Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin March 10

FEATURE ARTICLES: "EU citizens travelling to the UK will need authorisation to enter by 2024" and "Spain cracks down on foreigners presenting incorrect tax returns"

Beware the ides of March (coming up next Wednesday on the 15th of the month), the time when Julius Caesar was stabbed in the back by Brutus.

In Spain, it seems some have been jumping the gun, as there has been treachery galore this week, not least of which among feminists on the occasion of International Women’s Day when the self-proclaimed show of solidarity descended into petty factionalism.

There is also news this week of the Spanish taxman coming down hard to try to locate any foreign nationals resident in Spain who try to defraud the system, and of a new UK visa waiver system to rival the EU’s ETIAS system, which will complicate travel post-Brexit for some.

Spain cracks down on foreigners presenting incorrect tax returns

This year’s Income Tax returns season runs from April 11 to the end of June, and anyone who is a tax resident in Spain – that is, anyone who spends more than 183 days in the calendar year in the country – should declare their income. But some residents prefer to declare their income as if they were non-residents, or simply don’t make any declaration at all, to pay less in taxes.

This is possible thanks to the fact that the Non-Resident Income Tax IRNR has a lower tax rate than the IRPF Personal Income Tax, allowing only the income obtained in Spain to be taxed, without the need to declare all the income generated worldwide.

That, however, is illegal. It is fraud and the Spanish Tax Agency has developed a much stricter Tax Control Plan this year to deal with the issue of foreign residents declaring their earnings incorrectly.

The Agencia Tributaria has detected an increasing amount of this type of fraud, and so to combat it they are prepared to exchange huge amounts of data with other tax administrations across the EU and further afield, and they have also promised to do more inspections of building sites, property renovations and extensions to homes.

If you’re a resident in Spain, your best bet is to get a lawyer to file your taxes for you and to make sure everything is above board. And if you’re not a resident but own property or have earnings in Spain, you should also get someone to do your tax returns for you.

Even those who are sincere in their wish to present a full and honest tax declaration to the authorities can easily make a mistake because the system is not at all easy to navigate. Leave it to a professional and make sure it’s done right.

New Spain-UK travel rules

Brexit is just the gift that keeps on giving and already this year, UK holiday makers have been warned of two new airport measures coming into play in the near future that will almost certainly lead to massive delays, at least initially: the European Travel Information Authorization System (ETIAS), a visa waiver permit which travellers will have to pay to enter any of the 27 EU member states; and the Entry-Exit System (EES), which will require Brits to pass through self-service kiosks at the airport where their documents will be checked.

With this fresh hassle on the horizon, the UK firmly turned the tables this week and announced that it would be introducing its own restriction for travellers from the EU. The UK Home Office has confirmed that, before the end of 2024, all EU nationals who don’t need a visa to enter the United Kingdom will instead require a travel pass, known officially as the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).

This will work in much the same way as the ETIAS: holidaymakers wishing to visit Britain will need to apply for the pass online (the price hasn’t been released yet, but the ETIAS is expected to cost around 7 euros, so the ETA will probably have a similar cost) and present it for scanning on arrival.

Visitors from Ireland will not need to apply for the ETA to travel to the UK but travellers hailing from dozens of other nations will, including Spain and the rest of the EU member states. Of course, this doesn’t apply to UK nationals who are resident in Spain; the new rules are based on citizenship, not residency status.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

It was International Women’s Day this Tuesday, an occasion that is celebrated worldwide every March 8 to help raise awareness of gender inequality and support the fight for female empowerment across the globe.

In Spain, there were marches and demonstrations in all the major cities, and in many smaller towns and villages too. The women’s movement has come a long way in Spain in just a short time, and March 8 has, for the last five years or so, been a huge event across the whole country, where women of all stripes come together to work to smash the patriarchy.

But this year, ongoing disagreements in the Spanish feminist movement have erupted into large rifts.

The government team (led by a man but with many women in the top spots of Vice President, Minister for Transport, Minister for Work, Minister for Equality and more) has introduced several important new bills of late to try to promote female empowerment and ensure equality between the sexes, but it is just this that is causing most of the friction.

On the one hand, the reforms made to the ‘Only Yes is Yes’ (Solo Sí es Sí) sexual equality law – which aimed to safeguard women’s safety but inadvertently ended up meaning many sexual predators could have their prison terms reduced – have divided politicians and voters, while the Trans Law to make Spain more open and accepting of the needs of transgender and non-binary people has been criticised for ignoring the needs of women.

At an event where the Minister for Equality, Irene Montero, was speaking on March 8, a group of attendees stood up and shouted, “Feminism has been infected by parasites.” When Ms Montero invited them up on stage to share their grievances, they explained, “You don’t know how to define what a woman is and you don’t know why we are oppressed... feminists agree that trans people suffer discrimination, but you are misconceptualising what oppression and discrimination are. Our fight is not against these people, it is with the rights of women who were born with a biological reality that you deny.”

Indeed, so strong is the feminist division over the treatment of Trans women, that there were separate marches in the Madrid capital instead of one large, united front.

Undeterred, Spain continues to try to promote gender equality, and just a day before International Women’s Day announced yet another new bill – the so-called ‘Gender Parity Law’ – which aims to ensure equal representation of women and men within political parties and on the boards of large businesses. They also propose that the main roles in politics should operate on a ‘zip’ system, alternating the holder of that office between men and women for each term.

No doubt over the coming weeks that bill too will become mired in the murky business of political reality and squabbles over where transgender men and women, and those who don’t identify with either of those labels, should fit into such a system.

Of course, there are difficult issues to chart as we go forward into a brave new world where gender – decoupled from the concepts of sex and sexuality – is seen as a fluid and subjective notion. But it’s sad that an occasion that should be a call for solidarity among all women and all those who support the right of women to be treated equally has been co-opted by in-fighting and backbiting. Surely, we should all be able to get behind the basic message of human respect and tolerance, instead of using it as an excuse to bash each other down?

(It should be pointed out that the title of this section, ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’, is not a swipe at women but the title of a fantastic, classic Spanish film from acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar. Watch it if you can.)

Single mothers in Spain

It’s been a disappointing week for single mothers across Spain as the Supreme Court has ruled that they are not entitled to any extended maternity leave or benefit, despite raising their children alone. The case argued that the children of single-parent families are discriminated against, since in nuclear families both parents can take maternity and paternity leave.

The issue came to a head after several lower courts sided with single mums and granted them longer leave, extending the maternity benefit from 16 to 26 or even 32 weeks in some cases.

But a judge in the higher office has flatly refused to allow single parents to benefit from both maternity and paternity leave, insisting that it’s a matter of national legislation.

Unsurprisingly, groups representing single mothers across Spain are up in arms over the decision, which they say implies that some children don’t have the same rights as other babies from two-parent families.

In Spain today, around 10% of households are single-parent families (in the UK 15.4% of households are single-parent families) and this figure has been growing exponentially since 2016. Where homes have only one parent, they are mothers in 80% of the cases.

From disappointment in parts of Spain to one woman’s jubilation in another, as a Malaga court has ordered a husband to pay his ex-wife hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation for the more than two decades she spent raising their children and looking after the home.

In a landmark ruling in Spain, the Vélez-Málaga court established the that 48-year-old woman should be paid a fair salary for her labours, which in this case amounted to 204,624,86 euros.

The ex-husband claimed that his spouse had been given company shares as payment, but the judge didn’t buy it and sided with the home-maker, sparking celebrations from women’s rights groups across the country just days before the world celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8.

The ruling “represents recognition of the work of all the women who are in the shadows despite the fact that they are a fundamental support,” the woman’s lawyer commented.

“Without a doubt they deserve not only the recognition, but the quantification of that work,” she added.

Murcia

The Region of Murcia International Airport – more commonly known as Corvera Airport – has been awarded the prize for ‘Best Airport in Europe’ in the category of airports that have fewer than 2 million passengers annually by the International Airports Council (ACI), a ranking that is decided based on passenger surveys.

This is the third year running that Corvera has received this honour, and it has also won distinctions for having the ‘Easiest Airport Journey in Europe’ and being the ‘Cleanest Airport in Europe’. It seems that flyers are generally pleased overall with the airport’s cleanliness, but then again it’s bound to be spotless if it has so few passengers passing through it.

And while it may be easy to navigate, the shopping/eating facilities at Corvera Airport still leave something to be desired, and the usual gripes about the poor variety of flight destinations persist. The Regional authorities could also do with putting on more public transport links to and from the airport, and the fact that it closes at 11pm on the dot really limits the number of passengers and the flights that can use the airport. Winning awards is all well and good, but the Region’s airport is far from perfect and it remains to be seen if a large promised cash injection this year can grow its profile a bit.

In Torre Pacheco this week, the reign of terror of the so-called Gas Station Gang has finally come to an end with the arrests of at least 11 suspects. The criminal group began robbing petrol stations, grocery stores and pharmacies up and down the Region in mid-December before graduating to home invasions, often with force, in areas such as Cartagena, San Javier and Fuente Álamo in the last few weeks.

The well-oiled gang was taken down in a spectacular dawn raid that involved at least 100 officers. The police rained down on the districts of Roldán and Lo Ferro in the early hours of Tuesday morning, March 7, in a dramatic macro-operation that swept through fifteen buildings.

In addition to the arrests, the Guardia Civil seized radios and other tools used in the burglaries as well as numerous items reported stolen, such as electrical appliances, scooters and TVs.

“It was about time they were caught,” one local commented as she watched in awe as officers stormed the streets.

It’s also about time that the Camposol Urbanisation in Mazarrón had a properly asphalted dual carriageway running through Sectors C and D, and that finally looks set to become a reality with a new 25-item, 10-million-euro urban renewal draft plan approved by the local council.

But the community still lacks other road facilities, not least of which is a proper bridge over the rambla from those Sectors to the wider world, a project which was promised years ago and which has so far borne only patchy repairs to the existing “temporary” bridge.

And if you want to go even further back in time to the history of Mazarrón municipality, you can do so from the comfort of your own home with a fascinating new archive of photos and documents – created thanks to donations from volunteers – that is available for all to view for free on a specially created portal from the Town Hall.

By going to https://archivo.mazarron.es, you can view the more than 50,000 documents and 7,000 images dating back over 100 years to delve into the amazing history of the place. And if you have any photos of your own to help improve and expand the archive, the Town Hall are always open to taking contributions!

Or, if you’re looking to get outdoors and do some active, you can join the free guided tour in English of the Regional Park of the Salt Flats and Dunes of San Pedro del Pinatar next Sunday, March 19. Sign up quickly because places could really fill up on this one!

For more events like this coming up soon in Murcia and Alicante, check out our EVENTS DIARY:

Spain

It was a case of the pot calling the kettle black in Spain this week when the pilot of one of the DGT’s traffic helicopters crashed the expensive aircraft just off the M-512 motorway in Madrid while flying under the influence.

The Europter 355N plummeted to earth in the town of Robledo de Chavela on Sunday and miraculously, neither the pilot nor his passenger, a traffic official, were seriously injured.

The pilot’s troubles were just beginning, though, as the two were immediately breathalysed by officers from the Guardia Civil… pretty standard practice, as any employee of the Spanish Traffic Agency should know. But officers were all stunned when the man in charge of the helicopter tested positive for cocaine and amphetamines, and they promptly arrested him on charges of crimes against air safety.

Elsewhere on terra firma, the price of petrol in Spain is less expensive than it was this time last year. The average price of a litre of petrol in Spain this week plummeted to 1.632 euros and, while diesel is still slightly more expensive than last year, it has also fallen to reach just 1.589 euros/litre.

The cost of petrol in Spain is well below the average in the rest of Europe, where it is currently around 1.731 euros/litre, and it seems that the market is finally beginning to stabilize, with diesel looking to now return to being cheaper than petrol on a permanent basis.

It’s still worth remembering, however, for anyone thinking of buying a new diesel or petrol car, that Spain (along with the rest of the EU) is outlawing the sale of vehicles with combustion engines as of 2035 in order to promote the use of greener alternatives.

To make it easier on people, the government has extended its ‘MOVES III’ plan, a scheme which basically allows you to get money off a new car when you trade in your old, polluting model for a new electric version. You can get a rebate (normally after about a year) of between 2,500 and 7,000 euros, or more if your old car is ready to be scrapped immediately.

The deadline for the programme, which was introduced in 2021, has now been moved back to the end of 2023 and an additional 400 million euros have been set aside for subsidising it, meaning this is a great year to trade in your petrol or diesel car for an electric one.

A word of warning, though: there have been anecdotal reports of non-Spaniards being told by car dealerships that they can’t benefit from this aid because they’re foreigners. Don’t be fooled: that kind of discrimination based on nationality is illegal, and just plain wrong. Even expats are allowed to get this money towards a new environmentally friendly car in Spain, as long as they’re residents, and anyone who tells you otherwise just doesn’t want to deal with a guiri.

Alicante

In the latest of a barrage of travel promotions and new rail links to hit the tracks, Renfe is launching an Avlo low-cost service between Madrid and Alicante from March 27, with tickets on sale from just 7 euros. Large families are eligible for discounts of up to 50% and children under 14 can travel for a reduced rate of 5 euros.

There will be four daily links between Spain’s capital and Alicante (two in each direction), offering 1,436 seats per day, stopping in Albacete, and the Cuenca Fernando Zóbel and Villena Alta Velocidad stations. And according to Renfe, a new “dynamic” ticket sales system will offer passengers the “best price available for any requested trip”.

Meanwhile, Ryanair has launched its summer flight schedule from Alicante-Elche airport, with a total of 80 routes between April and October this year, including 10 new routes to destinations in Germany and the UK. They are also investing 200 million euros into the expansion of their flight offerings to and from the Costa Blanca, to strengthen its most popular existing routes, such as those to London and Bordeaux.

While municipalities across the province are busy implementing cycle lanes in a bid to encourage us to ditch private cars in favour of more sustainable modes of transport, Altea Town Hall has bowed to public pressure and is removing a widely used bicycle lane amid safety fears.

Cyclists are now banned from Altea’s Mediterráneo promenade following continued complaints from residents and local businesses.

The Council has explained that the removal of the blue-painted lane between the Plaza de Europa and the Carreró de l'Astillero “is in response to complaints from numerous residents and hoteliers who on many occasions have witnessed cyclists being run over by cyclists riding close to the terraces of restaurants at speeds higher than the permitted 10km/h”.

The bike lane has been a bone of contention since it was installed in 2013 at the request of locals. But it has since become “a race track” and is predominantly used by “large groups who ride faster than they should”, and residents now want to see the back of it.

According to local complaints, cyclists were often seen dodging waiters and vice versa. On other occasions, cyclists collided with waiters carrying trays, while children running across the blue lane were run over. Bicycles must now circulate along the coastal strip between Calle Sant Pere (in front of the Hotel San Miguel) and the mouth of the River Algar.

In incredible but concerning scenes, a disorientated 17-metre rorqual whale with a spinal deformity was spotted drifting towards the shore of Cullera this week, an extremely rare occurrence for this species of cetacean.

A stunned kipper sighted the 40-ton whale 3km from the beach and alerted Valencia's Guardia Civil. A patrol boat with the Oceanogràfic Foundation’s rescue team on board, made up veterinary surgeons and marine biologists, immediately sailed to the place where the whale had last been seen.

It hadn’t drifted far, and experts noticed a worrying malformation in the animal, known as scoliosis, which was hindering its swimming abilities. Scoliosis is where the spine twists and curves to the side, and although several reports on cetaceans with scoliosis exist, almost all cases have a clear cause which mostly happens when they collide with a ship.

Initially, an attempt was made to place a tracer on the whale’s dorsal fin, but due to the malformation of its tail, it wasn’t possible. Shortly afterwards, the whale drifted out to sea and away from the coast.

However, the rescue team has warned that it could reappear in the next few days due to its general condition and difficulty in swimming.

Andalucía

in Almeria, the USA has agreed to look into cleaning up the mess it made when tonnes of nuclear bombs fell into the water off Palomares after two American aircraft collided in mid-air in 1966.

While the Americans moved 1,700 tonnes of radioactive earth by boat to South Carolina back when it happened, the soil in the area is still irradiated with americium and plutonium almost 60 years later. The Spanish have made an official request to the US to further clean up Palomares, since British property developer Bahía de Almanzora is still planning to build 1,600 homes, a hotel and a sports complex near there.

In 2015, an agreement was reached with the Obama Administration which stipulated that the US would be responsible for the clean-up, and now the US government has reiterated that “the Biden-Harris Administration is open to continuing dialogue on this issue”.

Meanwhile, towns across Malaga with a population of over 50,000 are working at full pelt to implement the Low Emission Zones they are required by law to introduce this year. Torremolinos and Estepona are miles ahead of the neighbouring municipalities, but Malaga capital, Marbella Benalmádena, Fuengirola and Vélez-Málaga are all dragging their feet over the introduction of restrictions on polluting vehicles, pedestrianisation measures and categorisation of peak times to control traffic flows.

In Seville, Robert de Niro’s company Nobu Hospitality is opening a new 5-star hotel this spring in the city’s central Plaza de San Francisco, just behind the Ayuntamiento. A huge undertaking that is the result of a comprehensive refurbishment of three separate buildings in the city centre, this Godfather of hotels will be ultra-exclusive, with just 27 rooms, plus a spa, gym and high-class restaurant.

Incredibly, during the restoration work to create the hotel, builders made one of the greatest discoveries in recent Seville history: an original Roman wall structure that was unearthed after excavating five and a half metres below ground level. This archaeological find is on display at the new hotel, integrated into the central courtyard.

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