Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Thoughts from Galicia, Spain: 27.5.18

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable. 
- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain

If you've arrived here because of an interest in Galicia or Pontevedra, see my web pagehere.

Spain
  • You almost have to admire Spain's President Rajoy. Or at least his chutzpah. He's destroyed Spain's image abroad and ensured a multi-year crisis with Cataluña but still accuses the PSOE leader, via his censure motion, of wanting to damage Spain purely for reasons of personal ambition.
  • That motion probably won't succeed, given that 2 of the 3 large parties – the PP and the new-ish Ciudadanos – have different reasons for not going along with it. But the chances of an early election grow by the minute, the result of which would probably be the inexperienced Ciudadanos being the largest party. Though possibly without an absolute majority.
  • Meanwhile, I've posted below a devastating - and spot-on - comment on Rajoy's Spain from yesterday's Voz de Galicia.
Life in Spain
  • So, what does a jail sentence of 37 years actually mean in Spain? Well, it seems to mean an effective max of 18 years. But, after a minimum of 4 years, you can be given permisos [temporary releases] and, after 7 years, 'semi-freedom'. When you can access your millions offshore. IGIMSTS.
Europe
  • Developments in Italy seem to have brought to the fore a thought of some months/years ago – viz. That it might be Germany who leaves the EU . . . . Seems unlikely but so did the election results in Italy. Not to mention the Brexit vote.
Galicia/Pontevedra
  • The Spanish aren't known for being early risers but, both yesterday and today, there've been men strimming undergrowth near my house at 7 in the morning. At a weekend. It sound like there's dozens of them but I can only see 2 in this (poor) foto:-

Finally . . .
  • I read the headline: Chris Froome set for Giro d’Italia glory despite being spat at by a fan and wondered whether 'spectator' wouldn't have been a better word that 'fan'.

© David Colin Davies, Pontevedra: 26.5.18

Corruption: the new Brand Spain: Luis Pousa

My generation grew up watching Corruption in Miami, the legendary series in which Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson), Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) and Lieutenant Castillo (Eduard James Olmos) fought cocaine trafficking and organized crime in the Florida of the 80s that looked so much like Galicia of the 80s. In fact, in one chapter they even dressed Crockett and Tubbs in the beautiful wrinkle[outfits?] of Adolfo Dominguez.

Designer clothing was Brand Spain in the 1980s. Now it is a government reduced to rubble and a PP in a state of putrefaction waiting for someone to resurrect it from its own ashes. The damage that PP party corruption has caused to our international image, in the midst of the Catalan secessionist challenge, is now irreparable. While Rajoy remains impassive, there is no end to pro-independence propaganda abroad.

The devastating Gürtel ruling also dates back to the 1980s. It confirms that at least since 1989 - that is, since Fraga's PA party became the PP of Aznar - the man who managed to make the communion celebration of El Padrino[The Godfather] look like a birthday party in Mola Bolla in comparison with his daughter Ana's wedding in El Escorial - the party had been running a cash box full of black money and illegal donations. It speaks of the institutional corruption established by the conservatives and, in addition sets very severe penalties for the leaders of the gang - Luis Bárcenas, Pablo Crespo and Francisco Correa - and sentences the PP to cough up 245,000 euros for being a lucrative participant in the Genoese[PP HQ] mafia and affirms that the testimony of the President of the Government "is not sufficiently credible". What did Rajoy say when journalists asked him about the court's questioning of his credibility? Well - he replied in the style of Podemos - credibility is given by the people and that he has many seats granted by the people.

Mariano Rajoy again said these judged episodes were a long time ago: from 2003. A long time? Does Rajoy say that he was a member of the PP even before the PP existed? Was already a Galician deputy of Fraga's Popular Alliance party in 1981? And has been a member of the PP's National Executive Committee since its foundation in 1989? Yes, friends, when Sony Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs were driving their Ferrari Testarossa in Miami, Mariano was already there.

This corrupt and out of control PP - unable to enforce the law in Barcelona or Algeciras - needs to be switched off by someone. Like Hal 9000 in Odyssey 2001 in space. All we have to do is find someone who has the guts to turn it off before it's too late. The PP itself will have to accept that - even though Rajoy still thinks that the best decision is not to take any decision - after Pedro Sanchez's unworkable censure motion collapses,  the red button must be pressed by an alternative candidate to the burn-out Mariano. So long as this doesn't happen and Aznar doesn't seek forgiveness via public penance, Spain won't have closed the shabby chapter of the Transition entitled Corruption in Moncloa, which has certainbly been entertaining but which lacks the inimitable class of Sonny Crockett, Ricardo Tubbs and Lieutenant Castillo.

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