Explosion outside socialist headquarters in Derio, Vizcaya

According to information provided by the Interior Department of the Basque Government a small explosive device exploded outside the PSE-EE (socialist) headquarters in Derio, Vizcaya. The explosion happened at 1am following a phone call to the emergency services (SOS-Deiak) at 12.am saying that a bomb would go off outside the socialist headquarters.

As soon as the warning was received the Ertzaintza police went to the socialist headquarters in Derio and discovered one bag and one rucksack outside the building.
The buildings on either side of the headquarters were evacuated and the area was cordoned off.

The explosion damaged the building’s main door and the force of the blast also broke windows on the first four floors.

The type of explosives used have not yet been identified but it is believed that the bombs consisted of two or three kilos of explosives. According to official sources the bombs were placed outside the socialist headquarters by two people wearing hoods to hide their faces.

An hour after the explosion occupants from the neighbouring buildings were allowed back in to their homes.

Concern over rising child obesity in Spain

In Spain nearly two children out of every ten are obese which is nearly double the number compared to 20 years ago. This places Spain in third place after the US and the United Kingdom in terms of child obesity according to the International Association for Obesity.

According to declarations made to the Cadena Ser by Javier Arceta, one of the authors of a study on Food and Health in Spain which has just been published by ‘La Caixa’ Foundation, an overweight child is likely to be an over weight adult. Arceta says that nearly 15% of overweight children can be considered to be obese, but what is most worrying is that around 40% of these will be obese adults.

The abuse of sugary products such as fizzy drinks and lots of time in front of the television or computer are only some of the factors that have seen the number of obese children shoot up in recent years. However, the problem is also considered to be related to family habits.

According to the Caixa study 90% of the Spanish population eat what they like and hardly a third buy the products that they need without being influenced by advertising.

Cecilia Díaz, from the University of Oviedo, the coordinator of the study on Food and Health in Spain, says that the basic ingredients for a healthy diet are not usually advertised daily. She said that given that ‘our tastes and likes are influenced by advertising it is easy to imagine which road we are going down’.

According to the latest statistics six Spaniards out of every ten plan their meals but around 33% work away from home and recognise that their eating habits are much worse.

Zapatero wins Spain's first election debate with opposition leader

Spain's first electoral debate for fifteeen years was held yesterday evening, and according to the polls published this morning, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero beat Mariano Rajoy by a small margin. The debate was marked by accusations from both leaders on the subjects of terrorism and immigration.

The first part of the debate centred on the economy, social policy and terrorism. The second half was on institutional politics and challenges for the future.
As far as the economy was concerned the leader of the PP talked about rising prices and the cost of housing to which Zapatero replied that the economy had grown by 3.7% above expectations and that his government presided over the lowest unemployment rate ever. He also reminded Rajoy that in the yearly State of the Nation parliamentary debate, the Popular Party leader had dedicated just three minutes to the issue of the economy.

When it came to the subject of immigration Zapatero talked about integration and equality. He also said that the government was working with the EU to tighten border controls. Rajoy accused the government’s law on dependants as being a complete failure. Zapatero replied to this saying said that while the PP were in power they didn’t invest any money in dealing with immigration. Moreover he pointed out that while Rajoy was Home Office Minister he attempted to control immigrants by legalising their situation in Spain on the strength of whether or not they possessed a bus pass, whereas the Socialist government required immigrants to have a legal work contract in order to legalise their residence in Spain.

One of the most tense moments during the debate was on the subject of terrorism. Rajoy accued Zapatero’s government of giving oxygen to ETA who were at their weakest when PSOE took power. He also accused Zapatero of politically negotiating with ETA. Zapatero replied saying that it had been the PP who had played politics with terrorism when in March 2004 they lied to the Spanish people about who they believed to be behind the M-11 bombings. He also went on to point out that he had supported Aznar in his fight against ETA and now the PP was the only political party in the world that didn’t give its backing to its national government the fight against terrorism. When Rajoy accused Zapatero of attacking the victims of terrorism Zapatero repeatedly replied that he would not tolerate this remark.

The debate ended on the topic of challenges for the future. Rajoy said the biggest challenge for any Spaniard was to buy their own home. In reply to this Zapatero reminded Rajoy that house prices rose by historic levels while the PP were still in government.

Zapatero talked about education and said he was proud of having increased grants to students and invested money in research projects. He said that there were now 40,000 more researchers in Spain than when the PP were in government.

Mayor claims ITV seeks to damage the image of Benidorm

The mayor of Benidorm accuses British television channel ITV of trying to damage the city's image as a tourist destination

Mayor Manuel Pérez Fenoll, has denounced ITV for ‘trying to damage the touristic image of the city’ with its plans to air a programme today about crime in the city and robberies suffered by British tourists on holiday there. The programme which will be aired at peak viewing time gives information on attacks on British tourists during their stay in Benidorm as well as the burglaries of properties owned by British residents.

In a statement made to the Spanish media yesterday, Benidorm's mayor claimed that there were ‘dark interests’ behind the programme which, in his view, aimed to damage Benidorm’s reputation. He said that he believed that it was also aimed at ‘diverting the large flow of British tourists to other destinations’. With regards to the contents of the programme the mayor said that it contained "lies and inaccuracies" and offered a "false reality". He also claimed that Benidorm was one of the ‘safest tourist destinations in the world’.

According to Pérez Fenoll ‘people here are not afraid to walk the streets at night, something which the five million tourists that visit us every year know’. However, the programme on Benidorm, due to be aired on ITV this evening, talks about organized gangs from Eastern Europe and also British tourists who have lost their lives on the streets of Benidorm.

The mayor said that the programme was a new attack on Benidorm in an attempt to bring down the reputation of the city. Nevertheless, he also announced that he will be meeting the heads of police to analyze the situation and adopt measures if seen to be necessary in the climate of insecurity felt by the foreign community.

Pérez Fenoll spoke out against ITV back in December last year when filming in the city was taking place. His declarations provoked a backlash from British residents who started their own petition to show their agreement with the accusation that crime in the city had increased.

According to the town hall this feeling of insecurity does not correspond with reality. Local government sources assure residents that burglaries have gone down by 50% over the last four years.

Related: Hotels in Benidorm # Cheap hotels in Benidorm

Spanish election campaign begins

Tense atmosphere for Spanish Election Campaign which begins at midnight

The Spanish president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the leader of IU, Gaspar Llamazares, will begin their parties’ respective election campaigns in Madrid while the leader of the PP, Rajoy, will start his party’s campaign in Cádiz.

Pre-election campaigning ended with tension rising on both sides when when Rajoy and Zapatero crossed words. Rajoy accused Zapatero of creating a tense situation and blamed him for the verbal attacks and interuptions suffered by opposition members Rosa Díez, María San Gil and Dolors Nadal when visiting various Spanish universities over the last few weeks.

Official campaigning for the general election begins at midnight tonight and will continue until March 7th, leaving the traditional one day of reflection before the general election which is due to take place on 9th March. According to the latest polls there is no clear leader and a significant percentage of the electorate remains undecided.

The socialists will begin their campaign in the Palacio Municipal de Congresos del Campo de las Naciones, in Madrid with Zapatero together with the minister for Education, the PSOE candidate Mercedes Cabrera and the general secretary of PSOE in Madrid, Tomás Gómez.

Today PSOE presented their three new election campaign videos which can be seen in Cadenaser.com. In one of them a man collects his mother from a village to take her to vote even though she is a PP supporter, in another a young voter is excited about having the right to vote for the first time and in the last one an elderly member of the population is pleased that Zapatero has raised Spain’s profile.

Rajoy will begin the PP’s election campaign in Càdiz together with the PP candidate for presidency of the Andalucian regional government, Javier Arenas, and the PP candidate Teófila Martínez.

Cádiz has a special symbolic meaning for the PP for several reasons. Rajoy has called the city a modern symbol of Spanish constitutionalism due to the fact that the constitution was signed there in 1812. In addition, Rajoy began the PP’s campaign for a national referendum on the Catalan statute on 31st January 2006.

Gaspar Llamazares, the leader of IU will open his party’s campaign in a former abattoir in Arganzuela, Madrid. The IU candiates Joaquín Nieto, Montserrat Muñoz and Marisa Castro, will also take part.

High speed train between Madrid and Barcelona

First high speed AVE trains between Madrid and Barcelona arrive on time

The inauguration of the high speed AVE rail link between Madrid and Barcelona took place with complete success today. Furthermore the first train from Barcelona to Madrid arrived in the Spanish capital 3 minutes ahead of schedule.

Trains on the high speed rail link travel at an average of 250 kilometres per hour and sometimes reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour which means that the journey takes less than 3 hours. The first train from Madrid to Barcelona took just 2 hours 38 minutes.

There are 17 trains between the cities daily which run from 6.00 am to 9 pm. The rail link also looks like a commercial success. Approximately 13,000 tickets were sold on 14th February, the first day tickets were made available to the public, and since then over 70,000 tickets have been sold, 48% of them via Renfe’s web page. Prices range between 163.50 euros to 40.80 euros depending on availability. The president of Renfe said that it hoped that the new rail link would be the number one rival to air travel between Barcelona and Madrid.

The long awaited opening of this new high speed rail link comes 12 years after work first began on the line. Along the way there has been chaos on local train lines due cancellations caused by problems with excavation work not to mention numerous delays.

Related: Rail travel in Spain # Guide to Madrid # Guide to Barcelona

Spain will not officially recognise Kosovo

The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, has confirmed today that Spain is not going to give official recognition to the newly declared independent state of Kosovo because the declaration of independence does not respect international law.

Moratinos, compared the position of Spain’s policy towards Kosovo to that of Spain’s stance in the war in Iraq saying that ‘the Spanish government has always defended international law. He insisted that Spain defended it by pulling out its troops from Iraq and also now when it comes to the succession of a state. In his opinion the independence of Kosovo would only be legal if it was the result of agreement by all sides involved or if there had been a UN Security Council resolution.

Moratinos gave emphasis to the fact that the separation of Kosovo as an independent state has caused division in the international community, division in the UN Security Council and division amongst UN member states. He said that it wouldn’t benefit the Balkan region either.

On the other hand the French minister for Foreign Affairs, Bernard Kouchner, denied that Kosovan independence was a tradgedy even for Serbia and minimized the difference between EU member states with respect to giving recognition to the new state.

Following Kosovo’s declaration of independence yesterday the Prime Minister of the new state, Hashim Thaci, announced that he had sent a request to governments all over the world asking for recognition and that he expected to receive the first replies within hours. EU member states are meeting today to discuss the matter. At least six EU members are against recognition, Spain included.

Economic growth in Spain in 2007

Spain heads economic growth amongst developed countries in 2007

Last week figures on the economy published by the Spanish National Institute for Statistics (INE) lived up to the government’s expectations. The figures on economic growth in 2007 showed a notable increase in GDP at 3.8%. For the third consecutive year the Spanish economy grew more than the economies of members of the G7. Furthermore, it grew more than the average for EU countries (2.9%) and more than any other country in the euro zone (2.7%).

In fact the INE only noticed a slight slowdown in the last quarter of 2007 with a growth of 3.5% compared to 3.8% for the rest of the year.

The IMF and OCDE predict a notable slowdown in the Spanish economy this year with an estimated growth of between 2.5% and 2.7%, although government estimates are slightly higher at 3.1%. If the most pessimistic predictions are fulfilled then 2007 will be the culmination of an excellent decade of growth for the Spanish economy, at least in terms of the growth in GDP which over the last ten years has always grown above 3% (except in 2002).

During the last few years the Spanish economy has grown at a higher rate than those in the G7, something which has given further justification to Spanish governments' requests to be given a place in the group. However, while the Spanish GDP has now overtaken that of Canada which is a member of the G7 although it is still far behind that of emerging world economies such as China, India or Russia, none of which are members of this exclusive club.

The opposition PP party, who are accusing the Government of mismanaging the economy in the election campaign, seemed irritated by the report and warned the Statistics Institute to exert caution when publishing figures in an electoral period.

Spain protests to British Government over New Flame wreck

The Andalucian regional government to claim ‘New Flame’ clean up operation costs back from EU

The Andalucian regional government is to reclaim the costs of cleaning up beaches affected by the sinking of the cargo ship 'New Flame' from the EU. Manuel Chaves, the president of the Andalucian regional government, has also announced that civil action against the owner of the sunken cargo ship ‘New Flame’ and its insurance company will begin in order to get compensation for money spent from public funds.

According to Cristina Narbona, the Minister for the Environment, the Spanish government has asked to meet with the British ambassador in Madrid to discuss the way the government of Gibraltar dealt with the situation following the sinking last year of the ship carrying scrap metal off the Andalucian coast. Regional politicians have criticised the authorities in Gibraltar over what they regard as delays and slackness in recovering the wreck to avoid further pollution.

Cristina Narbona said that the government of Gibraltar has asked the British government to assume its responsibilities in relation to the new spill from the ship produced this weekend.

Meanwhile President Chaves has announced that the claims for compensation from the EU will begin immediately while the civil action against the ship owner and its insurance company will require more time.

Contract for immigrants proposed by Popular Party

Government calls Rajoy’s proposal on immigration ‘opportunistic’

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the Spanish Vice-President, has criticised the proposal on immigration put forward yesterday by Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the main opposition party in Spain.

His proposal, officially launched yesterday, includes ‘a contract of integration’ based upon certain rules such as respect for Spanish customs which immigrants would be forced to obey. It also includes rules such as forbidding female circumcision and respecting equality between the sexes, but it also refers to maintaining standards of "hygiene" which some groups have found rather offensive and others xenophobic.

When asked yesterday about Rajoy’s idea of a ‘contract of integration’ De la Vega said that many of the measures included in the contract were already covered by Spanish law. She went on to further criticise the leader of the PP saying that just a few days ago his party was talking about an economic catastrophe and now it was trying to stir up feelings on the subject of immigration.

She said that the contract not only asked immigrants to respect Spanish customs but also required immigrants to learn the Spanish language, to pay tax, make an effort to integrate into society and above all return to their country of origin if they do not find work. This could prove to be worrying for the construction and agriculture industries which both rely on immigrants to carry out low-paid jobs which can be temporary.

The proposal put forward by Rajoy is almost an exact copy of the contract that Nicolas Sarkozy introduced in France in 2004 when he was the Home Office Minister. His proposals also included respect for the French way of life and equality between sexes. Under the French system if an immigrant is found not to have followed these principles then they could lose out on welfare benefits or even be deported.

However according to some experts, Rajoy’s proposals have serious drawbacks such as not taking into account how long an immigrant has lived or worked in Spain and paid their taxes or social security. Under Rajoy’s system if they find themselves out of work they could face immediate deportation.

Josep Oliver, Professor of Applied Economics and an expert in the connections between the economy and immigration told Cadena Ser yesterday that two thirds of the jobs created in Spain have been ‘absorbed’ by immigration and that in his opinion immigrants are vital in order for Spain to continue its economic development and growth. He also pointed out that immigration was necessary to counter the drop in the growth of the Spanish population.

French farmers attack Spanish lorries

French farmers attack lorries carrying Spanish agricultural produce on the French-Spanish border

The Unió-COAG which represents Spanish farmers has denounced French farmers for initiating a campaign of attacks against lorries carrying Spanish agricultural produce following the destruction of the contents of several lorries as they crossed the French-Spanish border.

According to the Unió, French farmers have begun a campaign against lorries carrying Spanish agricultural produce following various acts of vandalism against a number of lorries carrying lettuce and wine in Gallargues le Montueux, situated in the South of France.

A spokesperson for the Unió said that French farmers were ‘taking the law into their own hands’ with regards to Spanish agricultural imports which they considered to be illegal. It also said that these acts of violence constitute a ‘new attack on the right to free trade within Europe’.

The Unió has demanded that the French government put an immediate end to these attacks and has criticised the European Union for not establishing a legal framework to punish such acts of violence swiftly and efficiently.

The Spanish Ministry for Agriculture and Fishing has formally requested that the French authorities intervene to avoid further acts of vandalism against lorries carrying Spanish produce and to ensure the free movement of goods.

According to the latest reports attacks on Spanish lorries have spread to Montpellier, where the contents of at least one lorry carrying vegetables from Murcia has been destroyed by French farmers.

Consumer confidence in Spain drops

Unemployment and weak economy damage consumer confidence in Spain

Successive negative statistics regarding the Spanish economy has caused consumer confidence to fall to its lowest level at 70.9 points.

The index for consumer confidence, created by the Official Credit Institute (ICC-ICO) in 2004, fell by 1.4 points in January which makes it the 8th consecutive month in which consumer confidence has fallen. It began to weaken last June at the beginning of the financial crisis in the US.

Aurelio Martínez, the president of the ICO said that there were several factors which affected consumer confidence such as the reduction in GDP, rising levels of unemployment, increasing petrol prices, inflation, increasing household costs and massive falls in the stock market together with external factors such as the financial crisis in the US caused by ‘subprime’ mortgages.

Nevertheless, Martínez also highlighted the fact that the latest figures on consumer confidence could have been directly affected by the collapse of the stock market on the days that the last survey was carried out (18th – 22nd January).

However, Martínez said that he expected the situation to improve from April onwards and criticised those who classified the present economic situation as an ‘acute crisis’. He went on to say that the Spanish economy was growing above 3% according to figures from Europa Press.

The survey discovered that consumers had reduced confidence in inflation in January which placed the indicator on the evolution of prices at its lowest level for the second consecutive month since the creation of the index. Consumer confidence in durable consumer goods and savings were also reduced.

The ICO also put the reduction of consumer confidence in January down to the increase in uncertainty and volatility in the international financial markets associated with the deceleration in the growth of the US economy and the worldwide consequences of this.

The ICO complies the monthly indicator of consumer confidence using a survey which finds out the opinion of a thousand consumers from all over the Peninsula. The survey asks them about their current household costs, their opinion on the Spanish economy and employment with respect to the previous six months as well as their expectations for the next six months.

Catholic church enters Spanish election campaign

Spanish Bishops urge electorate to vote against gay weddings and negotiation with ETA

The permanent committee of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has published a letter in which it urges Catholic voters in Spain to vote for those who ‘hear their voices’ because ‘not all political programmes are compatible with their faith and the demands of a Christian way of life’.

Antonio Martínez Camino, the assistant bishop of Madrid and spokesperson for the conference presented the letter in a news conference today and said that the church had the right to speak out about legislation it considered to be ‘gravely unjust’.

José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish president, currently attending the Spanish- German conference in Mallorca refused to comment over the letter but the Socialist Party's spokesman called the Church "immoral" and reminded Spaniards that bishops had helped to intermediate in talks held between the Government and ETA under José Maria Aznar.

Through the use of the letter the hierarchy of the Catholic church in Spain has placed great emphasis on several issues. Firstly it is unequivocal in its condemnation of terrorism and is opposed to any negotiations with ETA. Although it doesn’t mention the Basque terrorist organisation in name it says that ‘a society that wants to be free and just cannot recognise a terrorist organisation as a political representative of any sector of the population or use it for negotiations’.

The Episcopal conference is even more explicit in its condemnation of gay marriages in Spain and says that voters should vote for those who oppose this and quote the pope as saying the ‘family is based on marriage’ and ‘other forms of union contribute to destabilizing it, damaging its uniqueness and its fundamental social function’.

The letter also criticised other issues such as the new school subject of ‘Citizenship’ saying that it damaged the ‘rights of parents to teach their children according to their religious and moral convictions’. According to Spanish bishops there are ‘growing difficulties in incorporating the free
study of the Catholic religion in the curriculum for state schools’.

The Conference also called for freedom and respect for its opinions and repeated its right to criticise the law. It encouraged Catholic voters to vote with their conscience.