Drought in Spain

The Spanish Meteorological Institute has declared that for the last seven months Spain has been suffering severe drought. This is the first time ever that a public institution in Spain has given a drought warning.

According to figures released by the Institute, during the autumn and winter months it rained 37 percent less than the average for these seasons, and in January rainfall was barely a fifth of what it usually during the first month of each year. Rainfall registered between November and March has been the lowest since 1947, the year when Spain started measuring its rain.

According to the Institute, the areas worst hit by the drought are Extremadura, south-east Galicia, east Andalucia, Madrid, Castilla la Mancha and parts of Aragon and Catalonia.

Apparantly the cause of the drought was the presence of an anticyclone in western Spain which let in currents of air from the North Pole, causing a sharp drop in rain showers.

To see the full report, click here.

Related:
Spanish drought (June 2005)
Climate change in southern Spain

Latest figures on foreign residents in Spain

The National Statistics Institute has just published the lastest figures corresponding to the number of foreign residents living in Spain. According to the study, 8.4 percent of Spain's population is non-Spanish.

3.69 million foreign residents live in Spain. In 2004 the total population rose by 770,000 and currently stands at 43.97 million inhabitants. The overall rise in population was largely due to the rise in foreign residents; in 2004 over 650,000 non-Spaniards signed the municipal register for the first time.

The regional break-down shows that Catalonia experienced the highest rise in population in 2004 (170,000 people), followed by Andalusia (142.000), the Valencian Region (129.000) and Madrid (116.000).

Related:
Population in Spain reaches an all-time high
Demographics of foreign population in Spain

Gay marriages in Spain

Since last Friday, when the Spanish parliament passed a bill to legalise gay marriages, the whole issue continues to cause much controversy in Spain.

The Spanish Roman Catholic church (which has been campaigning against the possibility of gay marriages ever since the Socialist government was elected) has condemned the bill and last Friday Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, called the new legislation "profoundly iniquitous" and "inhuman" and he called on Spanish Catholic civil officials to listen to their concience and refuse to marry homosexuals, even if it meant they lost their job. The Spanish vice-president, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega made declarations to the media saying that everyone in Spain must comply with the bill.

Since then several Spanish mayors from the Popular Party have condemned the bill and announced their intention not to carry out any marriage ceremonies between gays. Lluís Fernando Caldentey a member of the Popular Party and mayor of a village in Catalonia even went as far to say that homosexuals were nutty, physically or mentally deformed individuals, who did not deserve to have the same rights as "normal" people born as "male or female". Infact Caldentey will probably not be carrying out any more civil marriage ceremonies at all as the PP hastily moved to expell him from the Party yesterday.

Other PP mayors have been less offensive but just as adament in their refusal to marry same-sex couples. The mayors of Avila, Valladolid and Leon and the vice-mayor of Valencia have all said they will not carry out marriage ceremonies between gays. Mayor Amilibia of Leon told the media yesterday that the bill was a mistake because matrimony is meant for man and woman. (Mayor Amilibia became quite well known in Spain recently when it was discovered that he included items like hair gel in his list of expenses to be funded by the Town Hall of Leon).

Yesterday afternoon the spokesman of the Popular Party said that laws had to be obeyed, and that if PP mayors did not want to carry out marriage ceremonies between gay couples then they would have to delegate in someone (according to Spanish law mayors can delegate in another member of the municipal council).

If approved by the Senate, the bill will make Spain the first Catholic country to allow gays to marry and adopt children. The controversy is expected to continue.

Update June 2005: Spanish government legalises same-sex marriages.

Spain addresses problem of school bullying

Today is the first day of the trial against eight secondary school children accused of bullying a Spanish schoolboy, Jokin, who committed suicide last year in San Sebastian. The trial will take place behind closed doors to protect the anonymity of the accused. The children will declare from behind a screen set up within a special courtroom set up in San Sebastian's Palace of Justice rather than in the juvenile courts where it would be more difficult to protect the identity of those on trial.

Jokin began to be a victim of bullying in his school towards the end of 2003 when he was unable to control an attack of diarrea in the classroom, to the amusement of his schoolmates. He became a joke figure and then the constant humiliation turned into violence and continued throughout the school year. During a school trip, Jokin and his schoolmates were found smoking a joint, and his friends accused Jokin of telling tales, and the violence got worse. On the first day back at school, 13th September 2004, Jokin arrived to his classroom to find the walls and desks covered with toiletpaper (exactly a year had passed since his diarrea problem) and was beaten up. His teacher made Jokin clean up the mess. Two days, and several beating-ups, later, Jokin didn't turn up at his school and his tutor contacted his parents who were unaware of the bullying their son was suffering. The parents and school agreed that Jokin would return to school on 21st September, armed with a mobile telephone so that he could ring them if he got bullied again. On 20th September Jokin wrote a message on an Internet forum site: «Libre, oh, libre.Mis ojos seguirán aunque paren mis pies» (Free oh free. My eyes will go on even though my feet will stop". In the early hours of 21st, Jokin committed suicide. The autopsy performed on his body showed clear signs of the violence he had been subject to the previous week, and the eight teenagers whose trial begins in San Sebastian today were put on immediate suspension by the school.

The case served to highlight the extent of the problem of school bullying in Spain, a country which, until recently, tended to ignore the whole issue of bullying. Infact no Spanish word exists to differentiate bullying from other kinds of harrassment or a bully from a harrasser. Since Jokin's suicide more and more articles have appeared in the press, but writers or psychologists either use the English word in italics, or find a substitute like "acoso escolar" (school harrassment) or hostigar (harrass).

Spanish schools are rarely equipped to deal with incidents of severe bullying, and it is only since Jokin's suicide that the extent of the problem is gradually becoming apparant. Since the boy's death, more and more parents have come forward to report cases of bullying and to criticise the lack of support available from schools and education authorities to address the problem and offer solutions.

According to an article written by a pedagogic researcher in El Mundo last year, no less than 48 percent of Spanish schoolchildren aged between 9 and 14 have suffered or suffer some kind of bullying. More than half of these are cases of verbal bullying, but 18 percent of the victims suffer severe physical bullying at the hands of their schoolmates.

As far as we have been able to gather, there is no official department in the Spanish Education Ministry or in regional education authorities to deal with the problem and no Internet sites available in Spain similar to those available to victims, teachers, parents and bullies in other developed countries. If any good at all is to come out of the publicity given to Jokin's tragic death, and to the trial which has started today, then resources need to be made available to teach Spanish society to come to terms with and how to deal with what is obviously a widespread problem in Spain.

Gay marriages legalised in Spain

The Spanish congress will pass two bills today on two major social issues: legalisation of marriage between homosexuals and divorce. Spanish MPs are debating both laws this morning, and will vote on them after each debate. Both are expected to receive a majority vote in favour, although the Popular and the Catalan CIU parties have announced their intention to vote against gay marriages.

1. New legislation to permit gay marriages in Spain

The bill proposed to legalise marriage between gays is brief and simply indicates the modification of a sentence in the 44th article of the Civil Code which states that marriage is an act carried out between "husband and wife". The government wants to change these last 3 words to "two partners".

Congress is expected to pass both laws, despite fierce opposition to the latter from religious circles. In a rare display of interfaith fraternity, the main religious groups in Spain (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Orthodox churches) have signed a joint document asking the Spanish parliament not to pass the law which would legalise marriage between gays. In the document the churches claim that heterosexual, monogamous marriage forms part of the Jewish-Christian tradition.

The new law is not expected to endear the Spanish socialist government to the new Pope, who is known to share his predecessor's rather conservative views regarding alternative religions and modern social issues.

2. New legislation regarding Divorce in Spain

Some changes have been made to this bill since the first proposal for reform was put forward by Spain's Socialist government. Whereas the first draft included a proposal to accept divorce applications just 10 days after a wedding, the new bill extends the minimum period to 3 months (still a big difference from the current one year minimum). Spanish citizens will no longer have to be legally separated before applying for divorce and for the first time ever the Spanish government will provide funds to cover monthly payments for children whose absent parents fail to pay them.

One of the most controversial aspects of the new divorce law is the right of judges to determine joint custody regardless of whether the parents agree or not. Until now custody has always gone automatically to the children's mother unless both ex-partners express their joint wish to share custody or the father is able to prove the mother to be unfit to care for her children.

Brussels sets visit to Spain to discuss Valencia land laws

Following a meeting of the European Parliamentary Committee on Petitions yesterday, the European Commission confirmed that Brussels will send a delegation of European MPs to Valencia, Spain, to discuss the controversial Valencian Land Laws.

According to Alicante's provincial newspaper, Diario El Información, the delegation will visit Spain between 31st May and 4th June and will meet with members of Valencia's regional government to discuss the possibility of EU sanctions being taken if the Government does not modify the land laws.

The delegation, led by British member of the European Parliament David Lowe, hopes to meet with the President of the Valencian government, Francisco Camps, to discuss how the LRAU could be modified in order to prevent what property owners and the European Parliament consider to be abuses.

Members of the delegation will also meet with the organization Abusos Urbanisticos No.

Related:
European Commission criticises Valencia land laws
Buying property in Spain

Spain sold arms to Venezuela during Aznar government

Yesterday Spain's Defence Minister revealed in Congress that between 2000 and 2003, during Aznar's second presidential term, the Popular Party government authorised sales of arms to Venezuela, including guns, grenades and anti-riot gear.

Bono also revealed that in December 1999, Aznar's government authorised the sale to Venezuela of a military patrol boat, but that in January 2000 Venezuela's president Luis Chavez was forced to withdraw from the draft agreement, which had been signed by both parties, because the floodings and mudslides in Venezuela at the end of 1999 forced his government to cut down on military spending and spend more public funds on repairing damage caused by the natural disaster.

José Bono offered this information in response to the fierce criticism directed at the Socialist government by members of the Popular Party, and by Aznar himself, of the recent offer of Zapatero's government to sell military patrol boats and planes to Venezuela. The US Government criticised the same deal. However, according to Bono, the patrol boat included in the most recent agreement is exactly the same kind as the one included in the sale attempted by the PP government in 1999

The leader of the opposition party, Mariano Rajoy, said in recent declarations that no government of which he formed part would sell arms to Venezuela. Rajoy was Minister of Public Administration and then Education during the first PP government, and Interior Minister and Government Spokesman during the second. He was also Vice-President.

During his appearance before congress yesterday, Defence Minister José Bono also revealed that between 2001 and 2003, during Aznar's presidency, the Spanish government authorised the sale of arms to the following countries (among others): Morrocco, Pakistan, Angola, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia Saudí, Cuba and Tunisia. Bono asked yesterday whether, given the recent concern expressed by the Popular Party about human rights in Venezuela, Aznar's government had been as concerned about the same issues at the time of the above arms sales.

Related
Spanish international relations

Basque nationalists win narrow victory in regional elections

Regional elections in Spain.

The Basque nationalist PNV-EA alliance won the elections held in the Basque Region yesterday, but only by a small margin, losing their overall majority. PNV-EA won 29 seats (4 less than in the previous elections), the Socialists came second with 18 seats (an increase of 5 seats), the Popular Party third with 15 seats (compared to 19 in the last elections). The controversial PCTV won an unprecedented 9 seats.

Although Ibarretxe was defiant in his victory speach yesterday, the results are a blow to his party and to his plan for greater autonomy in the Basque region. The regional president repeatedly insinuated that if the Basques gave him their vote in these elections, they would in effect be endorsing Ibarretxe Plan. But what has infact happend is that the PNV-EA have lost 4 seats in the Basque parliament and for the first time in democratic history, the Socialist and Popular Parties have more seats together than the nationalist party and, in theory, could form a minority government together although, given the profound distance and mistrust which exists between them in national politics at the moment, this is unlikely.

Last night both PNV and the Basque socialists claimed victory, but the real surprise of these elections was the low turnout (Basques usually turn out in large numbers to vote in the regional elections, but participation yesterday dropped from 79 percent in 2001 to 69 percent) and the performance of the new Basque Communist Party. The Batasuna party, outlawed because of its ties with ETA, urged its supporters to back the PCTV and yesterday, the communist nationalists outperformed Batasuna's results of 2001 when ETA's political wing won 7 seats.

Prior to the Basque elections, another new policital party, Aukera Guztiak, was banned from participating because of alleged links to Batasuna. When the banned party and Batasuna then encouraged their voters to vote for PCTV, the PP urged Rodriguez Zapatero to force a ban on the communist party, but after holding an investigation, Spain's state lawyers and Fiscal ruled that it was impossible to prove links between the communists and outlawed Batasuna. Spain's Vice President said that in a democratic state, political parties could not be banned from participating in democratic elections on the basis of suspicion. Last night the Popular Party, following its first major setback in Basque elections in recent years, launched a furious attack at the Socialist government, claiming that thanks to the Socialists, ETA were the real winners of these elections.

Ibarretxe could decide to form a minority government, or could even ask the communist party to join him. It is not clear at this stage which option he will pursue. Either way he is going to have to rely on the votes of the PCTV in order to push his policies through regional parliament, and even he will have to admit that his presidency of the Basque government is weaker as a result of these elections. The Basques have not given the Plan Ibarretxe the endorsement he needed to press ahead with his plan.

Related:
Basque elections in Spain
Basque independence, parliamentary debate

Valencian land laws unconstitutional according to EC

The European Commission has threatened to sanction Spain because of the controversial land laws of the Valencian regional government. The EC claims that the LRAU, as the Valencian land laws are called, fail to respect European Community Law governing procedures that should be used when giving public contracts for major urban developments.

The EC criticises the fact that the Valencian regional and municipal authorities do not publish tenders in the BOE (Spain's official state bulletin where all state tenders, nominations, exam results etc. must be published) or in the Official European Journal which publishes all public tenders held in member states.

According to the EC, failure to publish tenders in both official publications has led to "opaque and damaging actions being carried out against the interests of the landowners". The verdict has been made in response to a legal charge submitted to the European Commission by the organization "Abusos Urbanisticos No" which was formed to fight the Valencian law and has 15,000 members, most of them owners of property whose land has been or could be affected by the LRAU. In the next few weeks a number of Euro-MPs are going to visit the Valencian Region to meet with members of the organisation aswell as with members of the Valencian Regional Government who, until now, had refused to modify the land law.

The website of the British Embassy in Spain offers the following warning to potential buyers of property in Spain: "Buyers of property in the Valencian Autonomous Community should be aware that under the Valencian Government’s Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanística of 1994, all land may be converted for property development, unless it has been deemed no urbanizable on historical, cultural or ecological grounds. This means that even suelo rústico (rural land) may be re-designated as fit for property development if the town hall approves a developer’s plan for such change of use. Land classed as urbanizable is also, by definition, appropriate for development. It is therefore important, when buying property, to check future development plans at the town hall. This is also advisable even where land is already deemed to be urbano, since only by checking the status of the property can one become aware of the implications of likely future developments".

The European Commission has sent the Spanish government a 13-page long report explaining its verdict and has given authorities 2 months to respond. Meanwhile, the regional Valencian Territorial Department released a statement yesterday saying that the EC report confirmed the need to design a new urban law which, according to the statement, the regional government has been working on for the past few months.

Related links:
Buying property in Spain

Super computer in Barcelona

Europe's fastest computer was booted up for the first time yesterday in Barcelona, Spain. The computer is called Marenostrum and is the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world.

Marenostrum is an IBM computer and can make a mind-boggling 40 trillion calculations per second. It has a memory the size of about 20.000 normal personal computers and 233 terabytes storage space which means, apparantly, that it is capable of storing as much information as that contained in 29 million books.

The computer is owned by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), a consortium created by the national and regional governments' respective research and education departments and the Polytechnic University of Barcelona.

Marenostrum is housed in what used to be the University's chapel and is the fastest computer in the world to be owned by a public research center and available to outside teams of researchers. According to information published on the BSC-CNS website yesterday, the new super computer will be used for research in computer architecture, aerodynamics, biology and genetics, and also has industrial applications.

MareNostrum is unique among super computers because it was built entirely with components available on the open market and uses a Linux operating system and took just a year to create.

For further information consult the Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Broadband Internet in Spain

The European Commission has approved the plan proposed by the Spanish government to encourage the provision of broad band Internet conexion in some of Spain's remote rural areas. Brussels has even agreed to help finance the scheme.

Spain's socialist government wants broadband Internet access to be available in rural communities regarded as too remote to be profitable by Spanish telephone companies and internet providers. State subsidies of up to 26.3 million euros and 120 million euros of interest-free loans will be offered in an attempt to extend the availability of fast Internet access all over Spain.

After studying the plan to ensure that the subsidies would not represent a violation of the principle of fair competition within the telecommunications industry, the European Commission has decided that the subsidies offered within the "national plan to extend broad band access to rural and isolated areas" will only be used to finance the introduction of broadband in those places considered to be at a technological disadvantage because of their location or low population.

The call for tender was published on 22nd March and extends to all kinds of internet provider companies and technology (ADSL, cable, wireless, satellite...). Applications will be accepted until 23rd April.

More information here (in Spanish).

Immigrants on hunger strike in Barcelona

Five members of 500-strong group of immigrants who have locked themselves inside various churches and buildings since the weekend had to receive medical attention today. The immigrants have been on hunger strike since Saturday to protest at what they call the unbending rules laid down by the Government in order for illegal workers to legalise their their situation in Spain.

Nearly 500 men from countries in Eastern Europe, North Africa, Asia and South America have squeezed into 5 small buildings and are expected to occupy a sixth today. They say they will continue their hunger strike until they are allowed to put forward their case to the Government's Delegate in Catalonia (each autonomous region in Spain has a Delegado del Gobierno. This post is political, and the delegates job is to represent national government within that region).

The immigrants argue that the need to include a contract and a certificate from their home authorities showing that they have no criminal record in their application for legal residence in Spain, means that thousands of immigrants will be left out of the three months given to them by the Government to legalise their situation.

The fact that most of them have clandestine employment under employers who are unwilling (or "unable" as the protesters diplomatically put it) to meet the extra expenses (mostly national insurance payments) involved in legal contracts, means that many of them are unable to present a contract even if they have been living and working in Spain for years. They also allege that many of them travelled to Spain from small, poor countries whose unstable governments or lack of diplomatic respresentation in Spain makes it impossible for them to obtain the certificate required by the Spanish authorities to prove that they have no criminal record in their native country.

We have received some messages from immigrants in Spain over the past month raising the same problems. Examples can be read in the comments of the articles below. It will be interesting to see how (or if) the government will react to the protest being organised in Barcelona, and also whether or not the Catalan protest will trigger off other ones elsewhere in Spain.

Related:
Legalisation of immigrants in Spain
New immigration law in Spain
Reform of Spanish immigration laws

Spain mourns death of Pope

Yesterday masses were held all over Spain to mourn the death of Pope John Paul and cathedral and church bells rang as Spaniards paid their respects. Today is an official day of mourning and flags on all public buildings in Spain are flying at half mast.

Some conservative political commentators are critical of the fact that Spain's government has limited national mourning to one day (compared to 3 days in some countries) although, given the difficult relationship between the Spanish catholic church and government ever since the Socialists came to power, it would have been surprising if the official mourning period had been longer.

Nevertheless, Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, said yesterday that the pope's leadership of the church had been driven by two main principles: peace and social justice, and the vice-president Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega visted the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Madrid to express the Government's respects. The King and Queen of Spain who had no less than 15 meetings with the Pope over the past 26 years also made a public appearance to pay their respects and sign the official book of condolences. They will travel to Rome for the funeral, together with the President of Spain and other members of the Spanish government.

Eight Spanish cardinals are on their way to Rome to participate in the funerals to be held for Pope John Paul II and six of them will also participate in the election of the new pope (two of the eight Spanish cardinals are over eighty and are therefore not allowed to take part in the election process).

Meanwhile, Cardinal Eduardo Martínez Somalo, chamberlain of the Vatican, has become the administrative leader of the Catholic Church until a new pope is elected sometime within the next few weeks. The Spanish cardinal belongs to the conservative wing of Spanish catholics, has personally criticised liberal social reform proposed by Spain's socialist government and is rumoured to have close ties with Opus Dei. Cardinal Martínez will be in charge of organizing the conclave of cardinals which now has to choose the new pope.

Related:
Pope receives Zapatero in the Vatican
Spanish Catholic Church campaigns against Socialist Government policies

New arrests in Madrid linked to train bombs

Spanish police held 13 men yesterday suspected of having connections to Islamic extremist groups linked to the terrorist attacks in Madrid last year.

According to the Spanish Interior Minister, over 100 police participated in the latest operation, carrying out police raids in several flats located in different districts of Madrid. 12 of the arrests were made as a result of the raids.

Four of the men being held by police are believed to have had Youssef Belhadj living as guest in their home in July 2003. Youssef Belhadj is suspected of being al Quada's spokesman in Europe who claimed responsibility for the Madrid train bombings and was extradited to Spain from Belgium yesterday. He appeared briefly before the Spanish courts yesterday to be formally accused of participating in the murder of 191 people and belonging to an armed group.

Spanish police believe the other detainees may have had connections with Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet, "The Tunisian," the suspected leader of the March 11 attacks who was one of 7 suspects who blew themselves up in Getafe last year to avoid arrest during a police raid.

The 13th arrest was made yesterday evening when police detained a Syrian man accused of holding meetings to support the mission of extremist Islamic groups.

Basque elections in Spain

The Basque regional election campaign officially kicks off today, although the "unofficial" campaign has been raging on for weeks now, ever since Basque President Ibarretxe appeared before the Spanish Congress to explain his plan for a more autonomous Basque government.

Political commentators in Spain see this as a crucial election because the result will be the first real measure of the degree of support among Basque voters for the Plan Ibarretxe (as it is known here). If he wins a significant majority, Ibarretxe will feel further vindicated in his crusade to push his plan forward, despite the fact that the Spanish courts and parliament have ruled out as inconstitutional. And the Spanish government will feel under increased pressure to start constructive talks with the new PNV government (again, if Ibarretxe wins a significant majority) towards finding a solution which is politically acceptable both in Spain and in the Basque Region.

According to the results of a survey published by Cadena Ser this morning, the present Basque government would get a 45-percent overall majority with the two coalition partners (PNV and EA) winning 38-39 seats in the regional parliament. The Basque wing of the Socialist party would win 21 percent (17-18 seats), an increase of three points with respect to the last elections in the Basque Region, and the Popular Party 17 percent (13-14 seats), 6 points less than in the last elections.

Five percent of the Basques who participated in the survey said they would vote for Aukera Guztiak, the party illegalised by the Spanish Supreme Courts earlier this week because of alleged links to the armed separatist group ETA or to ETA's political wing, the illegalised party Batasuna. The fact that they have been prevented of voting for the party of their choice will presumably favour the nationalist PNV and EA parties even further.

Update: Results of Basque elections
Related stories:
The Plan Ibarretxe
Basque independence debate in Spanish Congress