Live News From Spain As It Happens

OVER 10,000 homes in the region of Aragón were left without electricity last night, and 2,000 of these still have no power.

Wind, rain and snow led to supply cuts overnight, mainly in the province of Teruel where 9,644 homes were left in the dark.

In the Navarra region, to the north-east, the motorway was shut after a high-voltage pylon was blown down onto it, which cut off the electricity in the towns of Lekunberri, Larraun and Arakil.

So far it has taken far longer than anticipated to get residents in Teruel and Navarra reconnected, since the thick snow was not expected to fall at such low altitudes and left authorities and Civil Protection volunteers unprepared.

Snow-ploughs had to be brought in to clear the road before engineers from the electricity board, Endesa, could reach the site of the breakdown.

In the meantime, generators have been installed to ensure most of those affected have at least a basic supply for cooking and heating.

Main highways and B-roads across the province of Teruel – popular with skiers at this time of year – were shut off, including those in Alfambra, Calamocha, Camarena de la Sierra, Cedrillas, Mosqueruela, Noguera, Ejulve, Montalbán, Linares de Mora, Cañizar del Olivar and Teruel city itself.

Elsewhere in the region, the A-1504 in Miedes de Aragón (Zaragoza province) and the A-136 in Broto (Huesca province) were closed. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RESCUE workers have evacuated 67 adults and 15 children who were left stranded by heavy snow in the Sierra de Madrid last night (Sunday) from a railway station waiting room after the train they were travelling on was unable to get any further.

Some had come from Madrid city, whilst others had come from Navacerrada and Cercedilla in the mountains outside the capital in order to go skiing or hiking in the Sierra (pictured), near the town of Cotos.

They were on their way back, but their train was cancelled due to deep snow, leaving them stuck in Cotos.

Firefighters and the Guardia Civil were sent out and managed to bring many of them back in six all-terrain vehicles following a snow-plough.

Many had left their cars in Navacerrada and Cercedilla, and were dropped off at the station car parks.

A special train was thrown on at around midnight for those who had travelled to the Sierra by rail.

Some of the passengers remain snowed in at the station in Cotos, but over 30 beds have been set up and they are said to be in comfortable conditions.

The waiting room has proper heating, and they have all been given hot meals.

Nobody was hurt, although a 54-year-old woman was concerned as she suffers from high blood pressure – but emergency services say she did not suffer any problems.

The children rescued included a two-year-old, another seven aged between approximately four and seven years old, and nine more whose ages ranged from nine to 17. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

VALENCIA'S famous Fallas festival has officially kicked off with the cridà, or call to the city to open the fiestas filling the streets with tens of thousands of locals and visitors.

The festival, which marks St Joseph's Day, or San José (March 19), which is also Father's Day in Spain, exploded into life last night (Sunday) with the first mascletà, or gunpowder banger display in the city hall square.

Monuments the height of blocks of flats made from colourfully-painted papier mâché feature caricatures, often of famous people including Royalty, celebrities and politicians, and are designed to send up current affairs.

On the night of March 19, they are set fire to one by one, starting with the monument or falla placed last and finishing with the winner, from which the fallera mayor, or fiesta queen will have rescued her favourite figurine, or ninot, to save from the flames.

Each falla has a children's version beside it, smaller and themed on cartoons or fairy tales rather than politics and the news, and each 'adult' and children's falla has its own fiesta queen.

The fallas each have a marquée, known as a casal, where fiesta group subscribers eat, drink and party around the clock, barely catching four or five hours sleep during the entire festival.

As well as the falleras mayores, numerous other girls and women in traditional, colourful Valencian regional costume join the parades and parties, and are known as the Corte de Honor, or the fiesta queens' entourage.

This year's fallera mayor, Alicia Moreno and the children's fallera mayor Sofía Soler were presented from the top of the Serrano twin towers along with mayor Joan Ribó (Compromís), who gave the opening speech.

The two falleras mayores gave their own speeches, stating what a great honour it was to be fiesta queens in the city of Valencia – the main focus of the Fallas, although it is celebrated in towns and villages throughout the province and even in the north of that of Alicante. 

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EUROZONE interest rates have fallen into negative figures for the first time in history, bringing mortgages in Spain and other common currency nations down to their lowest ever.

The first time since the euro came into circulation that its interest rate, the Euribor, dropped below zero was on February 5 this year, when it plummeted to -0.002%, and it is expected to end the month on -0.007%.

Its lowest-ever was registered on February 22, when the Eurozone interest rate plunged to -0.018%.

Contrary to speculation, this does not mean those who have mortgages or loans will get money back, but it will mean the part of their repayment which represents capital interest will be as low as it will ever get.

For a typical mortgage of €120,000 over a 25-year term with a rate of Euribor + 1%, the monthly saving will be around €14, or €172 a year.

The Bank of Spain will confirm this officially in the first few days of March.

In light of this unprecedented situation, a debate began as to whether customers whose mortgages came up for annual review at a time when rates were in negative figures would be given refund.

But chairman of the Spanish Banking Association José María Roldán said paying people for borrowing money would be a 'contradiction in terms' and 'neither healthy nor sustainable'.

The Bank of Spain is considering applying a 'zero clause' to all new loans and mortgages which means the minimum Euribor interest rate will never go below 0%, meaning at the very least lenders would get a refund on the loans they had granted.

In practice, most loans and mortgages are based upon the Euribor plus a given percentage, ranging from 1% to 4% or 5%.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH residents are reportedly facing a 'summer holiday crisis' because all hotels and resorts on the Spanish coasts are fully booked for July and August.

The run on sunshine breaks outside of term time has multiplied this year, because many Brits feel other beach destinations are not safe.

Turkey has suffered attacks in Ankara and Istanbul – some distance from the traditional holiday resort towns along the west and south coast, but near enough to put UK tourists off.

The terrorist massacres in Tunisia – in the capital, Tunis, and the seaside town of Sousse – mean European tourism has now disappeared in the country, and Egypt's holiday belt in Sharm El-Sheikh on the Sinai peninsula has fallen from favour after a plane full of Russian tourists was shot down by DAESH.

And this has led to a tourism boom in Spain and Portugal, with UK tour operators warning they may have no offers left by this time next week.

Britain has the shortest school summer holidays in Europe, and although Spain and its neighbouring destinations used to benefit from UK nationals filling up their resorts and hotels from early spring until at least October, UK laws have changed and parents are no longer allowed to take their kids out of school for a week's or a fortnight's holiday.

Travel agencies take advantage of this by hiking prices out of term time, and working parents have to queue up for time off in late July and August, or over May half term, since there is no other time of year they can take the whole family on holiday.

Low-cost airlines said their bookings for flights to Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia have plummeted.

Irish carrier Ryanair says its market for German holidaymakers travelling to Turkey is one of its largest after the UK-Spain connections, but that after 10 German tourists lost their lives in a terror attack in Istanbul recently, one in four of them has decided to avoid the country.

They are looking at destinations in Spain and Portugal instead, Ryanair says.

The most popular areas of the country for summer breaks are, as usual, the Balearic and Canary Islands and the coasts of Andalucía and Alicante, particularly the Costa del Sol (Málaga province) in Andalucía and the town of Benidorm (Alicante province), and to a lesser extent, the Costa Brava (Girona province).

As yet, the coasts of the Region of Murcia and much of the provinces of Valencia and Castellón, or Tarragona and Barcelona in Catalunya, all of which enjoy the same weather in summer as the more typical British favourites, are relatively untouched by UK tourists – despite being near airports and with excellent facilities.

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A GALICIA man who died a week ago at the age of 107 always claimed the secret to his long life was drinking four bottles of red wine a day.

Antonio Docampo García, whose nephew Jerónimo has taken over running of the family wine merchant's, never drank water.

But according to his son Miguel, his father put away two bottles of wine, or a litre and a half, over lunch and another two with his evening meal.

He literally downed it in two or three gulps, says Miguel.

Jerónimo, now at the helm of Bodegas Docampo wine producers near the city of Vigo, in the north-western region of Galicia, says his uncle used to churn out around 60,000 litres of wine a year, or 4,000 bottles.

But he kept at least 3,000 litres, or 200 bottles, for himself.

“My uncle always claimed that was his secret to living to such a great age,” Jerónimo reveals.

After just three more years, if he had carried on living, Antonio would have been classed as a 'super-centenarian' – the title given to people who live to 110 or more.

Spain has one of the highest numbers of super-centenarians, and the figure of those aged at least 100 is thought to run into thousands rather than hundreds.

Other centenarians and super-centenarians around the globe asked about the secret to their long lives have given varied and unlikely reasons – although not necessarily as drastic as four bottles of red wine a day.

Lifelong spinster Miss Jessie Gallan, from Aberdeen, Scotland, was 109 when she died last year and, after her last-ever birthday, claimed her 'secrets' were knitting, avoiding men, and eating porridge.

Another well-travelled Brit was Ethel Lang, who died last year aged 114, having hardly ever drunk alcohol, never smoked, but danced a lot.

Alice Herz-Sommer did not expect to make it to her 40s, but she survived the Holocaust and was in fact 110 when she passed away in 2014 – and, unsurprisingly, said 'being positive' was the key to a long life.

Kamato Hongo from Japan passed away in 2003, aged 116, and said the trick to making it well into treble figures was sleeping solidly for two days, and then not sleeping at all for the next two, and alternating the pattern.

By contrast, her compatriot Misao Okawa, who was nearly 117 when she passed away last year, said she had kept alive so long by sleeping eight hours a night – and eating plenty of sushi. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARCELONA port is about to become the base of the world's largest-ever passenger cruise ship, the Harmony of the Seas.

Nearly three years and around US$1 billion in investment later, the ship-builder STX in Saint-Nazaire, Brittany, France is finishing off the construction of the 227,000-tonne liner which will be able to take up to 6,400 guests on board at a time.

It will travel to Barcelona on June 5 this year, where its base will remain for the rest of 2016.

Already afloat, but with the interior under construction, the Harmony of the Seas – part of the Oasis class run by US-based cruise tour operator Royal Caribbean – measures 361 metres in length, 66 metres wide and the part below the sea when it sails is nine metres from bottom to water line; barely a fifth of the height of the ship, which measures 50 metres, split into nine storeys of berths and another three with terraces and covered areas.

Four propellers of 7,500 horse-power means the cruise liner can travel at 22 knots.

As well as its 2,747 berths – which include at least a dozen luxury suites – the Harmony boasts 24 lifts, 16 decks and space for 6,410 passengers plus nearly 2,400 crew members, with 20 restaurants and 15 bars and salons, and even three water parks for grown-ups and children.

An athletics circuit, a casino, a 'Bionic Bar' where customers are served by two robots to ensure completely accurate cocktail measures, a basketball court, an ice-skating rink, a mini golf course, a spa, several outdoor swimming pools, a 'lift bar' which travels up and down between floors, a theatre offering Broadway shows – including Grease – and the tallest ship-based slide in the world at 40 metres in height.

The 'big brother' of the height-of-luxury Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, the Harmony offers the world's fastest on-board wi-fi using 'Voom' technology, and all guests wear 'WoWBands' on their wrists which act as room keys via an RFID system and even allows them to book tables in the restaurants or order drinks. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARÇA FC forward Neymar wants to become Spanish, sources close to the player confirm.

The Brazilian-born 'golden boy', who was headhunted from his last team, Santos FC, in São Paulo State, wants to obtain double nationality.

He is eligible to keep his Brazilian passport as well as acquiring a Spanish one and a DNI card, the national identity document for citizens.

Neymar is about to reach his three years as a resident in Spain, the minimum requirement for a migrant from Brazil, and is in the middle of filling in forms and handing in the paperwork, one of his representatives, Wagner Ribeiro, is claimed to have said.

Latin Americans from Spanish-speaking countries, and Portuguese nationals, only need to wait two years.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN ELDERLY man has been arrested in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for deliberately starting 14 forest fires in the last five years.

The accused, aged 80, is said to have committed his first-known arson attack near the Tafira university campus in the region's capital – an area where any fire has a huge risk of taking hold quickly and putting a high number of people in danger.

A series of blazes in sensitive areas – replete with plant life which dries out in summer, prone to drought and near a forest – has been investigated since 2010, since they all appeared to have been started in a similar way.

All 14 began with a pile of dry rubbish, such as paper or cardboard, doused in flammable liquid.

The worst of them broke out on May 1, 2013 in the La Palmita area close to the college, destroying 626 square metres of land including native species of palm trees.

Some of the infernos were a mere 150 metres from the Guiniguada residential area, meaning they could have easily destroyed homes and cost lives – particularly as their focal points were close to a dry riverbed running west and south-west of the area which, if it had gone up in flames, would have surrounded the homes with a wall of fire. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CONFECTIONERY company Mars has withdrawn chocolate bars from Spain with immediate effect after a consumer found a chunk of plastic inside.

Snickers, Celebrations, Mars and Milky Way, where their sell-by dates are between June 19, 2016 and January 8, 2017 will be taken off the shelves, according to the US-based company's German branch.

They are also due to be recalled in the UK, Italy, Belgium, France, and possibly up to another 50 countries.

Those in Europe will be withdrawn first, since the affected chocolate bar had been manufactured in the Dutch factory in Veghel.

A press release issued through Netherlands-based news agency ANP says: “We want to avoid anyone who has purchased these products from consuming them.”

The decision to take the chocolate bars off the shelf has come directly from Mars Inc itself and was not under orders of any other consumer protection body. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A TODDLER has been rushed to Alicante General Hospital (pictured) in a critical condition after consuming marijuana, police reveal.

The 14-month-old baby is now said to be out of danger and recovering well, but it is not known whether he found the drug and ate some of it himself, or whether it was given to him deliberately.

A family friend took the infant to A&E unconscious at 20.30hrs on Saturday from his grandmother's house, and the National Police were called when tests revealed cannabis in his system.

He was rushed to the paediatric intensive care unit where he has spent the next two days fighting for his life.

The child will not be returned to his parents until the situation has been fully investigated, and they may lose custody of him. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S Rugby Sevens team braved 230-kilometre-per-hour winds to protect guests on a beachfront resort when Hurricane Winston struck the Pacific island of Fiji.

The men's side was in the Uprising Resort when the level-5 cyclone hit, bringing gusts of up to 360 kilometres per hour and a constant wind of 230km/h, threatening to flatten the entire complex and everyone in it.

But the players filled sandbags and lined them up on the shore, keeping the massive tidal waves at bay.

Guests were evacuated immediately, although trees came down all over the complex and many of the rooms filled up with sand.

By stopping the tidal waves, though, the Spanish rugby players are likely to have saved lives – and although it will take at least another week to clean up, resort manager James Pridgeon says it could have been a lot worse.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BRITISH organised crime gang plotting to kill the leader of a rival racket has been arrested in Marbella.

The gang – five men and a woman – were based in Manchester, UK, and were known as The A Team, but had travelled to the Costa del Sol to murder the ringleader of a rival tribe called The Anti-A Team.

Both gangs were involved in drug-trafficking and settling of scores, and had been behind a series of armed confrontations in the UK.

Huge knives hidden under sofa cushions, handguns, gloves, a loaded 9mm Parabellum pistol, baseball bats, knuckle-dusters, balaclavas, a straitjacket and mobile phones, among other weapons and protective clothing were seized during raids on two properties in Marbella. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NAVARRA has become the first region in Spain to legalise cannabis consumption, putting the land-locked northern region on a par with the Dutch capital, Amsterdam.

'Cannabis clubs', where members can consume the drug without penalty of any description – provided those members were already regular users before joining – are now fully-regulated by the Navarran regional government.

“One of the substances most commonly consumed in Navarra is cannabis, both as a recreational drug and for its pain-relieving effects for certain illnesses,” says regional president Yolanda Barcina.

“Consumption of cannabis no longer constitutes a criminal or civil offence provided it is within the limits imposed by the new regional law or its interpretation by a judge – limits which apply to both shared and individual consumption, and supply for personal use.”

'Hash clubs' will be granted the status of non-profit-making associations, and will be required to 'ensure members consume a substance as organic and unadulterated as possible', which must 'undergo the established health checks' – although the regional law does not state how and where 'hash clubs' are allowed to source cannabis smoked on their premises.

Members are not permitted to exceed limits set by the associations, which is calculated according to 'risk-prevention measures' and 'international standards'. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MASSIVE tax-fraud swoop involving the national meat industry right down the production line has led to at least 73 companies in 15 of Spain's 17 regions raided.

Producers and wholesalers, including Mercabarna and Mercamadrid have come under scrutiny, with at least 25 directors and managers taken in for questioning.

A huge sum of money in cash and several computers have been seized.

Inquiries started over a year ago when the profits of around 3,000 different firms did not appear to match up with company tax declarations.

Typically, the sale price in supermarkets is around four or five times those paid at source because of the work involved, but this was not reflected in the sums reported to the tax authorities.

Investigations revealed large amounts of cash paid into current accounts in the names of these companies or by their owners personally, as well as sizeable assets held abroad and lavish lifestyles that did not seem to be possible given the directors' recorded earnings.

Later, undeclared sales came to light – particularly at the retail end of the production line where most of the police raids have taken place – after IVA (VAT) declarations did not appear to tally.

A full analysis has shown that although the firms in question recorded an aggregate annual turnover of about €650 million, the profit margin was barely 1% - well below the average for the industry – and nine firms even reported losses.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S largest counterfeit banknote factory has been raided and a countrywide racket broken up in the province of Toledo, just south of Madrid.

Two men have been arrested after a villa in the town of Bargas was searched, with every room set up as a different part of the production line – one for printing, one for cutting and copying the hologram, and one for drying the printed notes.

They had enough equipment to allow them to print up to €2 million in €50 notes, and €195,000 were confiscated during the police raid.

Technical similarities between this and another forgery factory in the same area, uncovered a year ago, led to a full police inquiry, and a printing firm – whose owner has now absconded – was found to have been helping out in exchange for commission.

Forged notes produced by the criminal organisation have been found in several provinces, making this the largest-ever counterfeit money production operation in Spain's history.

They mainly targeted ONCE sellers – lottery-ticket vendors in aid of the national blind association who, as a prerequisite for the job, must be disabled.

The suspects bought lottery tickets with fake €50 notes, typically for €1 each, and then kept the change.

Police say they were originally based in the Toledo-province town of Talavera de la Reina – famous for its 'adopted daughter', actress Gwynneth Paltrow, who learnt her now-fluent Spanish during the first of many stays there – but they later moved to a villa in a remote country area.

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ONLY two patients remain in hospital after an outbreak of salmonella in Andalucía led to 106 being admitted over carnival weekend.

They had all eaten at the same bar in Cádiz, and are thought to have contracted serious food poisoning from a potato omelette cooked in bulk.

One of the customers had travelled to Cádiz from the province of Jaén and another two from Granada, whilst 28 were from Sevilla and the remaining 75 were local.

Within three days of eating at the bar – which has been temporarily shut down by health authorities pending further investigation – a total of 40 people had already been admitted to hospital and tested positive for salmonella.

Around 13 of them had been admitted within a matter of hours.

Less than two weeks later, the 100-plus victims have mostly recovered, although two remain in Cádiz's Puerta del Mar hospital.

Tests on the omelettes found a high level of the salmonella bacteria in it, and ongoing investigations point to poor handling and hygiene as being the cause.

The omelettes were made the day before and left in the kitchen uncovered and unchilled, where the average temperature measured over 30ºC. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

STREET-CLEANING and rubbish collection workers in Málaga have announced an 'indefinite strike' starting Tuesday, March 1 over issues with working conditions and pay.

The partially public-sector-run firm Limasa had intended to down tools every Saturday from this coming weekend (February 20) and then strike 'until further notice from March 13, but they have brought forward the complete cessation of their duties by two weeks.

This means the Costa del Sol capital is likely to be full of litter and with bins overflowing for most of next month unless and until a solution can be found. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AST night (Tuesday) was officially the coldest night in Spain so far this winter – but the early hours of Thursday morning could be even chillier, says the State meteorological agency AEMET.

Temperatures today will plummet to -10ºC in the provinces of Segovia, Soria, Salamanca, Burgos, Palencia and Ávila (all in Castilla y León).

The mercury is expected to fall between now and tomorrow morning to around -8ºC or -9ºC in the remaining provinces of Castilla y León (León and Zamora), as well as northern and inland Catalunya, La Rioja and the mountains of the Greater Madrid region.

Many other provinces will suffer freezing temperatures in the next 24 hours, with figures of -4ºC to -6ºC forecast in Albacete, Cuenca, Toledo and Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha region), Madrid city, Navarra, Asturias, Cantabria, all of Aragón (the provinces of Teruel, Zaragoza and Huesca), all of the Basque Country, the Galicia provinces of Lugo and Ourense, and even in southern Spain in the provinces of Granada, Almería and Jaén (Andalucía).

Snow is expected across the northern strip and in Castilla y León, and tidal surges in coastal areas of Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and the Balearic Island of Menorca.

A total of 35 provinces are under 'yellow' weather warnings for very cold weather, and snow will hit practically everywhere at an altitude of over 500 metres above sea-level, even on the southern and Mediterranean coasts. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NATIONAL Police fraud squad officers have arrested 13 members of the board of directors of one of Spain's largest dentist chains.

They were said to have been demanding their branches to pay them in cash, stashing it in tax havens in Switzerland and Luxembourg, and then using it to buy luxury cars and other assets without declaring it to the tax authorities.

Vitaldent was launched in 1997 and has over 350 branches on high streets throughout the country, but its board of directors is based in the Greater Madrid region.

A suspected multi-million fraud and money-laundering operation has seen 36 top-of-the-range cars and even a million-euro private jet seized, and 15 dental surgeries raided.

Some of the cash was used to buy 124 properties all over the country, which have also been embargoed.

The suspects' bank accounts, held in 25 different entities are expected to be frozen, and shares and securities held in two SICAV ultra-high net-worth funds totalling around €5 million are likely to be blocked.

Police say Vitaldent's owner, Ernesto Colman, had been planning to shut the business and abscond, leaving the more than 3,500 branch staff and an estimated seven million customers high and dry.

Colman, originally from Uruguay, opened his first dental clinic in the Chamberí area of Madrid at the end of the 1980s, and the firm's rapid expansion across Spain earnt it the nickname 'McDentist', alluding to global fast-food chain McDonald's.

Investigators from the UDEF financial crime unit have even referred to Colman as the ringleader of an organised criminal gang.

They stress that the way Vitaldent's clinics are run has no connection to the operation, and its highly-experienced and qualified staff are in no way linked to the fraud.

In fact, they are all still operating and treating customers, despite their computer systems being down as a resultof the raid.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TRAFFIC police have announced a stringent inspection campaign all week until Sunday night inclusive targeting vans and lorries in nearly every region in Spain.

Officers are expected to pull over between 200 and 400 vehicles per region in the next seven days after traffic authority figures showed that around one in eight fatal accidents involve vans or lorries.

And over the course of last year, nearly 13% of lorry and van drivers stopped were found to have broken at least one traffic regulation – almost 400 in each region out of 3,000 inspected.

Police will carry out routine breathalysing tests on drivers, and will check their tachographs to ensure they have taken the required number of breaks and not exceeded the maximum legal time limit at the wheel.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARÇA FC's Neymar has seen his yacht, private jet and other assets totalling US$48 million seized by tax authorities as contingency for his possible fiscal liabilities.

The Brazilian 'golden boy', head-hunted from Santos FC to realise his dream of playing for the Spanish Premier League side, is on trial along with his father, Neymar Senior, for alleged tax evasion.

Both are very upset and insist they are innocent, with Neymar Junior arguing he had never entered into the financial side of his career and his father insisting he put everything in the hands of accountants.

Tax officials in Brazil are suing the player for 63.6 million reais, or just under €14.4m, for undeclared duties relating to his transfer from Santos to Barça and covering the tax years of 2011 and 2013.

According to authorities in Neymar's native country, the cash for the transfer was recorded as income from companies he owned rather than as wages.

Additionally, they claim he did not declare money earned from his 'image rights', or the use of his name and face as publicity for non-related firms.

They have seized assets of 150% of the value of the tax allegedly undeclared plus interest and fines, meaning the grand total comes to US$48m, or 192.7 million reais. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TERROR reigned near a circus in Andújar (Jaén province) yesterday (Sunday) lunchtime after a tiger gave his handlers the slip and broke loose.

Emergency services were called out at around 12.45hrs by circus staff who warned that one of their tigers had fled and they did not know where he was...

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EX-REGIONAL president of Madrid Esperanza Aguirre has resigned from her post as head of the PP three days after armed police raided the party's national headquarters over suspicions of illegal financing.

Guardia Civil officers stormed into the head office of the PP on Madrid's C/ Génova on Thursday and seized files, searching former leader Beltrán Gutiérrez's desk.

“In the past few days, we've learnt of a great deal of news of unquestionable national significance relating to the PP in Madrid's regional government – this needs to be confirmed and put into perspective, but the seriousness of the information to hand leads me to present my resignation as chairwoman of the party,” Esperanza Aguirre said in an emergency press conference yesterday (Sunday) afternoon.

“From what I have been overseeing, I have to say that I am not aware of any illegal financing within the PP in Madrid; I have never even been a signatory to the PP's current account; have never signed a contract; have no debit or credit card; in short, I have never had any access to or control over the PP's finances – to this end, I have no direct responsibility for the actions which have apparently come to light recently.

“But the buck stops with me as chairwoman of the party, and I must now hold myself accountable and do the right thing.”

She covertly warned acting national president Mariano Rajoy and other national government level PP members about putting any desire for status and power before the common good, stating: “Right now, this is not the time for political party bias or seeking personal glory, but a time for sacrifice and concessions – we're in a very critical position at the moment, that of trying to form a government.”

Rajoy has not spoken publicly about Esperanza's resignation, but is said to be supportive of her decision.

“I called Rajoy and he didn't pick up. Next I sent him a message, which he replied with a, 'I understand you', and he called me later and we've been chatting,” Sra Aguirre reveals.

“As always, my conversation with Rajoy was totally friendly and the contents have no need to be revealed.”

Aguirre, in an interview 18 months ago, was asked what Rajoy was like to work with and answered, “oh, he's a sweetie.”

“My decision to leave is absolutely personal,” the now-ex PP leader insists, saying she was not afraid the party would be dissolved and an independent management committee brought in, as has happened in the Valencia region.

She stressed that initial reports were incorrect and that she had not made her decision to step down on Thursday, the day the PP department at Madrid city hall was investigated by the Guardia Civil, but on Saturday.

“I wanted to speak out publicly before the investigating commission on Friday first,” she explains.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

KING Felipe's younger sister Cristina de Borbón and her husband Iñaki Urdangarín registered 'fake employees' at the dormant firm they owned together, according to the latter's accountant Antonio Tejeiro.

The most recent of the accused parties to appear in court over the Nóos Institute embezzlement case, Tejeiro claimed Urdangarín and his co-director Diego Torres divided the extra cash they made through inflating invoices for organising sports and arts events.

They billed the regional governments of the Balearic Islands and Valencia for their services, but increased the costs deliberately so they could split the surplus between them – even though the Nóos Institute, through which they organised the events, was registered as a non-profit entity.

This effectively means they were pocketing taxpayers' funds.

Urdangarín and the Infanta Cristina – formerly the Duke and Duchess of Palma before losing their titles as a result of the case – jointly owned the company Aizoon, S.L., purportedly an estate agency but which had no known commercial activity.

Aizoon was allegedly used to launder the extra money earned through the Nóos Institute's inflated bills.

Now, the Institute's accountant says members of the family, and domestic employees including cleaners and housekeepers, were registered as employees of Aizoon and Tejeiro ordered to draw up fake wage slips for them.

Cash laundered through Aizoon is said to have been used by the Infanta for personal expenses and then offset against her tax declarations in 2007 and 2008.

Urdangarín and Torres allegedly agreed to use the former's Royal status to allow him to queue-jump when seeking public works contracts for organising regional government-funded sports and arts events, including a cycling tournament in Valencia.

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A CÁDIZ-BASED council employee who did not go to work for six years has been fined the sum of one year's annual salary net of tax.

Joaquín García, now 69 and retired, was put in charge of overseeing the construction of a sewage plant in the south-western coastal city but was never seen on the premises by those who sat in the offices next door to him.

His six-year absence was discovered when he became due for a commemorative plaque for 'long service' after 20 years as a civil servant.

According to García's solicitor, the council worker was bullied at work and humiliated in the press because of his family's political alliances being different from those of the local government he was employed by.

He was moved by the local authority to a public-sector-run water board as a result of these political differences, but there was literally no work to do when he got there.

García says he believed he was effectively being constructively dismissed, but that he was afraid to speak out because, if he got fired, he would never have found another job due to his age and would be left without a salary to feed his family.

With nothing to do, he came into the office a few hours a day – but not full office hours – and spent most of his time reading philosophy.

But the water board manager said he had never seen García in the whole six years he was supposedly working there.

He thought the employee answered to the council and did not get involved, but the council believed he answered to the water board manager and did not get involved either.

None of García's other colleagues had seen him in six years and thought he had left.

His salary was €37,000 gross, or €27,000 net - €2,250 a month, or in the standard 14 wage-packets given to civil servants with a double pay at Christmas and in August, €1,929 a month.

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DOGS on leads are now allowed on all public transport in the Greater Madrid region – subject to a maximum of one animal per person and so-called 'dangerous' breeds being muzzled.

Regional government president Cristina Cifuentes (PP) has changed the rules, which currently only allowed small pets in closed baskets, guide dogs, or 'therapy' dogs in schooling accompanied by their trainers with reflective coats in the case of the latter to identify them.

Now, ordinary family pets can accompany their owners free of charge on the metro and outer suburban lines, but must be microchipped and registered on the 'dog census' of their local council – identity requirements already in place across Spain for all canines.

Leads must be no longer than 50 centimetres (1'7.5”), and passengers with dogs must ride on the last coach of the train.

They cannot use the moving escalators for safety reasons, since dogs can become injured, but are permitted to use fixed staircases and lifts.

Dogs may still be limited or banned during periods of heavy human traffic for their own safety, and for this reason must not ride the metro during the rush hours – from 07.30hrs to 09.30hrs, from 14.00hrs to 16.00hrs, and from 18.00hrs to 20.00hrs.

No hourly restrictions apply at weekends, on bank holidays or during the months of July and August when workers are more likely to be out of town on their annual leave and fewer commuters use the trains.

Owners are responsible for ensuring their dogs do not cause inconvenience to other passengers by obstructing their movement, nor by their behaviour, barking or smell.

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SEVEN potholers stuck down a cave in the French Pyrénées for a whole day and night have been rescued unharmed.

Six men and one woman, aged between 30 and 50, were part of a tour group of 15 in the Herran area in the border zone when a huge rockfall left them trapped 180 metres below the surface.

The council, or prefecture of the southern French department of Haute-Garonne says eight of them managed to escape on foot – tired, but uninjured – and raised the alarm.

French rescue workers were highly praised by the Spanish climbers, who belong to different amateur potholing associations but are very experienced in their sport.

Emergency services, as soon as they managed to get down low enough to reach the group through a hole in the rocks, passed them food while they waited for back-up.

All seven of them are said to be 'safe and sound', according to the association chairman Bernard Tourte, who managed to make contact with them at 09.00hrs French and Spanish mainland time – around four hours after the first eight succeeded in escaping and calling for help.

They first became stuck in the grotto in the early hours of Wednesday morning after a rocky wall collapsed inside the cave in the Pyrénées directly due south of Toulouse.

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CUTTING-EDGE Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava has been commissioned to design the new Dubai Creek skyscraper.

The futuristic building is described as a cross between the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Burj al-Khalifa hotel in Dubai, the tallest building in the world.

It will be built by the same joint venture firm which constructed the Burj al-Khalifa, Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties.

United Arab Emirates' head of State and governor of the city of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, picked out the design presented by the man who created Valencia's iconic and avant garde City of Arts and Sciences, a splendid complex every bit as intricate and eye-catching as the Sydney Opera House.

Al-Maktoum says the new skyscraper was designed with the aim of being one of the city's most popular future attractions for tourists and visitors, and Calatrava's idea was 'a perfect combination of Islamic architecture with modern design'.

“It will be completely unique, iconic, and reflect the cultural diversity of the United Arab Emirates,” added chairman of Emaar Properties, Mohammad Ali al-Alabbar.

Calatrava, whose lesser-known works include the Sydney Harbour-style bridge over the river between Gandia (Valencia province) and its neighbouring village of Beniopa at one extreme, futuristic structures from Argentina to the Middle East, and a footbridge leading to the station in Venice across the Grand Canal, said he felt 'very grateful and honoured' to have been chosen out of thousands of applicants to create the skyscraper.

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AFTER an eight-year absence, late '80s and '90s crooners Simply Red will be back in concert at Palma de Mallorca bull-ring this summer.

Lead singer Mick Hucknall has announced a 30th-anniversary tour, titled Big Love, which includes two concerts in Spain.

One of them is due for Palma on August 20, but the other venue has not been announced.

With over 50 million records sold since 1986, the band has numerous faithful fans all around the world who will be taken back in time to Simply Red's heyday with timeless numbers like Stars, If you don't know me by now, So not over you, and Money's too tight to mention.

New tracks from their recently-released CD, Big Love, will show fans their musical heroes are still very much alive and well and going strong. 

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PROTEST marches on Sunday filled the town of Amposta (Girona province) over ongoing plans by the Spanish government to reduce the flow of the Ebro river and siphone off it to provide water to other regions.

Another reason the separatists cite for wanting Catalunya to become an independent country, leeching water away from one of Europe's longest rivers could cause untold damage to its unique flora and fauna, which includes numerous endangered species of locally-native plants.

The Ebro delta, which runs into the Mediterranean in Catalunya, is a protected nature reserve and the source of the river is in the northern coastal region of Cantabria.

At 930 kilometres in length if it was stretched out in a straight line, the Ebro crosses through nine of Spain's federal regions – or more than half the mainland.

As well as being a highly biodiverse wetland, its marshy terrain is perfect for growing rice and certain types of fruit and vegetables, and sediment from downriver gushing into the delta dilutes salty sea water and prevent coastal erosion.

But the Spanish government has built so many dams, hydraulic systems and housing estates on the banks of the Ebro that the river sediment has been severely curtailed – only about 10% gets through to the delta.

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A WOULD-BE migrant on a dinghy which had been lost at sea off the Canary Islands for over a week has died in hospital after being admitted in a critical condition, and another continues to fight for his life.

Coastguard workers had been tipped off about four boats heading for Gran Canaria from the port of Dakhla, Mauritania over a week ago, but they quickly lost trace of them.

They have been searching by sea and air for days to try to find the crafts.

One was located on Sunday night and the occupants, all sub-Saharan Africans of whom six were teenagers, were said to be suffering from hunger and dehydration due to nearly a week without food or water, and were literally soaked in petrol from the raft's engine.

Two of them had to be taken straight to intensive care and one of them has lost his life.

A second craft was found later on Sunday, around 10 miles south of Gran Canaria, carrying 42 people – nine women, six who may be children or teenagers, and 27 men – of whom over a third were suffering hypothermia, cuts and bruises, and broken bones.

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THE average person in Spain spends five hours a day on the internet, mostly via SmartPhone, with the most prolific surfers being the 16-24 age-group.

According to the new global study Connected Life by market researchers Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), based upon data from 60,500 people with internet access of some description, SmartPhone use in Spain is 9% higher than the world average.

And adults aged under 25 watch more audio-visual content on their mobiles than they do on a TV.

Spaniards are among those who use the widest variety of internet access methods – 93% go online with their mobile phones, whilst 75% use a laptop computer, 63% use a desktop PC, and 57% use tablets.

Connection to instant messaging services, such as Line and WhatsApp, has shot up since 2014, although emailing, blog-writing and news-reading online have fallen slightly in popularity.

Social networks are gradually becoming more widely used, despite claims around two or three years ago that Facebook was starting to drop out of the picture – a typical Spaniard logs into three different media of this type every day.

Half of the under-25s use social networks as their first port of call for seeking information, with WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter being the most prolific.

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A CASTLE in Toledo where Queen Isabel 'The Catholic' – co-author of the bloodthirsty Inquisition – lived for most of her life is now on the market.

The price tag sits at a cool €9.6 million.

Plans were afoot to restore the fortress and turn it into a Guardia Civil museum, but the country's financial crisis forced the government to put it up for sale.

A typical Arab-style castle – four-square with a round tower at each corner – the fortress in the town of Maqueda (Toledo province) was rebuilt in the 15^th century, but more recently has been used as a Guardia Civil station and even a traffic authority office.

Glass-plated plaques bearing the names of Guardia Civil officers killed by Basque separatist terrorism cell ETA remain on the inside walls – the first features of the planned national museum to be fitted in 2003, before the idea was scrapped altogether.

Known locally as the La Vela Castle, first refusal to buy it was given to Maqueda town hall, but socialist mayor Esteban Ríos said: “We felt frustrated, because although Interior offered it to us, we're only a small village, we haven't got much money and the maintenance costs would be huge.”

But whoever can afford €9,588,290 plus general upkeep costs will get a 3,523-square-metre structure with three storeys and a basement, extremely well-preserved and solid due to the walls being three metres (9'9”) thick, and with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside, as it sits on a hill.

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THOUSANDS of protesters took to the streets of Valencia yesterday (Sunday) in a demonstration publicly condemning corruption after over 24 politicians from the right-wing PP party were arrested at local, provincial and regional government level.

Corruption in government and public authorities is said to cost every taxpayer in Spain €5,000 each – at a time when taxes have been increased and spending on social necessities cut back dramatically.

At least 75 social and political associations, unions and charities called the protest, where banners were carried reading: “CorruPPt officials, give us back our money;” “Corruption = unemployment,” and “Corruption and paella: nobody does it better than Valencia.”

The march set off from the city hall square after a manifesto was read, then ended outside the regional High Court of Justice.

Former city mayoress Rita Barberá – who insists she knows nothing about any corruption and never signed off a 'dodgy' public works contract in her 24 years leading Valencia – lives close to the court, and demonstrators stood outside her house shouting: “Rita, go to Picassent,” where the main jail in the province is based, and “give back our money.”

The main reason for ending the march outside the court was symbolic, however – one charity rep said it was to show that the people of the region wanted justice done and a 'zero-tolerance approach'.

And with the misuse of public funds being thought to have illegally financed the PP's electoral campaigns, the protesters want the court to investigate whether the polling station results could be declared invalid.

Two huge but unrelated rackets uncovered in January, one involving the regional hydraulics company Acuamed and the other centring on business promotion entity Imelsa – both firms 100% owned and managed by the provincial and regional government when the PP was in power – have brought to light how backhanders were given by businesses in exchange for lucrative public works contracts, invoices for these works inflated, and the surplus given out in cash in illegal commissions.

All this unnecessary extra expenditure – much of which was not declared to the tax authorities - includes €91 million overcharged by the public-sector-owned school-building firm Ciegsa.

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BRITISH low-cost airline EasyJet has opened a new permanent base in Barcelona's El Prat airport, which it hopes will lead to an increase in passenger numbers of around 7% over 2016.

The carrier will now have three Airbus A320 crafts at its Barcelona headquarters, which will be its 27^th in Europe.

Over the course of 2015, EasyJet transported 2.8 million passengers into and out of Barcelona, and hopes to increase this to 3.1 million over 2016 as a result of its newly-opened base in the Catalunya capital, plus its plans to run flights to Bourgogne, France, and Naples, Italy.

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ONE in six people in Spain drinks dangerously-high amounts of alcohol, and three-quarters of the country's inhabitants believe their drinking to be less serious than it really is, according to a recent survey.

Danish medicine manufacturer Lundbeck interviewed a sample of 4,250 people across Spain, and concluded that 17.1%, or a sixth of the population drinks too much alcohol, but only 1.3% admit to it.

Overall, 76% of those who abuse alcohol do not realise they are doing so.

Researchers used two methods for working out high-risk drinkers based upon cultural attitudes and habits – Mediterranean countries tend to see more people drinking moderate amounts daily, whilst binge-drinking, or excessive intake once or twice a week, is more common in northern European countries where alcohol is more expensive, such as in the UK.

Risks typically vary between men and women due to body weight, bone and muscle density.

A high-risk drinker is a man who consumes at least four units a day or a woman who consumes two units daily.

Danger from binge-drinking is taken to be five-plus units in one session for a man, or four-plus for a woman.

A half-pint of beer, glass of wine or finger of spirit or liqueur counts as a unit.

Alcohol and drug researcher Julio Bobes says Spain is 'always one of the countries where people drink the most', together with Italy, France and Portugal.

But it is not true that 'everyone in Spain drinks' – according to the study, fewer than a quarter, or only 23.5% of Spaniards consume alcohol more than twice-weekly.

Men drink more than women in Spain, with 19.6%, or nearly one in five being considered 'high-risk' compared with 14.5% of females, and the 25-and-under age-group is the one which consumes the most alcohol.

Fewer Spanish men described themselves as teetotal than women – 16.6%, compared with 27%.

Scientists have long held that the human brain does not stop developing at the age of 18, when it is legal to drink in most countries, but that the organ is still in evolution until the mid-20s.

Given that alcohol can adversely affect a brain that is not yet developed, technically, nobody should be drinking before the age of 25 to 27.

Lundbeck also found that being alcoholic was considered a vice in over half of all cases – 12.4% said it was just a very bad habit, whilst a third said it was a bad habit that became an illness.

In all cases, Lundbeck insists, alcohol addiction is an illness and should be treated as such, since feelings of guilt and shame often mean those affected do not seek professional health early enough.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TAP water in Murcia is the most expensive in the country, and in Valladolid it is the cheapest, says a leading consumer protection group.

Differences of up to €454 a year in tariffs – or 349% - have been detected by FACUA-Consumers in Action, meaning water bills are a postcode lottery.

Basing their research on provincial capital cities alone, FACUA has found that including all the extra charges covering supply network maintenance, drainage and water purifying treatment, a typical water bill in Spain for a consumption of 10 cubic metres is €17.52 – but this falls to €10.82 in Valladolid and rises to €29.35 in Murcia city.

After Valladolid, the rest of the 10 cheapest cities for water supply are Zaragoza, with an average of €11.31 for a consumption of 10 cubic metres; Salamanca, at €12.49; Pamplona, at €13.36; Logroño in La Rioja, at €13.62; Castellón, at €13.85; Málaga at €14.09, and Madrid at €15.74.

As for city-dwellers who pay the most, after those in Murcia come residents in Barcelona, who shell out €23.49 for a consumption of 10 cubic metres; Cádiz, at €22.98; Huelva, at €22.39; Alicante, at €21.98; Palma de Mallorca, at €21.92; Sevilla, at €20.85; Valencia, at €20.22; Almería, at €19.45, and Córdoba, at €19.38.

None of these prices includes IVA or the standing charge for renting and maintenance of meters.

FACUA says some water boards charge a higher fee for a meter with a calibre of 15mm than of 13mm, which it says is unjustified because there is no difference in performance.

Yet prices have risen by 0.4% for 13mm meters and 0.5% for those of 15mm in diameter.

And for 15mm meters, a consumption of 10 cubic metres is most expensive in the city of Alicante where a bill for this level of use would come in at an average of €48.62, followed by Murcia, at €29.35, and Huelva at €24.24.

Whilst the average bill in Spain's cities for consumption at this level is €17.52, for a 15mm meter it rises to €18.92.

Compared with FACUA's research from the year 2014, only 10 out of the 28 cities analysed have not varied their prices – A Coruña, Bilbao, Cuenca, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Pamplona, Salamanca, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Valladolid, and Zaragoza.

Of the remaining 18, the highest price hikes have been seen in Alicante, Barcelona and Jaén.

FACUA says water boards should bill according to the number of inhabitants in each property, and apply progressively-increasing tariffs to discourage excess consumption.

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Luis Suárez scored four and Lionel Messi notched up another hat-trick as Barcelona thrashed Gary Neville's Valencia 7-0 in Wednesday night's Copa del Rey semi-final.

Valencia's five-game unbeaten run in the cup competition came to a sudden halt as Suárez scored twice in the opening 12 minutes of the semi-final first leg, before Messi added a third just before the half-hour mark.

Valencia's cause was not helped when defender Shkodran Mustafi was shown a red card for fouling Messi in the penalty area in the first half. Neymar missed from the spot, but the massacre continued after the break with Messi scoring his 500th career goal in the 59th minute with a low shot past Matt Ryan before completing his hat-trick 15 minutes later.

Suárez had a hat-trick of his own seven minutes from time before rounding off the rout with his 35th goal this season to make it a miserable night for Neville, who was already under pressure before the game against the European champions.

Neville has yet to win in eight league games (five draws and three defeats) and all four of his wins from 14 games in charge in Spain have come the cup competition. Wednesday night's rout was not only embarrassing, but makes next week's second leg at the Mestalla a virtual formality as Luis Enrique's men close in on a second successive Copa del Rey final.

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AN ATTEMPT to shut down the Spain branch of car-pooling network BlaBlaCar has failed after a commercial court in Madrid threw out the case.

Transport firm Confebús claimed BlaBlaCar's operators posed 'unfair competition' and applied to a judge for them to be banned in Spain.

Organised entirely online, the BlaBlaCar network involves ordinary people undertaking journeys who advertise empty seats available for a fee which covers their petrol and time.

They are expected to register as self-employed and declare all their earnings, although as they are not salaried employees of the wider international company, this cannot be policed.

Insurance is in place through their membership to cover fellow travellers for loss, damage or injury.

BlaBlaCar says the scheme is cheaper, more sociable and more environmentally-friendly since it cuts down the number of vehicles on the road when several share a journey.

“Our service responds to an ever-growing global tendency towards a more cooperative economy,” said a spokesperson for BlaBlaCar.

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A TOWN hall in central Spain is building a DNA database of dogs in a bid to stamp out the problem of excrement on its pavements.,

The city of Guadalajara, in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, says the genetic samples taken from each dog on the register will allow them to match up owners with piles of faeces left behind.

It may also help in investigating cases of animal abuse and neglect.

At present, police can only fine owners if they are caught in the act of letting their dogs relieve themselves and then walk away without clearing up the deposit and, even though they carry out regular inspections, often in plain clothes, it is 'very difficult' to detect the culprits, officers say.

But with a DNA sample taken, analysed in a high-ranking laboratory and used to create a genetic map, owners can be fined up to €250 a time, plus the cost of tests to identify the animal, if their pets' 'business' matches.

All dog-owners, who have to be registered with the city hall anyway, will be called in to give a hair or saliva sample from their pets.

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MORE and more Spaniards want to take their pets on holiday with them – in fact, one hotel booking site says nearly three in 10 searches relate to accommodation where animals are allowed.

Half of all homes in Spain have at least one pet – around 16.1 million animals in total, of whom 5.5 million are dogs and four million are cats.

And according to SelectaHotels, the two most sought-after factors when Spaniards look to go on holiday are swimming pools or jacuzzis, and pet- and family-friendly accommodation.

Overall, 28.59% of searchers want hotels or apartments their animals can stay with them in.

This is more than twice as many as holidaymakers seeking an indoor swimming pool (13.11%) or jacuzzi (12.2%), and nearly three times as many as those who want accommodation with an on-site spa (9.77%).

Very few are bothered about their hotel or holiday complex having a gym (just 0.66%) or a babysitting service (0.55%).

Figures released by another holiday booking site, HomeAway, say 28% of searchers wanted to travel with their pets, showing the number across the board is fairly consistent on the whole.

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ACTING president Mariano Rajoy (PP) appears to have lost the support of liberals Ciudadanos, the nearest party in terms of political values to the right-wing outfit which has governed Spain since November 2011.

In light of the recent string of corruption arrests, all of which involve current or former members of the PP or business owners they have dealt with in handing out public works contracts, Ciudadanos' leader Albert Rivera has said it is 'impossible' for Rajoy to 'lead a democratic regeneration'.

“Anyone who can't keep their house clean cannot clean up Spain either,” he states.

Having initially called for Pedro Sánchez, leader of the PP's nearest rival – the PSOE, or socialists – to abstain in the in-house voting round to allow Rajoy back into the president's seat, Ciudadanos now believes Sánchez should 'accept' the King's nomination to form a government if the Monarch gives this at tomorrow's (Tuesday's) meeting in the Zarzuela Palace.

King Felipe VI has already nominated Rajoy to form a government, since the PP won the most seats in December's general elections – 123 out of 350, although four members have since departed leaving them with 119 – but Rajoy turned this down, saying 'at the moment' he did not have enough support from other parties to attempt to be invested as the country's leader.

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