Date Published: 22/10/2021

Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Oct 23

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Halloween has come early this year, and not because of the pumpkins and skeletons in the shop windows (those are right on time… at least they’re not Christmas decorations yet!). It’s because of the really scary news that’s giving UK residents in Spain nightmares – British driving licences will no longer be valid to drive in Spain as of October 31.

Granted, everyone who has been keeping half an eye on the status of Brits living in Spain after Brexit knew this deadline was coming up. We were warned to exchange our British licences for Spanish ones as long ago as before the end of last year, but many people who tried have reported problems with not receiving their Spanish licence yet, getting one with the wrong details or not being able to do it at all. Now those people and the rest of us who didn’t bother to try to contact the DGT and dive into the Spanish bureaucratic system but were secretly hoping for a last-minute extension or reprieve are all facing the truly terrifying prospect of not being able to drive in Spain anymore, or of having to drive illegally, hope we don’t get stopped by the police for any reason, and if we do pretend we’re not residents but just here on holiday.

Note: neither Murcia Today nor its affiliates condone any illegal activity.

At the same time, it’s like April Fools Day come early for German, Dutch, Scandinavian and other expat residents in Spain… basically anyone who had the good sense not to leave the EU is laughing right now!

And that’s not all because Brexit has also cast its shadow elsewhere this week…

Gibraltar

Talks between the UK government and European officials in Brussels about the status of Gibraltar after Brexit appear to be at a stalemate, prompting fears that a hard border is on the horizon. Up until now Spain and Britain have agreed to treat Gibraltar as if it were still part of the Schengen area, and in theory they only need to formalise this current agreement into an official treaty, but negotiations have stalled due to London’s violation of the agreement reached on the Northern Ireland border back in 2019.

Technically, the Ireland-Northern Ireland and Spain-Gibraltar borders shouldn’t have anything to do with each other, but in practice Europe is choosing only to talk about trade tariffs on the former, meaning that time is running out for an agreement. If that doesn’t happen before the end of the year, UK-owned Gibraltar faces the possibility of a hard border with Spain like it originally had before Spain joined the EU in 1986.

A hard border between Spain and Gibraltar would cause havoc for the thousands of Brits and Spaniards who live on one side but work on the other and have to commute every day as it would mean additional passport controls and customs checks. October 31 is also the deadline when agreements allowing healthcare for such cross-border workers will expire.

There are two more rounds of negotiations slated for November, with the hope that a deal can be reached by December 13. If it can’t, the European Commission will be forced to put in place visa requirements and passport checks.

On the move

For those who can continue to drive in Spain, things may become more expensive as the government ploughs ahead with plans to install new toll roads (‘peajes’) on Spanish motorways. The move has widespread support across the political spectrum, although the far-left party Podemos has decreed it will never support measures that raise the cost of living for “working people”. For their part, truck driving and bus unions in Spain have threatened strikes if new toll roads are brought in. Don’t worry, though: it won’t happen until 2024, a date so far in the future that it’ll never come, just like the deadline for driving licences…

Those who don’t drive can go by taxi, as long as their driver hasn’t stopped off for a caña beforehand. As of July 6 2022, Spain will fit mandatory anti-start breathalysers in all professional passenger vehicles, like taxis. These devices are capable of detecting traces of alcohol on a driver’s breath and then prevent the car from starting up if the readings are over the limit, or if the driver simply refuses to use it. Similar measures have already helped to reduce drink driving and accidents in the rest of Europe, and they may even later become obligatory in all new cars for private individuals, too.

New toll charges wouldn’t be so bad if there were alternatives to driving, but the Spanish government also announced this week that it is considering abolishing short haul flights. In an effort to combat one of the major drivers of climate change, they plan to ban internal flights where a train could make the journey in two and a half hours or less. Scientists agree that it is vital to take such measures now since the number of air passengers in the EU grew from 360 million to 1.1 billion in 2018, with greenhouse gas emissions from planes increasing by 129% over the past two decades. The Air Lines Association isn’t so keen though, saying it will have a “devastating” effect on the aeronautical and tourist sectors as it would essentially prohibit all flights between Madrid and almost everywhere else in Spain.

Coronavirus

Talking of flying, the UK has changed their Covid travel rules again. As of this Sunday, October 24, fully vaccinated travellers going to England from Spain and other non-red list countries will be able to take a cheaper lateral flow test on Day 2 after their arrival instead of a full PCR. This is the latest in a rapid series of changes by Great Britain to ease international travel restrictions, even as new cases spiral out of control and a new variant of coronavirus, Delta Plus, is detected in the country that now accounts for 6% of all Covid cases.

It’s been a somewhat turbulent week in relation to the coronavirus pandemic in Spain, with the cumulative incidence rate on the rise while Covid-related fatalities and new infections continue to decline. On the whole, Spain is doing much better than the UK, though. On a positive note, more than 90% of the population in Spain has now received at least one vaccination, while 88.3% of people are now double jabbed.

As Covid figures yo-yo across Spain, Murcia has seen a slight increase in cases this week, partly due to two serious outbreaks in Lorca and San Javier. In an effort to further control the virus, the regional government has revealed plans to enforce Covid certificates in nightlife venues and private events such as weddings and christenings. Meanwhile, bars and restaurants in Murcia city are at risk of having their ‘Covid terraces’ revoked, as the city council reviews the permits given during the pandemic, which allowed businesses to place tables and chairs in the city’s car parks, plazas and even on pavements and public footpaths.

And in Alicante capital, urban buses have made a return to full capacity. There will no longer be compulsory vacant seats, but passengers must still wear a facemask to travel onboard. This easing of restrictions comes following weeks of a steady decline in new cases, admissions and the incidence rate, but now the Valencia region as a whole is experiencing a rebound. The week began with a 70% rise in new cases over the weekend, with the Ministry of Health reporting 509 infections since the previous Friday’s update.

President Ximo Puig insisted the region “is not on the verge of a sixth wave”, but once again called for prudence. However, as the week has gone on the incidence rate has continued to rise, a total of 139 municipalities in the region have since seen a daily rise in new diagnosis. On Thursday, 281 new infections were reported, the same as on Wednesday, but 51.89% more than the previous week.

As for Andalucía, the cumulative incidence rate for coronavirus now stands at 31.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a drop of 1.5 points since last Friday. However, 275 new positive cases were detected and three more deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours alone, presenting a bit of a mixed bag – the improvements are there, but with the occasional daily spike. In the autonomous community as a whole, 79.8% of people over 18 years old have been double jabbed, an extra 0.2% since Monday, and this goes up to 90.6% if you include over-12s. In terms of areas, the Costa del Sol is the only Health District in the region with a vaccination rate of below 70%.

Immigration

Spain is no stranger to receiving illegal immigrants. Being located so close to Morocco, the gateway to Africa, the southern costas have a long and troubled history of migrants entering the country without the proper documents. These are Spain’s boat people, who flee war-torn and poverty-stricken countries all across Africa to come to Europe. They’re by no means all Moroccan – sometimes they make long and costly journeys across the African continent to make the crossing into Spain, where they either settle or continue on to France, Germany and the UK.

Many of these people pay criminal gangs to ferry them over the Strait of Gibraltar and other points on the Mediterranean where the distance between the two continents is sufficiently short to be able to make the journey on little boats and precarious motorised dinghies, called ‘pateras’ in Spanish.

Even if it’s just a few miles of water separating the southern Spanish coast and northern Africa, the journey is a dangerous one across the open sea. Adverse weather conditions often make the water too choppy for the tiny, rickety boats to deal with, and this isn’t helped by the fact that the gangs choose to make the journey at night to avoid detection. Then there are those boat captains who, when located trying to cross illegally by Spanish maritime police, have been known to try and perform dangerous getaway manoeuvres, putting the lives of the crew and passengers at risk and sometimes even ending up shipwrecked.

Last weekend saw over 500 people enter Spain illegally this way, as the ‘migration mafias’ try to overwhelm Spanish police forces by landing dozens of pateras at the same time at different points along the coast and on the Balearic Islands like Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. Some 433 migrants arrived in Murcia between last Saturday and this Wednesday, including 30 women, 42 minors and 361 men. Meanwhile, in the first three days of this week alone, nine boats reached Spain just on the coast of Alicante carrying 107 passengers. Among them were 8 children, and it’s also not uncommon for pregnant women and newborn babies to make the perilous journey, too.

Sometimes these arrivals are detected by Spanish authorities, and the people taken in, given PCRs to make sure they don’t have coronavirus, treated by the Red Cross for injuries or other non-Covid related illnesses, and then transported to immigration centres for the 72 hours. Because they have committed no crime other than being undocumented, they are released after three days and offered the chance to be taken in by a non-governmental organisation (NGO). When the arrivals are detected, police also try to capture the boat captains and arrest them as their crimes are more serious and carry lengthier prison sentences. Other times the arrivals just slip in to the country undetected, which is exactly what the migration mafias are trying to achieve.

Even those who are found and offered help are not obliged to join any of the NGO programmes and the government doesn’t actually know how many people choose to accept help. There is a severe lack of oversight of the people who choose not to go into holding centres, and the truth is we just don’t know how many illegal migrants remain in Spain and how many travel onwards to France, or what happens to the rest.

No one is denying that these refugees are fleeing terrible and unimaginable situations in their home countries, and that you’d have to be crazy to undertake such a difficult and dangerous journey without good reason, especially if you’re travelling with children or while pregnant. They sometimes pay their entire life savings to the human trafficking gangs, but have a good reason for wanting to live in Europe as the quality of life is perceived as better for them and their children, and it would be immoral to send them back to potentially life-threatening circumstances in the countries they came from. But the fact remains that some people make an effort to come to Spain legally, with passports and legitimate travel documents, and these refugees are entering illegally, without papers.

If the only punishment for this is three days in confinement, and then these undocumented people are allowed free into Spanish society to go where they please and do what they want without being registered like everyone else, there’s no knowing how many people there are and what level of help they need. They can’t get legitimate jobs without a NIE and so technically become criminals, they can’t pay taxes and don’t have access to healthcare on the Seguridad Social, and they are forced to live in precarious housing situations. It seems like gross negligence on the part of the Spanish government not to keep tabs on migrants who come into the country, to hold them for longer and offer real, lasting help, because as things stand the failure to help those seeking refuge from persecution is developing into a humanitarian disaster, turning them into impoverished criminals instead.

Terrorism in Spain

This week also marked 10 years since the Basque terrorist group ETA called an end to violence and bombings in Spain. As the UK saw the death of 80-year-old British soldier Dennis Hutchings this week, who was on trial for a 1974 murder during the troubles in Northern Ireland, Spain has also felt old wounds from its terrorist past being opened back up.

ETA is basically Spain’s answer to the IRA – a regional independence group who campaigned for the Basque Country to separate from the rest of Spain, often using violent murders, kidnappings and attacks to pressure the government into granting them political autonomy. Since they renounced violence 10 years ago, some members of ETA have become mainstream politicians in Spain, like Arnaldo Otegi as head of the EH Bildu party.

Mr Otegi caused waves across the political spectrum this week as he marked the anniversary by saying he sympathised with the victims of terror and the 377 unresolved historical murders thought to be linked to ETA, but fell short of actually saying sorry. While some in the opposition party have called for ETA and former ETA members to take more responsibility for their organisation’s crimes, of which an incredible 44% remain unsolved, Mr Otegi hinted that he would support the incumbent government’s 2022 budget proposal in return for some of the release of 183 ETA members who are currently incarcerated in Spanish prisons.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez denied the rumours. Spain doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.

But what is terror? Some people may have thought it terrifying the way a group of six people holed themselves up in Madrid’s Prado Museum on Tuesday morning threatening to commit suicide if their demands weren’t met. They were from the group ‘Seguimos Viviendo’ – survivors of a food health scandal that poisoned and killed around 5,000 people and left a further 20,000 with lifelong health issues when they consumed industrial grade rapeseed oil that was billed as a safe substitute for cooking oil.

The group occupying the Prado this week threatened violence (against themselves, which is technically not a crime but inciting another to commit suicide is illegal in Spain) if their demand for recognition as “victims of the State” was not granted. As it turned out, neither were their demands met nor did they take lethal pills, but instead police managed to remove them and arrest three of the six.

Spain doesn’t negotiate with survivors of a terrible and historical health tragedy.

Murcia

A number of fires broke out in Murcia over the course of the week, including a fire in a seventh-floor apartment in Murcia city which was caused by a dryer; an out-of-control blaze in a Torre Pacheco fruit factory which saw firefighters battling the flames through the night; and a caravan fire in Las Torres de Cotillas, which was the second campsite fire in the Region this month following a devastating fire at Villas Caravanning de La Manga at the beginning of October.

There was good news for Cartagena residents, especially those in La Manga del Mar Menor and the surrounding areas, as the local Cartagena council announced that bus timetables were going to be extended in the municipality and they also carried out some work on the RM-12 motorway into La Manga to prepare the road for heavy rain. The council promised to increase public transport to coastal regions all year round, including the Cabo de Palos-Cartagena route and the Cabo de Palos-Veneziola route, which are normally slashed to the bare minimum after the summer season.

Cartagena council also revealed the new dates for the 2022 Carnival, which will be celebrated between February 18 and March 1 2022, whereas the nationally renowned Águilas Carnival is still in uncertain territory as the Town Hall and Carnival organisers decide when and how the event should be hosted – a complicated process as the Águilas Carnival is one of the biggest and best in Spain and the nature of the pandemic makes it impossible to predict which Covid restrictions will be in place next February.

Meanwhile, a film-like bank robbery took place in Murcia city on Tuesday when three armed thieves entered the Santander branch, tied up a dozen unlucky staff members and customers and calmly walked away from the scene with bags full of cash as if nothing was wrong. Police are still on the hunt for the three thieves and are exploring the possibility of a fourth person acting as a getaway driver for the gang.

New technology developed by Cartagena University promises to help scientists repair the damage to the Mar Menor as a new robotic solar-powered boat has proved to be capable of sailing in shallow lakes and seas almost indefinitely while taking and testing water samples, providing valuable data for experts. On the subject of the Mar Menor, a petition which was started to gain legal entity status for the lagoon fell short of the necessary half a million signatures by around 50,000 on the October 21 deadline, but the good news is that the Bureau of Congress has given the initiative three more months to gather the necessary signatures.

Spain

Our furry friends have once again been making headlines this week with plans announced to introduce animal ID cards in 2022. Activists have committed to cutting down on Spain’s alarming number of abandoned pets, and the new system will create a central database that records the name and address of the owners of all dogs and cats, along with their veterinary and vaccination histories.

Climate change continues to be a hot topic globally and Spain is no exception. As well as the government's proposal to prohibit short-haul flights, a rather unpleasant side-effect of global warming is that tick and mosquito populations have exploded in Spain this year, with the milder weather allowing these pesky critters to last all winter. Aside from being a nuisance, these pests carry many diseases capable of causing severe illnesses in both animals and humans.

The warm waters of the north African enclave of Ceuta were host to a rare marine creature this week that was more Loch Ness Monster than your garden-variety fish. The enormous sunfish was accidentally caught in a net and almost broke the scales as it weighed in at more than 1,000 kilos.

In an effort to combat climate change in Spain a number of new, and sometimes controversial, initiatives have been suggested. As an alternative to traditional combustion vehicles, Spain’s first fully autonomous air taxi will be unveiled at an exhibition in Madrid later this month. Propelled by four drones, the driverless aircraft promises comfort and safety while ferrying customers through cities at around 90 kilometres per hour. Its creator expects the air taxis to be a familiar sight in the sky by 2024.

Last week we brought you the news that toys were likely to be more expensive this Christmas due to an increase in the cost of raw materials and the constant rise in electricity prices. Now, the experts have warned that while a supply shortage over the festive season is unlikely, the cost of food and drink is almost certainly going to hike up for the same reasons.

Alicante

It’s undoubtedly been a difficult time for those looking for love during the pandemic, but cupid and his arrow are now busy Alicante. Self-proclaimed love doctor and veteran matchmaker, Willie Daly, promises love will “definitely be in the air” in Alicante after bringing Ireland’s world famous Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival to the Costa Blanca, the first time the centuries-old singles event has been held overseas.

The 79-year-old father-of-eight admitted he wasn’t sure what to expect, but presumed “the Spanish fellas, with their Latin blood, will be a bit more forward than the Irish lads,” who “tend to be shy, and only get going once they've a rake of pints inside them.” Singles events are being held in a dozens of venues in Cabo Roig until October 26, including the aptly-named Irish bar the Randy Leprechaun.

In Guardamar, the council has been powering ahead with a coastal regeneration project which will open up 120 metres of dunes between Babilonia and Vivers beaches. A derelict house has been pulled down to make way for new wooden walkways to allow accessibility for all, and work is expected to be finished before Christmas.

Meanwhile in Rojales, a 10-million-euro facility which will house an elderly residence, a specific centre for people with chronic illnesses and a rehabilitation and social integration centre on the same plot, looks set to become a reality. The Town Hall has graciously agreed the free transfer of an 18,000m2 plot of land in Avenida de Argentina on which the new facility will be built, although there are still the obligatory construction hoops to jump through.

In what has been hailed “an historical event”, an eyesore beachside hotel in Elche is finally being demolished. Arenales del Sol hotel – once a symbol of the birth of tourism on the Costa Blanca in the sixties – has since become an ugly blight on the landscape and is being reduced to rubble to make way for a “phase of regeneration and renaturalisation” of the beachfront.

In Torrevieja, the Valencian regional government has regained control of Torrevieja Hospital from management company Ribera Salud, the end of a saga which has seen numerous disputes and protests. The town has also reopened its floating museums to the public, perfectly timed following the return to its home port of the iconic Pascual Flores, which has just completed a tour of European cities in wihhc it was visited by 12,000 people.

Speeding motorists have also made the headlines in Alicante province this week, with the first offender off the grid a “reckless” British tourist who endangered lives as he sped through several residential neighbourhoods in Gran Alacant, pursued by police. The Brit, who filmed his antics on a mobile phone, was eventually tracked down, after jumping out of the rental car and fleeing on foot, before being arrested.

In nearby Elche, police clocked a motorist speeding along the El-20 at 191km/h – almost double the 100km/h speed limit. The motorist who was in such a hurry now faces the prospect of staying put for some time, with up to to six months in jail and a ban from driving for four years. Elche was also the scene of the start of a 15km high-speed police chase involving another Brit who allegedly attempted to run over police officers in a stolen car.

Andalucía

Happy news for Málaga province this week as Marbella is nominated best European destination 2022. Sure, we’re not actually in 2022, and the vote for the winning city won’t happen until January of next year, but it’s sure to bring more attention and business to the town either way. Elsewhere in Málaga, a brand new golf resort is being built in Estepona, complete with villas, swimming pools, club house and, of course, an 18-hole golf course.

Meanwhile, further inland, fresh drinking water has been donated to the residents of towns in the Sierra de Casbermeja whose water pipes for drinking water may have been affected by the forest fires last month. It seems they were happy with the delivery as news came through of an illegal house party in the area that blasted music through the valley all night, non-stop for 18 hours and was only brought to a halt by police at 9 o’clock in the morning.

Those weren’t the only disturbances in Andalucía, as there were also two shootouts reported in the Granada town of Chauchina and in Seville capital last Sunday. Thankfully no one died, but several young men were hospitalised in what is thought to be violence over a drug dispute.

Staying in Seville, an earthquake started from the small town of Pruna and could be felt as far away as Olvera, Cádiz. Measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale, it was a substantial earthquake, but no serious damage was caused. Coincidentally, Andalusian emergency services were carrying out earthquake and tsunami drills to be prepared for disasters that very same day, and the ensuing conspiracy theories emerging on social media prompted police to warn people not to listen to fake news!

You may have missed…

1. Mysterious A Team rescues dogs trapped by lava in La Palma.

The four small dogs were trapped on a tiny piece of land that was surrounded by lava in the La Palma town of Todoque, a district that has been all but swallowed up by the volcanic material. Days before the Aerocámaras drone company was planning a never-before-seen rescue operation, an unknown individual or group calling themselves the ‘A Team’ heroically removed the stranded canines.

2. Five loggerhead turtles returned to the sea in La Manga del Mar Menor.

Five baby loggerhead turtles were fitted with a microchips and returned to the Mediterranean Sea in La Manga del Mar Menor on Wednesday, part of the cluster of 102 eggs which were laid in La Manga during the summer of 2020, which is only the second documented lot of eggs laid in the Region of Murcia.

3. Low cost petrol company to open five stations in the Region of Murcia.

Independent petrol suppliers Ballenoil will be opening five petrol stations in the Region of Murcia in the upcoming months, including in Mazarrón, Lorca and Jumilla.

4. Spanish government refuses to legalise cannabis.

The government’s decision not to back the proposal appears to fly in the face of public opinion, with a survey carried out by CIS in April showing that 90.1% of Spaniards support the legalisation of cannabis.

5. Policemen in Spain disciplined for rescuing abused animals.

Two National Police officers in Madrid were subjected to disciplinary procedures when it came to light that they had been rescuing abandoned and mistreated animals instead of carrying out the job their Police Commissioner felt they were supposed to be doing.

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