ARCHIVED - Murcia and Spanish news round-up week ending 10th  January 2020

A new year brings new resolutions in the Costa Cálida for 2020 with the Mar Menor top of the list

More flights at Corvera and the promotion of tourism are also targeted as the Three Kings bring Spain a new government at last

With the Three Kings having made their way back to the Orient after safely delivering gifts all over Spain the country returned to work on Tuesday morning, making it possible to begin the New Year diet at last while digesting what Their Majesties and Father Christmas have brought us for 2020.

For Pedro Sánchez the main present arrived a day later than for most Spaniards, as on Tuesday, after two general elections in 2019 and eight months of inter-party negotiations, he was finally voted in as President of the next Spanish government. This followed a stormy investiture debate and one of the closest votes of its kind in Spanish history, the upshot being that Sr Sánchez will lead a coalition government in which various top posts will be held by members of the Unidas Podemos party, whose leader Pablo Iglesias will be one of four vice-presidents.

This is the first coalition government in Spain in living memory and its fragility is reflected in the nature of the voting on Tuesday: Sr Sánchez won the day by just 167 to 165, controversially relying on the support of the Basque regionalist party PNV and the abstention of the Catalan and Basque separatists of ERC and EH Bildu.

The tension was palpable in the chamber as after three days of emotionally charged debate in which the parties now in opposition were fiercely critical of the new Prime Minister, at times resorting to undisguised insults, the votes were cast. For a few minutes the slanging match abated as Sr Iglesias handed a bunch of flowers to the Unidas Podemos MP Aina Vidal, who had missed the first round of voting due to her suffering from cancer but was able to attend the vote on Tuesday, and while this added a note of dignity to proceedings it was noticeable that Sra Vidal received a standing ovation from all members of Congress except the 52 Vox MPs.

Meanwhile, though, for Fernando López Miras, the president of the regional government of Murcia, the days after Three Kings have been a little less encouraging. Speaking on Thursday about the tasks and challenges which lie ahead in 2020, he stressed the importance of protecting and regenerating the marine environment of the Mar Menor as the “absolute” top priority, adding that this will be reflected in the budget for the year, but although the regional Cabinet has approved a new law to protect the lagoon the outcome of last year’s regional election has made it more difficult for Sr López Miras to act decisively.

The draft legislation establishes a band of 500 metres around the lagoon in which the use of fertilizers is to be outlawed, making irrigation farming all but impossible, and places a ban of at least 5 years on any new construction activity being undertaken around the Mar Menor. But after approving the text in Cabinet the Ciudadanos party, which partners the PP of Fernando López Miras in coalition, has modified its opinion and now supports the view that the “green belt” around the lagoon should be widened, proposing that the law be debated in parliament and subjected to possible modification rather than enforced as it stands.

This means that the law to protect the lagoon will not come into force within the next couple of days, as had been Sr López Miras’ intention, but will be delayed by the debate and modification process.

Whatever the failings of successive governments in Murcia in the past, it seems that Sr López is determined that the lessons of 2019 will be learnt and acted upon, and although it is impossible to design a raft of measures which will please all parties it can be assumed that before 2020 is much older legislation will be in place.

At the same time, the regional government has announced that it is to spend 2 million euros on promoting tourism in and the Mar Menor area this year in an effort to offset the downturn in visitor numbers which has been noticeable since the deterioration in the marine environment of the lagoon since the gota fría storm of September last year. Particular attention is to be paid to promotion in the UK, where the uncertainty is added to by Brexit, and to social networks, where the bad news regarding the Mar Menor has been spread like wildfire but positive developments tend to be largely overlooked: the water is completely safe for bathers and the regional government is keen to emphasise this fact and to undo some of the damage caused to the image of the lagoon in the eyes of the national and international public.

Similarly, efforts are to continue to attract airlines to the Region of Murcia International Airport in Corvera – where Fernando López Miras says passenger numbers during the first year of flights have exceeded expectations, despite a significant drop in comparison with the airport of Murcia-San Javier in 2018. At present commercial flights have been confirmed between Corvera and 22 destinations during 2020, nine of them in the UK with the others in Spain, Norway, Belgium and Ireland, and with hopes still high that more will be added it is to be hoped that the new terminal is busier this year.

Click here for details of all confirmed routes at Corvera airport in 2020, with flight frequencies and dates.

So, apart from a new national government, a renewed commitment to protecting and regenerating the Mar Menor and a determination to back tourism and the airport in Corvera, what else has the festive season brought to the Costa Cálida?

Well, something of a mixed bag: among other things, for example, the beginnings of the annual flu epidemic (there is still time to get your free vaccine at public health centres), severe disruption on rail services, a fall in unemployment, a wave of unauthorized Algerian migrants crossing the Mediterranean, the start of the winter sales and a period of dry, sunny weather which unfortunately looks set to end as the weekend begins and an early start to the campaign to prepare the beaches of Mazarrón for Easter and the summer: see below for more on all of these stories!

Other items in the news this week

A&E units struggle to cope in Cartagena as the annual flu epidemic begins: understaffing blamed as patients wait in corridors for beds at the Santa Lucía hospital.

Trouble on the tracks as coaches replace trains between Murcia and Cartagena: travellers on the rail Murcia-Águilas line refused to pay for tickets in protest at delays on Wednesday.

Force 7 wind alert on the coast of Murcia as cold front begins to sweep across Spain: a chance of rain in the Costa Cálida on Friday before temperatures drop over the weekend.

Murcia police warn of increase in car break-ins: mobile phone thefts have also become more frequent in recent weeks.

Hunters face trial in central Spain accused of killing a wolf: ecologists seek to protect the Iberian wolf with the first trial of its kind while farmers bemoan rising number of attacks on livestock.

Improvements at Mazarrón beaches as thoughts turn to the summer of 2020: an important step towards boosting year-round tourism in the Costa Cálida.

Petrol prices rise in Spain as tension increases between Iran and the West: fuel is still significantly cheaper in this country than in the EU as a whole.

Negotiations over Brexit details in Gibraltar left until the last minute: the formation of a new Spanish government causes the postponement of meetings to finalize agreements which were outlined in November 2018.

New wave of Algerian migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Murcia: over 300 unauthorized migrants had arrived in Murcia on 24 boats by Three Kings Day, stretching internment centre capacity to the limit, and the figures continued to rise gradually during the week.

Visitors from the UK to Spain spent 1.15 million euros per hour in November: there were fewer tourists from the UK and Germany but a rise in the overall total of foreign tourists during the month.

Alicante-Catalunya motorway is now toll-free after 48 years: but charges are scheduled to remain in place on the AP-7 ghost motorway between Cartagena and Águilas for another 23 years!

Christmas brought falls in unemployment to Murcia and most of Spain: the jobless total in Murcia has fallen by over 3 per cent in the last year but the results in the last month of 2019 were the least positive in December for years.

Protests over Three Kings parade in Sevilla as metal objects are thrown at crowds: hardware goods and cleaning products take the place of sweets and toys in Utrera as Their Royal Highnesses are placed under investigation by the Town Hall.

Spaniards still hoarding 1.61 billion euros in pesetas! There is only a year remaining to change 268 billion pesetas into euros… if anyone is still concealing a peseta hoard, or believes that there is one hidden in the attic or buried in the garden, this is definitely the time to try and dig it out!

26 degrees on Boxing Day as 2019 ended with the warmest December in Murcia this century: the gota fría in early December gave way to an unusually warm Christmas!

Two arrested after at least 10 burglaries in Los Nietos: the two men broke into unoccupied holiday homes on the shore of the Mar Menor.

Cuenca villagers mystified by the sudden appearance of a large crater: the 7-metre sinkhole is getting larger as geologists investigate.

Winter sales now on throughout Murcia and the rest of Spain: on average the Murcianos are expected to spend over 100 euros each at the sales this year between now and the end of February.

Teenage driver clocked at 200 km/h in Caravaca: a 19-year-old faces a lengthy ban just 5 months after getting his licence.

Public holidays in the Region of Murcia 2020: check now to find the long weekends on the calendar for this year!

Pets are abandoned in Spain at the rate of 1 every 2 minutes: over 300,000 pets were left to fend for themselves in 2019, many of them shortly after Christmas.

Mazarrón police catch burglars red handed: the men were caught robbing a property in the Bahía area of Puerto de Mazarrón.

Penumbral lunar eclipse visible in Murcia on Friday evening: Venus will be the brightest object in the Costa Cálida evening sky – weather permitting!

Ticket office at Cieza railway station remains open despite there being only 8 passengers per day: keeping offices open at rural stations was one of the conditions stipulated by the Teruel Existe party for allowing the formation of a new national government!

Property news

This week saw the publication of two summaries of developments in the Spanish property market during 2019, both of them concluding that the increase in market value of housing in the Region of Murcia was sharper in the Region of Murcia than in the country as a whole.

The first of them came from the leading valuation firm Tinsa, who reported a slightly less significant rise in average values across the country since than in 2018 with the overall index rising by 2.6 per cent, although falls were observed in the north and north-west. However, the Region of Murcia exceeded the national average after an increase in property values of 2.8 per cent (as opposed to a rise of 5 per cent in 2018), while on the other hand at 988 euros per square metre housing in the Costa Cálida is still among the most affordable in Spain.

The Tinsa figure for the Costa Cálida is now 11 per cent higher than when the market bottomed out but still 43 per cent lower than at its peak in late 2007 and early 2008.

Later in the week it was the turn of property portal portal pisos.com to publish its annual report, indicating that the average price of second-hand housing in the Region of Murcia rose during 2019 by 4.37 per cent, the third most significant increase among the 17 regions of Spain. Topping the table according to the portal were the regions of the Balearics and Madrid with rises of over 8 per cent, but on the other hand decreases are again reported in most of the north-western half of Spain, bringing the national rise down to 2.33 per cent.

These are interesting data without any doubt, but as ever with property portals it is important to take them with something of a pinch of salt. Crucially, it has to be remembered that the websites work only with the figures supplied to them by those selling second-hand property, whose estimated valuations are not necessarily in line with true market value and the actual sale price which is eventually agreed on.

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