Basque government criticised for mismanagement of Guggenheim

The PNV (the conservative Basque Nationalist Party) received serious criticism in the Basque parliament for the mistakes it made in managing the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. All groups in the parliament including one of its allies the EA party gave their backing to a report that places responsibility on the shoulders of the present minister for culture in the Basque parliament, Miren Azkarate. She is accused of lack of control, of endorsing decisions which went against the interests of the museum and of not paying enough attention to the management of public funds by employees and managers.

The conclusions of the investigative commission were approved by 48 votes with just 25 against. The report also points the finger at four politicians belonging to the PNV in the Basque government and the regional government of Vizcaya.

All the opposition parties in the Basque government, PSE, PP and EHAK except for Aralar, called for the resignation of Miren Azkarate who with the backing of Ibarretxe now occupies the positions of vicelehendakari (vice president).

The document also criticises the director of the Guggenheim, Juan Ignacio Vidarte, together with the director of finance for the museum, Roberto Cearsolo, for embezzling half a million euros and for the loss of 8.4 million euros in an operation which involved buying foreign currencies.

The PNV is likely to come in for more criticism because the management of public posts for the museum dedicated to the Basque designer, Cristóbal Balenciaga was the subject of a second investigative commission whose conclusions were discussed during yesterday’s sitting.

Results of Spain's Christmas Lottery

Every year millions of Spanish citizens eagerly await the draw for the traditional Christmas lottery which takes place on 22nd December but perhaps this year with the economic slump worsening it was more significant than ever for many. According to a survey of 500 people carried out by the Confederation of Consumers and Users (CECU) for Madrid the economic crisis has not affected spending on the traditional Lotería de Navidad in Spain. The average amount that people from Madrid will spend on lottery tickets this year is estimated to be around 160 euros per person. This amount has only gone down by 55 cents compared to last year. In contrasts with other Christmas expenses for which spending is estimated to have dropped by 6% it appears that no price can be placed on luck.

‘El gordo’ which is the biggest prize in the traditional Spanish Christmas lottery was finally revealed three hours after the draw began this morning at 09.12am. The winning number is 32,365. The prize worth 3 million euros has been won by 9 ‘administrations’ located in Torrevieja (Alicante), Barcelona, Soria, Zaragoza, Quesada (Jaén), Madrid, Oñati (Guipúzcoa), Allariz (Orense) and Quesada (Jaén).

The second prize worth a million euros is 78,400 and is known to have been sold in Madrid.

Less than 20 minutes after the most awaited lottery draw of the year began the winning number for the third prize was drawn – 80,076 worth 500,000 euros won by ‘administration Nº 2’ in Soria. Three minutes later the winning number for one of the fifth prizes worth 50,000 thousand euros was revealed to be 70,593.

Another fifth prize – 73,450 - was known at 09.51. It was sold in the Canary Islands. Almost an hour later another fifth prize was known – 29,127.

The first fourth prize worth 200,000 euros was known at 10.55 and was won by the number 79,294 and was sold by administration number 59 in Bilbao.

At 11:49 another fifth prize - 30.227 – was known and at 11.56 the last fifth prize worth 50,000 euros was drawn - 58.616. it is known to have been sold by agency Nº 13 of Hospitalet de Llobregat. Another fourth prize was drawn at 12.25 and was won by the number 49,730.

Everybody buys their own ‘favourite’ numbers for the Christmas lottery but once again number 5 was in the winning number for ‘el gordo’ which makes it the most repeated number in the history of the Christmas lottery draw after being in 32 winning combinations including this year’s.

Other winning numbers are 4 and 6 which have been in winning combinations on 26 occasions followed by 3 and 8 which have both been in winning combinations 20 times. On the other hand number 1 has only been in a winning combination 7 times.

According to statistics provided by the National Organization for Lotteries the winning number has been between o and 10,000 on 61 occasions and on 71 occasions it has been between 10,001 and 30,000. On 64 occasions it has been between 30,001 and 66,000. The number 15,640 was a winning number on 2 occasions (1956 and 1978) and the consecutive numbers 13,093 and 13,094 and y 53,452 and 53,453 were also winning numbers.

The biggest prize ‘El Gordo’ has corresponded on 4 occasions to numbers ending in three numbers exactly the same - 25, 444 – 25,888 – 35,999 and 55,666.

One of the biggest attractions of the Spanish Christmas lottery is the possibility of winning ‘something’. However, in order to win a significant prize it is estimated that you need to spend at least 200 euros on lottery tickets.

Spending on Spain's Christmas Lottery unaffected by crisis

According to a survey of 500 people carried out by the Confederation of Consumers and Users (CECU) for Madrid the economic crisis has not affected spending on the traditional Lotería de Navidad in Spain. The average amount that people from Madrid will spend on lottery tickets this year is estimated to be around 160 euros per person. This amount has only gone down by 55 cents compared to last year. In contrasts with other Christmas expenses for which spending is estimated to have dropped by 6% it appears that no price can be placed on luck.

The CECU has advised consumers to check the expiry date on their lottery tickets (3 months after the day of the draw) and that any tickets which are percentages include the identification of the person selling or giving the ticket, the number of the ticket, the value of the ticket and the identification of the depositary of the acquired percentage.

The CECU has also reminded people that any prize money due to the bearers of tickets that represent a percentage of the price of the number acquired can be received by the bearer on presentation of their ticket.

The new airport at Ciudad Real confirms departure of first flights

Yesterday it was confirmed that last Friday a commercial flight operated by Air Nostrum to Barcelona and another operated by Air Berlín to Palma de Mallorca took off from the new airport in Ciudad Real. A spokesperson for the airport declined to comment on the new date for the official inauguration of the airport following the unsuccessful attempt in October this year.

The first private airport in Spain was forced to cancel its official inauguration two months ago with tickets sold and a promotional flight full of guests scheduled because it lacked the necessary permission. The Spanish Civil Aviation authority which is linked to the Ministry of Transport denied a license to the airport in Ciudad Real due to the fact that it did not fulfil part of the requirements set out in the ‘Declaration on Environmental Impact’. However, yesterday the president of Castilla-La Mancha, José María Barreda, confirmed that the government had given the go ahead to the opening of the airport. In a statement to the press he said that all the necessary authorization had been granted.

Two companies (Air Nostrum and Air Berlín) will operate from Ciudad Real offering direct flights to Barcelona, Gran Canaria and Palma de Mallorca.

A new AVE high speed rail link is being planned directly from the airport meaning that the train journey to Madrid will take just 50 minutes. The new AVE station will be located at the entrance to the airport.

IMF predictions for Spanish economy get lower and lower

IMF announces new fall in economic forecast for Spanish economy

Today the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has announced some of its forecasts for world economic growth due to be published officially in January 2009. The predictions made by the IMF are even worse than the current forecasts for the Spanish economy.

During the conference entitled ‘Spain in the IMF and World Bank – fifty years of relationship’ Strauss-Kahn insisted that 2009 would be a ‘very difficult’ year and that recovery would not happen until 2010. The IMF revised its current predictions for the Spanish economy from a fall of 0.7% in GDP to a fall of 1%.

The Spanish president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, replied to the negative economic forecast made by the IMF saying that ‘it is not unusual for international organizations, including some of the most respected, to make mistakes in their forecasts’.

The governor of the Bank of Spain, Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, also commented saying that he regretted that the position of Spain in the IMF and World Bank was not reflected by the importance of the Spanish economy in a world context. However, he recognised that this had been partially corrected in the latest reforms approved by the IMF this year.

Nevertheless, Ordóñez also demonstrated his confidence that Spain would continue to be fully committed to both the IMF and World Bank and would give its complete support for reforms in global financial systems and new challenges ahead.
The Spanish deputy president and minister for the Economy, Pedro Solbes, also assured that Spain is in a position to play an important part in reforms to the international financial system together with the IMF and World Bank. Moreover, Solbes explained that Spain placed great importance on international cooperation in addition to wanting to have a more active role in these organizations.

He said ‘we believe that we are providing and can provide a lot to the efforts of regulatory reforms and supervision of the international financial system’. However, Solbes also emphasised the ‘intense effects’ that the international financial crisis was having on the Spanish economy which was why he advocated following through with structural reforms in order to leave the current situation behind as quickly as possible and become more robust and flexible.

Solbes also insisted in the presence of representatives from ten of the biggest Spanish banks and building societies that the financial system must continue to be the backbone of the Spanish economy. During the act of signing an agreement with the Official Institute of Credit Solbes said that he was ‘proud of the work and cooperation of all participants in injecting liquidity into Spanish businesses’.

The agreement signed today will make 10,900 million euros available to self employed businessmen and women as well as small and medium sized companies for investment projects and corporative financial needs. The amount agreed this year is 48% higher than in 2007.

Sorrolla exhibition in the Prado, Madrid

In May an exhibition dedicated to the Valencian artist, Joaquín Sorolla, will open in the Prado Museum in Madrid. The Prado in collaboration with Bancaja has reached an agreement with the Hispanic Society of America so that the 14 murals by Sorolla called ‘Vision of Spain’ which depict different Spanish cities will be brought to Spain and be exhibited as part of the exhibition - 'Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923)'.

The Minister of Culture, César Antonio Molina, was present at the signing of the agreement between the Chairman of Bancaja, José Luis Olivas and the Director of the Prado Museum, Miguel Zugaza. With this exhibition it is hoped that the wishes of Sorolla to have a major exhibition in the Prado will be fulfilled.

The exhibition will occupy nine of the Prado’s rooms and it is expected to be a definitive anthology of the artist’s work.

The exhibition will be open from May 2009 until the end of September this year and will contain 88 well known paintings by Sorolla taken from collections all over the world, together with the 14 panels that make up his work the ‘Vision of Spain’.
Visitors to the exhibition will be able to see all of the artist’s most important paintings which have all be exhibited before but never together in the same exhibition.

Amongst some of the most well known paintings by Sorolla which will be on display will be 'Sol de tarde', (1903) which is in the process of being restored. It will be the first time that this work, one of the artists most ambitious up to that date, will be exhibited in Spain since the purchase of this painting by Archer M. Huntington – the founder of the Hispanic Society of America. Another of the paintings included in the anthology is 'Triste herencia', (1899), one of Sorolla’s first major successes.

Economic crisis hits Costa Blanca hotels

Recession drastically affects hotel reservations for new year’s eve on Costa Blanca
The economic crisis together with the early opening of many ski stations and the attraction of Madrid have all been blamed for the sharp fall in hotel reservations for new year’s eve in the Costa Blanca. With just weeks to go reservations are down by 30% compared to the average for 2007. Some establishments which form part of large hotel chains have been able to cancel new year’s eve parties and transfer clients to other hotels.

Restaurants in the province of Alicante are suffering due to the fact that fewer businesses have made reservations for company Christmas lunches this year and those that have made reservations have reduced their budgets sometimes by as much as half.

Fewer tourists visited Alicante, Calpe, Xábia, Altea, El Campello, Playa de San Juan and Benidorm during last weeks bank holiday weekend with only a 44% occupation reducing overall reservations by 20% this year compared to the same period last year 2007. Vicente Marhuenda, the General Secretary of the Provincial Association of Hotels for Alicante says that hotels are extremely worried because although they are hoping for last minute reservations the economic panorama is not good. Over the recent bank holiday weekend there were at least a thousand empty hotels rooms everyday.

In Benidorm some hotels have been forced to cancel new year’s eve parties due to the fact that they only have reservations for 10% of their rooms compared to this time last year when they were fully booked.

Marhuenda and Javier García, the deputy chairman of Hosbec, are hoping that hotels in the province will receive last minute reservations so that a similar to Barcelona where hotels are facing losses of up to ten million euros can be avoided.

At the end of January the government’s ‘renewal plan’ will provide up to 400 million euros in loans to businesses in the service sector in order to improve their competiveness according to the chairman of Turespaña, Antonio Bernabé.

New ETA leader arrested

New ETA ‘number one’ falls 21 days after the capture of previous boss of Basque terrorist organization

Twenty one days following the arrest of the head of Garikoitz Aspiazu known as Txeroki the presumed head of ETA the Basque terrorist organization three further significant arrests have taken place in France including the arrest of Aitzol Iriondo, known as Gurbitz and Balak. His arrest together with two other significant members of ETA was confirmed last night by the French Home Office Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie.

Iriondo and Txeroki are the two principal suspects believed to be responsible for the assassination of two Spanish Civil Guards in Capbreton, France last year.

Aitzol Iriondo, was born in 1977 in San Sebastian and lived in a nearby town called Lasarte. Like a lot of his ETA colleagues he began his terrorist activities as a street activist taking part in various acts of street vandalism (kale borroka) during the 90’s. He arrived at the top of the terrorist organization whilst still a teenager and escaped to France in 2002 where he quickly learnt to manufacture explosives and also used his knowledge of information technology to help ETA.

Iriondo was linked to the assassination of the socialist deputy mayor of Lasarte in March 2001 when a bullet case belonging to the same weapon that was used to kill Elespe was found in a house where he had lived. Between the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 he is believed to have instructed new members of ETA in the use of explosives and weapons and in information technology.

Txeroki used Iriondo as his right hand man in 2007 after the fall of José Antonio Aranibar Almandoz - the then military boss of ETA – who was captured during the hand over of a van containing 165 kilos kilos of explosives.

Following this arrest the role of Aranibar was assumed by Iriondo who from then onwards carried out the instructions given by Txeroki and also contacted ETA cells. One of his fingerprints was found in a car bomb which was placed outside an office belonging to the Ministry of Defence on 9th September this year but which did not go off.

Two other presumed members of ETA were also arrested along with Iriondo - Eneko Zarrabeitia Salterain who is believed to have provided ETA cells with weapons and explosives and is also believed to have been Iriondos right hand man. It is believed that he could have taken over the top position in ETA after the fall of Iriondo. Aitor Artetxe, an ex member of the Vizcaya cell was also arrested.

After the arrest of Txeroki, Iriondo assumed the top position in ETA and became the most wanted member of ETA for the security services.

ETA kills Basque businessman

Basque terrorist group ETA have shot dead today Ignacio Uria Larramendi, a prominent Basque businessman in Azpeitia, Guipuzcoa. Gunmen shot Uria as he got out of his brother's car on their way to the restaurant Kiruri where he usually went each day. Uriz, 70, was married with 5 children and had been threatened by ETA before for refusing to pay the so-called "revolutionary tax", money which the terrorists demand from Basque businessmen to avoid becoming targets themselves.

The owner of the restaurant Kiruri said that as Uria was getting ready to get out of the car, one of the two terrorists approached the car and shot him twice, once the head and the other in his chest. He then ran to the car where his partner was waiting and as soon as he got inside, the car - an Alfa Romeo - sped away towards Alto de Itziar where they then set fire to the car and escaped in another vehicle.

The terrorists robbed the car just before committing the murder, and left its driver tied up in Alto de Itziar, just 25 km from the scene of the crime. The owner of the car said that the two men identified themselves as members of ETA.

Ignacio Uria Larramendi is ETA's fourth victim this year.

Muslim fiesta to given official status in Spain

Non-Catholic celebration to be given official status in Spanish city

On Friday the government of Melilla, headed by the PP, announced that in 2 years the Muslim religious celebration, El Aid el Kebir, will be given official status in Melilla. This decision will please many Muslims as it has been a long standing aspiration for many of the inhabitants of this city.

This is the first time that part of the territory of Spain will give official status to a non-Catholic religious celebration. It is also likely that the celebration in Ceuta will also be officially recognised. In both cities schools, Muslim civil servants and most shops and businesses close on the first day of El Aid el Kebir, also known as the ‘sacrifice of the lamb’ which is the biggest Muslim religious celebration of the year.

Al Mansouri, a member of the local government for the Coalition of Melilla, the Muslim opposition party, reminded councillors that there were 9 official Christian bank holidays and none for Muslims that represent almost 50% of the population of the city. Dionisio Muñoz for PSOE, the third biggest political force in Melilla, gave his support Al Mansouri.

The Islamic Commission for Melilla will decide before the 30th September the actual date of the bank Holiday in 2010 which will be included in the official calendar.
This demand is a challenge for Muslims because the start of the El Aid el Kebir celebration is only normally declared a few hours before it begins after observing the movement of the moon in the sky. Not all Muslim countries celebrate this festival on the same day although differences tend to be very small. In previous debates Al Mansouri hinted that the US NASA calendar could be used to help predict with accuracy the day of the celebration.

Sectors of the Muslim community have worked for many years to try and predict the start of Ramadán and other important Islamic celebrations with accuracy in order to try and make them more compatible with modern lifestyles. Now the Islamic Commission for Melilla will be forced to go down the same route.

All political parties in Ceuta have agreed to come together to explore the possibility of replacing an existing bank holiday with the start of el Aid el Kebir.