Live News From Spain As It Happens

A SOCIAL attitudes survey shows how people in Spain ask their mums for childcare and money first, their partners to look after them when they are ill, and male friends before females when searching for a job.

Despite the financial crisis, nearly eight in 10 of them are happy with their lives – mainly thanks to family, friends and partners – and although young adults have been the worst-affected by unemployment, they are statistically the most content members of the population.

As for whom Spaniards contact for help and what type of help they ask for, the sociological investigation centre (CIS) research showed their mothers were the first port of call when they needed childcare or money, whilst their partners would be the ones they contact if they need looking after because they are ill, or need to talk because they feel depressed or have suffered an upsetting experience.

Mums are asked to babysit in 32.2% of cases – more so than partners, who are asked on 19.8% of occasions, and the survey does not differentiate whether the partner in question is also the children's parent.

A total of 8.9% would ask their sister – brothers were not mentioned – but very few (0.1%) would ask a neighbour or work colleague, or an ex-partner (0.5%).

When seeking care during illness, 50.1% would ask their partner, 21% would ask their mother, 5.9% would ask one of their children and 3.6%, their sister – again, brothers were not mentioned.

As for whom the average Spaniard would turn to when they needed money, their mothers were number one – in 20.1% of cases – before their fathers, who would be asked in 17.3% of cases.

Parents are asked for money more often than partners, who make up just 14.8% of the total, or grown-up children, in the case of 10.7% responses.

Needing to talk about a problem or to offload when feeling upset or depressed would, in 42% of cases, mean calling or texting a partner, or in 10.6% of cases, a female friend – whilst male friends were more likely to be called upon when needing help finding a job, representing 19.3% of cases.

The social habits survey asked respondents to rate on a scale of one to 10 how happy they were generally, taking into account aspects such as family, partner and friends, compared with the rest of the population in general.

Most of them – 78.8% - gave a figure of seven or more out of 10, saying they were particularly happy with their family, friend and partner relationships, but not very much so with the rest of the world, since the majority considered that people in general 'only look out for themselves'.

A small percentage – 12.5%, or one in eight – described themselves as 'completely happy' with life.

Men are typically happier than women – rating their contentment at 7.67 out of 10 on average, compared with 7.58 – but Spaniards' level of happiness tends to fall gradually, albeit to a very minor degree, in line with their age.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITAIN'S most famous sea turtle has been released back into the sea off the coast of Gran Canaria after a charity campaign in the UK raised €15,000 for his treatment.

Terry, who is thought to be aged between six and eight, was the only survivor of a group of turtles who became caught up in a net off the coast of the Channel island of Jersey, UK, in February.

A local resident, Andy Farm, found the turtle suffering from serious hypothermia and took him to a sanctuary for treatment and he was given emergency care at the New Era Hospital in Jersey by vet Amanda Smith.

He has since become something of a mascot for Jersey and the wider UK, and his treatment was followed by the BBC.

Terry was made even more famous when Bruce Dickinson from the heavy metal band Iron Maiden lent his private jet, through the company Aeris Aviation, to transport Terry to Gran Canaria.

A crowdfunding campaign in the UK was launched to continue Terry's care at the wildlife recovery centre on the island, raising €15,000.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EXPORT bosses in China are trying to find ways of making the world's longest train pay for itself – the convoys are full to bursting with goods when reach their destination in Madrid, but return less than a quarter full.

The train, which has 39 carriages, covers the 13,000-kilometre (8,125-mile) trek from the city of Yiwu in the central Chinese province of Zhejiang to the Spanish capital in just three weeks, crossing through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France, then back by the same route – but with only around eight of its carriages full.

It was introduced in the year 2014 as a faster way of importing and exporting between Spain and China, but costs considerably more than shipping by sea.

The latter takes six weeks, even though it saves money.

Exporters in Spain are thought to be put off by the extra expense, since they only have to pay €1,300 for a shipping container on a ferry as opposed to €2,000 on the train.

Red tape is also a problem, since the exports have to comply with several national laws to cross through countries by land.

This is not a problem when Spanish goods are carted through EU countries, and few problems have been encountered in Belarus, but a long paper trail starts and lots of questions are asked when certain foodstuffs – particularly Spanish ham – reach Russia, according to Chinese export association leader Mao Wenjin.

This said, larger exporters from Spain say the train has been a godsend.

According to the Vivanco wine merchant's in Spain, which has shipped red wine to China on three occasions via the convoys, the extra costs are in fact an investment because they mean good are not held up at the port of Shanghai and customs duties are avoided.

Spain does not have much of a tradition of goods transport by rail, Vivanco says, but the convoys pick up a large quantity of goods in the rest of Europe – especially Germany – which brings down the costs for everyone along the line.

Another winery, Hermanos Rubio, has used the Yiwu Express twice for transporting red wine and, although it needed to factor in the extra cost of thermal blankets to protect its produce in winter whilst they passed through the freezing climates of Russia, this company agrees with Vivanco that the higher expenses are a great investment.

Every time an exporter uses the train to ship goods to China, it is given a free advertising slot on national TV, which is government-owned because of China being a communist country.

Some of the reason for the greater use of the carriages on their way to Spain rather than on the way back is the fact that China's manufacturing industry is cheap, huge and prolific, meaning it is able to churn out far more goods in a much shorter time and which are retailed at very low prices and normally fall into the 'boring but necessary' category where everyone needs them but do not want to have to spend any money on them – such as coat hangers, tupperware containers, and basic household and DIY-type goods in general. 

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THE coldest-ever temperature in history over the week that Easter 2016 has fallen in was in the centre-northern province of Palencia, in Castilla y León, at -7.9ºC – and the warmest, curiously, was in its 'rhyming province' on the east coast, Valencia, at 33.2ºC.

State meteorological agency AEMET has studied its figures over the last 35 years across the country for the week of March 20 to 28 in a bid to work out what could have been the likely forecast for Easter this year, but the variations are so huge that only vague averages could be given.

On average, it has rained for between three and four days over this period since 1981, meaning a 40% chance of a wet Easter this year, and average temperatures for this week sit between 12ºC and 14ºC – but this takes the vast climatic disparities across the whole country into account, as well as thermometer readings from the coldest part of the night in northern, inland areas compared with the warmest part of the day in Mediterranean and southern locations – even without including the Canary Islands in the equation.

Average temperatures for this last full week in March have sat at around 8ºC in the northern half, with lows of 3ºC and highs of 14ºC, cloudy skies and fog, reaching an average of 16ºC in southern and eastern coastal areas, with typical highs of 20ºC and lows of 10ºC.

For the Balearic Islands, averages reach around 15ºC and, in the Canaries, 19ºC, whilst altitudes of over 2,000 metres sit at a chilly 6.6ºC.

Over the week Easter falls on this year, in 1988, records of 33.2ºC were seen in Valencia – the warmest province in the country that year over the last full week in March – followed closely by 32.6ºC in the province of Alicante which borders Valencia to the south.

But in the same week in 2007, Castilla y León was in the depths of a harsh winter: Palencia's -7.9ºC in the daytime was not out of the ordinary in the context of its wider region, with Salamanca seeing the mercury plummet to -7ºC, Valladolid suffering -6.6ºC, León lighting the fires and wrapping itself in blankets to combat temperatures of -6.4ºC, and the region's most northerly province of Burgos, whose capital is famous for its soft white cheese and Spain's second-largest and arguably most breathtakingly-spectacular cathedral, shivered as the mercury plunged to -5.5ºC.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE number of Spaniards injured in the Brussels airport and metro blasts has risen to nine, according to acting foreign affairs minister José Manuel García-Margallo, but he cannot give many details as not all their families have been advised.

“It does not appear there is any imminent risk [to their lives] or, at least, they haven't told us so,” García-Margallo admits, but says Belgian medical services are being 'very cautious' about giving out information.

He adds that the ministry is 'making an enormous effort' to trace Spaniards whose relatives and friends say are in Brussels, but whom they have not heard from.

Most of the relatives of the known injured Spanish citizens have been informed, although they are having some difficulty getting to the Belgian capital to be with them as flights from Spain have been suspended – although Irish low-cost carrier is still running connections to Charleroi airport.

Zaventem airport on the edge of Brussels, where 11 people have been killed in a double suicide bombing at the American Airlines departure gates, has closed altogether and no flights have been running since the attack – planes to and from Zaventem have been grounded today (Thursday), and it is not known whether any will fly over Easter.

And train services linking Brussels to other parts of Belgium and abroad, and the city metro system, have nearly all been cancelled following the deaths of 20 people in the terrorist blast at Maalbeek station just a few hundred metres from the European Union Parliament building.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TRAIN drivers have called off their Easter Monday strike after their union, SEMAF, reached an agreement with rail boards RENFE and ADIF over working conditions.

Collective employment terms agreements – of which there is one in force for every profession in Spain – had been updated following last year's strikes, but months later, they still have not been applied.

Now, though, SEMAF has successfully arranged a meeting with transport firm bosses for Friday, April 1, when the company has said it will sign on the dotted line and ratify the agreements.

The deal includes offering vacant positions to existing workers, and clarifying the issue of taking on new staff after hundreds were made redundant last year.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A RADICAL extreme far-right group based in Madrid has hurled firebombs at the city's main mosque and hung a banner on its wall reading: “Today Brussels, tomorrow Madrid?”

The 'Ramiro Ledesma social centre', as the organisation calls itself, made no secret of its responsibility for the attack, which it dubs as a 'campaign against radical Islam'.

It is said to be one of the most active extreme-right groups in the capital, and has staged lock-ins in buildings in protest over immigration and Islam, and once set up a food distribution drive for the poor and needy 'only for Spanish people'.

Members targeted the so-called M-30 Mosque, which takes its name from the outer suburban motorway that runs past it.

To champion their actions, the 'Ramiro Ledesma' posted a photo of the burning mosque under the Twitter hashtag #TerroristsWelcome, a word-play on the much-followed site #RefugeesWelcome which supports asylum-seekers fleeing the war in Syria being given a safe haven in Europe.

They added a comment on the post referring to the fact that it was Paris targeted by terrorists first, then Brussels, and that 'tomorrow it could be Madrid'.

According to their Twitter posts, the attack on the M-30 was not just in response to the recent bomb blasts at Brussels' Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station, but was also 'against the mosque itself'.

They accuse it of financing the so-called 'Islamic State', or DAESH, and wrote: “Get mosques out of Europe.”

Just three months ago, the 'Ramiro Ledesma' hurled firebombs at the door of the PP government headquarters on the C/ Génova in Madrid whilst the party was analysing the general election ballot box results, and shouted, “Arriba España,” a pro-Franco slogan which translates as 'Up Spain', but carries a very different, extreme nationalist meaning. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FOUR Spaniards are said to be among the injured following the terrorist bomb blasts at Brussels' Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station, according to Spain's interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz.

He assures that no Spanish citizens are among the dead, to his knowledge and according to the Consulate in the Belgian capital, but that four have been admitted to hospital.

None of them are thought to be seriously hurt.

Spain itself has decided to maintain its terror risk alert at level 4 – out of five levels – as it has been since last June following simultaneous attacks in Paris, Tunisia and Kuwait.

Anti-Jihad prosecutor Dolores Delgado says upping the alert to level 5 would mean not only constant police presence in the streets, but also the Army, which she says is not an appetising prospect unless absolutely necessary.

But Fernández Díaz says security measures will be 'reinforced' and 'increased' at all Spain's airports.

No flights to Brussels – including Charleroi airport – will take off from anywhere in Spain today and possibly not tomorrow.

Although the foreign office has not advised against travel to Belgium, it recommends that anyone already in the country avoids going out unless completely necessary, and should take a taxi rather than walking or using public transport.

The metro system in the Belgian capital has been shut since yesterday, and mobile phone networks were shut down. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANTI-JIHAD prosecutor in Spain's National Court, Dolores Delgado, says there is no connection between the arrest of Paris terror fugitive Salah Abdesalam and the fatal shooting of one of his DAESH colleagues, and the morning's attacks at Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station.

She says the Brussels bombings were not an improvised revenge reaction, but would have been planned to coincide with Easter week when air travel and public transport movements were at their peak.

An attack of this magnitude takes a lot of planning, and could not have been organised in the four days since Abdesalam's arrest, she insists.

And the aim is always to 'cause as much chaos as possible'.

“Saying something has failed in the investigations in Brussels would be unjust,” Sra Delgado says.

She reveals that Belgian authorities had known for some time that an attack of this nature in the country was likely to occur, and several in the planning stages have already been thwarted.

Although Spain has upped its terrorism risk alert level to 4 – the highest being 5 – since the Paris attacks, Sra Delgado says the danger is no higher on Spanish soil than anywhere else in Europe; if anything, it is considerably lower.

Spain has 363 people under close scrutiny by Intelligence services for their direct or indirect connections with DAESH terrorism, and between 133 and 135 Jihad recruits trained in combat – some of whom have returned from Syria, some in prison, but very few still walking the streets – but France and Belgium are aware of between 1,300 and 1,400 people who have left for Syria. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CATALUNYA'S strongly pro-independence regional president Carles Puigdemont has revealed that in a meeting with aspiring Spanish president Pedro Sánchez, he agreed with the PSOE that the region would be 'willing to discuss the date, question, quora and alternative ideas' for a referendum.

The PSOE leader has always been dead against allowing a vote on Catalunya's independence, which is one of the brick walls he has run into with likely coalition partners Podemos – the latter's leader, Pablo Iglesias, is against the region's secession but wants to allow a referendum, saying any break-up of Spain should be averted through democracy and discussion rather than iron-fisted rules.

Pedro Sánchez's other possible government partners, centre-liberal Ciudadanos, have also set a no-referendum rule as a red line to working together.

But the recently-elected Puigdemont (pictured) says Sánchez appeared more flexible during their meeting last week.

“If there is a willingness to promote a referendum on the central government's part, it will not be up to us to make sure the conditions behind it are satisfactory for both parties,” Puigdemont announced, cryptically.

“But we have agreed with Sánchez that we would be willing to discuss the date, the question asked, the quorum, and to include possible alternatives.”

Puigdemont says a unilateral declaration of independence is 'not in his plans'.

“What we have always said is that to be able to proclaim independence and become a separate State, we need to approve a series of laws first.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

JUST half a day before the tragic coach crash which killed 13 female students on the AP-7 motorway near Tortosa (Tarragona province), over 500 demonstrators had blocked off the parallel N-340 highway in protest over motorway tolls and the high death rate whilst lorry drivers joined in by causing nearly 70 kilometres of tailbacks on the AP-7 itself with a slow convoy.

Around 120 kilometres north of the devastating coach smash on the same motorway, lorries slowed down to first gear and leant on their horns between Tarragona city and Vilafranca del Penedès just over the northern border into Barcelona, and between Banyeres de Penedès and Roda de Berà, both in the province of Tarragona.

On each stretch of the AP-7, tailbacks of 48 and 15 kilometres respectively were reported.

And on the N-340 single-carriageway inter-provincial highway which runs alongside the AP-7, queues of three kilometres in both directions built up in El Vendrell, about 100 kilometres north of the coach crash site, and a kilometre southbound in El Perelló, just 15 kilometres from where the Autocares Alejandro bus spun round and overturned at 06.00hrs the following morning.

Foot protesters chanted Prou peatges, prou morts ('enough of tolls, enough deaths'), clamouring for the AP-7 through the province of Tarragona to be made toll-free once and for all to discourage lorries and long-distance drivers from using the overburdened N-340, causing numerous fatal accidents.

El Perelló's mayor Ferran Cid said mayors throughout the province have been putting pressure on the ministry of infrastructure and public works to solve the problem and wipe out the accident blackspots, to no avail.

“This cannot carry on – there are too many traffic accidents causing too many deaths,” Ferran Cid complains.

The very site on the AP-7 where the bus carrying Erasmus students back to Barcelona from a night at the Fallas in Valencia overturned was described by local authorities as being a notorious accident blackspot which had claimed many lives before. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LEADER of left-wing party Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, was rushed to hospital last night with extreme abdominal pains.

The 37-year-old was taken to A&E at the Hospital del Sureste ('south-east hospital') in Arganda del Rey, a commuter town to the east of Madrid city, sources from the party confirm.

He was diagnosed with kidney colic and was medicated and examined by casualty staff.

Iglesias did not have to be admitted, and was discharged at around 21.00hrs with prescriptions.

Speculation is rife as to whether the Podemos founder's health is suffering due to the ongoing political upheaval he is facing as fellow left-wingers, the PSOE, attempt to form a government three months after the general elections.

Podemos broke off negotiations with PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez after the latter signed a deal with centre-liberals Ciudadanos' leader Albert Rivera, and voted against Sánchez as president in the first and second round of primaries.

Iglesias' party's accounts are under investigation amid claims by opposition members that Podemos is financed by Venezuela and Iran, something Podemos has always insisted is a smear campaign and has welcomed the intervention in order to clear its name.

Prominent member of Podemos, Rita Maestre, has escaped a one-year prison sentence but been fined €4,320 for a controversial protest in Madrid Complutense University's Catholic chapel five years ago, where she and other women staged a topless demonstration, kissed each other on the lips, and shouted slogans such as 'take your rosaries out of our ovaries', and 'fewer rosaries and more geisha balls', among others referring to female body parts. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OVER 5,000 people took to the streets of Madrid last night (Wednesday) in protest over the EU's proposed refugee deal with Turkey.

The agreement would involve returning refugees and migrants in batches either to Turkey or to their original country, and for each one sent back, another from a refugee camp in Turkey would be settled in Europe.

Demonstrators filled Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square carrying banners reading 'No to illegal and immoral agreements' and 'rights for refugees and migrants'.

They criticised the EU selling arms to the Middle East and then refusing to take in refugees from wars caused by those same arms.

One banner showed a Syrian couple being pushed back by a giant hand with the EU flag on its cuff, whilst a knife labelled I.S. for 'Islamic State' poked their backs.

Another, in English, read: “We sell boms. (sic). Their victims escape.”

Others read: “No human being is illegal,” and “People should not be traded like currency.”

Around 2,000 protesters joined in from cities in the centre-northern region of Castilla y León, whilst dozens of residents gathered outside the Aragón regional government headquarters in Zaragoza, and hundreds of Basque resident staged a march calling for the EU to 'open its walls'.

More than 120 different organisations, including unions, worked on putting together the demonstrations, and slogans even accused the EU of 'not respecting human rights', of treating people like 'merchandise' and calling the 28 member States 'criminally liable'.

“Welcome, 18 refugees – hypocrites!” read one sign held up, and others stated: “No wars, no borders;” “European Union, inhuman, is against refugees;” “European Union, we sell weapons and throw out their victims;” “These are people, not goods for sale;” and “EU against human rights.”

The Madrid protest was presided by Palestinian refugee Ahmed Abuzubaida, who called the agreement between the EU and Turkey 'insensitive', whilst urging the EU to stop selling weapons to countries which did not respect human rights, and to open legal and safe channels for those fleeing the wars in Syria and Iraq.

Singer and activist Cristina del Valle read out a manifesto in which she called the EU-Turkey deal 'shameful' and stated that it violated the Charter of Human Rights – both the European and the International versions – as well as the Geneva Convention on Asylum Seekers and Refugees, which dates back to 1955 and has been signed by nearly every country in the world.

“They want to treat war victims as currency exchange with the Turkish government, move the refugee crisis outside Europe's borders, and abandon the values that make up the EU – a common area of freedom, safety and justice,” Sra Del Valle read.

She said the Turkish deal would open the door to asylum seekers being returned at the border.

This is a practice Spain has long been against, says federal coordinator for United Left, Cayo Lara, who urged the acting government to exercise its right to veto in the Council of Europe because “we cannot feed approaches which lead to racism and xenophobia.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN UNFORTUNATE castle restoration in the province of Cádiz has gone viral, sparking criticism from all over the globe.

The 9th-century Matrera fortress in Villamartín, built by the Mediaeval Arabs and now in private hands, was declared a ruin three years ago after torrential rain had gradually eroded its foundations.

But its recent and necessary restoration has horrified townspeople, been ridiculed on national TV and even reached the British national press.

A full page in The Guardian carried the headline: “What the hell have they done?”, reflecting the same rhetorical question asked on Spain's channel six, La Sexta.

“It looks as though they've called in builders rather than restorers,” the presenter commented on the programme.

One local resident filmed on the show said 'they've really messed up', whilst a specialist local history association said it was 'very concerned', since heritage laws 'ban reconstructions' and the restorers should have 'just consolidated the rest of the tower which was left'.

A smooth concrete block wall has been built inside the two remaining sides of the castle, and not even in the same colour, as the 'before and after' photos on Twitter show (above left).

Historians from Villamartín say they have even been contacted by people from abroad who say they 'cannot understand why this silliness, or heritage massacres' are allowed.

The article in The Guardian likens the botched castle restoration to that of the 19th-century Ecce Homo fresco in the local church in Borja (Zaragoza province) by local 80-something amateur artist Cecilia Jiménez.

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EX-BEATLE Paul McCartney will perform tracks from his 'Fab Four' days at his first concert in Spain for 12 years.

On June 2, McCartney will be on stage at the Vicente Calderón stadium in Madrid thanks to a joint effort by Spanish national daily newspaper El País and top 40 chart radio station Los 40 Principales, which are celebrating their 40^th and 50^th anniversaries respectively this year.

The youngest Beatle has not performed live in Spain since his concert on May 30, 2004 at the La Peineta stadium as part of his European tour that year which had started in Gijón in Asturias earlier.

Most of his show this year will involve old Beatle tracks, with a few of his own as a solo artist – and given the popularity of the Beatles in Spain among Spaniards and expats alike, it is expected to be a sell-out.

McCartney actually cut the red tape on Los 40 Principales' new studio on the Gran Vía in Madrid in 1989, according to its directors – and since then it has been known as 'the McCartney studio'.

Tickets will be on sale from 10.00hrs this coming Friday (March 18) via the usual channels – Ticketmaster, El Corte Inglés and Livenation.es. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

VALENCIA'S mayor Joan Ribó is questioning whether 'Portuguese-style' bullfights would solve the impasse between the pro-bull and anti-bull brigades – a spectacle where the animal is not tortured or killed.

Whilst those who want to see bull-fighting abolished say there is no place in 21st-century society for any form of entertainment which involves killing animals or harming them physically or psychologically, those who want to keep it going say it provides jobs, helps the economy and ensures conservation of coastal marshland set aside for bulls to graze.

They also speak of 'culture', 'tradition' and 'freedom of artistic expression', saying spectators go to bullfights to watch the 'skill and courage' of the matador.

Animal protection societies say that to attack a frightened animal who is merely trying to escape harm is not an act of courage.

But in Portugal, where bullfights still take place, the animal is not harmed or killed and the events are more akin to rodeo shows in México and the USA where the ranch-handler's skills, rather like those of a sheepdog, are the main focus.

“It would be a good idea for Spain to come to an agreement that meant bulls did not get killed or harmed in the ring,” said Ribó, who represents the left-wing regional party Compromís.

A huge demonstration involving at least 30,000 pro-bullfight protesters filled Valencia's bullring on Sunday and gathered outside it, whilst dozens of animal support groups, with the help of falleras wearing just their hairpieces and red paint to signify blood but with banners covering their modesty, staged a counter-protest against the bullfights due to take place over this week.

Bullfights traditionally take place during Valencia's massive March Fallas festival, and in over half of all towns in the three provinces of Valencia, Castellón and Alicante, which make up the Comunidad Valenciana, events with bulls take place during summer fiestas. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has rejected the EU's plan for the collective returning of war refugees to Turkey or their original country, saying it considered the deal 'unacceptable from the start'.

“The Spanish government will never accept an agreement which, by definition, goes against international law and human rights,” stated caretaking foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo.

“Spain radically opposes any expulsion of entire groups, and instead requests individual treatment and the postponement of any deportations until this issue is resolved – and, if anyone does have to be sent back to where they came from, we want guarantees that refugees will be safe and protected.”

Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu had agreed, during an EU summit last Monday (March 7), to take on the immigrants and asylum seekers who had managed to reach Greece after a hazardous, life-threatening journey by sea that many did not survive.

At the same time, the government in Ankara wanted an additional €3 billion – on top of the €3bn the EU had promised to pay them this and next year – to fund refugee care and resettlement.

And in exchange for handling the refugee influx, Davutoglu said he wanted the EU to speed up Turkey's application to enter the Union and to expedite a relaxation on visa requirements for Turkish citizens travelling to Europe.

García-Margallo, however, insisted that if any migrants were sent back, this 'had to be to a safe country'.

Turkey, although it had signed the Geneva Convention on refugees, it had not signed up to the procedures that extend human rights enjoyed by signatory countries to citizens of other nations, such as Syria. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DETECTIVES in Madrid have just revealed that over €30 million worth of paintings by the Irish artist Francis Bacon were stolen from a mansion in one of the city's most élite and safest districts.

Although the artworks were stolen in June, the theft has only just come to light – partly because of plain clothes officers purporting to be buyers expressed an interest in purchasing some Bacon paintings at the recent ARCO art fair, without success.

They had been hoping one of the five portraits and landscapes inherited by the late artist's personal friend, J. C. B., 59, would be offered to them.

Experts say the market for Bacon's paintings is so limited that any offers of purchase, or attempts to sell, would immediately be heard about by everyone within the very tight circle of traders specialising in the Irish artist's works.

As a result, the thieves would have trouble remaining anonymous.

A 'theft on commission' has been ruled out as 'unrealistic', although as thieves managed to sneak in without forcing entry or exit and deactivated the alarm, this remains a possibility in practical terms.

The mansion in the Plaza de la Encarnación, walking distance from the Senate, only had a simple alarm and no central one.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SELF-SERVICE petrol stations have been outlawed in the city of Madrid, a move that will affect one in five premises.

A new bye-law has been introduced requiring at least one employee to be on the forecourt, or in the shop and available to help, at all times.

Throughout Spain as a whole, only 5% of service stations have no staff, whilst in Madrid this rises to 20%.

A few months ago, Valencia's regional government outlawed the burgeoning new trend of 'low-cost' petrol stations, which were self-service only and unstaffed, allowing their owners to offer cheaper fuel.

The Generalitat Valenciana said it would encourage other service stations to make their employees redundant in order to compete, and that, where the only petrol pump available on a long journey was self-service only, the driver would have no option but to take the risks involved in filling up him or herself. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HACKER who stole the identities of numerous celebrities has been arrested in Córdoba.

Police were alerted by a well-known actress from Spain, whose name has not been revealed, that her various accounts on the internet had been entered and that she believed other TV and film actresses and female presenters had suffered the same fate.

They discovered the 29-year-old man from Córdoba had been using malware he bought online known as 'exploits', enabling him to gain access to passwords and addresses of female celebrities.

His modus operandi involved sending an email address to one of the actresses with a hyperlink, purporting to be from the technical service of the computer, phone or tablet she was using, warning her that an online purchase had been made in her name.

She was instructed to click on the link to cancel the purchase if it was not her who had made it.

Once she did so, this opened a back door into her hardware for the hacker to slip into and steal her data including passwords and other email addresss.

It is not known whether his operations were aimed at hacking into their bank accounts and stealing money or buying goods and services in their names, or whether it was simply for amusement and morbid curiosity. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THOUSANDS of demonstrators gathered in Madrid yesterday (Sunday) calling for special protection orders for the Iberian wolf, an endangered species whose population is reducing dramatically because of livestock farmers shooting them.

At least 200 environmental, wildlife and animal protection associations across Spain took part in the demonstration in the capital, which involved a march from the C/ Alcalá to the central Puerta del Sol square.

Some dressed in wolves' masks and walked to the background music of a funeral march.

“Wolves are not the 'baddies' of the fairytales, but are a valuable gem of our wildlife and should be protected,” said spokesman for Equo, Juan López de Uralde.

The savage image of killer wolves are promoted to make their slaughter appear less of an unethical action, the political coalition leader says.

“Barely 1% of harm suffered by livestock is caused by wolves, and their presence is necessary to guarantee the natural balance of our rural ecosystems,” added World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Spain secretary-general Juan Carlos del Olmo.

“Authorities cannot continue to ignore the people's appeals in defence of wolves, and we will carry on fighting until their unfair and random persecution ends.

“We want more discussion, more science and more respect from authorities, allowing this gem of nature to carry on living.”

Del Olmo adds that it is 'intolerable' how, in the 21^st century, nothing is being done to ensure the safe cohabiting of wolves and livestock alike. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PRO-BULLFIGHTING protest gathered over 30,000 people on the streets of Valencia at the same time as an anti-bullfight demonstration brought several dozen others to the same venue today.

The march finished at the iconic bullring, next to the highly-decorative main North Station, where Valencian matador Enrique Ponce read out a manifesto.

Earlier, 12,000 people had filled the same bullring calling for bullfighters to be allowed to practise unhindered.

This was just before one of the traditional bullfights which take place during Valencia's huge March fiestas, the Fallas, now almost in full swing ahead of the main events between Wednesday and Saturday this week.

The protesters claimed bullfights, bull-running and other, similar 'sports' were a 'tool' which was vital to the economy and to providing a financial boost to 'numerous towns and cities', which 'promoted human and social rights' and was a 'fundamental and principal support system' for Spain's biodiversity, given that over half a million hectares of coastal marshland are 'kept maintained and in good conditions' because of being needed for bulls to graze.

As well as the economic and environmental aspects, the pro-bullfighting brigade said it was a 'deep-rooted tradition'.

They appealed to the 'right to freedom of speech, thought and artistic expression' and to 'equality in the arts'.

Meanwhile, female fiesta participants – known as falleras – and their male counterparts, the falleros stripped off most of their clothes, wearing only the trademark accessories such as rolled plaited hairpieces, clips and jewellery, and coated their bodies in red paint to depict the blood shed by bulls who die in the name of entertainment.

Their manifesto said they were there to 'be the voice' of the 100 or so bulls who die every year in Fallas, and which cost over €500 million a year in taxpayers' funds.

In fact, many town and city councils have chosen to axe funding for bull-related events – as opposed to banning them altogether – since they do not think it fair how those who are against animal treatment have to fund it.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AN IRISH couple has been forced to compensate their Spanish au pair for 'exploitation' after she was forced to work long hours for just €100 a week.

The nanny, who does not wish to be named, said she felt 'exhausted, depressed and weak' and was able to prove she was earning far below the minimum wage for the Republic of Ireland.

This was set at €9.15 per hour before tax on January 1 this year.

Dublin's Immigrant Rights Centre (CRCI) handled her case for her as she was unable to afford a lawyer.

She has been awarded €9,229 in compensation by the Working Relations Court (WRC) in the Irish capital, where her employers live.

Her solicitor said the case was one of literally hundreds where aux pairs were exploited.

The victim sent out a message to others in the same situation, saying: “You deserve respect, because the most valuable members of the family – the children – are in your care, and this is a huge responsibility.”

At the WRC hearing, the judge warned how too many foreign nannies were being seen as cheap labour, and the CRCI said many of them were treated 'far, far worse'.

“This is not an isolated case, unfortunately,” said spokeswoman Virginija Petrauskaite.

“We know of many aux pairs who are treated much, much worse.

“Their work is essential for families, the community and the economy.”

Ms Petrauskaite has urged the Irish government to launch an awareness campaign so that all families employing nannies were aware of their rights and duties.

“Authorities need to put an urgent end to au pair agencies who advertise illegal working conditions, as well as those parents who employ them,” Ms Petrauskaite concludes.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OLIVE oil from Spain swept the board at the recent Mario Solinas 2016 Awards, one of the most prestigious on the planet and covering the whole of the northern hemisphere.

Run by the International Olive Oil Council, a total of 130 oils applied for awards, of which 79 were from Spain.

Points are given for producers' craftsmanship, flavour, quality and packaging, and are classified according to whether they are 'intense', 'light', 'medium' or 'mature, with a multi-cultural judges' panel giving marks to those in each category.

None of Spain's oils got into the top three for the 'light' category, but first, second and third prizes in all the other categories went to Spanish entries.

Of Spain's 79, a total of nine won top three prizes, all extra-virgin oils.

Those which won or were placed are Muela-Olives from Priego, Córdoba province, winning both the 'intense' and 'medium'; Casas de Hualdo, from Carpío de Tajo (Toledo province), second in 'intense'; Pedro A. Melgarejo Cordero, from Pegalajar (Jaén province), coming third in the 'intense' category; SCA Olivarera la Purísima, also in Priego, which came second in the medium category; Manuel Montes Marín, from Priego, third in the medium category; Agrícola La Maja, S.L. from Mendavia in Navarra, which won the 'mature' category; SCA Nuestra Señora de la Fuensanta de Oleoestepa, from Corcoya, Sevilla province, which came second in the 'mature' category; and Pago de Peñarrubia, S.L., from Albacete, which came third in the 'mature' category.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ACTING president Mariano Rajoy has offered to take 450 Syrian refugees to be resettled in Spain.

Of these, 285 will come from refugee camps in Turkey, and the rest from Greece and Italy.

The figure is a long way from the 17,000 Spain agreed to take in during the November EU summit – and so far, only 18 have arrived in the country.

Rajoy has also promised €152.8 million for Turkey, which has requested €3 billion from the EU to deal with the huge numbers of war refugees already in its territory after having crossed the land border from Syria.

The PP leader says he will make this offer official aty the forthcoming EU leaders' meeting in which presidents and prime ministers from the 28 member States will discuss the refugee crisis with Turkish PM, Ahmet Davutoglu.

The meeting will involve working on an action plan to rehouse and distribute those fleeing war zones, as well as dealing with non-refugees travelling by boat via Turkey, Greece and the Balkans to get into Europe.

Spain has already informed the European Commission it is taking the necessary steps to resettle the 285 refugees coming from Turkey in the near future, which will be followed up with a plan for taking those from Italy and Greece.

Human and material resources will be supplied to Greece from Spain to help them look after the refugees currently in the country.

In his capacity as acting president, Rajoy will represent Spain in an informal meeting, following the refugee summit, concerning the future of the Schengen zone.

The passport-free area of the European Union – which includes Spain but not the UK – is under threat after some member countries began to apply border controls in light of the refugee crisis and the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Schengen countries have worked out the losses potentially caused if the open-border zone agreement ends would run into tens of millions of euros – particularly for countries with workers from neighbouring member States who commute rather than migrate.

France has agreed to take fewer than a third of Spain's agreed number of refugees – just 148 – but its foreign minister Bernard Cazeneuve defended this decision by pointing out that his country takes in over 80,000 asylum-seekers a year, 'far more than the UK, for example'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A TORRENT of racist abuse hurled at a Spanish couple on the Manchester tram was followed by overwhelming support from other passengers who threatened to call the police if the assailant continued.

Filmed by a Peruvian man travelling in the same bus, a video of the incident shows a man in a grey hoodie and jeans ordering the couple, who were talking to each other in Spanish, to 'speak English'.

They replied that they had the right to talk in whatever language they wanted – at which point, the aggressive passenger told them to 'go back to their own country'.

Another passenger told him that if he was going to 'carry on being racist', he would 'just call the police on him', saying it was 'unacceptable in this country and in this day and age' and that he was sure 'everyone else on the train agreed'.

Another woman defended the Spanish couple, saying, “They're English. What does it matter if they're talking in another language?”

The aggressive man demanded to know if the passenger challenging him was English, to which he replied that he was and that he 'did not care what country anyone else came from'.

Next, the abusive man asked, “are you gay?” which the passenger answered with, “yeh, and who cares if I am?”

The attacker concluded, “there you go, then,” as if to say he 'rested his case', which got him another brush-off from the rest of the passengers.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THIS year's skiing season has been extended thanks to the higher-than-usual snowfall at altitudes in Spain – the slopes at Cerler, Formigal and Panticosa (Huelva province) in the Pyrénées of Aragón will remain open until April 10, and deals of two days' lift pass plus a night in a hotel are being advertised at just €61.50 in total.

Those in the province of Teruel (Aragón) – in Javalambre and Valdelinares - are open until at least the end of March, but this may be extended until April 3 or possibly April 10 depending upon snowfall.

Various events, including parties on the piste and amateur competitions are due to be hosted throughout the rest of this month in the Aragonese ski resorts, run by the regional ski tour operator Aramón.

La Rioja has opened 21 slopes at the Valdezcaray resort this weekend, and with the forecast for snow continuing, it is likely they will remain for some weeks yet.

The Sierra Nevada, in Granada, now has 75 kilometres of 'skiable' slopes after the Laguna de las Yeguas opened yesterday (Saturday) for the first time this season.

With it, the Laguna chair-lift has just opened, taking skiers to the highest altitude of the entire resort and allowing them to fly down a piste from 1,200 metres above sea-level to terra firma.

This week, also, the Sierra Nevada has opened three more 'black pistes' – the Tubo de Enebro, the Fuente del Tesoro and the Neveros, which start in the Loma de Dílar area – in addition to the Visera 'black slope' in Borreguiles which was first put into use this season around a week ago.

Black pistes are the most difficult and challenging due to their twisting and turning, and their gradient – even more so than red pistes, which are for experienced skiers only.

Beginners will start on the 'green' or 'nursery' slopes, but depending upon their progress, may be able to move relatively quickly onto the next level up, the blues.

Total beginners, and novices seeking more practice, will be most at home on the pistes of Javalambre and Valdelinares, which also include a ski school where lessons can be booked in advance – although both resorts have red slopes for the more experienced. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SOCIALIST head Pedro Sánchez, still reeling from his second failed attempt at being voted in as president after left-wing parties gave him a collective 'no', says he believes Podemos is 'playing at getting fresh elections in Spain'.

“I thought that, as our values and ideas were most in affinity with theirs, it would have been a lot easier trying to talk to Podemos,” laments the PSOE boss (pictured).

But the socialists' deal with liberals Ciudadanos has upset the leftist party, led by Pablo Iglesias, who promptly broke off all negotiations with Sánchez.

And Sánchez says his three main red lines vis à vis Podemos would not change: the PSOE would never agree to an independence referendum in Catalunya, would not sanction Iglesias' desire to increase public spending in social programmes by €96 billion, and would not allow Iglesias to 'start demanding ministries and positions'.

Iglesias, 37, an ex-university professor in politics who started his party two years ago in a garage, wants to be deputy president – but Sánchez says he will not discuss individual status before he has agreed with other parties on policy.

Podemos' leader has always said he would wait until Sánchez lost the second in-house vote before he started talks, adding that it would be 'extremely difficult' for his party to form a deal with Ciudadanos.

“Our political values are too different,” says Iglesias, who believes Ciudadanos to be 'too far-right' and 'only concerned about the top-end stock market companies' rather than social welfare.

“But our formula – a Valencian-style government with left-wing parties Compromís and United Left – would give Sánchez a total of 162 seats,” he stresses.

“This is far more viable, since the Basque and Catalunya nationalist parties would agree to at least abstain, if not vote in favour.”

For a majority, whoever governs needs 176 seats out of the 352 in Parliament, but the current reigning right-wing PP only has 123, the PSOE 90, Podemos 65, and Ciudadanos 40.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WORLD-FAMOUS pianist Lang Lang officially 'opened' the new shark tunnel at Valencia's Oceanogràfic, Europe's largest aquarium, with an 'underwater' concert – and said the finned fish were the perfect audience.

The Chinese musical sensation said he was sure he saw the sharks smile as he played to them while they swam above his head.

“It was like a dream come true, playing for the fish and sharks – they were a marvellous audience,” Lang Lang announced after his grand opening ceremony.

He had played the night before at the neighbouring Palau de la Música concert hall – a show that was, as expected, a complete sell-out.

In it, he interpreted the Oscar-winning soundtrack by Ennio Morricone for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, then switched effortlessly to Franz Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3 ('Dream of Love').

Lang Lang played the same concert for the sharks, with the latter being to 'show his love and respect' for the 'wonderful' marine fauna surrounding him.

The Oceanogràfic has recently reopened after undergoing a complete overhaul – butterflies, hammerhead sharks, crocodiles, and a new bird area are among the wildlife that can be admired by visitors. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IN AN unprecedented move in Spain's democratic history, socialist leader Pedro Sánchez has lost his second attempt at being invested as president after his party's only supporters were the 40 MPs from centre-liberals Ciudadanos.

Left-wing Podemos' 65 MPs and its own supporters, United Left's two MPs, plus Valencia-based Compromís and the various nationalist parties in the Basque Country and Catalunya all voted against, as did the PSOE's arch rivals and political opposites, the right-wing PP.

Podemos' leader Pablo Iglesias has never made any secret of the fact he does not support any new government which would involve Ciudadanos, whom his party considers to be 'far-right' and with policies that 'only benefit the IBEX 35' – Spain's answer to the FTSE 100, but the top 35 companies instead of the top 100 – rather than the general public and their social welfare needs.

And Ciudadanos has always been reluctant to work with Podemos, although so far, it has been the only party which is prepared to negotiate with literally anyone, pointedly does not seek leadership or status for its own members, and whose only real red line is that it will not allow a referendum on independence for Catalunya.

Iglesias is in favour of a referendum – although he does not support Catalunya's becoming a separate nation, he firmly believes Spain's unity lies in equality in discussion and in democracy rather than 'forcing' the region to stay connected through denying it a voice.

Podemos has also said several times that he believes the 'real' negotiation would not be ready to start until after the in-house voting had been lost by Sánchez yesterday (Friday). 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RESEARCH on European MPs and their nationalities has found foreigners are under-represented in Spain more than anywhere else in the EU – despite Spaniards' attitude to immigrants being one of the most welcoming and friendly on the continent.

In an ideal world, politicians across a country would be a demographic mirror of the population with the same split of men and women, expats and nationals, age ranges, disabilities, sexual orientation, couples and families versus single people, transgender and other diverse elements of the nation in the same proportion in Parliament as they are in real life.

But in terms of foreigners, the further south in Europe MPs are based, the more likely they are to be white natives rather than immigrants and/or black residents.

In Spain, the first-ever black MP – part of the left-wing independents Podemos – gained a seat in the December elections.

Rita Bosaho (pictured) was born in Equatorial Guinea and has a Spanish passport, and said at the time how she believed 'ethnic minorities' should be more numerous in Parliament.

Spain's foreign-born population is very similar to that of The' Netherlands and the UK – between 10% and 13%, allowing for those which are not registered on a census – but unlike Spain, both the British and Dutch Parliaments have at least one in 10 foreign members.

Foreigner numbers have fallen in Spain in the last decade, but this is as much to do with long-term non-EU expats taking Spanish citizenship as with those leaving the country. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ON DAY two of King Felipe's brother-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín's trial for multi-million public fund embezzlement, the accused claimed he 'did not move' without consulting the Royal Household, who 'oversaw his income tax declarations for 12 years'.

Prosecutor Pedro Horrach, who firmly believes Urdangarín's wife, the Infanta Cristina has no case to answer to, flagged up at least a dozen contradictions in the accused's statements.

Urdangarín had previously referred to a meeting with Valencia's ex-mayoress Rita Barberá (PP) in 2004, when he presented his plans for the Valencia Summit event, but during yesterday's (Wednesday's) hearing, he denied having met with her at all.

Urdangarín also denied meeting with former regional president of Valencia, Francisco Camps (PP), despite having said beforehand that he had done so.

His co-director in the Nóos Institute – purportedly a non-profit events organising body – Diego Torres had, according to previous statements by Urdangarín, been the one who decided workers' functions within the group and its linked branches, Nóos Consulting and Aizoon; but yesterday, he claimed this was not the case.

And having recently explained how the estimate for the Balearic Islands' cycling team's office was drafted by sports law specialist Juan Pablo Molinero with Torres' agreement, Urdangarín now says he 'had no way of knowing' whether Torres did, in fact, authorise the costs.

The only areas where Urdangarín remained adamant and stuck to his story were in connection with the finances, invoicing, estimates and tax affairs of the Nóos Institute and his estate agency firm Aizoon – which had no apparent commercial activity – where he said he 'knew nothing about that sort of thing' and 'did not deal with it'; and his wife's involvement.

The Infanta Cristina – King Felipe's youngest sister – who is also facing trial, was the owner of 50% of Aizoon, and her husband owned the other half.

Urdangarín, however, insists his wife had no involvement whatsoever in Aizoon's or the Nóos' affairs, and was merely named on the former for 'personal and sentimental' reasons.

He admitted to having followed the advice of the Nóos' company secretary, Torres' brother-in-law Miguel Tejeiro and the accountant, Antonio Tejeiro and 'helped to put in practice' what he called the 'fiscal strategy' of the Institute. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SOCIALIST leader Pedro Sánchez's first attempt to become president has failed with all bar his own and centre-liberals Ciudadanos' MPs voting in favour.

Left-wing independents Podemos, Compromís and United Left, along with all the pro-independence regional parties and the acting right-wing PP government voted 'no'.

This means out of 352 MPs, the PSOE head was way off the majority of 176 votes needed to get him into power.

Ciudadanos has 40 seats and the PSOE 90, but their combined 130 was no match for the PP's 123, Podemos' 65 and the combination of smaller outfits such as United Left with two, Compromís with four, Basque nationalist parties EH and PNV with two and six respectively, or Catalunya's pro-secession parties DiL and ERC with eight and nine.

Only the Canarian Coalition, with just one MP, abstained, but this did not help Sánchez much with 219 votes against him.

Sánchez's downfall appears to be the deal he struck with Ciudadanos, which immediately lost him the vital support of Spain's third-largest political power, Podemos.

The programme includes scrapping temporary job contracts and amalgamating the numerous types of these in circulation into just three – a permanent one, a 'training' one, and a 'stable' one with redundancy pay gradually rising according to the length of time the employee has worked for the company and becoming permanent after not more than three years.

They agreed there would be no funding cuts in social welfare, education or health, that income tax would not go up except for the very wealthy, and to scrap the provincial councils or Diputaciones, as well as the Senate, but to create a 'territorial senate' to become the voice of different towns and regions. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN is the world's largest exporter of wine, beating France and Italy hands-down – but its takings are still lower than Europe's former top two, figures reveal.

Last year alone, Spain sold almost 2.4 billion litres – or 3.2 billion bottles, based upon the standard 75cc size – abroad, some way ahead of second-largest exporter Italy's two billion litres or just under 2.7 billion bottles.

And Spain far outstrips France, the third-most prolific wine exporting nation on the planet, with sales figures for 2015 of 1.5 billion litres, or two billion bottles.

But Spain's global fame for its temptingly-cheap wine – which has no bearing whatsoever on its quality, with supermarket bottles of little more than €1 being much-lauded by oenologists – has been its downfall in terms of international sales income.

Whilst France earned €8 billion from its foreign wine sales last year, and Italy €5bn, Spain's turnover was dramatically lower.

The price paid for wine from Spain by international buyers comes in at just €1.10 a litre – even though the retail mark-up means wholesalers make a hefty profit – even less than the cheapest brand on sale in high-street supermarkets at home.

This represents a fall of 2.9% on 2014's sale prices, according to the national wine market observatory's boss Rafael del Rey.

The observatory believes the way forward is to highlight the denomination of origin, or D.O., and the grape variety used, on Spanish wine bottles when selling abroad.

Italy does this and amasses considerably more money for a much lower quantity, whilst few consumers abroad could name any Spanish wine brand besides Rioja.

Effectively, the major difference between the biggest global exporter and the more financially-successful runners-up is pure marketing – which is where Spain falls down, Rafael del Rey believes.

Despite its fierce national pride in its own wines, France is, surprisingly, the largest international buyer of wine from Spain.

Last year, French wholesalers purchased 650 million litres, or 867 million bottles.

It is mainly retailed as unbranded 'table wine' labelled as 'produced in the European Union' – or, more rarely, 'produced in Spain', with no reference to its D.O.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A REAL Madrid FC player who did not stop for the police because he 'thought he was going to be kidnapped' has been fined €10,400.

James Rodríguez (pictured) will also face a hefty sanction for speeding, given that he was driving at double the limit.

The 24-year-old Colombian has just received the fine notice two months after police tried to pull him over on New Year's Day when he was seen driving at 200 kilometres per hour (124mph) in a 100-kilometre (62mph) limit on his way to a training session along the M-40 outer Madrid motorway.

Rodríguez did not stop despite the flashing lights and sirens of the unmarked police car, and was followed to the training pitch in his Audi R8.

The young player said he had not heard the police sirens above the music in his car, and had assumed the patrol vehicle was that of an ordinary civilian.

Because of that, he did not stop as he thought the driver was trying to kidnap him.

Whilst carjackings, or highway kidnaps, are extremely rare in Spain, they are rife in Colombia, where Rodríguez comes from.

He can pay the fine within a fortnight at half the amount, or he can appeal within this time – but would need to pay the full amount if this appeal failed. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CATALUNYA'S regional government has decided to ignore a High Court of Justice ruling preventing them from insisting upon fluency in catalán in civil servants.

According to the region's language policy, a level of catalán equivalent to post-graduate and with a qualification to prove it, even for native speakers, is a prerequisite for all public sector jobs – even filing clerks and road sweepers.

The same is true of other regions with a co-official language, including Valencia, Galicia, the Balearic Islands and the Basque Country.

Catalunya requires its customer-facing civil servants to speak to members of the public in catalán only, and not to change to Spanish unless and until the resident asks them to do so.

But the regional High Court has overturned this and scrapped the requirement to be able to speak catalán fluently, or for it to take precedence over Spanish.

Leader of Catalunya's language policy team, Ester Franquesa, said the verdict was 'worrying', had 'no legal grounds', and that her department did not intend to change the rules.

She calls it 'political' rather than 'law-based', and says the requirements have been in place for 'over 35 years'.

“The verdict will change nothing,” announced public affairs management leader Meritxell Borràs.

“We do not intend to appeal, because it is not a legal decision and relates merely to politics.”

The court says it based its decision on legal precedent set by judges interpreting the Spanish Constitution, which allows all residents in regions with more than one language the equal right to use whichever they wish.

And the pressure group Impulso Ciudadano, which is fighting against Spanish being relegated to second place in Catalunya, championed the verdict. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NATIONWIDE department store El Corte Inglés has agreed a voluntary redundancy-cum-early retirement package for up to 1,400 members of staff.

The aim is to allow those who have had enough of working but are still some years short of their State pension to be able to afford to give up their jobs, whilst opening positions for younger, unemployed persons who are despairing of finding work.

The plan is only open to staff aged 58 or over who have paid into the social security system – either as an employee or through self-employment – for a minimum of 35 years and who have been working for the Corte Inglés group, which includes OpenCor, HíperCor and SuperCor, for at least 15 years.

This covers their State pension entitlements, since workers in Spain must have been paying social security, or national insurance for a minimum of 15 years to be entitled to their retirement pot, and need 35 years in the system to get a full pension.

The deal, which is expected to attract between 1,300 and 1,400 employees of the eligible 4,000, has been signed off by four major unions.

As at the end of 2014, El Corte Inglés and its wider group had 91,437 staff members on the payroll, of whom over 63,300 – 69.3% - worked in the network of department stores and 10.3%, or just over 9,100, in the hypermarkets and supermarkets.

But those who feel ready to retire and cannot because they have not reached State pension age – namely those born between 1956 and 1958 inclusive, and part-timers born in 1954 and 1955 – can now opt to do so if they feel the voluntary redundancy scheme would meet their financial needs until they can claim their pension.

Those who do so will earn 70% of their 2015 salary in 12 monthly payments, including any 'extras' featuring in their wage packet, until their 63^rd birthdays. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of the points on the socialists' and Ciudadanos' controversial deal for future policies has included putting Spain back on GMT in winter and BST in summer – spelling the end of the population's eternal 'jet lag' which it has been suffering for over 76 years.

Due to their geographical location, mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands should be in the same time zone as the Canary Islands, Portugal, the UK, Ireland and Morocco.

And returning the country to its correct hour would help improve the work-life balance, Ciudadanos argued, which the socialists, or PSOE, has agreed to.

The issue was first raised in May 2013 by the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG), since they pointed out that the difference between sunrise and sunset in the far north-western mainland region and that of the Balearics was as much as an hour – it is still daylight in the Balearic Islands in the evening after it has already gone dark in Galicia, which is directly due north of Portugal.

But the Canary Islands is less keen – on the radio and television, when presenters announce the time, they always add that of the archipelago: “It's three o'clock, and two o'clock in the Canaries.”

This means the Canary Islands' presence is constantly recalled, says the independent party Coalición Canarias.

GMT was chosen as the blanket time zone for the whole of Spain by a Royal Decree, or Bill of Law passed on July 26, 1900, and remained in place until 1922.

The British Royal Navy asked Spanish authorities 94 years ago what the time was in the Canary Islands, given that, as a result of their geographic location, they should, in theory, be an hour behind.

At this point, the time zone was altered for the islands – mainland Spain and the Balearics continued on GMT, but the Canaries were set at an hour earlier.

This all changed in 1940, however – a year after the Civil War and one year into the Second World War, Spanish dictator General Franco wanted the country to synchronise its time zones with Berlin and Rome, since he was a close ally of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

If the socialists and Ciudadanos do in fact end up in government together, the switch to GMT may meet with resistance in the tourism industry – on summer nights, it does not get dark until between 21.30hrs and 22.00hrs, which means longer on the beach than if it did so at 20.30hrs.

And the midday sun would move back an hour, too – whilst British holidaymakers rush to ensure they are out of the rays by noon, it is in fact the two o'clock sun they should beware.

With the Greenwich Meridian Line running through Aragón and the Comunidad Valenciana but the country being on Central European Time (CET), the noon sun is actually at 13.00hrs in the winter.

And once British Summer Time (BST) and Central European Summer Time (CEST) come into play after the clocks are put forward, the 'noon' sun is in fact at 14.00hrs in Spain and at 13.00hrs in the UK.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com