Live News From Spain As It Happens

DINOSAURS may have reached Europe 275,000 years earlier than initially believed, according to historians studying fossils recently found in the Pyrénées of Catalunya.

What is thought to be the first-ever Lambeosaurine Hadrosaurus on the European continent has been dug up in the Els Nerets archaeological dig in Tremp, in the land-locked province of Lleida.

Researchers from the Miquel Crusafont Catalunya Palaeontology Institute (ICP) and the Conca Dellà Museum (MCD) say Lambeosaurine dinosaurs are recognisable by the large, prominent crest on the heads, which they used for communicating with each other.

The crest is hollow, and probably played a major rôle in sexual competition due to its highly-visual nature – like a peacock's feathers or a lion's mane – and it is also thought that in certain species of dinosaur, it acted as a kind of satellite to amplify the sounds the creature made.

According to the report on the finding, published in the magazine Cretaceous Research, what are now the Pyrénées, mainland Spain, Portugal and part of France formed a huge island – referred to by prehistoric experts as the 'Ibero-Armorican Island' – around 69 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian era.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LIFE expectancy in Spain has shot up to 83 years and four months, making it the highest in the EU, the second-highest on the European continent and the third-highest in the world.

Women now live to an average of 86 in Spain – an increase of two years and seven-and-a-half months since the year 2002 – and men live to 80 years and five months, an increase of four years and two-and-a-half months in that time.

Overall, life expectancy in Spain has risen by three-and-a-half years, and is expected to be just short of 86 or even 87 years and five months within the next two decades, depending upon which study is most accurate and to what extent the main causes of non-accidental death from anything other than old age can be reduced.

A breakdown by gender is not given for Spain's forecast life expectancy by the year 2040, but given the typical difference of around five-and-a-half years between them, it could be that Spanish women will be living to an average of 90 or more within the next 20 years.

According to the most recent study on life expectancy by the University of Washington State, in Seattle, aside from old age, accidents or violent crime, the top 10 causes of death in the first world are ischaemic heart failure – where the arteries narrow, preventing blood from pumping – Alzheimer's, lung cancer, strokes (both ischaemic, or a reduction in blood flow to the brain, and haemorrhagic, or an excessive bleed on the brain), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), often referred to as being 'broken-winded', bowel and colon cancer, breast cancer, suicide, and other cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, in that order.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

REAL Madrid's Xabi Alonso has been cleared of 'tax evasion' offences that saw him facing up to two-and-a-half years in prison.

Xabi, 38, who has now retired and is manager of Real Sociedad in San Sebastián (Basque Country), was accused of three counts of tax fraud relating to his income in 2010, 2011 and 2012, totalling nearly €2 million.

Along with the former midfielder, his accountant Iván Zaldúa and the director of a firm in the Portuguese island of Madeira, Ignasi Mestre, have also been acquitted.

Xabi ceded his image rights – royalties for the use of his face in publicity – to the Madeira company in 2009 and, according to the provincial court of Madrid, he took Zaldúa's advice not to declare these earnings because he 'took a more advantageous taxation structure option'.

This involved ceding his royalties for five years to the company in exchange for €5m, since taxes in Madeira are lower.

He was accused of simulating the operation in order to avoid paying taxes at all.

Although one of a long list of footballers, artists, and other top celebrities falling foul of the Spanish tax system, Xabi is the first to have been completely cleared and the only one to have refused to strike a deal with the prosecution, instead insisting on his innocence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Hot on the heels of its announced makeover of the city hall square, Valencia has revealed plans to give its huge Plaza de la Reina a major facelift.

An 'urban forest' of trees to battle the air pollution found in most large city centres, pergolas to give shade, a children's play area and geyser-type fountains that people can stand-in during the intense heat of high summer are among the ambitious changes to the giant square where Valencia's well-known cathedral and Micalet bell-tower are based.

The aim is to give a clear view of the cathedral from anywhere in the Plaza, make it pedestrian-friendly and to clean up its air.

To help with this, the square will have an underground car park with spaces for 230 cars and 52 motorcycles, a bicycle park, and electric car recharging points.

Councillor for sustainable mobility in Spain's third-largest city, Giuseppe Grezzi, says the car park will cost just under €4.8 million and the Plaza itself, nearly €7m.

Work is due to start as soon as possible, although as yet there is no fixed timescale – the contract and conditions have to be drawn up and the job put out to tender first.

Once construction begins, the square and car park will take around a year to complete.

Rubbish and recycling bins will be mostly underground, so as to avoid flies and bad smells in the heat of summer during the daytime in between nightly collections.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MUCH AS WE hate to remind you of the fact, you only have one calendar month left to get all your Christmas shopping out of the way – and, if you have a large family and a huge circle of close friends, we feel for you, because it's going to take up a lot of your time.

Although most of us, secretly or openly, enjoy the ritual of Christmas shopping – somehow, giving gifts manages to be at least as fun as receiving them.

The atmosphere in main shopping hubs will be festive and uplifting a week or two before the big day, with roasted chestnut stalls, carol singers and a giant tree – there are some elements to the Yuletide season that appear to be universal, whichever country you're in – and the supermarkets are already full of turrón (almond nougat, hard and soft) and polvorones (pastry-like cakes in powdery form, made with ground almonds, that you crush in your hand in the packet before eating so as not to make a mess).

And there are some real advantages to living in Spain when it comes to Christmas shopping – practically every store, even the smallest, will gift-wrap anything for free upon request, at any time of the year; and here, with the main present-giving happening on the night of January 5, when the Three Kings visit, as Santa Claus mostly only transports stocking-fillers from Lapland, you can take advantage of the full 12 days of Christmas when it comes to buying and delivering.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE EAGERLY-AWAITED Michelin Guide 2020 for Spain and Portugal is now in circulation after the awards ceremony on Wednesday night, which gave one restaurant in Spain its third star, six eateries their second, and made another 23 starred restaurants for the first time.

This means Spain now has 11 restaurants with three Michelin stars, although several chefs who own eateries of lower categories have this many to their names.

They include Quique Dacosta, whose eponymous restaurant in Dénia (Alicante province) has a waiting list of up to six months, although his El Poblet premises in Valencia, which has just won its second star, comes in at about a third of the price.

The only female chef with three stars is the Basque Country's Elena Arzak, and of the 25 new stars given to chefs, only two went to women – Begoña Rodrigo of La Salita, in Valencia, and María Gómez from Magoga, in Cartagena (Murcia).

Portugal did not gain any three-starred restaurants, but its newest two-star premises is Casa de Chá da Boa Nova, in Leça da Palmeira, near Oporto.

Most mere mortals, when they hear the words 'Michelin-starred' to describe a restaurant, immediately strike it off their lists unless they have a big birthday or wedding anniversary on the horizon and are prepared to empty their savings accounts. But this is where Spain does it differently: Even its three-starred joints can come in at around €150 to €200 a head, and it is perfectly possible to find meals in one- and two-starred restaurants for a two-figure sum.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

The recent London-based Wines from Spain Awards 2019 have just revealed the top 100 favourites among British experts – and three whites have been given prizes.

During a blind testing, oenologists or 'Masters of Wine', as they are known in the UK, including Tim Atkin, Peter McCombie, Richard Hemming and Victoria Burt, named three brands from as many bodegas from the 2018 crop.

And one of them is available 'on tap'.

The white which won 'best value for money' is the Castelo de Medina Verdejo 2018, from the Castelo de Medina wine merchants' and using the Verdejo grape variety.

'Best newly-discovered' white was Pansa Blanca 2018, from the Raventós de Alella bodega.

And best premium white was Malvasía Seco Colección 2018, which comes from the oldest wine merchants' in the Canary Islands – Bodegas El Grifo, in Lanzarote.

'El Grifo' translates as 'the tap', meaning the range known as 'El Grifo Seco' effectively means 'dry tap', but there is plenty of it flowing – it is one of the most-exported Spanish wines to the UK and is well-known throughout the Canary Islands and the mainland.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARCELONA is set to ban high-emission vehicles from an area 20 times the size of the so-called 'Madrid Central' traffic-free zone in the capital, starting next year.

Practically the entire city, except the industrial Zona Franca, Tibidabo, Les Planes and Vallvidrera areas, plus the suburbs and satellite towns of Sant Adrià de Besòs, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and part of Esplugues de Llobregat and Cornellà de Llobregat will form part of the new 'Low Emissions Zone' (Zona de Bajas Emisiones, or ZBE).

Deputy chairman of mobility, transport and sustainability for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), Antoni Poveda, says the ZBE will cover a whopping 95 square kilometres – compared to about five kilometres for Madrid Central, a scheme most residents in the capital support but which the newly-elected local government may not keep in force.

The oldest cars, says Poveda, will be banned from the entire ZBE between 07.00 and 20.00, Monday to Friday, except bank holidays, on pain of a minimum fine of €100.

From January 1, a three-month trial will take place so everyone has a chance to get used to the idea, but fines will start to apply from April 1.

Only cars and motorcycles are affected, since buses, coaches, lorries and vans have been given a year's stay of grace to adapt – either by finding ways to reduce their emissions, or to seek alternative routes and stay out of the city.

This is largely because it will take longer for drivers of these vehicles to change their practices, as they are mostly commercial or used for deliveries.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH and French researchers have found a place on earth where no life exists – and where nobody and nothing of any species can live.

Dr Purificación López García led the team at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) on Paris' Rue Michel Ange, where she works, and is the author of the report in the magazine Nature Ecology & Evolution.

It contradicts a study published earlier this year which claimed certain microorganisms are able to survive in 'poly-extreme environments', such as exceptionally-high levels of salt, acid or heat.

Dr López García's team has discovered that the Dallol pools in the Danakil valley of Ethiopia are impossible for any species – human, animal, plant, fungal, bacterial, or any organism whatsoever considered to be 'alive' – to survive in.

Hyper-acidic, hyper-salinated pools of extreme temperatures spread out through a volcanic crater from which toxic gases are constantly being emitted are too hostile for any type of microbial life, the report claims.

The team 'analysed many more samples' than in the previous research which claimed there was no environment on earth where some kind of life was impossible, effecting 'adequate controls' to ensure 'no cross-contamination' and a 'highly-calibrated methodology', according to Dr López García.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONLY Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are 'better' than Spanish Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz Junior, according to retired racer Nico Rosberg.

Now the only Spanish presence at the élite end of motor racing after Fernando Alonso quit a year ago, Carlos (pictured) – whose dad, of the same name, was world rally driving champion in 1990 and 1992 – has yet to win a race, but his regular top 10 placings and his recent and first podium in Brazil show he has still to reveal the full extent of his talent, Rosberg considers.

The 2016 F1 world champion – who knocked the now-legendary British driver Hamilton into second place in the standings that year – said Sainz, 25, is 'doing a great job' and having 'an incredible season'.

He is 'racking up a heap of points with team McLaren', says the German-Finnish 'chip off the old block', son of 1980s' legend Keke Rosberg.

Nico, 34, who retired less than a week after becoming world champion three years ago, says he would 'go one step further' and consider Sainz to be 'in the top four' of the strongest drivers on the grid, beaten only, in his view, by The Netherlands' Verstappen and by Hamilton, and 'on a par with' Monaco's Charles Leclerc.

Although at present, Sainz is 'quite possibly ahead' of Leclerc, and is currently 'the third-best on the circuit'.

Madrid-born Sainz, who started out in 2010 in European and Pacific Formula BMW, Rénault Formula 2.0 British Winter Series and European F3 Open, among others, kicked off his Formula 1 career in 2015 with team Toro Rosso, with whom he finished in the top 10 in 26 races over two-and-a-half seasons.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FOUR junior doctors from Sevilla on a flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires, Argentina saved a young woman's life after she began suffering convulsions three hours away from landing.

The medics, based at the Virgen de Valme Hospital, were given a standing ovation by passengers after attending to the Spanish girl until the Air Europa craft was able to land.

Given that they were over the Atlantic when the patient began fitting and stopped breathing, the pilot was unable to effect an emergency landing – but the youngster turned out to have been on the right flight for her predicament, given that she was sharing it with Dr Miguel Carreño, a trainee cardiologist, and trainee anaesthetists Dr Santiago Gómez and Dr Mario López, plus Dr Antonio Guzmán del Castillo, trainee psychiatrist.

The crew, as is normally the case when a patient falls ill in flight, put out a call over the tannoy and the four young men answered.

They worked on the girl to get her breathing again and stabilise her until they were able to land at their destination in Buenos Aires – which was, in fact, the nearest airport – and an ambulance was waiting for her on the runway.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BUDGET carrier Wizz Air is the latest to announce a new route from the Canary Islands to the UK which could help fill the gap left by long-established package tour giant Thomas Cook, following its sudden collapse in September.

The Hungarian airline, which runs 340 routes Europe-wide, currently only operates about 12 in Spain, but it is a young company with some of the newest aircraft in the industry at present.

Managing director for Wizz Air UK, Owain Jones, says the firm is 'delighted' to be able to expand its network by offering 'direct and affordable' flights to and from 'the beautiful island of Tenerife'.

“Lots of people know Tenerife for its beaches but, as always, we want our passengers to discover the other wonderful and lesser-known hidden corners of their destination – forests, volcanoes, mountains, are all waiting to be uncovered,” Jones says.

The inaugural Wizz Air flight from Luton to Tenerife South landed at exactly 16.41 on Saturday, and the island government, or Cabildo, organised a special reception for passengers and crew with a costumed parade and a free promotional kit about Tenerife which included a detailed map, playing cards with questions about their destination, and a bag of typical savoury snacks known as rosquetes.

Wizz Air's new route between Tenerife and the UK comes shortly after Jet2 announced an additional 197,000 seats from Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow to the island, as well as promising to continue increasing places available for the coming summer and for winter 2020.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WITH temperatures dropping to as low as -8ºC in the north, parts of Spain remain coated with a thick blanket of snow – not unusual between Madrid and the Pyrénées in deep winter, but exceptionally rare for the first half of November.

Whilst the Mediterranean is chilly at night and 'coat weather' but not yet 'bracing' – colder than usual for the time of year – nearly a foot of snow has been seen in parts of the northern third of the mainland, and not just at high altitudes.

Spectacular photo footage that resembles central Europe in early February has yet to rival the snowmen on the beaches in Dénia and Jávea (Alicante province) seen in the winter of 2016-2017 – the first time this had happened since 1983 – but has certainly made a few viewers further south feel chilled looking at them, and will have left smiles on kids' faces as they got the day off school to go sledging and stage snowball fights.

IN WHAT IS probably the largest social research project ever, La Caixa bank has released the answer to a question not many of us would have thought to ask – how many people does each of us know? Not just friends and family, or even close acquaintances, but the staff from our nearest bars and restaurants, from the supermarket, the dry cleaner's, or the regular customers we share a queue with or stand at a bus stop with. Basically, anyone we've ever spoken to more than once.

According to the Social Observatory, part of La Caixa's charity and culture foundation, the average person in Spain knows 536 other people. This includes people they have not seen or heard from for many years, but who, perhaps, are contacts on Facebook, or those they bump into regularly.

But when it comes to our close circle – friends, family and the closest of our acquaintances – the average is just 23.

It could be this means we potentially have another 513 people we've already broken the ice with and who could become our friends – although that figure is likely to include those who really annoy us or whom we try to avoid.

Across the board, most people know between 300 and 600 people; those who know just 200 or around 600 make up fewer than 10%, and those who know fewer than 100 or around 1,200 make up only 3%.

At the opposite end of the scale, very few residents in Spain know as many as 2,000 – below 1% - and although the very odd occasional respondent turned out to know 6,000 or more, this is extremely rare and few enough cases that could probably be counted by hand.

Gender and social situation

Men, on average, know about 50 more people than women – and the figures for Spain are not, apparently, unusual: so far, this same research has only ever been carried out in the USA, where the average person knows 550 other people.

To this end, it seems the cultural environment does not make a huge difference, but educational level, apparently, does: those with at least further education or sixth-form studies know fewer people than those with degree-level qualifications and more than those with only compulsory high-school education; those who have trained or studied formal qualifications since age 16 know an average of 600 people, compared with those who have not, who know an average of 400.

Of course, the average fluctuates according to where we live, although only the extremes have been reported in detail – those living in almost total rural isolation compared with those living on bustling urbanisations – but it is not necessarily the case that those who live in small villages know fewer people than those in big cities; the former are, especially in Spain, often close-knit communities where everyone knows each other by nickname only and where mail is addressed to residents care of the local bar, whereas a huge metropolitan area, like in any country, can be somewhat impersonal.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

POSTAL votes from overseas have now been counted, changing the election results from Sunday – the right-wing PP has gained another seat, giving it 89, and the Basque National Party (PNV) has lost one, dropping to six.

This makes life a little more difficult for the PSOE's Pedro Sánchez who, with 120 seats out of the total of 350 and with 176 needed for a majority, needs to find an additional vote in his favour to replace the outgoing PNV MP.

With 35 now guaranteed from left-wing Unidas Podemos thanks to a coalition agreement struck on Tuesday, plus another certainty from the Cantabria Regional Party's lone MP and five highly likely from Más País!, the Galicia National Bloc (BNG), and Teruel Existe, this gives Sánchez 161, but with the PNV's having dropped from seven to six, the 'definites' now only total 167.

Even if the Basque reunification party, EH-Bildu's five MPs and the two from the Canarian Coalition agree to vote for Sánchez, he will still only have 174 in favour and be two short.

This is likely to mean he will have to convince the Catalunya separatist parties, who total 23 MPs, to at least abstain from voting in the second round, where only a simple majority in favour is needed – but the largest of the three pro-independence outfits, the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), with 13, have already said they want an amnesty for their jailed politicians in exchange.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SCHOOLGIRL climate change activist Greta Thunberg is on her way to Spain from the USA in a yacht belonging to millionaire YouTubers after putting out a Twitter appeal for transport.

The 16-year-old refuses to use air transport wherever she goes because of the high emissions generated by aeroplanes, which contribute to climate change by trapping warm air within the atmosphere inside a 'coating' of CO2 and NOx (carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide).

She took two weeks to get to New York from Sweden to attend the United Nations Climate Change Summit, and is now aiming to get to Madrid by early December for the next leg of the Summit at the IFEMA exhibition centre.

Greta had remained in the USA after the September meeting, since the next was due to be held in Santiago de Chile – but the president of the Andean nation pulled out due to mass protests over living costs and conditions.

“So happy to say I'll hopefully make it to the COP25 in Madrid,” Greta announced on Twitter, along with a photo of Australians Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu, owners of the solar- and wind-powered yacht, and their baby son, plus the captain, Brit Nikki Henderson.

“I've been offered a ride from Virginia on the 48-foot catamaran La Vagabonde.

“Australians @Sailing_LaVaga, Elayna Carausu & @NikkiHenderson from England will take me across the Atlantic.

“We sail for Europe tomorrow morning!”

Her tweet was published just after midnight today local time, meaning she is now on the water and expects to be on Spanish soil within about a fortnight.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FULL details of the agreement between the PSOE and Unidas Podemos will not be released for a few days or possibly weeks as those present fine-tune it, but it will be based upon 10 key points Unidas Podemos and the PSOE want to use as their foundation for a 'progressive government'.

They include strengthening growth and job creation – eliminating the 'temporary contract culture' from the job market and guaranteeing meaningful, quality, stable and well-paid employment; working for regeneration and fighting against corruption, by protecting public services, especially education, with free nursery places guaranteed for all children from birth to age three, plus public healthcare and elderly care, guaranteeing pensions for life and index-linking them to reflect real living costs, investing in science as a 'vehicle for economic intervention' and improving working conditions in the industry, encouraging talented Spanish emigrants to return, treating residential property as 'a right, not mere merchandise', and controlling the 'expansion of gambling centres'.

These cover the first two; number three deals with fighting climate change, protecting biodiversity, and guaranteeing animals are properly treated, whilst number four focuses on strengthening small and medium-sized businesses and on the self-employed, boosting 're-industrialisation' and 'the primary sector', increasing digitalisation, and providing the tools for 'creation of wealth, wellbeing and employment'.

Five is concerned with 'approving new rights' which 'increase the recognition of human dignity', such as the right to 'die with dignity', euthanasia, protecting diversity, and protecting historic memory.

Six 'guarantees culture as a right' and seeks to 'combat the precarious nature of the industry', promote sports as a tool for health and wellbeing, quality of life, and integration, and seven deals with feminist policies: keeping women safe, independent and free, especially in the face of gender violence, closing the gender pay gap, drawing up a labour equality law, ending human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and equal maternity and paternity leave periods which cannot be transferred between parents.

The southern Aragón party Teruel Existe is likely to approve of number eight, which deals with reversing the increasing population decline in rural areas by providing proper modern services; and number 10 covers 'fiscal justice' and 'budget balance', or evaluating and monitoring public spending to 'ensure a solid and lasting welfare State'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MAJOR drive to attract and keep British tourists is at the heart of a €650,000 investment by the Comunidad Valenciana regional government, which started off with its stand at London's World Travel Market (WTM) trade fair a week ago and is set to continue in the UK capital next month.

A new campaign and slogan has been devised (pictured above), one showing a smiling couple on a sunny balcony and others with tourists on beaches, with the wording, in English: “Time goes by, but some things always stay the same, like home,” and the catch-phrase, “Always Brit Friendly.”

Regional tourism secretary Francesc Colomer says their aim is to convince Brits that they will always be welcome, 'whatever happens with Brexit', and that they can 'feel safe, well and worry-free in the Comunidad Valenciana'.

Now the WTM has finished, Colomer's team is planning a 'huge publicity event' in London on December 3, as well as 'other actions' – as yet undefined – to 'attempt to diversify the offer' within the British market and 'seek out new segments'.

Indeed, as well as enjoying some of the best year-round climate in Spain and at least four months of beach weather per year, the Comunidad Valenciana offers breathtakingly-beautiful scenery and a host of other attractions suitable for families and for culture vultures alike.

Whilst the campaign is aimed at the three provinces of Castellón, Valencia and Alicante as a whole, it is focusing more on the latter of these – which is arguably the most touristy – and especially its coastline, known as the Costa Blanca, and its long-standing 'Brit-magnet' Benidorm, which was one of Spain's first-ever towns that opened up to international tourism in the 20^th century and was initially the first or even only parts of the country British travellers would have seen in the 1960s and 1970s.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THREE chunks of the Berlin Wall have been on display in a Madrid park for exactly 29 years – but the day before they were unveiled, council workers started cleaning the original graffiti off them by mistake.

Saturday was the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the start of the reunification of the 'two Germanies', on November 9, 1989 – a moment for great celebration across Europe, including in Spain, according to José María Álvarez de Manzano.

Now 82, he was mayor of Madrid between 1991 and 2003 and, the year before he gained power, helped out his predecessor, Agustín Rodríguez Sahagún, in setting up the pieces of the wall in what is now known as Berlin Park.

“From the start, it had a tremendous impact,” admits Álvarez de Manzano.

“So many people went to see them out of curiosity.

“It was really intriguing, knowing we had a piece of the Berlin Wall right here in Madrid, and the people of Madrid were fully in support of the idea of what the wall's coming down really meant.”

The three pieces, now made into a fountain (pictured above), cost nine million pesetas to acquire and ship over - €54,000 – and the city hall was due to cut the red tape on them in a public ceremony on November 9, 1990, the day of the first anniversary.

But on November 8, 1990, Álvarez del Manzano – who was deputy mayor to Sahagún – got a panicked call from the head of city cleaning services.

Council technicians were, reportedly, scrubbing off the graffiti, believing it to have been the recent work of local vandals rather than the historic spray-painted messages left by the separated citizens of East and West Germany.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OVER 300 Spaniards who did not intend to vote yesterday (Sunday) 'donated' their ballot to another 300 foreign residents, many of whom are children born in Spain to expat parents.

The campaign was set up by Safia El-Aaddam, who is in her early 20s and born in Spain to a Moroccan couple who had emigrated there.

She condemns the 'institutional racism' that exists in practically every country and which prevents anyone other than a national from voting in a general election.

Safia is one of thousands of young adults born in Spain but who do not have Spanish nationality because of the 'delays, red tape and cost' that she and others like her face when attempting to become citizens.

It costs around €1,000 to become a Spanish citizen, and proof of residence exceeding 10 years – two for those married to a Spaniard or a native of a former colony or of Portugal – must be supplied along with reports from police to show a clean record, and two exams passed.

These are not too onerous – the Spanish language test is at level A2, about the equivalent of a good O-level or GCSE standard, and the 'culture, law and society' exam is 25 multiple-choice questions, of which at least 15 must be answered correctly.

But Safia, who has been trying to obtain Spanish nationality since she was 18, says she flatly refuses to take exams proving she speaks the language of and knows the basics about the only country she has ever lived in, 'on principle'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PEDRO Sánchez's socialist (PSOE) party has once again won the most votes in yesterday's (Sunday's) general election, although as predicted, short of an outright majority.

The PSOE now holds 120 seats out of 350 – for a majority, they would have needed an unlikely 176, and although forcing Spain back to the polls for the second time in six months was bound to take its toll on the party, the reduction from 123 seats is not major.

But it does mean Sánchez will need to be much more open this time around to striking deals with other left-wing parties since, as opposition team with similar values to the PSOE's point out, the country would not forgive him if he made them vote a third time.

And, as Unidos Podemos' Pablo Iglesias said in his post-results speech, what had been a 'historic opportunity' in April of 'creating a progressive government' has now become 'a historic necessity', since it is 'the only way to keep the far-right out'.

Centre-right Ciudadanos' change in direction seen in April has taken its toll, with Albert Rivera's party losing a whopping 47 seats, dropping to just 10 and seeing it plunge from the third political force in Spain to the sixth, just two seats above pro-independence liberals Junts Per Catalunya (JxCAT) and three more than the Basque National Party (PNV).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BY TONIGHT, we will once again know which political party has won the most seats in the fourth general election in as many years – but we probably won't know who will be in government for the next four. The upsurge in independent parties – with four major contenders now on the scene who were either unheard of or did not exist in the 2011 elections, the last to end with a definitive result – general elections in Spain are no longer a straight contest between the 'Big Two', the left-wing socialists, or PSOE, and the right-wing Popular Party, or PP.

This is exactly what has led to hung Parliaments since the November 2015 election, which ended inconclusively and sparked a repeat in spring 2016.

After this, and to avoid taking Spain to the polls for a third time, PP leader Mariano Rajoy was reluctantly given licence to reign again by the opposition subject to numerous caveats; when these conditions came undone, a no-confidence vote by PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez in June 2018 put him into power, but with the smallest minority a national government has ever seen.

Such a small minority, in fact – just over a quarter of the available 350 seats in Parliament – that Sánchez was unable to gain enough support from the opposition for his budget, forcing him to call a general election in April this year to give him a mandate to rule effectively.

Sánchez's presence in Parliament dramatically increased, to 123 seats, but the inability of the left-wing parties to reach an agreement meant he did not have enough support from the opposition to get him back into power, resulting in a repeat election, taking place today (Sunday, November 10).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ASTRONOMERS need a name for a giant star similar to our sun and the huge gaseous planet which orbits it – so they have asked the public to help out.

Voters from each of the countries involved with the International Astronomical Union (IAU) are urged to choose one of 12 pairs of names, the shortlist of the most popular from every nation will be drawn up and the overall world winner announced in mid-December.

If you're in Spain, you have until Tuesday, November 12 to cast your vote on the website Name ExoPlanets, choosing from the list of pairs devised by the Canarian Astrophysics Institute's Dr Ricardo Dorda.

“Given how close the star and the planet are, and yet their absence of contact, the idea is to name them after a famous pair from history who never got together,” the researcher says.

Ideas come from nature, ancient civilisation, historical events, mythology, legends and literature – and at the moment, the most popular seems to be the names of the Lovers of Teruel, Isabel and Diego, whose 'closeness without touching' would make them ideal candidates.

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SCOTTISH authorities have 'refused' to extradite Dr Clara Ponsatí over her role in the Catalunya independence procedures after receiving a translated European Arrest Warrant (EAW) today, according to Spain's interior ministry, although The National Scot reports that it has not given an outright 'no', merely sought 'clarity'.

Following the Supreme Court's verdict over the disputed referendum of October 1, 2017, which has led to prison sentences of between nine and 13 years for the regional politicians behind the move – and mass protests in the streets of Catalunya's main cities – a EAW against its exiled cabinet has been resuscitated after twice having been cancelled.

Belgian authorities have been ordered to extradite the regional leader at the time, Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in Waterloo for the past two years, and an order has been received to do likewise with Dr Ponsatí, who initially fled to Belgium with Puigdemont and three other regional ministers but then moved on to Edinburgh.

Before becoming regional politician – minister for education – in Catalunya, a role she held for barely a year, Clara had been head of studies and professor of economics at the prestigious St Andrews' University, whose alumni include Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge.

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WINTER is about to hit Spain any day now – in fact, the first snows have fallen at high altitudes in the north.

After an Indian summer with Hallowe'en bringing almost beach temperatures on the Mediterranean, the high winds in the area that followed are likely to return between today (Thursday) and the weekend, whilst heavy rain is forecast for the northern coastal strip.

An Atlantic front hitting the north-west first will gradually drift south-east, bringing with it a significant fall in temperatures and snow at lower altitudes.

Already, snow has been reported at 1,500 metres above sea-level, mostly in the Pyrénées, which means ski resorts could open early this year.

In Aragón's Pyrénéen province of Huesca, over 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow appeared overnight in Candanchú, one of the area's main ski resort towns, and at higher altitudes, this could rise to 50 centimetres or more (about 1'8”).

Asturias awoke this morning to see white peaks, and in the next few hours, snow could be seen at altitudes of just 1,000 metres above sea-level.

Skiing fans in Asturias and Cantabria are reportedly getting their gloves and goggles out ready to hit the slopes for the first time this year since March.

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BRITISH low-cost airline Jet2 has announced plans to open a base at Tenerife South airport, which will increase seats for passengers from the central regional terminal by around 330,000.

During low season, about 200,000 seats will be offered, rising to 330,000 in summer, nearly doubling the number available across airlines throughout the islands, which will rise to 773,000 in winter alone.

Canary Island regional tourism minister Yaiza Castilla calls this 'great news', since it will mean a total of 1.8 million flight seats available to and from the archipelago year-round.

Of these, 1.1 million will be Jet2 passengers between April and October 2020, not counting the rest of the year, Sra Castilla said following a meeting she and regional president Ángel Víctor Torres held at London's World Travel Market (WTM) with Jet2's managing director for airports and tourism organisations, Janice Matter, and head of business development, Ian Doubtire.

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PRINCESS Leonor earned a standing ovation for her speech last night at the second round of awards named after her – the Princess of Girona prizegiving ceremony in, not Girona, but Barcelona.

Leonor (in red in the picture), who turned 14 just six days ago, prepared and delivered her second public speech in her short career as direct heir to the throne – the previous one being the recent Princess of Asturias Awards, Spain's answer to the Nobel Prizes.

Although her 'main' title is Princess of Asturias, she is also known as the Princess of Girona, and the awards bearing this name are for young people, aged between 16 and 35, who have started a business or social organisation which shows creativity and positive change in society, and especially where it has involved a high level of risk or difficulty.

The Social Award goes to young entrepreneurs whose projects encourage integration of marginalised groups, minorities, or those at risk of social exclusion, and this year's went to Begoña Arana Álvarez for her 'social commitment from a very young age'.

The Scientific Research Award went to Xavier Ros-Oton, considered 'one of the most brilliant mathematicians and with the greatest global impact in his age group'.

Rafael Rodríguez Villalobos won the Arts and Letters Award for his 'ability to create universes of profound artistic attraction' and for his 'vision of the opera as a tool for social construction'.

The Business Award goes to young adults with a real, viable and original project, and this was presented to Ignacio Hernández Medrano for his having 'made medical and scientific information democratic and accessible to millions of patients via artificial intelligence'.

Finally, the International Award, which often goes to a winner from outside of Spain for their outstanding work on a global scale, was taken by María Jammal for her 'excellent work as co-founder and managing director of Humanity Crew, an organisation that creates solutions for mental health problems suffered by refugees'.

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GROCERY and household shopping habits tend to be subjective – a peek into anyone's basket is said to tell the viewer a lot about the consumer's lifestyle – although, in Spain, one's choice of supermarket does not tend to reflect income or social class in the same way as in the UK.

For that reason, it's easy to believe each and every store is similar in terms of choice, range, quality and price – although national consumer organisation OCU has revealed this is not always the case. Whilst those of a certain typology tend to try to compete on price – and, more recently, social responsibility, looking at ways of beating their 'rivals' in cutting down on disposable plastic above and beyond what the law dictates – and certain stores are attempting to maximise their own brands, creating products which are at least as effective as those retailing elsewhere, it turns out the differences between supermarkets in Spain are greater than we thought.

Many shoppers will already tell you they have to visit several stores to get everything they need, or want, meaning customers tend less to have a particular favourite; otherwise, most will admit they merely go to their nearest one.

But the OCU's detailed study has revealed we can save hundreds, if not thousands, of euros by shopping around – and that sometimes, how much we shell out on our groceries is a postcode lottery.

Naturally, price isn't everything. Even knowing that we can cut our annual shopping bill by switching stores, we're not necessarily going to do so. Some have products we specifically need whilst others don't, or some have goods we prefer, and some are simply closer to home – there's little point in saving a few euros at the till if you're going to spend them all, and more, in petrol. Also, as anyone who owns – or is owned by – cats, dogs or other animals knows, however cheap a given brand of pet food is, you can't always persuade them to eat it. Most pets aren't going to let you shop around for their own groceries just so you can afford more stuff for yourself. But if saving money on human food is one of your priorities, the OCU's findings are helpful to bear in mind.

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WHAT IS SET to be one of Spain's shortest-ever general election campaigns has officially got off the ground – and, as is always the case, the second the clock struck midnight on the last day of October, political parties were ready to go with their poster-sticking, since they are not allowed by law to do so until the campaign period begins.

Since the last, effectively, bipartite election campaign at the end of 2011, real contenders for leadership have been growing in number all the time – the right-wing PP and current reigning left-leaning PSOE (socialists) had stopped competing just against each other by the time of the 2015 vote; centre-right Ciudadanos and left-wing independents Podemos, running in coalition with United Left as Unidos Podemos, had burst onto the scene with the latter coming from nowhere to net five European Parliament seats in 2014.

The far right in the shape of Vox – which had been in the background for a long time but never achieved Parliamentary representation – appeared as a very real source of competition in the elections in April, which the PSOE's Pedro Sánchez had called to seek a mandate for governing after just 10 months in power following a no-confidence vote against the reigning PP due to widespread corruption charges against high-ranking members.

Now, the five has grown to six, with Podemos breakaway group Más País! ('More Country'), led by former member Íñigo Errejón expected to win at least a handful of seats with his pro-social policies that include a 32-hour working week instead of the current 40 hours and a minimum wage and State pension of €1,200 a month.

Styling themselves as more moderate left than Podemos but further left than the PSOE, the party's leader was in Cádiz this evening for his first-ever political rally as a presidential candidate.

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