Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin March 3

FEATURE ARTICLES: "Cut-rate travel deals in Spain this spring" and "Spanish supermarkets continue to raise prices after VAT cut"

When one door closes, another one opens. When life gets more expensive in one area, at least there are still great deals to be had elsewhere.

This week, a study has revealed that the cost of food in Spanish supermarkets is still going up, despite the government’s deep cuts to VAT on food – a move which President of the European Bank, Christine Lagarde, has described as “not ideal”. At the same time, though, there is good news for anyone who likes to travel within Spain and without – which includes most expats and homeowners – as everyone from Ryanair to Ouigo are slashing prices and adding new routes in preparation for the spring and summer tourist season. Bring it on!

Cut-rate travel deals in Spain this spring

When you’re back and forth from Spain as much as most expats and people who own property here are, or when you want to travel around and explore new places as most expats and people who own property here do, it helps to have as many travel options as possible. It’s always welcome news, then, when the planes and trains announce new, better connections and juicy deals.

For instance, Murcia’s Corvera Airport is upping its game this year with a new air connection flying to Barcelona and nine new Ryanair routes this coming summer season. The Irish budget carrier this week announced additional connections for 2023 with Birmingham, Bournemouth, East Midlands, Glasgow Prestwick, London Stansted, London Luton and Manchester airports in the United Kingdom, Dublin airport in the Republic of Ireland and Palma de Mallorca in the Canary Islands, which will begin at the start of April and run until October.

That’s an increase on the 2022 summer season, with 80 weekly Ryanair flights to and from Murcia this year. Even better, Ryanair have promised to continue the Dublin, Manchester and Birmingham flights in the winter 2023/24 season, which will run from around October-November this year until next March, thus adding six new routes.

And to entice flyers further, they put tickets on sale for as little as 29.99 euros, and even promised that travellers could “spread the cost of their vacation by paying half the price now and the other half up to 40 days before departure when booking the Family Plus package Ryanair”. Unfortunately, the deadline for booking those bargain flights has already passed, but the announcement of additional international – and even national – connections is always a plus for those who regularly want to travel to Murcia and the surrounding area.

On the rails, new kids on the block Ouigo are also having a massive sale to celebrate the launch of some routes to Alicante and Andalucía this year. As of March 1, the low-cost high-speed operator – which is taking full advantage of the opening up of the Spanish rail industry to private competition to state-owned Renfe – has 1.7 million train tickets on sale and savvy shoppers can nab a pass for as little as 9 euros each way for adults. The cut-price Ouigo tickets will be valid for travel between July 11 and December 9, 2023.

Ouigo currently only operates the Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-Valencia lines but come summer, they’ll launch a new Alicante-Madrid connection and once the Alicante route is up and running, Ouigo plans to reach Andalucía with 5 round trips to Seville, Malaga and Cordoba.

Meanwhile, the so-called Mediterranean Corridor advances full-steam ahead, to bring high-speed rail connections to the whole eastern and southern coast of the Spanish mainland. A truly grand undertaking, the work began on the ‘Mediterranean Rail Freight Corridor’ in 2018 to modernise and improve the train network connecting Murcia, Andalucia, Valencia and Catalonia.

The next sections of the rail corridor to be built are the Nonduermas-Sangonera, Sangonera-Alhama de Murcia and Totana-Lorca lines, which will join the Region of Murcia and Almería and should be built next year.

That said, only 13% of the Andalucian section between Vera and Pulpí has been completed to date, so it’s unlikely the high-speed connection between Murcia and Almería will be up and running before 2026.

So far, Spain has spent more than 4.4 billion euros on the development of the Mediterranean Corridor, and the latest plans are for a 960-metre tunnel through the Alcantarilla area which should reduce the noise and environmental impact of the AVE, according to Adif, Spain’s railway infrastructure administrator, while providing Alcantarilla locals with better rail services thanks to the construction of a new commuter station.

Good news, overall, but bear in mind that it could be years before the full Mediterranean corridor is up and running.

Out of pocket

It feels like it’s been the same old story for a year or so now: energy costs through the roof, drivers struggling to fill their tanks because of the extortionate price of fuel… and this week we heard that inflation took yet another jump in February, raising the price of groceries by a further 1.31%.

Now, this might not seem like the end of the world but remember, the Spanish government reduced VAT on several staple food items in January and eliminated it entirely on many others so it begs the question, how on earth are grocery bills still increasing when the tax has been slashed?

The simple answer is that some of the most popular supermarkets in Spain have begun to hike up their prices, as observed by Asufin when they compared the cost of several common grocery items over a two-month period. Carrefour are the biggest offenders, tacking on 2.13 euros to the average bill. They’re followed by El Corte Inglés, with a price increase of 78 cents and Alcampo, which is charging an average of 39 cents more.

On the other hand, Mercadona has actually cut costs by 13 cents while Dia has applied a price reduction of 1.23 euros.

When the measure was first introduced, several of the big chains had their wrists slapped for dragging their feet in implementing the VAT reduction, but many consumers have noticed that the cost of other items has gone up, which basically results in a catch 22.

If that wasn’t bad enough, homeowners will have felt the pinch as well as the cold when they opened their latest energy bill, since electricity has risen by an excruciating 36.3%, marking this as the second most expensive February in history.

In real terms, it means that the average household forked out around 91.61 euros for their electricity bill last month compared to 67.20 in January; however, this is still far from the lofty heights reached a year ago, when those on the semi-regulated tariff (PVPC) paid a frightening 131.29 euros.

While consumer organisation Facua believes the Spanish government is right to remedy the “disproportionate benefits of large electric companies”, the group also estimates that customers in Spain pay electric companies close to a billion euros more a year for the excess kilowatts used over their contracted allowance.

This fortune could be saved, they believe, by helping people understand their electricity bills, and the tariffs, better.

Murcia

A mere three days after the opening of the new Mining Museum of La Unión (which had been in the works for years and hoped to restore some of the glory of the Cartagena town based around tourism to come and learn about the mining history of the area), the old visitor centre of the La Unión Mining Park was burned to the ground by vandals.

Located right on the outskirts of the town at the beginning of the ‘33 highway’, the Parque Minero de La Unión went up in flames last Monday night. The Park has been closed for the last two years so the whole place was deserted and nobody was hurt in the blaze. But the ticket office, waiting room and two smaller buildings were all razed to the ground.

Police currently suspect that it was “some hooligans” who set fire to one of the ticket booths – a hypothesis they have precedent for since the Park was targeted by vandals again this time last year. Last March, a group of people broke in and desecrated the on-site chapel, destroying lanterns and valuable artworks.

The latest act of vandalism and arson has opened up a whole can of worms in La Unión, with accusations now flying about how the Park was allowed to be abandoned the way it was, especially after the Council spent up to 300,000 euros to make the site the hub of local tourism back in 2010. Since its closure in 2020, it has reportedly been used as a hangout spot for youths drinking illegally in public and graffitiing. It’s a shame because La Unión has so much potential; let’s just hope the new Mining Museum can bring the town the tourist numbers and the good attention it needs and deserves.

Of course, one of the top ways to appeal to the biggest number of tourists is not necessarily with exhibits explaining defunct trading processes, but with dog-friendly beaches, as Cartagena is doing. There, the council has “officially” opened its three dog-friendly beaches by installing of proper signage that outlines the rules and regulations for pet owners exercising dogs on the sands at La Lengua de la Vaca in Los Nietos, Los Alemanes in La Manga and La Calera in Isla Plana.

The first two have only been dog-friendly beaches, where pets are permitted to be off the lead as long as they are supervised, for about nine months, whereas La Calera has allowed pets for a while now.

The new signs, placed at the edge of the beaches, list all the dos and don’ts for pet owners on the sand – common sense stuff like making sure your dog is always under supervision and that they don’t bother people, not to mention the fact that ALL DOG POO MUST BE PICKED UP and deposited in the litter bins provided. These sorts of initiatives are often a pull for people wanting to visit the area, especially those who travel with their dogs in caravans.

However, not everyone is happy with the development, claiming it will make the beaches dirty… or even dirtier than they were before. To try to stop this, the authorities are threatening fines of between 500 and 1,500 euros for anyone who fails to clear up their dog’s mess, which presumably means there will be a way for them to monitor possible infractions. Poop police perhaps? Or faeces CCTV?

Further out away from the shore, you have the chance to visit the Nao Victoria, a replica of the first ship to circumnavigate the Earth, in Águilas from March 8 to 12. Tickets are very reasonably priced at just 6 euros for adults and 3 euros for children, and if you’ve never seen her before, the Nao Victoria really is well worth a visit.

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

Spain

There may be another nuisance on the way for UK and other third country travellers to Spain as the EU’s border scanners are set to be rolled out across airports later this year, to coincide with the launch of the contentious ETIAS (European Travel Information Authorization System) visa waiver process.

The two go hand in hand, really: probably from November, non-EU holidaymakers will need to apply online for the ETIAS permit before travelling for the princely sum of 7 euros. Once they arrive in Spain, they’ll need to pass through the EES (Entry-Exit System) – a self-scanner for passports and other documents (such as the ETIAS).

The scanners will log the date of entry with the objective of cracking down on those over-staying their 90 days in each 180, but permanent residents in Spain or those on long-term visas won’t need to use the self-service system.

Passengers entering all EU member states except for Cyprus and Ireland will need to pass through the EES. Four non-EU countries in the Schengen zone will also implement the system: Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

While airlines are generally supportive of the move, most agree that more time is needed to get the new technology up and running and to ensure that staff are trained in its use.

Moving on to a different kind of flight: the Spanish authorities have managed to arrest not one, but two, highly dangerous criminals from Europol’s Most Wanted list this week. Both fugitives fled to Spain and were hiding put here to avoid capture.

Romanian murderer Petrisor Lupu, considered the most notorious criminal in his home country, was collared by the Guardia Civil in the Girona town of Vilifant. The 41-year-old made for Spain in 2016 after being sentenced to 17 years for stabbing a rival gang member to death at a wedding.

Just a few days later, 25-year-old Josip Mihajlović was picked up at a Madrid hotel. The Croatian fugitive, described by Europol as having “a very violent profile” had been on the run for three years after shooting a Dubrovnik taxi driver in July 2019.

Spain has always been a hotbed for illegal migration from around the globe and since Brexit, it’s become so much harder for UK citizens to secure residency here. As a result, the trade in illegal papers has flourished but this week, police in Spain have brought down two separate criminal organisations specialising in falsifying residency docs for UK nationals.

In all, 47 arrests have been made, with three of the ringleaders reportedly running a law practice in Marbella while two others operated from a law firm in the Spanish autonomous city of Ceuta.

Most worryingly, at least three of the individuals the fake Spanish papers had been obtained for were wanted for serious crimes abroad and were presumably fleeing to Spain to avoid prosecution.

The forged documents, which reportedly cost around 1,600 euros, included rental agreements, job contracts and bank statements that served to secure residency for the Britons when the Brexit rules came into force.

Alicante

A British widower is having the time of his life after becoming an overnight social media sensation during a three-week trip to Benidorm. Derek Flynn, 88, lost his beloved wife two years ago, and had planned a holiday alone to remember his late wife, but a heartwarming Facebook post by close friend Nigel Hobdey changed all that.

Concerned about his pal all alone in Benidorm, Nigel asked other holidaymakers to keep an eye on him.

“Me and his friends hope he is OK over there on his own... if you see him say hello, he is a lovely guy,” he wrote.

And within days, the retired shoe seller and dad of five has become a selfie superstar, claiming he can’t take two steps in the Costa Blanca resort without being stopped for a photograph.

The press was quick to locate him at Pueblo Benidorm Hotel and his rise to fame has even reached the New York Post and other media outlets around the world.

“It’s blown up,” he said. “I’ve gone from nothing to massive. I just went along with it at first thinking, ‘How the hell do they recognise me?’.”

“I came back to relive my memories with my wife. She passed away from natural causes and I miss her,” he said, adding “Benidorm is the best place in the world.”

Sadly, it’s been a tragic week for the family of a 40-year-old Belgian woman who died after crashing into a fallen railing on the AP-7 near Algorfa, Alicante. Another five people were injured when several other cars careered into the same debris.

The carnage followed an accident on an elevated section of the CV-905 when a car collided with the railing, sending it tumbling onto the AP-7 below. Instead of reporting the incident and waiting for emergency services, the motorist drove off and police are still trying to trace the driver.

The injured are four men, aged 30, 34, 39 and 43, and a 16-year-old teenager. Four of the victims were taken to Torrevieja Hospital and another was treated on the spot.

In a horrific dog attack in the Valencian municipality of Macastre, a 67-year-old Briton was mauled to death by a stray pit bull she had found abandoned in the countryside near her home days earlier.

She suffered “catastrophic arm injuries and a head injury” and when emergency services arrived, they were initially prevented from entering, as the dog, included on Spain’s list of dangerous breeds, was still inside. Officers eventually had to shoot the animal to attend to the victim.

She was transferred to the La Fe Hospital in Valencia, but despite the best efforts of the medical team, the British woman died when she “went into shock” following a haemorrhage as a result of the dog’s bites.

The dog had no ID tag and was not microchipped and police are now trying to trace its original owner.

In other news this week, proposals for a dedicated parking area for campervans and motorhomes in Torrevieja were revealed, aimed at allowing better coexistence between residents and vehicle owners.

Apparently, the situation in the car park at La Mata beach and the cemetery has got completely out of hand and campers have been parked there for not just weeks, but for months. And because there is no sewage supply, the contents of camper toilets are being dumped anywhere.

The project envisages a permanent campsite equipped with multilingual signage, payment facilities, electricity, fresh water a chemical toilet and, if necessary, barriers.

Andalucía

It was a regional public holiday in Andalucía this Tuesday for the occasion of Andalucía Day, a festivo which is also known as ‘28-F’ (after the Spanish manner of naming important dates by their number and the first letter of the month) and which is celebrated every year on February 28 to mark the day in 1980 when the referendum took place to call the region by the name of the ‘Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía’ or Autonomous Community of Andalusia.

Thus, it was a day off school for the kids and a day off work for the big kids, and a day when many people found themselves locked out of the local supermarket and unable to do the shopping.

Aside from this, the occasion to celebrate Andalusian identity was marked by the flying of the green and white flag of Andalucía in homes and in public offices, while many towns and cities held dances, shows and activities for children and young people to teach them pride in their local identity, not to mention the usual speechifying from various bigwigs about how great Andalucía is.

And in fact, it really is great to join in the traditional local festivities, such as watching people dress up in their customary spotted ‘sevillanas’ and ‘flamenco’ outfits which are so commonly associated with Spanish culture. And any excuse to eat a desayuno andaluz – an Andalusian breakfast of bread, olive oil, garlic, grated tomato and sometimes a slice of jamón ibérico – is fine with us.

Each autonomous community of Spain has its very own special day of the year when they celebrate local traditions and identity, of course. But any day is a good day to be proud of who you are and where you are – even if it’s not necessarily the place where you come from. So wherever you are in the world today, take a moment to celebrate just being there… and maybe treat yourself to a nice breakfast or something, too!

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