Spanish Shilling

At Business over Tapas, the subject of fake-news, media manipulation, lawfare and assorted bulos is often raised. The perpetrators are always the same. The target is always the same. Only the methods vary.

They can’t attack the Government on the economy – it’s the second highest growth in the Western world – so they must attack with invention, insults and calumny. Knife in the back stuff.

José María Aznar said in November last year in reaction to the new government: ‘"What can be done? Well, he who can speak, let him speak. He who can do, let him do. He who can contribute, let him contribute. He who can move, let him move. He who can try..." Just like that Aznar spoke directly and without a shadow of shame just after declaring Sánchez "a danger to Spanish democracy", with Feijóo sitting just next to him’.

One wonders what they want. Could they maybe do better and make Spain the strongest economy in the world? The last PP president Mariano Rajoy certainly couldn’t.

So we come to Pedro Sánchez and his bombshell last Wednesday evening: Sick of the attacks against him – and more importantly, against his wife, he threatened to quit come Monday.

Monday rolling around after a nail-biting five-day wait, with large demos calling on Pedro to stay, the president announced that he would follow the wishes of the electorate (well, slightly over half of it anyway), and stay on.

The straw that almost broke the donkey’s back had been the unfounded attack on his wife by Manos Limpias, a far-right organisation remembered without pleasure as being the creators of the fake PISA scandal (Pablo Iglesias and his supposed fortune in a Venezuelan bank).

Over the weekend, the PSOE allies in the Government had come out to back Pedro Sánchez, with the general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi, denouncing the “permanent lawfare” within the Spanish judicial system and the attempt to turn Pedro Sánchez into “little less than a criminal and a traitor who makes agreements with people of all kinds”.

The drama also coincided with the first few days of the Catalonian political campaign, leaving that important subject to an inner page.

There are a lot of dodgy journalists, scriveners and hacks, plus any number of bloggers and youtubers who will invent fake news, post inflammatory opinion or who simply write what they are told to. For example, the Tweet seen by 110,000 (Saturday) from one Alberto Caliu: ‘Pedro Sánchez should be arrested along with his wife and all of his government and partners and imprisoned, preferably without a trial’.

We remember how hostile invention got the better of both President Lula in Brazil, and President Silva in Portugal. In France, Macron is suing some ‘conservative commentator’ who claims that his wife is really a man. We certainly have seen the effect of these scurrilous attacks from the right and far-right in Spain with a number of honest politicians forced to resign through judiciously inserted false and misleading news.

Or are the Russians ultimately behind all of this deception?

At the same time, most reporters are honourable and working to find the news where and how it may come out; and several hundreds of them, plus many others, signed a letter on Friday calling for the end of ‘The Mud Machine’. Meanwhile, without backing down, Manos Limpias admitted on Friday that their complaint against Begoña Gómez ‘may be based on false information’.

The Corner, a conservative Spanish web-site, says ‘The PSOE denies the evidence and backs Pedro Sánchez, who, surrounded by corruption, speaks of “harassment” and lashes out against the right, the ultra-right, the judges, the press…’

And of course we believe what we want to believe, without allowing facts or common sense to get in the way.

In the days to come, the upset over this past weekend will be measured against its impact on both the Catalonian and the European elections – both by proper journalists and observers and also, inevitably, by the fantasists and the flat-earthers. 

A far-right agency called Manos Limpias has denounced the wife of the President of Spain for corruption (using newspaper-cuttings as proof). The Court, surprisingly, has taken up the charge.
Pedro Sánchez said late on Wednesday that he had had enough of the bulos and attacks from the far-right and is considering resigning as president.
His final decision on Monday.

I wrote about the background to this in my Business over Tapas weekly bulletin - 

‘The spreader of fake-news Pilar Baselga, a regular in the far-right media and circles, availed herself last week of her right to not testify before the judge investigating the falsehood she launched in November 2022, when she said that Begoña Gómez, the wife of Pedro Sánchez, is a transsexual and was part of a drug trafficking network. As elDiario.es has learned from sources familiar with the statement before a Madrid magistrate, Baselga has now preferred to remain silent…’ Nevertheless, and despite the above, Manos Limpias (a far-right Christian agitator group) has successfully managed to find a judge able to launch an inquiry into Begoña Gómez for corruption. Pedro Sánchez said in the Cortes on Wednesday that “Despite the news that I have just received, despite everything, I continue to believe in the justice-system of my country”.

......

But late on Wednesday Pedro Sánchez said that he was cancelling his engagements for the next few days and would give his answer on Monday.

He has written a letter to the Spanish public - 

 Madrid, April 24, 2024
Letter to Citizens
It is not usual for me to address you through a letter. However, the severity of the attacks that my wife and I are receiving, and the need to give a calm response, make me think that this is the best way to express my opinion. I thank you, therefore, for taking a little
of your time to read these lines.
As you may already know, a court in Madrid has opened proceedings of charges against my wife, Begoña Gómez, at the request of a far-right organization called Manos Limpias, to investigate alleged crimes of influence peddling and corruption in business.
Apparently, the judge will call those responsible from two digital newspapers that have been publishing on this matter to testify. In my opinion, they are media with a marked right-wing and ultra-right orientation (El Objectivo and probably OKDiario - Lenox). Logically, Begoña will defend her honour and will collaborate with Justice in everything required to clarify facts that are as scandalous in appearance as they are non-existent.
In effect, the complaint by Manos Limpias is based on alleged information from that constellation of ultraconservative headlines referred to above. I emphasize the 'supposed information' because, after its publication, we have gone to some length in denying the falsehoods expressed at the time while Begoña has undertaken legal actions so that these same digital companies rectify what, we maintain, are spurious information.
This strategy of harassment and demolition has been going on for months. Therefore, I am not surprised by the overacting of Sr. Feijóo (PP leader) and Sr. Abascal (Vox leader). In this outrage which is as serious as it is crude, both are necessary collaborators with the far-right digital 'news' galaxy and the Manos Limpias organization. In fact, it was Mr. Feijóo who reported the case to the Office of Conflicts of Interest, calling for me to be disqualified from holding public office for 5 to 10 years.
The complaint was filed twice by said organization, whose officials were later disqualified by the leadership of both the PP and Vox.
Next, they exploited their conservative majority in the Senate promoting a commission of investigation to, as they say, clarify the facts related to this matter. Logically, judicialization was lacking in the case. This is the step they have just taken.
In short, it is a harassment and demolition operation by land, sea and air to try to weaken me politically and personally by attacking my wife.
I'm not naive. I am aware that Begoña is being denounced not because she has done something illegal, they know there is no case, except for being my wife. As I am also fully aware that the attacks I suffer are not my fault as a person but what I represent: a progressive political option, supported election after election by millions of Spaniards, based on economic progress, social justice and democratic regeneration.
This fight started years ago. First, with the defence that we made of the political autonomy of the organization that best represents a progressive Spain:  the Socialist Party. A fight that we won. Second, after the motion of censure and the successive electoral victories of 2019, the sustained attempt to delegitimise the progressive coalition government in the heat of the ignominious meme of  '¡Que te vote Txapote!'. That couldn't break us either.
The last episode was the general elections of July 23, 2023.
The Spanish people voted overwhelmingly for progress, allowing the return of a progressive coalition government, against the coalition government of Sr. Feijóo and Sr. Abascal that the conservative media and demographic batteries predicted.
Democracy spoke, but the right and the extreme right, again, did not accept the electoral result. They were aware that political attacks would not be enough and now they have crossed the line of respect for the family life of a President of the Government and attacks on his personal life.
Without any embarrassment, Sr. Feijóo and Sr. Abascal, and the interests that they
move, have set in motion what the great Italian writer, Umberto Eco, called "the mud machine". That is, trying to dehumanize and delegitimise their political adversary through accusations that are as scandalous as they are false.
This is my reading of the situation that our beloved country is experiencing: a coalition of
right-wing and ultra-right interests that do not tolerate the reality of Spain, that do not accept the verdict of the polls, and that are willing to spread mud to: first, cover up their obvious corruption scandals and inaction before them; second, hide their total absence of a more political project beyond insults and misinformation; and third, to use any means at their disposal to reach and personally and politically destroy their political adversary. This is all about a coalition of right-wing and far-right interests that extends across the main Western democracies, and to which, I guarantee, I will always respond with reason, truth and education.
At this point, the question I legitimately ask myself is, is it worth all this? Sincerely I don't know. This attack is unprecedented, it is so serious and so gross that I need to stop and reflect with my wife. Many times we forget that behind the politicians there are people And I, it doesn't make me blush to say it, I am a man deeply in love with my wife who suffers with her the impotence of the mud that they spread on her day in and day out. I need to stop and reflect. I urgently need to answer the question of whether it is worth it, despite the mud into which the right and the extreme right try to turn politics into. My doubt is whether I should continue at the head of the Government or resign from this high honour. Despite the caricature that the right and the extreme right in politics and the media have tried to make of me, I have never been attached to the position. Yes I have it to duty, to political commitment and public service. I do not go through positions, I assert the legitimacy of those high responsibilities to transform and advance the country that I love.
All of this leads me to tell you that I will continue working, but that I will cancel my public agenda for a few days so I can reflect and decide which path to take. Next Monday, April 29, I will appear before the media and announce my decision.
Thanks for your time. Sincerely,
Pedro Sanchez

I was reading Laurie Lee, who left the UK at the age of 19 to walk across Spain from Vigo to Almuñecar, a town outside Málaga, back in 1935. All he had with him was a violin, and he lived by begging for his keep.

A peseta, a piece of fruit, a glass of brandy (it was cheap in those days), anything for a merry tune from his fiddle. He managed the trick and wrote his ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’, a book which ends with his rescue by a British naval vessel out of Gibraltar just as the uprising by the Nationalists starts in July 1936: the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

But we were talking about begging. Laurie Lee would play the tunes that worked the best with his audience, and knew to leave a few copper pennies in his open cap pour encourager les autres. He hadn’t caught on to the idea of looking sad and tragic, nor sitting slumped outside a supermarket, nor indeed of having a doggy to hand to awaken the charity of – at least - the British passers-by.

I look at these wretches – they are the same ones, at the same exits to the food-stores until death they do part – and think, if that was me sat on a cushion, staring tragically at my coppers in a plastic box, would they, passing by in my place, leave me a few pennies out of charity? Probably not.

But how to increase the yield? One American I knew told me he would wear a suit when begging, after all, how can you give a small coin to a panhandler dressed like a bank manager?

Another thing for beggars to know – never whip out an iPhone for a bit of quiet surfing. It sends the wrong message to the punters.

My late wife would say that she would only give to those beggars who were doing something. Like standing on their head or playing an instrument (happily, she never saw that Romanian who used to perform ‘Spanish Eyes’ over and over again, being the only tune he’d ever learned to play on the accordion).

Did you ever see the routine with a goat, a step-ladder, a trumpet player and a gypsy? Now that’s worth a few coins I reckon.

My favourite beggar of all is El Llorón, a man who lurks near the Granada cathedral and can turn on the water-works at will. This weeping fellow fires off a series of mournful shrieks as he thrusts his cap at you, evidently far too upset to give you the reason why, and then he joins his mates for a smoke and a laugh around the corner.

Most tiresome are the gypsy ladies – we are still in Granada – who pin a cutting of rosemary onto your shirt ‘for luck’ and then attempt to charge you for the trick.

In the resorts, most of the beggars appear to be Eastern-European. At least, in my local supermarket, each and every exit has its very own pordiosero (and for all I know, there’s one stationed outside the lavatory window).

‘How is Piotr doing over there in Spain?’

‘Yes, he has found a secure position in one of their food-stores’.

I’m sure most of them are nice, except for that bad-tempered fat lady who always shrieks invective at me when I pass her.

But I think I have more time for the tramps; although, come to think of it, I rarely see more of them than just the occasional glimpse of their legs sticking out of a full and indubitably ripe container.

I saw one of our beggars at the check-out the other day, buying three beers with a handful of one and two cent coins which were solemnly counted out by both him and the sales-girl. That fellow’s been sitting outside the door in the same patch for years; I mean, for all I know by now he’s on the town hall’s padrón. Perhaps he’s generally too drunk to stand.

I was next in the queue behind him looking impatient and going ‘tut tut’, while er, holding a six-pack and a bottle of vodka.

The writer Laurie Lee later went back to Spain, crossing over the Pyrenees in 1937 to join the International Brigades and fight on the Republican side. And yes, he took his violin with him.

Sad to say, most of those who live through begging these days don’t appear to have the same urge to give anything back.

We’ve looked at the incipient turismofobia, as a mixture of the usual dislike and enviousness shown towards the apparently wealthy foreign tourists, who sometimes appear to under-appreciate this wonderful country (and are -whoops!- sometimes sick in the garden).

But it’s a great business – they bring money – 13% of the GDP comes from the trippers – and in return, they go home again with empty pockets, a sun-burn and a hangover. Not a bad exchange, all in all.

Not that the trickle-down-system necessarily works in this case for everyone. Some areas get a lot of visitors, and others, of course, don’t. Some folk make some good money from tourism, and most of the rest of society – needless to say – doesn’t. Indeed, all they seem to get is the inconvenience.

The Canary and Balearics have it the worst, because one can only pack so many peas into a jar.

For the islanders, thanks to the huge number of visitors, there’s high demand for a dwelling, a lack of affordable homes on offer, ever-more tourist apartments (they pay better), more and more short-lets, shortages, queues and of course legions of guiris understandably out for a good time… bringing scary news items like ‘Lanzarote on brink of collapse as tourists overwhelm small island and exploit resources’, ‘Ibiza locals living in cars as party island sees rents soar’ and ‘Protesters in the Canary Islands on hunger strike over mass tourism’. And there’s nowhere to go, beyond living in a cave, a hut or a van, or the incredible bother of flying over, daily, from the mainland. We learn that if you really want a cheap place to sleep, then there’s always ‘The most surreal (and precarious) rentals offered in the Canary Islands, from shacks to mattresses in parked cars’.

Not that the problems of high-rents, scarcity and being pushed to the back don’t occur elsewhere. An article in El País is titled ‘A journey through Spain with the victims of voracious tourism: “I can't take it anymore”. Residents from Cádiz, Palma, San Sebastian or Tenerife explain how their lives have worsened due to the rise of tourist apartments, the filth in the streets and the collapse of public and private services’. In Barcelona, someone is telling the local radio, ‘in our block there are 33 ATs (tourist-lets), and there’s noise, dirt and vomit’. The plan is to build more short-term apartments – because they produce better income for the owners (which, as often as not, turns out to be a vulture-fund). One detail in the story is of a resident who saw 28 people come out of a tourist-apartment one morning (after an understandably noisy night). And because they are short-term – maybe just a day or two – they don’t care much if they break or trash something…  

In my local tourist town, you can rent only until May, when the landlord will start looking for some Booking or AirBnb mini-breaks.

So where do you go until the low-season returns?

In Madrid, the national government talks of building more affordable apartment blocks, while threatening to clear out the worst barrios of an excess of ATs.

In metropolitan Valencia, there are twice as many tourist-lets as regular rentals.

In Seville, a local association complains about the bars and restaurants occupying the pavement with their ‘terrazas’, the endless special city-hall ‘events’ designed to bring in visitors (the current Feria de Abril), and of course, the tourist-apartments.

It can be annoying when hotels are allowed full swimming pools, but – due to water restrictions – residents living in community-blocks are in doubt. The good people of Málaga are not amused.

Maybe we could go swim at the hotels – it’s only fair…

Perhaps, say some visionaries, we could create a new tourist destination to ease the pressure on the current ones: a ‘New Ibiza’ in Cantabria.

Don’t laugh, they’ve already bought the land.  

The BBC says that ‘Activists have begun a hunger strike on the island of Tenerife, in protest at what they see as the destructive growth of tourism on the Canary Islands. Protesters are calling for a halt to the construction of a hotel and a beach resort in the south of the island’.

The answers to all this are inevitably to curtail the number of short-term apartment lets and to build more housing to become available for residents. Furthermore, to raise hotel prices (more wealthier tourists, less cheap holidays); apply ‘eco-taxes’ in high density resorts, show some respect towards local residents (priority parking stickers as an obvious example) and – above all – relief of the 90/180 day rule – being those long term tourists who generally own their own home (and in six months will evidently be spending a lot more than the brief visit by a holiday-maker).

Short-term apartments are fine in a rural tourism setting, but not so much in the city.

A graffiti on a wall in Madrid: ‘Fuck BNB, save the Barrio’.

Right now, the season is only just starting…

Is it a case of sore losers, or of opportunities lost? Could it (possibly) be simple belief in their superior powers of management?

Would, in short, Spain be a better place with a conservative/far-right government than the current weak mix-and-match of Pedro Sánchez?

Judge with the examples of the regions of Castilla y León, Valencia, Extremadura and Aragón, where in some cases – inevitably – the tail wags the dog. The PP needs Vox just as the PSOE needs the lefties and the (sometimes rather trying) independence parties, who, in both the Basque Country and in Catalonia, will be faced with the inconvenient complication of being joined at the hip in the national government while at daggers drawn in the two upcoming elections.

This could end in tears as the PSOE will likely become obliged to choose one over the other, which is perhaps why Feijóo is calling for fresh national elections once again.

Even though there’s no doubt but that the Partido Popular (and Vox) will do terribly in both the coming Euskera and Catalunya elections.

Since the Spanish economy is doing well, the opposition must find alternate reasons to harass the Government.

Corruption is a good place to start, but it is a two-edged sword. Right now (as two leading ex-ministers of José María Aznar - Rodrigo Rato and Eduardo Zaplana are coincidentally facing massive prison sentences), they are voting against the Government’s tactic of the amnesty for the Catalonian illegal referendum of 2017 from their majority presence in the Senate.

Bulos, or fake news are a popular alternative. Take poor Begoña Gómez, who gets a pasting from The Objective (a conservative news-site). A recent headline reads: ‘The Government hides the amount of a subsidy in the name of Begoña Gómez’. The photo shows Pedro Sánchez and his wife, Begoña Gómez. Good stuff. The site, however, later admits that the issue is with another woman entirely, who simply shares the same name. The same fake-news headline also made it to Telemadrid (which later, briefly, apologised) and even the floor of the Parliament.

Generally speaking, the conservatives have the support – more or less – of the private media, the judiciary, the church and the military, but not so much of the voters (evidently) and most foreign observers.

Charles Dickens could have been writing about Spain in 2024: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”.

Forgive me for having a laugh at an article provided by the Senior Travel Reporter for the Daily Express about the real lowdown on Spanish food and drink, but she hasn't a clue.

Under the intriguing title 'I live in Spain and there’s a tourist trap that catches out lots of visitors’, we read,

‘A Spanish resident warns British visitors to avoid one of the country's most popular drinks’. We learn that ‘“Sangría is a tourist trap, originally created by some British folk. The authentic and original version is called ‘tinto de verano’'".

"What’s the difference? The original uses actual wine and lemon. Sangría is a soda like Coca Cola and Fanta, so imagine going to Spain and paying 10 euros (£8.58) for a jar of Fanta. This happens everywhere in Spain”’.

Actually…

The clue is in the word tinto. It’s red wine, fizzy lemon or lemonade, with a bit of vermouth if you're lucky, ice and – why not? – fruit. Sangría is about the same animal, but (we fall back on the venerable British recipe) may have some extra booze thrown in. Like brandy, vodka, pear schnapps, or whatever else is gathering dust in the cupboard…  

Google helpfully explains about Spanish Sangría: 'Its origins can betraced to the southern buy drostanolone propionate region of Spain, where it was first used as a refreshing way to endure the summer's heat'.

Which explains the mix-up.

The Express felt it needed to pad out the article, so moved on to Paella, which, we learn, comes from Valencia.

Apparently, "You can find ‘paella’ in cities like Madrid, Barcelona and Seville, but it is a tourist trap and unironically it is 99 percent microwaveable yellow rice, it looks gross".

Luckily for us, “Now, there are some hidden authentic paella restaurants out there outside of Valencia, but like the name suggests, they are hidden and mostly known through word of mouth".

Most Spaniards I know down here in the south call paella, or any other rice-dish cooked in una paellera (a large flat pan over charcoal) as simply un arroz. Good all over, too!

The comments are always worth a look in this most British newspaper. 'Spanish cuisine is revolting, as is sangria', says Panhandle, evidently a shepherd's pie and pint of bitter individual.

But wait, this journey through Spain is not yet complete. The writer introduces us to tapas.

'Seville claims to have invented tapas while octopus is popular in Galicia. In San Sebastian, many bars serve pintxos, small snacks with a range of toppings'.

Well, sure, but the whole point is that you are meant to wash them down with a glass of something cold and damp, like, er, sangría.