Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin March 24

FEATURE ARTICLES: "Lanzarote tourism bosses assure they still want British holidaymakers" and "British dad dies in Spanish hotel balcony fall"

The weather in Spain has been idyllic for this time of year – mid-20-degree heat and pleasant nights as we welcomed the official start of springtime with the spring equinox this Monday.

Yes, spring has officially sprung in Spain and that means the clocks are about to change, giving us longer evenings as the weather starts to heat up. And although it’s called ‘summer time’, the clocks are actually changed to their new schedule in March so that workers can take advantage of more hours of natural daylight.

The bad news? We’ll lose an hour in bed since Daylight Saving Time follows the old adage: spring forward, fall back.

This year, the time change from winter hours to summer will take place on March 26 or more precisely, in the early hours leading from Saturday 25 into Sunday March 26. Those living in mainland Spain will have to move the clocks forward at 2am to 3am, so the day will actually last just 23 hours instead of 24.

Daylight savings kicks in an hour early in the case of the Canary Islands, at 1am. This means that in March 2023, the clocks will ‘spring forward’, whereas they’ll ‘fall back’ in autumn.

Right now, Spain is in that sweet spot between what has been a chilly, rainy and windy northern Europe and scorching droughts just a couple of degrees latitude to the south in the Horn of Africa. Nearly 50,000 people have died so far in Somalia as a result of the severe lack of rainfall – the sixth failed rainy season in a row for the country. The news has been sadly underreported in favour of continuing developments in Ukraine, since Chinese premier Xi Jinping has been the newest great white hope for finally resolving the conflict after his visit to Vladimir Putin in Moscow with a 12-point plan for peace. In fact, that is precisely what Spain’s President Sánchez has been calling for since the last G20 summit, and he’s been invited over to see the Chinese Head of State next week.

The UN has advised world leaders not to allocate too many of their allotted aid funds to Ukraine at the expense of other regions in need of help, such as those suffering in the Horn of Africa. While the weather right now is pleasant, there are still dangers in having such a volatile climate. A drought situation in Catalonia right now has revealed the beautiful church of San Romà de Sau emerging from the Sau reservoir, but it’s an indicator of possible trouble to come – if there are already droughts in March, what will it be like once we get to the height of summer in Spain? The year is still young and the worsening pattern of droughts/floods/wildfires in the country doesn’t bode well…

Good thing, then, that Spain has been doubling down on its efforts to promote green energy technology and environmentally friendly modes of transport recently, of which more later.

But what has foreign observers of Spain most hot under the collar this week are comments about British tourists in Spain, and how welcome they are…

Are Brits still welcome in Spain?

Tourism bosses in Spain have landed themselves in hot water again after the authorities in Lanzarote hinted that they were no longer interested in hosting budget British travellers, preferring higher-class tourists from the likes of Germany.

The Federacion Turistica de Lanzarote (FTL) had to do some quick backpedalling and issued a hasty statement reiterating how important British tourists are to the island.

“We have always had very strong ties with the British market and, thanks to this, relations have been strengthened in such a way that they present a high level of fidelity with the Island,” the FTL stated.

“Lanzarote is an absolutely hospitable island and will continue to be so for British tourists, for which we emphasise their importance in the tourism and economic sphere of the island.”

Understandably, the tourism industry in the UK was furious and Jet2 boss Steve Heapy wrote a letter to the government of Lanzarote expressing his “extreme concern” over the comments.

This unfortunate faux pas from the Lanzarote crew comes just a few months after a similar blunder by Mallorca’s Director of Tourism, Lucía Escribano, who said that the island is “not interested in having the budget tourists from the UK, we don’t care if they go elsewhere to Greece and Turkey.”

Tourism is responsible for a huge portion of Spain’s economy, and it rakes in many more millions from the tourist sector every year than Greece or Turkey do. They rely on tourist money, of course, but have so much of it they can afford to be picky about the class of tourists they want.

But sweeping generalisations about any one nationality are always dangerous, and wrong. Sure, there are some bad apples and we know there are some Brits who do behave badly, just as some Germans, Swedes and Spaniards do.

When people working in the tourist industry in Spain make comments to the effect that they want a higher class of tourist and intimate that this means not British, they rightly recognise their error and apologise for it. But at the same time they are speaking to a certain kind of truth, and while Brits are without a doubt still wanted in Spain, we have to put our best foot forward and show that we are more than just a stereotype, in order to dispel these myths once and for all.

British dad dies in Spanish hotel balcony fall

From another Spanish island came the tragic news that a young dad of three from the UK died after falling from his hotel balcony. According to his distraught family, Dion Atherton plunged to his death just hours after arriving on his first foreign holiday and right before the terrible accident, he had called his own father at home in Britain to tell him how “wonderfully warm” it was.

Dion had travelled to Spain with his girlfriend, Leanne, and had been looking forward to it very much after the pair missed out on going on holiday last year when his passport didn’t arrive on time.

Now, that dream vacation has turned into a nightmare for Leanne, who lived with Dion and her two girls, and he was a man who enjoyed spending time with the children and loved being a father.

As if his devastated relatives didn’t have enough to contend with, after Dion’s death Leanne discovered that they didn’t have travel insurance, and she couldn’t afford to fly his body home. The family has since launched a GoFundMe appeal in order to raise the money needed to bring his body back to the UK.

You can donate to the GoFundMe here, which has so far raised about half the target of £10,000.

Murcia

Easter is now just around the corner and towns and cities across Murcia are gearing up for the big festival, planning parades, processions, concerts and much, much more. If you’re the outdoors type you might want to head to Lorca, where the last 300 metres of the Route of the Hermitages has been completed, from the viewpoint of the Castle to the Parque de La Mujer.

Visitors can now enjoy a pedestrian route that runs through urban sections and the foot of our spectacular Fortaleza del Sol (Fortress of the Sun) and safety has been improved with the addition of a wooden handrail and staircase, while 350 trees and shrubs of more than 100 different species have been planted.

The 2.3km of the Ruta de las Ermitas joins the 4.7km route of the ‘Cejo de los enamorados’ and the castle trail (2km long) and brand-new signposts and maps make the trek easier to navigate.

It was a bit of an eventful week on Murcia’s roads as drivers appear to have caught spring fever. Mayhem unfolded in Mazarrón when a woman travelling along the RM-3 from Totana in the wrong direction caused incidents with not one, but three other vehicles.

According to police, the driver “improperly joined the RM-3 motorway from the exit of Urbanización Camposol”, driving in the direction of Totana in the wrong lanes until the Condado de Alhama exit.

During this hair-raising 2km journey, she collided with another car travelling correctly, slightly injuring the other driver while a third vehicle hit a kilometre marker to avoid crashing into the other cars.

Unsurprisingly, the woman was almost three times over the legal alcohol limit.

There was much excitement in Los Alcázares in the early hours of last Sunday morning when the Local Police were involved in a high-speed chase through the city streets.

During a routine traffic surveillance operation, the drivers of a grey Kia and a Mercedes A Class refused to pull over and instead rammed through the three police cars blocking the road in a desperate attempt to get away – one of the cars was completely written off and the other two were damaged.

Although other officers gave chase, police lost sight of both cars in the hamlet of Dolores de Pacheco (Torre Pacheco) and they are still at large.

A ‘tail’ with a happy ending now in Alhama de Murcia, where the Local Police turned into local heroes and risked their own necks in order to save three dogs that became trapped in an irrigation canal. It’s not uncommon for inquisitive animals to slip over the side of these canals and into the water below but they’re virtually impossible to get out of because the walls are so steep.

When the officers arrived, the dogs were clearly exhausted and barely holding on to fallen branches to stay above water. Rather the waiting for the fire brigade and their equipment, the officers know they had to act if they had any chance of saving the animals.

With a rope around his waist held by a colleague, one officer descended into the canal and passed the dogs up to safety one by one. Sadly, two of the animals then escaped from the emergency rescue team but the third was adopted by one of the firefighters.

For events coming up soon in the Region of Murcia, check out our EVENTS DIARY:

Spain

A sinister story has emerged from Mallorca, where an Irish rugby coach was convicted of sexually abusing one of his 12-year-old players.

The court there heard that, between 2016 and 2019, the Irishman had several conversations with the young girl on WhatsApp during which he asked her to send him nude photos and even participate in orgies.

According to prosecutors, he abused his capacity as the team’s coach to inappropriately fondle the child, often asking her for massages or to sit on his lap under the pretense of congratulating her on a good game.

Shockingly, the 28-year-old man was handed a two-year suspended sentence despite admitting to his horrific crimes, so he won’t serve a minute behind bars.

On to some much-needed good news now and some savings for the cash-strapped among us, as the price of butane has taken another welcome dip in the latest price revision and will be set at a maximum of 16.79 euros from Tuesday March 21, which is a 5% reduction on the current figure.

Gas has fluctuated dramatically since the war in Ukraine began, but in Spain the price of this energy source is only allowed to go up or down by a maximum of 5% in each review to maintain stability in the market. In addition, the government introduced a series of crisis measures last June to cushion the financial impact of the conflict, one of which states that standard butane cylinders can be retailed at a maximum price of 19.55 euros.

This ceiling was actually reached back on September 19 but since then, gas has registered a price drop of 14.12%.

Spain is ramping up its eco-friendly credentials, and has legislated to say that any commercial building in the country which has a car park with more than 20 parking spaces is required to have an electric vehicle battery recharging point. In fact, schools, supermarkets, shops, businesses and offices must have at least one charging point for every 40 parking spaces.

The development is being welcomed by those who drive electric cars in Spain, and it’s part of a wider push by authorities in the country to comply with EU regulations to phase out cars with combustion engines – one of the most polluting factors in our society – and to cut carbon emissions.

The rule for installing electric car charging points goes hand-in-hand with the Low Emissions Zones being introduced in every city in the country this year, and the grant money that allows people to get a refund of thousands of euros when they trade in their old polluting car for an electric one.

Alicante

Ambitious 18-million-euro plans to transform Orihuela Costa’s Zenia Boulevard both inside and out were revealed this week. Alicante’s largest shopping centre opened in 2012, and since then, 120 million people have shopped at its 150 shops or attended concerts and other events regularly staged in the boulevard’s public squares with fountain.

According to Zenia’s website, it's “the most important shopping centre for miles around”. And now the boulevard is earmarked for a major renovation.

“The purpose of the refurbishment lies in wanting Zenia to become a lived-in village with a story to tell, a tourist spot where a melting pot of cultures meet, a more sustainable, comfortable place, with more services and technological advances,” said management, adding “we are striving to be more than just a shopping centre”.

The renovations will be carried out in the coming months and “promise to improve the experience for visitors”, as well as to attract new customers from other nearby towns and cities. Façades, floors, street paving and toilets will be replaced or renovated, and restaurants, rest areas, children's play zones and outdoor green areas upgraded.

This week marked the 194th anniversary of the 6.6 magnitude earthquake that obliterated Torrevieja on March 21, 1829, and devasted nearby Guardamar and Almoradi. Just short of 3,000 houses were razed to the ground and another 2,400 were damaged. Tragically 386 people were killed and 375 injured.

Torrevieja is located in one of the areas with the highest seismic risk in Spain and registers dozens of mini-earthquakes every year, of which only a small number are felt by the population, and are usually mild.

On the anniversary of the powerful earthquake and hopeful to avoid human loss in the event of another tremor on such a huge scale, 12,000 students from schools and institutes in Torrevieja took part in a massive, simultaneous seismic emergency drill.

More than 80 personnel took part in the drill. The Fire Brigade, Local Police, Guardia Civil, Civil Protection and SAMU were involved with aerial resources, drones and a dog from the canine rescue unit.

Various rescues were staged at schools in the town and a rescue dog was used to locate a girl buried under pretend rubble. Puma, a four-year-old border collie dog, who was recently involved in the earthquake relief efforts in Turkey, immediately located the child hidden among the cardboard before posing for selfies.

This is the third drill of this kind organised by Torrevieja Council; others took place in 2013 and 2018. On this occasion, 2,000 leaflets were also distributed among students and their families with basic instructions on what to do before, during and after an earthquake.

Once again, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Earth Hour is calling on individuals, communities, and businesses across the world to switch off their lights this weekend and ‘Give an Hour for Earth’, spending 60 minutes doing something positive for the planet.

The WWF is warning that the next seven years are crucial for halting irreversible nature loss and climate change.

And to show its support for greater action to combat global warming and biodiversity loss, Benidorm Town Hall will shut off non-essential lighting from 8.30pm until 9.30pm on Saturday March 25.

Councillor for the Environment, Monica Gomez, explained that “during those 60 minutes, the council will turn off the lights of some of Benidorm’s most iconic and emblematic enclaves.”

These include: El Tossal, El Castell, the facade of the Town Hall, the monument of the Cross of Serra Gelada, the ornamental lighting on Paseo de Poniente and the Paseo de Levante garland in the stretch between Avenida de Europa and Rincón de Loix.

“Benidorm is a benchmark municipality in sustainability, both in its conception and its management, promoting and implementing measures that promote the fight against climate change. In fact, we were pioneers in developing a Climate Change Action Plan, a document that has become a guide and roadmap when designing municipal actions and policies,” he added.

Andalucía

A frantic search for a young Swedish girl with autism spectrum disorder ended in the Almeria town of Huércal-Overa, where the child was found safe and well this week. According to Guardia Civil, the vulnerable minor apparently arrived in the Andalucía province with a 26-year-old man, unbeknownst to her distraught parents.

The girl’s mum and dad reported her disappearance to the Swedish police on Tuesday March 21 and she was finally tracked down to a caravan park in the small district of Almajalejo when a local recognised her photo from the alert notices and contacted the authorities.

The young man claimed he had fallen in love with the child, whom he met online, and that they had been planning on staying in Almeria for three months.

Although the girl carried no official documents and originally gave police a false name, her identity was quickly confirmed and she has been placed in the care of the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, which will organise her return home.

Her companion has been temporarily released by the Spanish courts while they determine if in Sweden he is guilty of crime.

Tragedy struck the family of a young woman riding an e-scooter who died after a horror crash with a lorry in Marbella this week.

The 25-year-old collided with the truck in the access tunnel to La Cañada shopping centre that runs under the N-340 and the emergency services received several alerts to a serious road accident from witnesses and other motorists.

An ambulance, medical team and officers from the local and National Police were dispatched. Sadly, despite the efforts of health personnel, they were unable to save the victim’s life and she was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Road traffic deaths in the province of Malaga fell last year, albeit very slightly. Between January 1 and December 31 last year, there were 29 fatal accidents recorded, 6.45% fewer than in 2019 when there were 31 such accidents. These 29 incidents claimed lives involved 44 vehicles and 32 fatalities.

Meanwhile, Brussels has demanded this week that Spain ensure the “strict protection” of the Doñana National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, after the regional Andalucían government revealed plans to rezone more farms in the wetlands so they can expand irrigation.

Initial plans to expand irrigation were shelved but the scheme has been put back on the table ahead of the municipal elections on May 28.

Water supplies on the 74,000-hectare site in Huelva are already drying up due to a combination of illegal tapping of the aquifer by farmers and last year’s sweltering summer, which led to drought warnings across Spain.

In a letter sent from the head of the EU’s Directorate General for the Environment to the Spanish government, Florika Fink-Hooijer insisted that it is “necessary to immediately ensure the strict protection of Doñana’s exceptional natural treasures, especially taking into account that rainfall is increasingly scarce due to climate change.”

The Superior Court of the European Union has already reprimanded Spain in the past for neglecting Doñana and demanded its commitment to preserving the natural area, and Andalucían detractors have warned that the community faces fresh fines if the plans go ahead without EU authorisation.

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