Culture Spain – for all things Spanish

The pound has hit 1.25 against the euro this past week, its highest rate since Oct 2008, as Spain struggles to get to grips with its banking sector and Greece contemplates a euro exit. So what next for the continent in crisis, and the exchange rate? Here is my latest update of the British pound to euro exchange rate, covering [...]

So, Judge Baltasar Garzon has been banned from acting as a judge in Spain for eleven years, having been convicted of overstepping his authority when he authorised the wire-tapping of conversations between detainees and their lawyers in the notorious (and on-going) Gurtel corruption case. Garzon’s removal from the Spanish judiciary has been nothing if not controversial and has occurred amidst [...]

A fascinating article was published by El Pais a few days ago, which should be required reading for anyone living in the Valencian Region (as I do).  It confirms, of course, what most commentators have suspected for years and is a powerful and stinging attack upon politicians within the Valencia Region, albeit from a left of centre newspaper. However, the [...]

I saw an interesting comment in El Pais recently, which stated that the President of Catalonia, Artur Mas, was justifying significant spending cuts as a way of ‘preventing Madrid from meddling with Catalan finances’.  This would, a colleague said: “blow away our financial autonomy” and “violate the rules of the game set down in the Constitution.” Yes, indeed! However, one [...]

So, 2011 gradually ebbs away – a year that many people in Spain will be pleased to see disappear, hoping that 2012 will herald better times ahead.  Unfortunately, I fear that may not be the case and there are compelling arguments to suggest that 2012 may be more difficult and challenging for Spain than 2011. So, how does one round [...]

The most notable export that Spain has made over the past year has been the ‘philosophy’ of the Indignado Movement.  This has spread like wildfire to many parts of the world including the US (Occupy Wall Street) and the UK (Occupy London Stock Exchange). Indignado translates as ‘outrage’ and is an apposite name, given the fury of the Indignados at [...]

Of course, as everyone now knows, the Spanish elections on the 20th November 2011 resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Spanish conservative party (the PP – Partido Popular). Interestingly, the turnout for the Spanish elections was very high with 24,590,557 votes cast, which equated to a turnout of 73.85% of those eligible to vote. The Spanish conservative party (PP) [...]

So, as widely anticipated, the Spanish conservative party (the PP – Partido Popular) has won an overwhelming majority of seats in parliament after yesterday’s General Election in Spain.  Meanwhile, the Spanish socialist party (the PSOE – Partido Socialista Obrero Español) has been badly defeated and has finally been punished by the electorate for its gross negligence in mishandling the Spanish [...]

We are now only singular days away from the General Election in Spain due for the 20th November, with the consensus being that the current socialist (PSOE) government will meet with a resounding defeat.  Indeed, all the indications are that the conservative (PP) party will gain power and probably with an overwhelming majority. Of course, the big issue for the [...]

Evidently, 39% of all Spanish men have used a prostitute, over 900 cases of stolen babies in Spain under Franco are being investigated and ETA have declared that they will no longer use violence to obtain the independence of the Basque country from Spain.  The PP (conservative party) are still on course to win the General Elections in Spain on [...]

On Thursday the 20th October 2011 ETA declared that they would no longer use violence in Spain to obtain their objective of gaining Basque country independence from Spain.  This has been heralded as a breakthrough, with the Spanish Prime Minister (Zapatero) calling it: “a victory for democracy, law and reason”. Certainly, the ‘war’ conducted by ETA in Spain, to most [...]

The news in Spain over the past week has seen the Spanish Indignado movement effectively go global, the Spanish secretary of State for housing claim that it has always been safe to buy Spanish property(!), the downgrading of the Spanish banks and the credit rating of Spain itself.  The Spanish government has stated that it has a 4 billion Euro [...]

The past week in Spain has seen the wedding of the elderly Duchess of Alba, unemployment in Spain reach a 15 year high and a strike by Spanish teachers.  Meanwhile, although the majority of Spaniards are Catholic, 57% (a figure rising annually) do not go to church regularly.  Elsewhere, a residential home is being constructed for gay Spaniards and El [...]

As anyone who reads this Blog knows, I am the first to criticize Spain (mercilessly) when I see wrongdoing whether it is corruption, property illegality or lunatic Spanish government policies.  Indeed, I doubt that anyone tries harder to portray Spain objectively with neither fear nor favour. However, again and again, I state that the high overall quality of life in [...]

So, after months of speculation, Prime Minister Zapatero has announced that he will call a General Election for Spain for the 20th November 2011. Of course, this will come as little surprise to many people as Zapatero has been under increasing pressure, from all quarters, to call a General Election in Spain since his decision earlier this year to stand [...]