Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spain- Brussels fears - justifiably - that the imminent elections won't end political instability. See the El País article - in English - here.
- Specifically . . Fighting a resurgent right wing days before a knife-edge election, the Socialist prime minister of Spain has warned that separatists advocating independence for Catalonia risk plunging the country into a crisis worse than Brexit. Pedro Sánchez was responding to claims from the conservative Popular Party, the centre-right Citizens party and the ultra-nationalist Vox that voting for the Socialists endangers the unity of Spain. See the full Times article below.
- Unlike in the UK, teachers in Spain are civil servants, subject to the diktats of local authorities. This year the Galician Xunta is offering 2,000 new places. As the job, for all its downsides, offers lifetime security and a good income, it's not terribly surprising there are 19,000 applicants. Many - if not all of them - will have paid to be trained for the relevant exams (oposiciones). Often more than once. Quite a racket.
- It's said here that the Spanish believe that chucking bits of English into your conversation will make you sound sophisticated. From a Brit point of view, it might also make you unintelligible, as you run all the English words together and get both the pronunciation and stress(es) wrong. The article cites 50-50 and says it's pronounced fifty-fifty. But it ain't; it becomes feeftee-feeftee. Not the best example but it'll do.
- The last bit reminds me . . . There've been a lot of Portuguese in town this Easter weekend. It's instructive to hear them nearly always get English words correct. Largely because their films aren't dubbed into Portuguese.
- A (very) dispiriting headline . . . Nigel Farage is the second most popular choice among Conservative Party councillors to be next Tory leader. I fancy the identity of the favourite - Boris Johnson? - would be even more dispiriting.
- A propos . . . Comments from someone who disagrees with Farage on much: It seems that nothing can slay the irrepressible Farage. Not a plane crash, electoral failure, party scandal, media ridicule, death threats or multiple resignations. The ultimate political Lazarus is back, his Brexit Party surging in the polls in the run-up to next month’s European parliament elections. . . Now freed of the Ukip name, in a fresh outfit with more credible candidates, he is a serious threat to the mainstream parties not only next month but at the increasingly likely second referendum or general election that may follow. Farage’s gift is that he manages to speak to us not as automatons but as sentient beings. . . He does the extraordinary thing of saying what he actually thinks. . . . Farage can get away with any seeming hypocrisy because he is comfortable in his own skin and convinced of his own beliefs. . . . The attacks on Farage for being a raving racist fall flat. . . When critics mutter that Farage is a fascist because of his views it only demonstrates the howling gulf in opinion between some of the well-heeled and less well-off parts of our nation. In short, it will never work for Conservatives to attack the man or his cause directly. Every time Farage is labelled a racist for raising concerns about immigration that are held by the majority of voters, his reputation as a teller of truths is burnished. Sneering at his pie-and-a-pint mateyness and nostalgia for a certain kind of England is always going to be counterproductive, for it is seen by many as an attack on their own beliefs and their own lives.
- Heirlooms are fast becoming a thing of the past. The underlying reasons span the gamut of changes social, economic and cultural, but they all boil down to the simple fact that nobody wants their parents’ and grandparents’ stuff any longer.
- A possibly contentious view: Ecology is politics for people who don’t like people and are miffed that the masses are now free to travel cheaply, rather than being hooked up to a plough or doing laundry in a creek all through the Easter weekend. . . Green is the first socio-political movement in which every spokesperson is privileged.
- I planned to pick up a book sent to a kiosk in town today. But checking Amazon's message, I noted it'll arrive not today but next Monday, 11 days after I ordered it. Fittingly, the book is entitled Slow Travels in Unsung Spain. But I can get in 3 days if I sign up to Amazon Prime. So, is the delay a deliberate ploy or merely the reflection of a yet-to-happen publication date of this Wednesday?
- Better news . . . I see that sparrows are back both in town and in my garden. Though I believe they've almost disappeared from the UK.
Catalan breakaway will be worse than Brexit, warns Spanish PM: The Times
Pedro Sánchez, the prime minister of Spain, holds a slender lead in the polls
Fighting a resurgent right wing days before a knife-edge election, the Socialist prime minister of Spain has warned that separatists advocating independence for Catalonia risk plunging the country into a crisis worse than Brexit.
Pedro Sánchez, who holds a narrow lead in polls, was responding to claims from the conservative Popular Party, the centre-right Citizens party and the ultra-nationalist Vox that voting for the Socialists endangers the unity of Spain.
The conservatives have alleged that Mr Sánchez is likely to have to make concessions to pro-independence parties to form a coalition government. After coming to power last June, the Socialists struggled on for eight months with the support of Catalan nationalists. However, the government fell in February after their allies refused to support the national budget because the prime minister had rejected calls for a secessionist referendum.
Mr Sánchez recently visited Catalonia in an effort to persuade moderate voters to abandon independence, saying that their aspirations for an independent nation were unrealistic, beyond the gift of a prime minister and risked triggering a constitutional crisis.
“The separatists know that independence and the right of self-determination will never happen. And they know also that it [would] not be the solution, but the start of a terrible crisis, even worse than the one that has started in the United Kingdom because of Brexit,” he told The Times. “In the 21st century we cannot be repeating these mistakes, we cannot break a society in half with lies.”
A survey for El Pais suggests that the Socialists and the far-left Podemos would together win 162 seats, short of a majority of 176, in the election next Sunday. It would put them ahead of a possible coalition of the three right-wing parties, but potentially needing Catalan parties to form a government. If he wins, Mr Sánchez has promised Catalans greater self-government.
He claims the right has become radicalised behind Vox, the first far right party in mainstream Spanish politics since the death of Franco in 1975.
“The worst thing about Vox is not Vox . . . [it] is that the rest of the right has followed its path,” the prime minister said. “Instead of containing Vox, for them it has acted as fuel. They have helped to feed its fire and have become more radical.”
He added: “Brexit or Trump are clear examples of where the global winds are blowing. We have to change this tendency. We have to come back to an open society of freedom and tolerance. We need to talk more about social justice than flags.”
He said that his priorities would be tackling political corruption, fighting for social justice and trying to resolve the territorial crisis.
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