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Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin July 16
CLICK HERE FOR THE FEATURE ARTICLES "Spanish bars limit how long customers can nurse a drink" and "Everything you need to know about new free travel measures in Spain"
In the second heatwave of the year so far, temperatures have exceeded 45ºC in parts of Spain this week and nearly every province in the country was put on alert for extreme weather conditions and forest fires big and small raged (and are still raging) through the country.
But while everyone’s busy getting hot under the collar, here’s something cool – a package of several measures from the Spanish government to ease the cost-of-living crisis, including free rail passes.
Something else that’s cool is a nice iced coffee or a fresh beer, but some Spanish bars are now putting time limits on how long customers can stay for with a drink, kicking them out after half an hour!
All this and more inside…
All aboard!
Petrol. Gas. Electricity. Food. Drink. Anything you buy in the shops.
Life is getting more expensive around the globe, but salaries and pensions in Spain aren’t increasing in line with inflation, which is at record rates of over 8%. That’s what all these strikes are about by truckers/fuel workers/cabin crew/insert profession here – to get employers to match wages to the rising cost of living.
Until then, the government has promised to step in and ease the pressure on families who are struggling to keep their necks above water, of which there are more every week.
In his address to the debate on the State of the Nation this week, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez announced a number of new and surprising financial measures aimed at easing the burden of rising prices.
These include such measures as a new special tax on large energy companies and banks (more on that below), increased scholarship funding for students and more social housing for those in need of a home.
But possibly the most exciting new development is the promise to make train passes, such as monthly rail passes and 10-ticket vouchers, free from September. Yes, FREE train travel! According to new government plans, they’re going to pump 200 million euros into the Renfe train company so they can provide passengers with free railcards on Cercanías light rail services, Rodalies and Media Distancia (Medium Distance) trains of less than 300km.
These modes of transport were already discounted by 50% thanks to a government initiative introduced last June, but now they’re upping that to 100% between September 1 and December 31.
In the province of Granada, for instance, there are at least 10 journeys on Renfe Media Distancia (Medium Distance) trains that you can get a 100% discount on tickets for, including the Granada-Almeria line. In addition, for journeys between Malaga and Seville, the discount will be 50% for Renfe Avant trains.
Free travel will not apply to local metro or bus services operated by each autonomous community and municipality in Spain, but these services are subject to a minimum 30% discount since June 25 anyway. The new travel discounts do also not apply to high-speed AVE trains. But you can’t have it all, can you?
Calling time
One of the best things about Spain for many, especially in the summer, is being able to have a slow and leisurely drink and a bite to eat at a traditional Spanish bar, taking part in what is essentially the national pastime and feeling like a local.
But you’d better have the stopwatch at the ready if you’re looking for a tipple at one Bilbao bar, which has implemented time limits for how long customers can nurse a drink.
In an attempt to increase turnover, the tiny Pepi&To, which only has three tables on its terrace, has bemused customers with its new signs advertising the strict schedule: 15 minutes for a coffee, 25 minutes for a beer and a more generous 40 minutes for drink accompanied by a sandwich.The bar does proclaim to have the best beer and steaks in the city, however, so many might still be tempted to give it a go.
Pepi&To is not the only establishment to introduce this controversial measure, however, as several Barcelona bars are also trialling the concept to see if strict patron turnaround times can help them increase profits. And if they are successful, don’t be surprised if a bar near you picks up the new habit too.
Commentators on social media have been bemused by the news, with many calling it nonsense and saying that any bar that tries this will soon go out of business when customers pick up and move to any one of Spain’s thousands of bars. After all, it is the country with the most drinking establishments per capita in Europe.
Others saw the idea as a great step forward to stop those annoying people who sit on the terrace and hog a table for four hours while sipping slowly on one small café cortado. But many bragged that it wouldn’t apply to them anyway: 25 minutes is plenty enough time for a beer, they said, and they’d be well into their third by the time their 25 minutes were up!
Don’t bank on it
In many countries card payments for the smallest items are as normal as breathing and cash is becoming a thing of the past. But in Spain, the move towards a cashless society has been slower than the USA and northern Europe. This changed a bit due to Covid, when people were afraid to handle notes and coins at the height of the pandemic for fear of spreading the contagion.
Now there are an increasing number of places in Spain where minimum card payments of 5 or 10 euros are a thing of the past, and more and more people are paying with digital payments on their mobile phones. Cash withdrawals are now 27% lower than they were before Covid while card payment machines have increased by almost 50%. In fact, plans are already afoot to get rid of the traditional metallic strip on Mastercard and VISA credit and debit cards, so you won’t be able to swipe anymore but just pay with chip and PIN.
This tendency is also being accelerated by – and accelerating – the fact that Spanish banks are charging an average of 34 euros more than they did a year ago just for the pleasure of having a bank account. Some people are combatting this by opting for free online-only bank accounts, but all this digitalisation is leaving behind some of the most vulnerable in society, notably the elderly.
While some banks are trying to bring OAPs into the 21st century with training in digital tools and online transactions, it’s generally accepted that Spain’s over-65s – and especially its over-80s and those who live in rural areas – are being marginalised by the banking industry.
One of the government’s new economic measures is to tax banks’ profits more heavily for the next two years, helping to raise around 3 billion euros for the Treasury to help the most needy in society, including the elderly. Whether this materialises in reality will remain to be seen. In the meantime, investors’ trust in Spain’s big banks like Caixabank and Santander has been undermined by the new decree, and the Spanish stock market dropped within hours of the announcement.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if a drop in stock prices for the banks and increased taxation would lead them to increase bank charges further, or even begin to charge for online accounts. That’s why, within three days of its original announcement, the government vowed to take legal action against banks that pass their additional costs on to end consumers, although they’ve admitted that’s it’s not easy to regulate. Although they’ve called for big business to prove their “social commitment”, banks have already started looking for loopholes and are suggesting that they plan to appeal the taxes in the courts.
Either way, you can bet that the bankers won’t starve and any lip service they pay to “helping” customers and elderly clients will only become reality if it’s proven to be profitable for them.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
No one really likes to think about the end, but we all know it’s a good idea to have plans in place for when the inevitable finally happens and we kick the bucket. Making a will, whatever your circumstances, is always advisable so your loved ones are looked after when you’re pushing up daisies.
But post-Brexit changes to inheritance laws make it even more vital for British citizens resident in Spain to have their affairs in order with a last will and testament.
There are more than 300,000 Brits living in Spain, and many of them have assets in both Spain and the UK. But having property and money in the bank in different countries – one in the European Union and the other not – can mean that a disparity comes up between local laws where the deceased has their main residence and where the rest of their assets are.
If you don’t draft a UK will and die whilst being registered as a resident in Spain, your estate will automatically be governed by regional Spanish law, which – unlike UK law – obliges you to give up to a third of your inheritance to your children or immediate relatives after you die. And there’s also a big question mark now over the validity of ‘testamentos simpliciter’, wills that are drafted in Spain which only relate to the inheritance of assets in Spain and nowhere else.There is good news when it comes to inheritance tax, though. For starters, even if you’re not a resident in Spain but inherit property there, you can still benefit from tax deductions. What’s more, there’s no double taxation rule between Spain and Britain, so you only get charged once.
But it’s important to note that in Spain you must start paying inheritance tax as soon as the person you’re inheriting from dies, even though the inheritance might take a while to actually come through. And in practice, there are different laws governing inheritance tax at both the national and regional levels in Spain, so it pays to be aware of how this could affect you.
Long story short, contact a lawyer and make a will if you haven’t already. And if you’re inheriting property in Spain, also contact a lawyer.
No-fly zone
It’ll be a welcome week when news of the latest travel disruptions isn’t on everyone’s lips but for the time being at least, chaos continues here in Spain, though perhaps not as much as the unions would initially have hoped.
The impact of Ryanair cabin crew work stoppages at its eleven Spanish bases isn’t having quite the impact that was expected – the same can be said for the easyJet strikes – and as a result airline bosses are flatly refusing to budge on salaries and working conditions.
This week saw the second round of Ryanair strikes begin, and although there were masses of delays both to and from the likes of Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca, the industrial action resulted in only a small smattering of cancelled flights.
This is largely due to the fact that the Spanish government decreed that airlines would have to maintain “minimum services” to ensure that holiday plans aren’t completely ruined and the still-fragile tourism industry doesn’t collapse altogether. But the result is that staff that are called in to work are obliged by law to show up or face the consequences; it’s been reported that Ryanair has already sacked seven staff members who refused to comply.
Quite aside for the delays and cancellations, baggage handlers at Spanish airports aren’t having an easy time of it either and for days now photos have been emerging on social media of arrivals halls crammed with luggage, stacked up against the walls and piled into every nook and cranny available. The problem is that the arrival time of passengers isn’t coinciding with their baggage for many reasons, and countless people have had to leave their suitcase behind to be delivered a few days later.
But did you know that you are entitled to compensation if your luggage is lost, but also if it is delayed, damaged or there is something missing from your bag? The financial reimbursement can be as high as 1,000 euros in the most extreme cases, but the experts have issued one crystal-clear warning: don’t leave the airport without filing a claim. Although you may be anxious to start your holiday, you’ll reduce your chances of compensation if you don’t first hightail it to your airline’s information desk and report your luggage lost or delayed.
It’s not only airport hassle that’s causing problems either. Earlier this month an easyJet flight travelling from Liverpool to Tenerife had to be diverted to Lisbon in Portugal after two British passengers became rowdy and abusive when they decided to tuck into the bottles of booze they’d bought at duty free. They were also caught having sneaky cigarettes in the plane’s toilets. Police escorted them off the plane when it touched down in Portugal, but the trouble was far from over. Another plastered passenger needed the loo but was asked to stay in his seat while the plane was on the tarmac; it appears that he was unable to hold it though, and ended up urinating in his seat. Needless to say, he was also hauled off the plane.
Passengers on an easyJet flight from Belfast to Alicante were also miffed when a man decided he couldn’t wait a few hours for a cigarette and was caught red-handed sparking up in the plane toilet, setting off the alarm. According to witnesses, the passenger was initially quite blasé about being nabbed smoking on the aircraft, but soon became “disruptive” and was met by Spanish police when the flight landed at Alicante-Elche Airport and he was arrested.
Last week we brought you the news that another easyJet flight travelling from the UK to Menorca had to be accompanied to the airport by a Spanish fighter jet after authorities got wind of a bomb threat on board. A young British man was arrested and the plane was cleared of any threat; the passengers were put on a later flight. Now safely back in the UK and facing possible fines from the Spanish government of tens of thousands of euros, 18-year-old Aditya Verma has made a heartfelt apology for his “moment of madness”. It turns out the British teen was heading on holiday when he sent a joking message to his pals via Snapchat reading: “I’m going to blow this plane up. I’m Taliban.”
The message was picked up over Gatwick’s Wi-Fi system and it’s fair to say airport authorities didn’t see the funny side: Spain and France were notified of a potential threat and the young man was arrested as soon as he landed in Menorca.
“It was a moment of madness which I regret and I’m so sorry for the trouble I caused. It was a joke, and I didn’t mean anything by it,” Mr Verma told the press once he had returned to the UK.
Nonetheless, whilst July hasn’t exactly got off to the best start with these holiday hiccups, the Costa Blanca’s Alicante-Elche Airport is celebrating a recovery of almost 90% of pre-pandemic passengers in June, with 1.35 million travellers passing through its terminals – half a million of whom were British.
Coronavirus
As Spain finds itself in the midst of rising infections and an increasing number of patients admitted to 
hospital with Covid-19, the country has finally relented to pressure from the European Commission to “immediately” administer a fourth dose of the vaccine, or a second booster, to over 60s.
hospital with Covid-19, the country has finally relented to pressure from the European Commission to “immediately” administer a fourth dose of the vaccine, or a second booster, to over 60s.While they have said that eventually everyone should be given an extra booster shot – or indeed, a first booster jab if they haven’t had one already – priority will be given to over-80s, and the vaccination programme will start “from the second half of September”, according to the Minister of Health.
This should coincide with the arrival of new vaccines specifically designed to target the latest Omicron subvariants, “if the European Medicines Agency authorises these new vaccines adapted to the Omicron variant”.
In this way, Spain hopes to be able to roll out a fourth Covid jab to the entire target population by the end of the year.
For all the latest coronavirus news and updates in Spain, use the link above
Murcia
In Murcia, the spiralling cost of living has seen the price of buying fruit and vegetables at the supermarket triple in the space of just a few months, but the ones who are actually producing the food aren’t seeing any of those profits. The amount that farmers in the Region get paid for their fresh produce and what the end customer pays in the supermarkets are getting further and further apart.
For instance, the average apricot farmer in Murcia is paid between 70 cents and 1.25 euros per piece of fruit, while shoppers in the supermarket have to pay an average of 3.95 euros for the same product. And the same goes for peaches, lemons, nectarines and other produce. At local fresh produce markets, the difference is smaller, indicating that large supermarket chains trying to increase their profit margins might be part of the problem here. But the truth is that supermarkets are just more popular than traditional markets.
Murcia is a produce-growing region whose economy relies heavily on its fruit and veg exports, the cabbage patch of Spain. But, like any worker or businessperson, if farmers can’t make enough from their crops to stay afloat, they will not hesitate to find other work and we will be facing a food deficit that drives prices up even further.
Ostensibly, the regional economy is growing. Just look at the real estate market, where politicians and magnates point to an increase in the number of new builds as a sign of the health of the construction and property sectors. In Fuente Álamo, the green light has been given to enlarge the Hacienda del Álamo residential complex, which has languished in a state of semi-built sadness for the last 10 years after the constructor went into insolvency.The planned expansion of the development will mean adding around one million square metres onto the existing complex, with up to 3,000 new properties joining the existing 1,400 homes or more that are already there and making it equal in size to the Camposol urbanisation, if not bigger. The problem is that Sareb, the ‘bad bank’ that was formed in the wake of the 2008 financial crash and which buys up bad debt, still has loads of unsold properties on their hands in Hacienda del Álamo from those original 1,400.
What good is building new properties if there’s not even anyone to buy the ones that are already there? Boasts of a booming property market based on construction are misleading, and it’s another indicator of a rapidly escalating financial bubble in Spain that can take only so much pressure before it bursts…
Elsewhere on the Region’s urbanisations, the persistent risk of flooding suffered by Camposol due to the Rambla de los Aznares waterway has finally been addressed by a Round Table meeting, at which Mazarrón Council, representatives from the Regional government and the CHS water authority outlined the solutions proposed thus far and surveyed where they failed. It was decided that further technical surveys and reports should be carried out, and the Round Table will reconvene in September to receive those reports and decide how to move forward. Slow progress, then, but at least there is willingness on the part of the public entities involved to take the issue seriously.
From water to fire, as a blaze on the El Saladillo hillside in Mazarrón put homes in jeopardy earlier this week after an explosion on an electricity pylon set the area alight. The dry bushes and esparto grass surrounding the area, as well as the strong winds, meant the flames quickly spread and burnt through up to two hectares of land. The fire was brought under control within a few hours thanks to the good work of Murcia’s brave bomberos, the firefighters and their planes which dropped water on the fire to extinguish it.This is what it’s about – helping ordinary people who live in Murcia or own property there to have a decent, safe quality of life at a reasonable cost, and not lining the pockets of greedy supermarkets or deceitful developers.
Check out our EVENTS DIARY to see everything going on in Murcia:
Spain
Now we know most of Europe is suffering through a heatwave, but here in Spain we’re positively melting in the second intense weather episode of the year – and it’s only just the middle of July! Parts of Spain were on red alert this week for extreme high temperatures, with areas of Andalucía tipped to exceed an unbelievable 45ºC.
And while the intense heat certainly makes life difficult and sleeping nigh on impossible, the effects of this weather phenomenon can actually be far more deadly. According to the Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo), this year alone, 1,918 people have died in Spain due to the high temperatures, of which the vast majority (829) occurred during the June heatwave.
In this latest heatwave, 43 people have lost their lives.
The end is in sight however; meteorologists are keeping a close eye on the evolution of a DANA storm, which at the moment is expected to move off the coast of Portugal at the weekend, dramatically lowering the temperatures in Spain from Monday July 18.
In the meantime, stay safe out there! The summer is long and at the rate things are going there’s bound to be at least one more heatwave, as well as more wildfires and the other dangers that come with it.
Alicante
Hordes of holidaymakers are hitting Alicante’s beaches in this heatwave, the perfect retreat for many, it can also be a playground for opportunist thieves on the lookout for unattended bags and other belongings. In Alicante city, though, one beach has come up with a genius way to leave your keys, cash and phone unguarded on the beach.
Playa del Postiguet, Alicante’s main municipal beach, now boasts 57 lockers so that sunseekers can leave their bags and belongings inside to stay safe from prying hands. The lockers vary in size to be able to store everything from suitcases and backpacks to wallets, keys and mobile phones and even have a built-in solar-powered charging point so users can charge your mobile phone and care for the environment at the same time! The locker service, with prices starting from 1 euro, was actually first introduced in summer 2019, but was discontinued in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. Now, the Alicante authorities have brought it back due to popular demand.
Thieves are not the only hazard to a day at the beach or pool. There are the obvious dangers to swimming in deep or unpredictable waters and it’s been a tragic week for a number of families following a series of drownings and near drowning incidents within hours of each other in Alicante's El Campello, San Juan and Elche.
A 45-year-old man died after being pulled unconscious from the water at El Carabassí beach in Elche, while a 43-year-old Danish man suffered a heart attack and died whilst swimming in the sea at the Arenales del Sol beach in the same town.
Fortunately, medics were able to recover a 70-year-old woman’s vital statistics after she too was dragged unconscious from a hotel swimming pool in San Juan, while two doctors and lifeguards managed to save a 65-year-old man with breathing difficulties on Muchavista beach in El Campello.
Beach drama of a different kind saw three hugely popular Orihuela beaches closed this week after it was suspected human waste had been discharged into the sea. The Town Hall was forced to shut Cala 
Mosca, Cala Bosque and Cala Cerrada beaches to bathers due to sewage spillages, and the timing couldn’t have been worse with the rush of tourists to the coastline which boasts 11 Blue Flags for the quality of its waters and beach services.
Mosca, Cala Bosque and Cala Cerrada beaches to bathers due to sewage spillages, and the timing couldn’t have been worse with the rush of tourists to the coastline which boasts 11 Blue Flags for the quality of its waters and beach services.After a “high level of contamination of residual origin” was detected by the Directorate General for Water, which measures the quality of beaches in the Valencia region, samples were analysed every half hour, and 24-hours later the Directorate announced that “the results declare the water suitable for bathing” and that “there is no risk whatsoever”. Still, I’d leave it another few hours before getting in that water.
Meanwhile, visitors to Torrevieja’s coastline have been treated to a spectacular show this week thanks to a pod of bottlenose dolphins, which were spotted putting on an impressive performance, jumping in the air close to the shore in front of El Cura beach, much to the delight of boat passengers and thrilled bathers.
A clip captured from land and shared on social networks shows the dolphins surrounding and tailing a pleasure boat as the skipper carefully maintains the vessel’s course from the north of Torrevieja coastline to the south without crossing the trail of jumping dolphins.
Andalucía
Scientists in Andalucía have made an incredible discovery after identifying three new crab species off the Costa del Sol. Marine biologists from across Spain who were conducting a series of studies on crustaceans in Andalusian waters spotted two new species of hermit crab and one spider crab.
It’s not actually easy to identify new species by sight alone because many animals can look very similar to the naked eye, which is why an in-depth molecular study was invaluable in confirming scientists’ suspicions that these were in fact separate species when compared with other spider crabs collected in Wales.
Another pincher in hot water this week is an Almeria burglar who has been sentenced to two years in prison for breaking into a property while the occupants were home and stealing their shoes and a rucksack.
The crime took place two months ago, in early May, and the shoe-nabber has now had his day in court and been given a sentence that is enough to knock anyone’s socks off – two years in prison to be served in its “entirety”, according to the judge.
The detainee, identified only by his initials Y.S., was found guilty of entering the house at around 4.30pm on May 4, then helping himself to a backpack, three pairs of trainers and three pairs of flip-flops.
In Granada, a slow police response prompted victims of a group of nearly a hundred people who were ripped off by a travel agency in the town of Íllora to take matters into their own hands and lock themselves inside the premises until the travel agent paid them the 80,000 euros they had paid for vacations that were never delivered.
The disgruntled customers had paid their deposits for holidays this summer, including a group of 18 people who put down 400 euros each for a trip to Cuba, but the woman running the travel agency never booked the trips, but instead kept the cash. After the peaceful protest at the building, the owner promised to pay back the money, and the miffed mob gave her 15 days to comply.
Well, those 15 days have come and gone, and not only has she not returned the money she is accused of cheating them out of, but she has closed the travel agency down altogether. Now, the customers have moved their peaceful protest outside her house! It’s probably time for the courts to get involved already before the peaceful protestors organise a sit-in in her kitchen!
You may have missed…
- Cartagena street violence escalates as gangs of youths attack bar staff and each other.
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In the first half of 2022, the growth of the number of golden visas purchased by foreign nationals to stay in Spain began to slow but it remains one of the top choices for European investors. - More than 100K passengers use Murcia’s Corvera airport in a month for the first time since 2019.
Corvera airport is close to a full recovery of its pre-pandemic service, with 107,220 passengers using the airport this June despite the travel disruption. - Summer opening times for Weekly Street Markets in Mazarrón, Camposol and Puerto de Mazarrón.
Check out the days and times that the street markets are open in the municipality of Mazarrón this summer. - Lap dancer arrested in Benidorm after Swedish tourist is robbed of 10,000 euro watch.
An erotic dancer who worked at an adult club in Benidorm has been arrested after a Swedish holidaymaker claims he fell asleep in a private lap dance room and woke to found his 10,000 euro watch had been stolen.
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