Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Jun 25

CLICK HERE FOR THE FEATURE ARTICLES "Brits hope to be back on the road in Spain by late July" while "government confirms exactly how much alcohol you can drink if driving"

As we approach the end of June, we also come up to the two-month anniversary of Brits resident in Spain being banned from driving on their UK licences. Incredibly, the day that many thought would never come finally seems to be on the horizon as the British Ambassador in Madrid has given a ray of hope to Brits by suggesting that they could be back on the road by the end of July.

While this is not definitive and no concrete date has yet been given, nor a firm commitment that this will 100% take place, those UK nationals keen on remaining in Spain and who neglected to swap their driving licences for EU ones before the Brexit deadline have grasped onto this glimmer of hope like a lifeline.

And many of you have also been reading this week about lives on the line while driving in Spain, after the DGT traffic authorities confirmed exactly how much alcohol you can drink and still be under the limit in this country. Spoiler alert: they recommend drinking NONE.

All of this on a week when thunderstorms have replaced the heatwave and temperatures have plummeted to a manageable warmth. Let’s begin!

Out of the frying pan and into the shower

The heatwave is definitely over and done with now here in Spain. Temperatures have dropped substantially from the ridiculous high of 40ºC+ that we had for the last couple of weeks, and plenty of areas are now seeing rain again this week.

In Murcia, there were even reports of mini tornados in Lorca, Sucina and Avileses, sending everything spinning around in the air and throwing garden furniture across patios.

Elsewhere in the Region of Murcia, the Emergency services received 25 calls in one afternoon due to obstacles like falling tree branches blocking the roads and even a fire started in Jumilla by a stray lightning bolt.

Another larger fire wreaked havoc in Mazarrón last weekend, in the Sierra de la Perdiz, and it took six fire crews and four helicopters almost seven hours to bring it under control, but not before it had destroyed hectares of land and a greenhouse.

Bug bears

The mixture of warmth and sunshine followed by rains is great news for plants and crops, and gardeners and farmers alike should be grinning from ear to ear with the growth spurt their plants will see in the coming weeks. But what’s not so welcome is a propagation of insects, particularly ants and mosquitos.

You may have noticed more ants around recently, scuttling back and forth in their thin, snaking lines, and some beaches along the Costa Blanca and elsewhere have even been infested with thousands of large flying ants.

In the home, if you’re not careful, ants will get in and be on the hunt for any tiny morsel or crumb of food that you drop on the floor or leave behind your toaster by accident. Supermarkets and garden centres are packed with hundreds of sprays and powders that promise to get rid of ants for good, but long experience has taught us that these products rarely work, if at all then not for very long.

It might be surprising then that two of the most effective – and natural – defences against ant infestations can probably already be found in your kitchen cupboard and, as well as being readily available, they produce none of the ghastly fumes or residue that can often be harmful to both humans and pets.

You can easily deter ants with a squirt of lemon juice mixed with water and sprayed in the area infected with ants using a spray bottle, or you can poison them with a sprinkling of coffee mixed with baking Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Jun 25

soda, which they will eat and which is fatal to them.

Likewise, there are simple and natural ways to get rid of mosquitos, which if anything are more annoying (and dangerous!) than ants. By planting any of five superplants in your garden, you’ll be able to repel mosquitos and avoid nasty bites: Citronella is the best known, and it’s common knowledge that mozzies can’t stand the strong odour of the citronella plant, but you can also plant Lemon basil, lemon geraniums, sage or rosemary in your garden to get a similar effect.

Driven to distraction

After three months of worrying uncertainty, British residents in Spain with UK driving licences have received some much welcome news from Her Majesty’s Ambassador Hugh Elliott – an agreement has been reached with the Spanish government that should allow Britons to once again begin exchanging their UK licence for a Spanish one by the end of July.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, on May 1, the last extension ran out and, as a result of Brexit, Brits who had failed to exchange their licence on time were no longer permitted to drive. If they wanted to do so, they were forced to begin the laborious (and very expensive) process of applying for and sitting a theory test and practical driving test.

As this is an international treaty of some import, Mr Elliott explained that certain red tape can’t be avoided, hence the long delay; however, he added that the “best estimate is that we’re looking at a date of having you back on the road around the end of July.”

So hopefully, by the end of next month, UK residents will be able to simply exchange their driving licence for a Spanish one without having to take a test.

With this positive news comes a caution from the DGT, who have launched a summer campaign to crack down on drink driving. The traffic authorities have gone to great pains to explain exactly how blood alcohol level is calculated – a bit of a complicated process! – but what it boils down to is: if you are planning to get behind the wheel, it’s best to abstain from alcohol altogether.

The DGT have provided a handy little table that shows the alcohol content of several popular alcoholic beverages, pointing out that in most cases, two glasses of wine would put the average woman over the limit; for both sexes, a smaller amount of spirits will do the trick. Blood alcohol levels revealed in a roadside breathalyser can depend on a whole host of factors though, like weight, gender and the amount of booze consumed, so it’s always advisable to err on the side of caution rather than facing the lofty consequences.

Meanwhile, the government has released some unwanted advice for the owners of older bangers in Spain: as part of the Climate Change Law, the country has committed to cracking down on vehicles that cause the most emissions and from next year, the most polluting cars will have their routes limited in towns and cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants.

Some 75,000 vehicles circulating on Spanish roads have combustion engines and they will all be affected by this measure.

The restrictions will begin with the oldest and most polluting models that don’t qualify for a DGT environmental label, followed by diesel and petrol cars with a C and B rating. Naturally, drivers of hybrid and electric cars will enjoy more freedom. When the Climate Change Law comes into force in 2023, low emission zones will have to be established in almost 150 Spanish municipalities, greatly restricting three out of four vehicles currently on the roads.

Coronavirus

With the summer season upon us, the coronavirus pandemic in Spain (as in the rest of Europe) is refusing to loosen its grip. There’s been a worrying resurgence in infections this week and hospital admissions have reached their highest rate since February. In addition, the incidence rate in people over the age of 60 has experienced four consecutive increases, although this still varies widely across the different regions.

Covid experts are blaming the dreaded rebound on the new Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, which were a little late arriving in Spain but now represent up to 64.9% of all samples.

The impact of the variant in a short period of time is quite startling. Two weeks ago, the cumulative incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants had dipped to 586 cases, now it stands at 653, and the 7-day figure is also rapidly increasing, indicating that more infections are likely.

For all the latest coronavirus news and updates in Spain, use the following link: CORONAVIRUS LATEST NEWS

Murcia

All too often, we have the sad duty of reporting the deaths by drowning of people at the beach and in swimming pools in summer, so it’s a relief to be able to say that tragedy was narrowly avoided this week when a three-year-old and another child, 8, were hospitalised after being saved from drowning in two totally separate incidents that occurred within 10 minutes of each other.

The first incident happened at 7.46pm on Sunday June 19 when a three-year-old girl almost drowned at a swimming pool on Torre Guil urbanisation in Murcia. Just 10 minutes later, the 112 Emergency Coordination Centre received several calls for assistance after an eight-year-old boy almost drowned at Bahía Grande beach in Puerto de Mazarrón. Both children were transferred to hospital and having reportedly suffered ‘immersion syndrome’ and they are both stable and well now, but it’s testament both to how dangerous the water can be for anyone – the elderly, the young and everyone in between – and to the excellent, vital work performed by Murcia’s emergency services.

Remember, the emergency number to call in Spain is 112. If in doubt, don’t hesitate: Call them!

Corvera airport has opened up its last remaining routes for the summer season with flights to Oslo and Bergen in Norway, and Bilbao in Spain. This brings the total number of destinations up to 22, six routes within Spain – Bilbao, Mallorca, Menorca, the Canary Islands, Oviedo and Santander, as well as three connections with Belgium (Antwerp, Bruges/Ostend and Charleroi), two with Morocco (Casablanca and Oujda) and one with the Czech Republic (Prague).

Tourists from the United Kingdom accounted for 32% of all foreign travel to the Murcia Region in 2021, and Corvera has nine UK flight connections – Bournemouth, East Midlands, Glasgow, Bristol, London Stansted, London Luton, Birmingham, London Gatwick and Manchester, along with regular flights to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland.

During this high season, almost one million seats will be on offer (954,344 seats) going to and from Corvera up until October 30, during which time as many as 76 weekly round trips will be in operation. This is an impressive 355% increase compared to 2021, but many still complain of a lack of destinations, especially to the Netherlands, Newcastle, Poland, Denmark and Sweden. These glaring omissions, which passengers have called for time and again, mean that many people either in the Region of Murcia or who want to travel there are forced to go through Alicante airport, adding an extra hour onto their journey. Maybe in 2023 we’ll see some new flight paths to at least some of these destinations from Corvera?

Check out our EVENTS DIARY to see everything going on in Murcia:

Spain

The big news in Spain this week is still the trouble and strife in airports across Europe and earlier this week, the UK’s biggest airline easyJet heaped yet more travel woe on harried holidaymakers after its cabin crew announced a series of strikes in Spain in July. Ryanair flight attendants have already locked in industrial action at the end of June and the start of July and the latest work stoppages are expected to affect flights to and from easyJet’s Spanish bases at Barcelona, Malaga and Palma.

In an effort to secure better pay, easyJet cabin crew will walk out on July 1 to July 3, from July 15 to July 17 and from July 29 to July 31, according to their union in Spain, USO.

Meanwhile, the always vociferous CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has issued his dire prediction that these travel disruptions – cancelled flights, long delays and chaos at security and baggage handling – will continue throughout the summer, and has causally blamed Brexit for much of the trouble.

According to the airline boss, “Brexit is one of the big bug bears in the system – it has introduced enormous labour market inflexibility in the UK.” Given the shortage of airport and flight staff at present, Mr O’Leary believes the ideal solution would be to recruit from all over Europe, and the UK’s exit from the EU has presented a serious stumbling block.

Recruitment issues aside, Ryanair believes that it should be able to honour close to 100% of its scheduled flights in the coming months, but the same can’t be said for the other airlines which have already axed hundreds of routes and thousands more cancellations are planned during the summer.

Onto some good news, and the Spanish government has decided to drop the VAT on electricity from 10% to 5% by the end of the week in yet another desperate attempt to lower the price of bills. This tax was already reduced from 21% last December, but costs are still climbing, and the price cap put on natural gas, which was supposed to drastically cut costs, have been a bit of a flop so far.

In recent weeks, several tragic accidents have been reported across Spain of holidaymakers meeting an untimely end, often due to daring stunts or mishaps after drinking. Sadly, this week is no exception and the news reached us that 29-year-old Damian Casey, a member of Eoghan Ruadg GAA club member and inter-county Tyrone hurling senior, died following an accident in a swimming pool during a wedding he was attending in Spain.

Damian’s untimely death came when he was at the top of his career: the young man made his inter-county debut in 2012 and played in more than 100 consecutive league and championship games throughout his impressive career. Incredibly, Mr Casey managed to score in every single hurling match he played for Tyrone and has set an unbroken record of 39 goals and 906 points.

Alicante

It’s been a fairly dramatic week in Alicante with robberies, arrests, rescues and maverick snakes.

A day rarely goes by without police closing in on organised criminal gangs, and this week they shut down a major organisation believed to be responsible for smuggling huge amounts of hashish into Spain from North Africa in narco-boats along the coast of Alicante. As part of an inter-province investigation, a total of 26 arrests were made in Alicante, Murcia and Almeria and 1.5 tons of hashish, along with several firearms, vehicles, boats and 30,000 euros, was confiscated.

What appears to have started as a war of words spiralled completely out of control in Alicante, leading to the death of a 40-year-old man and arrest of a lorry driver, aged 56. The driver and pedestrian had apparently got into some sort of altercation at a service station when the deceased tried to get into the cab. It’s unclear why, but the lorry driver immediately put his foot down and drove off at speed with the other man hanging onto a rear-view mirror.

The driver apparently hit 100kph and drove for at least 3km before taking the A-31 exit towards Salinetas in Petrer, where he slammed on the brakes and the victim fell onto the road where his body was found next to traces of tyre skid marks. According to police, the vehicle then fled at high speed, leaving the victim to his fate, without assistance, at night and in a poorly lit area. He’s been charged with reckless homicide and faces up to six years in prison if found guilty.

The fate of a man and woman, aged 30 and 50, is also in the hands of the courts after a Benidorm pensioner was robbed of a gold chain worth 1,800 euros using a sneaky technique called the ‘stain method’, in which the suspects allegedly sprayed a pasty liquid mixed with green ink to simulate seagull droppings on targets’ clothing before offering to clean it, a sly technique of distraction which allowed them to steal valuables or cash.

The scam was thwarted by police carrying out routine patrols in the centre of the resort who became suspicious when they noticed the pair standing “too close” to an elderly couple. Turns out their instincts were spot on and once they had identified the two suspects, a police check revealed they were both subject to warrants from different courts. Initially the victims told police nothing of value was taken, but once their personal belongings had been checked the woman noticed that she was missing a valuable gold chain with a diamond pendant which was later found nearby.

A slippery customer of a different kind kept police on Tabarca Island busy this week. With more than 300,000 tourists expected to descend on the popular island off the coast of Alicante this summer, the Guardia Civil has reinforced surveillance and police patrols but what they didn’t expect was that one of their first tasks would be to capture a one-metre, mildly venomous rear-fanged snake that “wandered through the main streets to the astonishment of visitors to the island”.

Sadly, a search operation didn’t end so well in the case of two mountaineers, a woman from Alicante and a male vet from Murcia. The pair, aged between 40- and 50-years-old, had been canyoning in the vicinity of the so-called ‘Puente de Palo’, in La Alpujarra, Granada, considered by specialists from the Guardia Civil’s Mountain Rescue and Intervention Service as a “black spot” in the area due to the number of people who have lost their lives there. A relative of the vet reported them missing when they failed to return home and, tragically, their bodies were discovered hours later in a pool next to the Trevélez River. The cause of their deaths has yet to be determined.

Andalucía

Plans have emerged this week for Pepco, known throughout Europe as the ‘Polish Primark’, to open a new Spanish store in the Vialia shopping centre, which is situated right next to the central Maria Zambrano train station in Malaga on the Costa del Sol. It’s welcome news for shoppers who are familiar with Pepco’s popular range of low-cost clothing, accessories and home decoration items.

Pepco already has 3,000 stores in Europe, and 52 of them are in Spain. Now, as well as a new store coming up in Malaga, the company plans to open a further 40 retail outlets around the country as part of its national expansion. It has already proved to be a hit in Alicante, with a second store added earlier this year, and in Murcia city.

But the biggest news from mainland Spain’s southernmost autonomous community this week is the regional elections that took place last week and caused something of an upset on the national political map. The conservative PP party in Andalucía, which was already in power, won the elections by a landslide, gaining an absolute majority and avoiding the need to govern in a coalition with the far-right Vox group.

This in itself is notable as Andalucía on the whole is traditionally a left-leaning region, and the conservatives have managed to leverage voters who are fed up with Spain’s central socialist PSOE government and the rising inflation and economic downturn they have overseen during their stint in power, turning all eight of the Andalusian provinces ‘blue’ – something that has never been done before.

The socialists saw their worst ever performance in Andalucía, while the PP got twice the number of votes they received in the last election and won a total of 58 seats in the regional parliament. But the reason this is really significant is because many political analysts in Spain have been scrutinising the results of this election in the expectation that what happens here will be a taste of things to come on a national level in the next general election for the whole of Spain, which is due to take place in November 2023.

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See you next week!

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