The doubts about the
leadership qualities of the Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, have
naturally been increased by the very poor showing of the PP party in the
Andalucian elections. Faced with the nutcracker of declining
popularity, on the one hand, and the rise of Podemos and Cuidadanos,
on the other, the party's doyens must surely be looking at
alternative leaders for the elections later this year. But who? Could
this really be the hour of Spain's 'Iron Lady', Esperanza Aguirre,
currently positioned as the next mayor of Madrid? I guess we'll soon
know, as they surely won't wait until the last moment. There's
actually a cavalcade of regional and local elections between now and
the general elections, so maybe they'll wait on one or two more
before plumping for regicide. Dressed up as sword-falling.
As for the socialist
PSOE opposition . . . They gained the same number of seats in the
Andalucian elections as the previous time, showing that "the
corruption scandals barely dissuaded voters away from the PSOE."
Is it, then, any wonder that politicians think they can get away
with it? Especially as Andalucia is the most corrupt region in Spain.
And the (unpunished) PSOE have been in power there for more than 30
years. What does that tell you?
To no one's surprise
and after a lengthy investigation, the inquiring judge has announced
that said PP party ran an illegal slush fund for 18 years, financed
by payments from companies in search of lucrative contracts.
Needless to say, this flourished during the years of Spain's phoney
construction bum. The ex-treasurer - and personal friend of President
Rajoy - will now be tried for tax fraud and embezzlement.
Predictably, he suffered from 'sticky palms' during his years at the
helm and amassed a Swiss-bank fortune which he found hard to explain.
Sr Rajoy has denied he too got a brown envelope every month and says his only mistake was to trust his friend. No one
believes him, of course. Except maybe his wife. Last October Rajoy
finally showed an iota of contrition, saying "I understand that
Spaniards are fed up and outraged. This behaviour is especially
hurtful when they have had to endure so many sacrifices to get
our country out of the economic crisis." I'll say. Is that the
sound of chickens coming home to roost that I can hear?
Happily, "Health &
Safety" is not the curse in Spain it is in the UK, and probably
the USA too. But now and again one reads something like "Spain
is the 3rd highest EU country for dangerous products" and one
wonders whether things shouldn't be a bit stricter. That said, the
statistic mostly relates to reports on harmful products that try to
enter the country but are stopped by the customs authorities. So,
more of a good thing than a bad thing. Except that it means Spanish
companies are trying to import them in the first place. But not quite
as much as German and Hungarian companies are.
Notwithstanding my
positive comments about the risk v. safety balance in the last
paragraph, there are, of course, the cyclists of all ages who treat
the pavements as velodromes and the kids who career down slopes in
brakeless vehicles with total disregard for people who might be
coming around the corner. And Pontevedra has a lot of slopes. And
uncontrolled kids
The Sunday Times -
overwhelmed by its "picturesque old town, fancy shops and the slow-paced charm" - has decided that the best place in the world
in which to live is Palma de Mallorca. They obviously didn't visit
Pontevedra, which has all of these, plus octopus. My impression is
that the paper's survey of 50 places around the world was done in
conjunction with estate agents. Quel surprise.
Actually, I don't like
octopus. So I'll go with Palma de Mallorca.
Finally . . . I have
the word DRIERS in my notebook and have been trying for 3 days to
figure out what it relates to. Please write in if you have any ideas. Unless you're Alfie Mittington.
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