within the Popular Party.

James Rosenquist: A Retrospective. New exhibition in the Guggenheim.

The Guggenheim Art Museum in Bilbao has just opened a new exhibition with over 150 pieces of art by the well-known US pop-artist, James Rosenquist. According to the inroduction to the exhibition on the Guggenheim website, James Rosenquist, A Retrospective presents the artist's enduring interest in and mastery of texture, color, line, and shape that have influenced younger generations of artists. Through his unique style of art, Rosenquist has addressed modern issues and current events, registered antiwar statements, and voiced concern over the social, political, economic, and environmental fate of the planet. James Rosenquist: A Retrospective encompasses the full breadth of this artist's remarkable achievement, while capturing his practice of working simultaneously in diverse mediums. (See full description here).

The exhibition, which opens today and closes on 17th October, includes about 160 works (painting, sculptures, drawings, engravings and collages) by Rosenquist, setting out the historical context of his early Pop works, and highligting the artist’s influence on the art of the late 20th century and early 21st century.

Related links:
The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.
James Rosenquist Home Page
James Rosenquist, A Retrospective, Guggenheim New York.

Zapatero announces constitutional reform in Spain

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero continues to surprise many sectors in Spain with the speed at which he is working to fulfill his electoral promises.

Yesterday in what many newspapers hail as a historic occasion in the Spanish Senate, Zapatero led a debate centred around the theme of constitutional reform, one of the most controversial items in the Socialist electoral campaign for the Popular Party, who throughout the campaign warned that the unity of Spain would become more precarious under a Socialist government and maintained that the Spanish constitution should never be reformed. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero however has always insisted that a the constitution should reflect the will of its people, and that successful constitutional reform, achieved by dialogue and consensus, reflects the maturity of a nation rather than its weaknesses.

Yesterday Zapatero, flanked by 10 of the 16 government ministers, made a speech in the Senate which stressed his wish to give the Upper House a greater role in policies affecting regional autonomies, so that it effectively has more executive power and relevance in Spanish politics. The Spanish President wants all proposals for legislative reform affecting the powers and financing of Spain's autonomous regions to receive their first reading in the Senate, and to do this the text of the Third Chapter of the Spanish constitution has to be changed. Zapatero said he sought the support of all parties in this process "The best reform is that which achieves consensus" he said. At the beginning of his speech, Zapatero was booed by representatives of the Popular Party. "I told you that the Senate needed this debate" he replied, "and I hope that nobody will exclude themselves or will feel excluded" (from the process leading up to the eventual reform of the Spanish constitution).

During the debate the spokesmen of all the Spanish nationalist parties in the Senate welcomed Zapatero's appearance in the Upper House as well as the contents of his speech, and for the first time the Popular Party spokesman in the Senate said his party would not oppose constitutional reform if it served to give the Senate a new, relevant role in Spanish politics.

Yesterday was the first time since 1986 that a President of Spain has participated in a debate with representatives of the Spanish Senate, and the majority of Spanish newspapers this morning are supportive of Zapatero's decisive appearance in the Senate and of a new atmosphere of general consensus (this is the first time the PP has not opposed the notion of constitutional reform) in Spanish politics.

Rosa Regas next Director of the National Library of Spain

According to government sources, the author Rosa Regas will be named on Friday, after the weekly Cabinet meeting, as the new Director of the National Library of Spain.

Born in 1933, Regas is one of Spain's most respected contemporary authors even though she started her career as a novelist quite late on. According to her personal website, in 1983 nearing her 50th birthday, she suddenly thought "I've had lots of children and I've planted lots of trees, but at this rate I'll die without having ever written a book". Six years later she published her first book.

In 2001 Regas was awarded the Premio Planeta, Spain's most prestigious literary prize, for her book La Cancion de Dorotea which she signed with a pen-name. In the speech she made when accepting the prize, worth over half a million euros, Rosa said "It is difficult for me to express the emotion I am feeling. I am delighed, because I am going to reach a wider audience, but above all, because at last I am going to be able to buy something I've always wanted to buy for myself: time".

She will have to give some of her new-found time up now in her new post at the National Library. Most literary experts will applaud the appointment of this popular, progressive Spanish writer as Director of one of the country's most prized cultural institutions. Rosa Regas has five children and eleven grandchildren.

Spain Refused US Military Request to Hunt down Iraq Leader

Yesterday in different interviews with the Spanish media, both the Defence Minister Jose Bono and the military commander of Spanish troops in Iraq, General Enrique de Ayala, confirmed that Spain refused a request received from the U.S. military command to capture "dead or alive" a leading Iraqui religious leader (presumably the radical chii iman Muqtada Al Sader.

In declarations to Cadena Ser, General Ayala said "Our mandate from the Spanish government was to carry out a mission of stabilization and humanitarian aid. The equipment we brought was conceived for that mission and we received no change of mandate to wage large-scale military operations." In a frank interview, General Ayala said he thought the decision by coalition troops to close a local newspaper in Nayaf, and to arrest Muqtada Al Sader were strategic errors which had only served to worsen the relations between locals and military troops. He said the atmosphere had taken a turn for the worse since these actions in the predominantly Chii area where Spanish troops are deployed, and said that had he been consulted by his US military colleagues he would have advised against these two unpopular measures.

Meanwhile Jose Bono, in the news conference held yesterday after visiting the Spanish troops in Iraq, backed the General and said that Spain could not "take part in offensive actions and therefore we said flat-out that we were not willing to hand in, as we were asked at one point, alive or dead, a certain religious leader." Bono said that withdrawal operations are progressing well, and that the troops may be home a few days earlier than May 27 as originally scheduled. He said control of the Spanish base in the south-central city of Diwaniyah would be handed over to the U.S. troops some time between May 13-15.

Barcelona's Forum 2004 opens its doors to the general public today.

Yesterday King Juan Carlos of Spain officially opened the Forum, an event which is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors between now and its closing date in October.

The official Forum web site describes the project as "A new and creative space for reflection and experimentation in relation to the main cultural and social conflicts that humanity is faced with at the outset of the 21st century". The organisation has designed exhibitions, conferences, lectures and other events centred around three main themes:

Cultural diversity: An understanding of other cultures is an essential precondition for any constructive dialogue between peoples. Such an understanding is gained through reflection not only on that which is common to all human beings but also on that which makes us different. As long as we consider diversity as an enriching element and part of our shared heritage rather than as an obstacle, we will be capable of reducing tensions and turning them around into positive forces.

Sustainable development: It is now more pressing than ever to find ways of growth that not only respect natural resources but also consider the need to administer them in an optimal manner. It is to the benefit of all and, particularly, of generations to come. Sustainability should also be seen as a concept whose importance goes beyond ecological concerns: it is one of the factors that will enable us to create the conditions required for coexistence, dialogue between peoples and peace.

Conditions for peace. The creation of a peace culture must be based on respect for other cultures, on social and political justice, protection of human rights, and ways of living in harmony with the environment. These elements, among others, essential for establishing conditions more favorable to human progress and development. Because, after all, lasting peace implies more than just the absence of conflict.

Barcelona has been preparing this mega event for the past 5 years, and the local authorities, the Catalan Government, the Spanish Government and UNESCO have worked together to produce what they hope will be a unique experience for visitors. Yesterday President Rodriguez Zapatero and the President of the Catalan Regional Government, Pascual Maragall, attended the opening ceremony. Names such as Nelson Mandela, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Jacques Delors, Mikhail Gorbachov, President Lula da Silva, Jose Saramago, Joseph Stiglitz will speak at some of the 44 international conferences, dialagues and debates lasting from one to seven days over the coming weeks.

305 institutions have been involved with the programme which includes 141 days of activities. The Forum 2004 has set up 4 mega exhibitions in the Plaza built for this purpose, occupying an area of over 14 000 m2, and 20 parallel exhibitions are being held in other areas of Barcelona. 44 national and international conferences, dialogues and debates lasting from one to seven days will be held over the coming weeks.

Related links:
Barcelona Forum 2004

Spanish government aims to control mosques and imans in Spain

In what is considered as quite a controversial move, Spain's socialist government has decided to try to curb extremist messages sent out by moslem religious leaders in mosques. Earlier this week Spain's Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, told reporters: "It is important that we know what is said in the Friday sermon. Mosques have sprung up in Spain in a completely uncontrolled fashion."

Yesterday his opinion became official policy, as after the cabinet meeting the vice-president and government spokeswoman, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, that the Government intended to work with moslem communities in Spain to prevent mosques from being used to give violent messages. According to the PSOE spokeswoman, reforms will be made "seeking maximum consensus with groups, respecting religious freedom and the freedom of citizens. According to Cadena Ser, sources from the Spanish judiciary have specified that "the majority of moslem religious services in Spain respect Spanish law, but we have received reports from the Moslem community that some minorities use these ocasions to promote violence. And the Spanish Constitution specifies that religious freedom is determined by public order"

US citizen arrested in relation to Madrid train bombings.

Today the FBI has confirmed reports published yesterday in Newsweek that a US lawyer had been detained by the FBI in connection with the 11th March Madrid train bombings

Brandon Mayfield, 37, was arrested on a material witness warrant and has not been charged with any crime, according to El Pais. This kind of warrant allows the government to hold people suspected of having direct knowledge about a crime or to allow time for further investigation into the witness.

Yesterday Newsweek quoted sources as saying the lawyer had been under round-the-clock surveillance by the FBI for some time and that he was arrested by FBI agents in Portland. His family have denied that Brandon has any connection to terrorist attacks."

Spanish government orders a full investigation of events around the 11-M terrorist attacks

Yesterday the Spanish government said it would create a special commission to investigate the 11 March train bombings in Madrid. The announcement was given after the leader of the opposition, Mariano Rajoy, asked for a commission to be established to investigate "what happened in Spain between 11th and 14th March".

Until now the PSOE has said that no commission would be created before the appearance of the former Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, before the Official Secrets Commission.

Yesterday, responding to requests from the PP in the light of information published yesterday in the media, and to other opposition parties, the Government said that the commission would be set up. But that its prime mission would be to investigate how to prevent a similar catastrophe from ever occuring again.

Special commissions in Spain allow political parties to call on witnesses, and both proceedings and results of the commission are generally public.

Reports suggest that immediately after Madrid 11-M bombings, Spanish police investigations pointed towards a possible link with Islamic terrorism.

According to El Pais and Cadena Ser today, police reports describing the activities carried out by police during the hours following the Madrid train explosions show that police followed clues leading to islamic terrorist groups right from the beginning. If this is true, then these police reports seem to give strenth to accusations that the Interior Minister of the Popular Party Angel Acebes (informed at all times of the police investigation) deliberately misled the Spanish population, and international community, when he insisted for 48 hours that the main lines of investigation pointed to ETA as the most likely suspects.

According to the article in El Pais, the same day of the bombs, police searched the rooms of two hotels in Madrid, one occupied until 10th March by a Malasian sultan, and the other by two Arab citizens (neither of the searches led to any arrests). Police also obtained passenger lists of all international flights and found a van in a suburb of Madrid containing a tape with recordings of the Coran. Various witnesses injured in the explosions were interviewed by police, and reported having seen Arab passengers on the trains carrying bags similar to the four bags containing explosive devices found by police near the scene of the crimes. The description of one man by two witnesses were so detailed that police were able to do a robot image of Jamal Zougam, currently being detained by the Spanish authorities.

According to El Pais, the whole poice report only contains two lines referring to ETA. They correspond to a version given by one witness who said he had seen two suspicious-looking people on the train who "might have been Basque". The lack of any more concrete evidence to back the witness's statement led to the police decision not to investigate further along these lines.

On the afternoon of 11th March, Angel Acebes appeared before the world media and said "There is no doubt Eta is responsible". The editors of two of Spain's most popular newspapers, El Periodico and El Pais, both received unprecedented phone calls from President Aznar to inform them that ETA was responsible for the attacks. And according to the Association of Foreign Media in Madrid, high-ranking government officials telephoned several journalists shortly after the bombings requesting them to pinpoint Basque separatist group ETA as the perpetrator of the attacks in their reporting. The telephone calls were allegedly made even after the discovery of the suspicious van containing Arabic tapes on the evening of the attacks.

The next day, after ETA had denied responsability, and increasingly Spanish people and media were talking about a possible link between the crimes and islamic terrorist groups, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ana Palacio, underlined the government's stance when she said "Everything appears to indicate that this terrible carnage is the work of Eta."

Aznar admits his government lowered its guard against the threat of Fundamentalist Islamic terrorism

In a new book written by Jose Maria Aznar and published yesterday ("Eight years of government, a personal view of Spain"), the former Spanish president Mr. Aznar says his government's success in fighting the armed Basque separatist group, ETA, may have led Spain to lower its guard against the threat of terrorism by Islamic extremists. Aznar's government immediately blamed ETA for the March 11 train bombings, which took place just three days before Spain's general election, and voters' anger at how the government handled information in the hours after the attack contributed to the Popular Party's electoral defeat.

This is the first time Aznar has admitted any failings during the crisis. Neither he nor his party have been prepared to listen to any criticism related to the way in which they handled the aftermath of the terrorist attack. Infact, his admission comes only a week after the former Interior Minister, Angel Acebes, launched an extraordinary verbal assault against his successor, José Antonio Alsonso, in which he accused the new Interior Minister of being "miserable", "incompetent", "indecent", "mean" and "vile". Acebes was reacting to a declaration made by Alonso in which he said he believed that PP Government had shown a clear lack of political foresight prior to the 11-M terrorist attack. The Popular Party leader, Mariano Rajoy, wrote a letter to Zapatero, in which he underlined his party's fury and indignation at Alonso's comments.

There is no doubt that the last few months have probably been the worst ones of Jose Maria Aznar's political career. He has been criticised at home and abroad for the way his party managed information immediately after the 11-M attacks, and he had to witness people's fury at first hand when he was shouted at during the 12th March mass demonstration in Madrid held to condemn the attack, when he went to vote on election day, and even during the mass held to honour the victims of the train bombings infront of dozens of world leaders. In all his appearances on television since the elections, Aznar has been very serious and sombre, and he has found it difficult to raise a protocolary smile during the various power exchanging ceremonies which he has been required to attend over the past few weeks. In his book's epilogue, Aznar describes his version of events on 11th March, and refers to what he calls the recent formation of a "new party of hate" made of up "all those who have taken advantage of the situation to transmit hate, distill sectarianism and encourage the destruction of adversaries"

Aznar's wife, Ana Botella, also presented a book recently called "Eight years in La Moncloa" (the official presidential residence).

Domestic violence and womens rights in Spain.

Today the State Home Secretary, Antonio Camacho, and the Chairwoman of the Observatory Against Domestic Violence and Abuse, Montserrat Comas, have their first meeting to discuss the latest case of domestic violence in Spain which occurred despite the fact that the man accused of murdering his former wife and two children, had a court order to stay away from his family and from his former home. Camacho and Comas want to see how they can enforce such court orders in order to protect victims of domestic abuse.

The whole of Spain has been shocked by the fact that the woman burned to death in her home with with her children this weekend had repeatedly asked for protection and was scared of being left on her own with the children in her home because of threats received from her violent ex-partner. In the past 4 months, 19 women and 4 children have been killed in Spain as a result of domestic abuse - on average one woman dies per week at the hands of her partner or ex-partner. Under Franco, domestic violence was not even considered to be a crime, and divorce was illegal in Spain until 1981.

When Zapatero became President last month he described Spain's domestic violence record as the country's "worst shame" and an "unacceptable evil". The first draft of a new "gender violence" law has already been passed and the Socialists aims to bring new domestic violence legislation before parliament by the summer.

Last week the Spanish Minister for Work and Social Affairs, Jesus Caldera, said Spanish society needed to change its general attitudes towards women, which should be impressed upon school children through the study of "ethics and equality". Caldera has challenged the way women are portrayed in Spanish adverts, and has announced the government's intention to break women's "chains of dependence" on their partners by improving their employment possibilities and providing accommodation alternatives.

Sr. Zapatero has promised to make equality between the sexes "an emblematic task" and has already appointed as many women as men to serve in his Government. Interestingly, the Socialists received more votes from women than from men in the last general elections which suggests that their message certainly got through to a large section of the feminine vote who now expect them to deliver their promises.

Bush authorised the US military to shoot down an Iberia plane during the 11-S crisis

Most Spanish news sources today publish the story that in the confused first hours of the 11-S terrorist attacks against the US , George Bush ordered the US military to shoot down a plane belonging to Iberia Airlines. According to NBC, one of the facts to come out of Bush and Cheney's appearance before the comission investigating the 11-S attacks is that the first hours were ones of much confusion and in the midst of that confusion the authorities were scared that more attacks would occur. One of the possible feared sources of such an attack was the Iberia Airlines plane. President Bush gave permision for the plane to be shot down after he arrived at Strategic Command in Omaha (Nebraska), but fortunately by that time the plane had turned round and was on its way back to Madrid.

Spain officially welcomes the European Union's ten new member states

In a ceremony this morning in Madrid, Spain's foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, presided over a short ceremony in the European Union building in Madrid in which the flags of the ten new EU member states were raised to join the other flags already displayed there. The ambassadors of all ten countries attented the ceremony, as did the ambassadors of the other fifteen EU member states.

Meanwhile Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will make his official debut at a European Union meeting of heads of government in the welcome ceremony te be held today in Dublin. This week has been quite a European-intensive one for the Spanish president, with visits to Germany on Wednesday and France on Thursday. Both visits were considered by political commentators to form an important part of Spain's "return" to European circles. While the previous Spanish government tended to adopt policies which distanced them from official European policy and favoured a close relationship with the United States and the United Kingdom, Spain's new government has stressed its commitment to forging closer relations with its European partners. Both the French and the German heads of state have welcomed Spain's new pro-European policy, and visits to both countries this week were carried out in an atmosphere of optimism and cordiality.