Puntos de vista - a personal Spain blog

Albert Nuñez Feijóo, leader of the Partido Popular (PP), the conservative People's Party, has failed to achieve an outright win in the snap General Election called in Spain and held yesterday, Sunday 23 July ).

Current prime minister Pedro Sánchez' gamble in calling an early election may have paid off. Although his PSOE party (socialist) failed to win the most seats, his party did not receive the drubbing indicated by the opinion polls. 

Hung Parliament

PSOE gained 122 seats against the 136 of the PP, but potential coalition partners, the ultra-right wing VOX, dropped from 52 to 33 seats, meaning that a coalition of PP and VOX would not achieve the 176 required for a majority.

PSOE, together with the left-wing alliance SUMAR, which includes Podemos, make up 153. However, PSOE previously worked with smaller regional parties to achieve a majority, and that could happen again. What is clear is that we are in for weeks of negotiations and horse-trading before we know who will form the next Spanish government.

What went wrong?

Feijóo and PP were supposed to win a landslide victory, so what happened?

Feijóo committed some major blunders in the week before the vote.

First of all he had been left looking awkward after his claims about the PP’s track record on pensions turned out to be untrue.

He was then criticised for the sexist tone of an apparent reference to the make-up of Yolanda Diaz, leader of Sumar and deputy prime minister to Sánchez in the current government.

Then Feijóo pulled out of a scheduled TV debate, claiming a bad back.

Clearly, the electorate were not impressed.

With Sánchez proclaiming that the country had a stark choice between the forces of progress and the forces of reactionary conservatism, the electorate appears to have had a rethink. With PP under-achieving and VOX losing ground and seats, there is every chance that Sánchez may yet lead the next government. 

What happens next?

If no viable government is formed within two months, there will be new elections.

Watch this space!

Acknowledgements:

Financial Times (photo of Pedro Sánchez)

The Guardian

El Mundo

Wikipedia (photo of Alberto Nuñez Feijóo)

©  Pablo de Ronda

Tags:

El Mundo, Feijoo, Financial Times, general election, Guardian, Podemos, PP, PSOE, Sanchez, Sumar, VOX, Wikipedia

Thursday was a strange day. Things had started to go wrong in the morning. First of all, the regular monthly transfer of my UK pension to my Spanish bank failed. This meant I was overdrawn with bills and direct debits waiting for payment. Then I realised my mobile phone wasn’t working. What a disaster!

My UK pension payment is transferred to my Spanish bank account at CaixaBank from my UK account at Santander UK via currency conversion bank Wise. This should be automatic, but in July it didn’t happen.

So, I grabbed my phone and dialled Santander UK. I couldn’t get through, getting a strange message about the number not being recognised. I tried other calls to the UK. Same result. I rang my wife here in Spain. The same. What the f**k!

I borrowed my wife’s mobile and placed a call to Santander UK. It worked, although I had to wait over 20 minutes for the call to be answered by an agent. I explained the problem and asked them to transfer my pension to Wise on my behalf. After passing all the security questions and two waits of 10 minutes while my interlocutor disappeared to talk to a supervisor, she finally said I would have to call back the following day as the department that could help me was closed for the day! At 6 pm UK time! And this is the UK’s largest high street bank!

I thanked the phone operative for wasting nearly an hour of my life and hung up!

I hunted in vain for the number of Wise, which is normally stored in my phonebook. Not there! Strange, I thought. I hunted in vain for a number on the Wise website. There wasn’t/isn’t one!

I had arranged to change my mobile phone contract a few days before, but as far as I knew, the porto had not taken place. Using my wife’s phone I rang Atencion al Cliente at my new company, Yoigo, to investigate. The young man I spoke to was very polite but not very helpful. He suggested I go to the nearest Yoigo phone shop.

‘Bit late’, I said, ‘it’s gone 8.00 pm!’ (I think his shift had come to an end!)

‘No, I’ve just looked it up. There’s a shop in Ronda and it’s open until 9.00 pm’.

So, off I sped to Ronda and found the shop. The man and woman there listened while I explained the situation. They also could not understand why the company couldn’t help me over the phone. ‘We sell phones and contracts - we’re not techies!’

Despite this they sorted me out and got my phone working. However, the nice man pointed out that I was now live with two companies and paying twice: Másmovil, my old company and Yoigo, my new one. By the way, I’ve changed mobile phone companies a few times and it’s always been perfectly straightforward. Not this time, evidently.

I tried to ring Másmovil. Out of hours!

What next?

I went to the Santander España hole-in-the-wall and withdrew some cash from my UK account (Santander España don’t charge commission to Santander UK customers), which I promptly paid into my CaixaBank account to cover my direct debits.

I’d done all I could that evening and I needed a drink.

My first two choices were closed, so I went to Bar La Manzanilla, which I knew, and, guess who were sitting there?

Malcolm and Elaine, longtime English residents here, and Michael, my old mucker from North Wales, who’s been here for the best part of 20 years.

We had a bit of a catch-up and that led to my day improving beyond measure. Malcolm and Elaine were trying to sell their Casa Señorial, their magnificent house in the old part of Ronda. I dabble in a bit of independent estate agency (I’m what’s known locally as a corredor), so I asked if they’d be interested in working with me.

‘Yes, of course’.

‘Can I bring my estate agent friend Ian of Love Viviendas along?’

‘Yes, of course. Tomorrow?’

So, the following day Ian and I spent a very pleasant hour visiting the house, photographing it and signing contracts.

Then Ian and I popped down to Barrio San Francisco for a beer and a chat. We ended up sitting with some old acquaintances of mine, Antonio and Victor (I used to live in the barrio and they were waiters at Restaurante Almocobar), so Ian and I didn’t have our chat. Another time – Ian is a neighbour.

So, that day went from bad to worse, what with my banking issues and my telephone problem, and then to better with my serendipitous meeting with old friends and a possible house sale.

‘La vida no está mal, ¿eh?’

Factfile:

A1 Inmobiliaria, Conejeras 4, 29360  Montejaque (Málaga) Tel: 636 52 75 16

Restaurante Almocobar, Pl. Ruedo Alameda 5, 29400 Ronda (Málaga) Tel: 952 87 59 77

Love Viviendas, Partido Rural Fuente de la Higuera, 7 bajo, 29400 Ronda (Málaga) Tel: 619 056 055

© Pablo de Ronda

Tags: a1 inmobiliaria, Almocabar, caixabank, love viviendas, masmovil, montejaque, pablo de ronda, pension, ronda, santander uk, uk state pension, wise, yoigo 

“Why don’t we buy a place on the coast?” said my wife out of the blue the other day.

“What with?” I replied. We’re brick rich, but cash poor.

By that, I mean we own three houses here in Andalucia: Rita’s house in Montejaque from before I met her back in 2008; our marital home near Ronda, which we bought the year after we got married in 2010; and a doer-upper in Montejaque, which I bought with some of the proceeds from the sale of my Ronda apartment in 2019.

Houses for sale

Casa Real, which I have just finished renovating, turned out to be a bit of a money pit, in that I spent far more than I intended to. Nevertheless, it gave this over-70s man a project to keep him active in his dotage.

So, back to the question “Why don’t we buy a place on the coast?”

I liked the sound of it, being a lad from North Devon who only lived six miles from the nearest beach. Rita, on the other hand, being German, suffers from “Strandmangel-Syndrom”, lack-of-beach syndrome. Well, Germany is largely land-locked with only two stretches of coastline in the far north, ie the North Sea coast and the Baltic coast.

So, a place on the coast, to spend the winter away from the cold Serranía de Ronda and near the significantly warmer Mediterranean Sea.

“What with?” I reminded my good lady. “We have no money!”

“We could sell our two houses in Montejaque and then we’d surely have enough for somewhere near the beach on the western Costa del Sol, eg Casares Playa, Estepona, La Duquesa, Castillo, San Luis de Sabinillas …..”

If we got the right property, we could decamp there for the winter and then rent to holidaymakers in Spring, Summer and Autumn.

Don’t get me wrong! We love our two village houses in Montejaque, but why do we need three houses in the Serrania de Ronda? An option for a change of scenery as we approach old age would be a good idea.

On the market

So Casa Real has just gone up for sale. This is my do-er upper, which I have reconfigured and renovated – with help – over the last couple of years.

I’m just finishing off the third bedroom and de-cluttering the house, removing my personal items.

If that sells quickly for the right price, Casa Rita will go onto the market. Rita’s former home should sell quickly, as it’s high quality and simply a delightful place.

In the meantime, it’s off to look at places on the coast around an hour from Ronda.

I’ll keep you posted.

© Pablo de Ronda

Factfile:

For information on Casa Real, Montejaque look here: LARGE MODERNISED TRADITIONAL VILLAGE HOUSE - Help me, Ronda (help-me-ronda.com)

For information on Casa Rita, Montejaque, look here: Casa Rita Holiday Rental Montejaque - Secret Serrania de Ronda