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Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin May 21
CLICK HERE FOR THE FEATURE ARTICLES "Temperatures surpass 40ºC on the hottest May weekend in 20 years" and "Spain promises to let unvaccinated British tourists enter within a matter of days"
You may have noticed something funny in the air this week. It’s partly just the heat, which has suddenly zoomed up to over 40ºC in parts of Spain, putting parts of the country on orange alert for extreme temperatures. And it’s partly the winds of change, or maybe just change, because there’s not really that much wind to cool us down from this incredible heat.
The biggest change announced by the Spanish government this week, quite unexpectedly it has to be said, after their affirmation to the contrary just a couple of days before, is the imminent decision to stop asking non-EU travellers to show a Covid vaccination certificate when they enter the country. This will effectively sanction what many people have been asking for for a long time now, that people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 should be able to come to Spain on vacation, and it comes just as we approach the summer holiday period.
Let’s dive in!
Top 40
It’s finally time to get the sunscreen and beach towels out of hibernation as Spain is set to sizzle this weekend in the most intense heat episode during the month of May in more than two decades. Meteorologists are predicting that daytime temperatures will generally hover around the mid-30s this Saturday and Sunday, exceeding a sizzling 40ºC in many areas, while sleeping is about to become a little uncomfortable with “tropical nights” forecast, when temperatures will scarcely dip below 20ºC.
At the beginning of the week, on Monday, Murcia was actually the hottest province in Spain, with temperatures reaching 34ºC, figures that look almost balmy in comparison with the 40+ we are seeing this weekend.
In fact, so extreme is the situation that in a recent analysis of the data from the last 120 years, it was shown that the temperature has risen by 1.31 degrees in 59 large Spanish cities in the last two decades alone, including three cities in Murcia. The worst affected is Lorca, where average temperatures have increase by 1.44ºC, considerably more than in both Cartagena and Murcia capital, where average temperatures have risen by close to 1.15ºC. Moreover, the municipality of Lorca has not only exceeded the average temperature increase in the rest of Spain, but the global average as well.
All the same, after an unseasonably damp and miserable March and April, most of us will welcome the sunny skies, but the warmer weather has resulted in another rather unpleasant side-effect. The soaring temperatures have led to a population explosion in the virus-spreading ‘black fly’, a nasty little critter that can spread disease through its bite.Although it’s not technically an invasive species, the irritating insect has set off alarm bells in the likes of Andalucía, Murcia and Valencia, where the numbers are getting out of control. Similar in appearance to the common house fly, the black fly is generally smaller, measuring between 1.5 and 5mm, and its thorax resembles that of a wasp. When it bites, the fly injects an anaesthetic that soon wears off to leave a painful sting, which should be treated with ice.
Spain travel news
Quite aside from the vastly improving weather, there’s been some more good news for travellers this week, particularly for those hoping to visit Spain from Britain and other non-EU countries. In a surprise move by the ever-cautious Spanish government, the Minister of Tourism, Reyes Maroto, announced on Thursday May 19 that “in a matter of days” Spain will stop requiring tourists from outside the European Union to present a Covid vaccination certificate, and that instead they will be able to travel to Spain with a negative test.
This is quite an about-turn, since just last weekend the Spanish government announced that it would be extending its ban on unvaccinated third country tourists until June 15, but the change of mood could be as a result of the European Union’s request that member states drop their remaining Covid-related restrictions as soon as possible to allow people to travel freely this summer, and the Spanish are probably afraid that people will go and spend their money in Portugal or Greece instead.Whatever the motivation, it’s extremely good news, and it was followed just hours later by the decision to scrap Covid checks on people travelling over the land border from France to Spain. This means that from May 19, travellers coming from France don’t need to show proof of vaccination, recovery from Covid or even a negative test.
The Spanish government has also previously removed the Covid certificate and test requirement at land borders between Spain and Portugal.
For all the latest coronavirus news and updates in Spain, use the link above
All of this is assuming people can actually afford to go on holiday this year, since the latest forecasts by Ryanair aren’t all that promising. After reporting losses in the region of 355 million euros earlier this week, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said that reduced travel restrictions should help the airline return to “reasonable profitability” this fiscal year, but he has warned that summer flights are likely to rise by a “high single-digit per cent” thanks to a renewed demand for beach getaways.
SOS Mar Menor
It’s begun. The dead fish have already started washing up on the shores of the Mar Menor again. Just like happened last August, the level of chlorophyll is so high in the lagoon and the levels of oxygen so low – caused by the entry of nitrogen into the ecosystem from pesticides and herbicides in run-off irrigation water from local farms – that the animals living in the water have started to suffocate and wash up dead onto the beaches.
On Wednesday of this week, around 5 kilos of fish – between 150 and 200 individual animals – were collected from the shores in the Atalayón area of Santiago de la Ribera in San Javier.Some scientists are calling for calm, saying that it could be just a “one-time event”, and the Regional Minister for Health in Murcia, Juan José Pedreño, has assured that the results of microbiological analyses carried out on 35 beaches in the Mar Menor show that they are “suitable for bathing”. But the truth is that the recent rains and now the swelteringly hot temperatures have made a perfect storm of conditions for the lethal algae to bloom and create a ‘green soup’.
The latest readings show that turbidity in the water has quadrupled and chlorophyll is already double what it was a year ago, which will make the green soup worse than ever. Towns around the Mar Menor, including Los Alcázares and San Javier, have called for something to be done, desperate about the state of their home and the effect it will have on the number of tourists willing to come and spend time and money on their beaches this summer.
Los Alcázares’ Councillor for the Environment said, “I would say that this is the year in which it is at its worst” and the Mayor of San Javier backed him up, saying “We have to lower the water table and we have to stop the monster of the Albujón [rambla], which is carrying more water and nitrates than ever.”
The City Council of Cartagena is doing something around the Mar Menor. They have plans, for which they have applied for 5 million euros of EU funding, to build a pretty new promenade along the waterfront from the Gola de Marchamalo to El Galúa in La Manga.
Cartagena’s Mayor has said that not only will “the proposal mean improving the offer for tourists and residents with a large promenade area by the sea”, but that it will also “allow the sewage network to be moved away from the bathing area, modernising it and minimising any risk to the Mediterranean Sea and the Mar Menor.”
Some have pointed out that 5 million euros would do a lot to help fix the problems of nitrate run-off into the Mar Menor, and that building 1km of new concrete promenade is possibly not the best use of such funds.
Murcia
This week in the Murcia Region, there has been polemic surrounding the services relating to two much-used but poorly managed institutions: the airport and a well-known campsite in La Manga.
Villas Caravaning is a popular campsite in La Manga del Menor, home to more than 2,000 permanent residents, many of them ex-pats, and a holiday destination for many others. However, the caravan parking site is not without its problems, as it has been the site of a series of fires, the most recent of which claimed the life of a resident living in one of the caravans just last month.
The unusually common occurrence of fires in the campsite has been put down to a lack of safety and fire prevention measures, such as having enough water pumps or fire hydrants on site and inadequate electric installations. This has been underscored by an investigation following the fire that burned up 12 caravans last October, with the ensuing report blasting the company that manages Villas Caravaning – French company Capfun – for its dangerously callous negligence.
In light of these findings, Cartagena City Council, whose jurisdiction Villas Caravaning is in, demanded that the campsite present them with comprehensive safety and emergency plans to remedy the situation. When these did not materialise, they summarily revoked the campsite’s operating licence.
Villas Caravaning has until May 28 to launch an appeal against the decision to shut them down, and present its arguments to be able to keep operating. This was communicated to the representatives of the management and the residents’ and owners’ associations of the campsite in a meeting in which they promised to approve a resolution to solve the health and safety deficiencies.
This proposal will be put to a vote at a neighbourhood meeting scheduled for May 25. The cost of implementing the security measures demanded by the City Council is estimated at around 250,000 euros, and will mean an increase in the quarterly fees for this year, from 260 to 300 euros for the residents who live there.
If the new project does not meet the City Council’s demands then Villas Caravaning, which has been in operation for 37 years, will be forced to close and the fate of its thousands of residents will be in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, there has been controversy on the buses, specifically the planned bus service to and from Corvera Airport (soon to be known as the oh-so-catchy Aeropuerto Internacional de la Región de Murcia-Juan de la Cierva, remember). The problem is that, while the Regional Government has been thoughtful enough to reinstate the airport bus service this summer after it was axed due to Covid, they are going to and from the wrong places, there are not enough of them and the ones that will run are at the wrong times.
For example, the buses only go from Cartagena and Murcia capital, and there is as yet no sign of reinstating the bus lines to Mazarrón and Águilas, nor those to the Mar Menor and La Manga. What’s more, the first bus from Cartagena leaves at 10am, but arrives at the airport too late for who wish to take the early flights living from Corvera to Brussels, Bristol, Bournemouth and London Stansted. Conversely, the 1pm bus, which is the next bus to depart Cartagena for the airport, arrives long before the 5.10pm easyJet flight to London Gatwick and anyone who has ever travelled through Corvera airport will know that it doesn’t take two hours to check in, much less three and a half. But the final bus is the craziest as it arrives at the airport long after the final flights of the day have departed.
The Murcia government has promised to closely monitor how many people use the bus service, and will put on more buses to more destinations if they see that it is popular. But if the service is at the wrong times for anyone to use, no one will use it anyway.
It’s a Catch-22, but few find it funny.
For news on events coming up soon in the Murcia, Alicante and Andalucía areas, be sure to CHECK OUT OUR EVENTS DIARY!
Spain
With travel soon to be freed up and British tourists expected to land in Spain in their droves over the coming months, the UK and Spanish governments have been issuing daily advice and warnings to holidaymakers on everything from excessive drinking to the rules of the road. It’s well known now that the Balearic Islands is cracking down on drunk and disorderly behaviour this year, limiting all-inclusive boozing, banning happy hours and organised pub crawl and doling out massive fines to any rule breakers. And not without reason.
With the summer not even begun yet, Mallorca suffered not one, but two tragic accidents on the same day: a British tourist plunged to his death from a seventh-floor balcony in Magaluf and a few hours later, a father of two met a tragic end after performing a treacherous cliff dive, and was later identified as Dutch former football player Mourad Lamrabatte.
These horrific events have overshadowed the rebound in tourism set to flood the Spanish isles over the coming months, and the Balearic Islands government in particular is fearful that the lethal ‘balconing’ fad is making a comeback.
Balconing involves leaping from a height into the hotel pool below, or even climbing over the apartment balcony into the room next door. Awareness campaigns have been running for years, both in Spain and the UK, and experts believe that British tourists are the most prone to balconing.
There are plenty of other ways to unwittingly get into trouble in Spain. With temperatures climbing steadily, most holidaymakers will be heading to the beach and stripping off to enjoy the sun and sea, but in Barcelona and the island of Mallorca, bikinis are strictly for the seaside.
Women wearing swimsuits and men going topless on the streets are prohibited, and carry fines of up to 300 euros. In some areas even walking from your car to the beach not fully dressed is banned, so it’s best to stay covered up until you hit the sand.
Several beaches across the country, including some in Alicante, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, have now banned smoking as well, and tourists caught lighting up in undesignated areas will be slapped with a fine of up to 2,000 euros.
While crime on the Costas isn’t necessarily higher than in other parts of Europe, an influx of tourists provides the ideal opportunity for fraudsters, and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has warned travellers of the latest ‘highway pirates’ scam, in which con artists convince rental car drivers there is something wrong with their vehicle in order to get them to pull over, before robbing them.
In some cases, fraudsters have even been known to deliberately cause a collision in order to force unsuspecting holidaymakers to stop, and the DFA has advised drivers that if they do pull over to check the condition of their vehicle, they should try to stop in an area with lights and people, such as a service station, and be extremely wary of anyone offering help.
As Covid starts to slip into the background, another worry has emerged in Europe: monkeypox. First the United Kingdom sounded the alarm, then came Portugal: now, the Spanish government has issued 
a national alert after 30 suspected cases of the monkeypox virus have been detected in Spain, making it the country with the most people infected with this disease.
a national alert after 30 suspected cases of the monkeypox virus have been detected in Spain, making it the country with the most people infected with this disease.The health authorities in all three countries have assured that monkeypox is not considered particularly contagious and that in general, transmission from person to person is limited. In fact, the WHO estimates that during previous outbreaks, the fatality rate has generally been between 1% and 10%.
Alicante
Crime has sadly once again been at the forefront of the news on the Costa Blanca, and one incident in particular has sparked outrage after two of 27 Ukrainian families offered refuge at a host hotel in Alicante after fleeing their besieged home country were robbed as they slept in their beds.
A sock-wearing 22-year-old was quickly located and arrested on suspicion of forcing external windows at Hotel Daniya in Avenida de Denia in the early hours as the victims, two women and their children, slept.
One of the women woke as the burglar was climbing out of the window with a laptop and cash, and her screams alerted other guests, who together with a cab driver called the police and began searching the area. He hadn’t gone far having left a backpack with shoes and ID inside underneath a car parked nearby and was nabbed by police. But the families, who have already been through horrors in their own country, were left understandably scared and shaken.
Police in Alicante have also been busy this week hunting down international fugitives hiding out in the province.
A Colombian on-the-run from drug trafficking charges in his home country was inadvertently captured during a murder investigation after a 96-year-old man was viciously stabbed to death at his home in Javea just days before Christmas last year.
The 58-year-old suspect, who has been jailed without bail accused of alleged murder and robbery with violence and intimidation, was hired by the victim five years ago to clean and maintain his swimming pool. According to police sources, he was disturbed by the elderly victim during a robbery at his home, and the old man lost his life trying to protect his money and belongings.Elsewhere in the province, a fugitive on the run from Swedish authorities and facing a six-year prison sentence for laundering more than 220,000 euros has been nabbed in Torrevieja. The 31-year-old went to extreme lengths to conceal the cash, more than 2,340,000 Swedish krona, through multiple bank accounts and transfers with the help of several collaborators.
The 31-year-old fled the country, and suspecting he was hiding out in Alicante province, the Swedish authorities contacted the National Police in Alicante which launched a search operation, finally cuffing the Swede in the Vega Baja town.
The quick-thinking actions of a teacher hiking with a group of students in the San Juan beach area of Alicante led to the arrest of a 33-year-old man in connection with four street robberies. The fourth of the victims, all elderly, was a 66-year-old woman who was walking with her husband who suffers from Alzheimer’s when she was pushed from behind, and after a brief struggle, the mobile phone she was talking on at the time was stolen before the suspect ran off.
The teacher, who was on a field trip, heard her cries for help and immediately set chase, filming the robber throughout the pursuit. There were plenty of witnesses who called 091, and within half an hour a male who fit the description and wearing the same clothing as the man in the teacher’s video was located out of breath and in possession of the stolen phone. Police quickly linked the alleged robber to three other similar thefts committed during the last month near elderly care and health centres in the same coastal area.
Away from the crime news, Elche has just awarded contracts to provide seven beach bars along its popular coastline; two in El Altet, two in Arenales, and one each in playas Carabassí, El Pinet, El Robello and La Marina, along with sunbeds and umbreallas in Arenales and El Robello.
It's all go in Benidorm at the moment, arguably the Costa Blanca’s tourist capital. The Town Hall this week unveiled its new 22-metre billboard and information tower, featuring LED-powered high-definition images, in Avenida del Mediterráneo that took 11 months to construct. Located at the junction of Plaza Triangular and Calle Esperanto Esperanto, the 13 million-euro ‘Tecnohito’ will not only become a resort landmark and viewpoint, open to the public to enjoy the panoramic views, but it will also act as a digital screen for advertising campaigns, informative initiatives, live shows and events.
At the same time, ambitious plans to redevelop Benidorm’s old bullring in Plaza de Toros at a cost of 10 million euros are set to become a reality after the Town Hall secured European funds to help cover the cost of transforming the deteriorated 60-year-old building into a multicultural and multifunctional venue for a huge variety of events and activities.
Andalucía
The final of the UEFA Europa League was held in Seville on Wednesday, with German team Eintracht Frankfurt eventually beating Scotland’s Glasgow Rangers 5-4 on penalties. An estimated 150,000 fans descended on the city from Tuesday to Thursday, and local police forces were increased by 5,500 officers for those three days.
There were violent clashes between groups of supporters in Seville before the final, and horrendous scenes of attacks in Glasgow after the match was finished. At various points around the Spanish city, Scots and Germans met in the street and threw chairs, lamps and parasols at each other in scenes reminiscent of the pitched street battles between Eintracht and West Ham fans in Seville back in March.
Sevillanos cofrades yendo a ver al Calvario por Castelar… pic.twitter.com/AUiijIeWNo
— Señor Gañán (@SenorGanan) May 18, 2022
Rangers and Frankfurt kicking off tonight pic.twitter.com/ZSR3LVyZJN
— AwayDaysBible (@Awaydaysbible_) May 18, 2022
The evening before, five Germans had been arrested and one Rangers fan injured after an attack in front of the city’s cathedral. Despite the violent disturbances and destruction, the city of Seville has since said they intend to continue hosting sporting finals.
More than this, the mayor of Seville has underscored once again his support for a tourist tax that would charge visitors 1 euro per night to stay in the city’s hotels, following the kind of scheme that is already common in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, as well as many other cities in Europe.
Finally, former Atomic Kitten star and media personality Kerry Katona has announced that she is planning to move from the UK to Marbella, Malaga with her family, but she has since been frustrated by delays in the passport office.
In an announcement, Katona wrote that she and her family are in the process of “looking in to” the move to Spain but that they will probably “do another 12 months in the UK”. Part of her reason for moving is the long commute times from her home in the north of the UK to London, while “you can hop on a plane and be in Marbella in less time”, and the star also hinted that the move has something to do with the weather in Spain: “I want to wake up to some sunshine every single day.”
However, Katona recently shared her frustrations after being left unable to renew her passport, which could jeopardise her future plans to move to Spain. On her Instagram story, she said she “cannot get a passport appointment” and pleaded for “help”. But she’s not alone as the Passport Office continues to report waits of up to 10 weeks for a first or replacement passport.You may have missed…
- One dead and 85 injured in horror Barcelona train crash.
A driver died and 85 people were injured on Monday after a collision between two trains in the Sant Boi de Llobregat area of Barcelona. - Spanish crackdown on illegal holiday lets could jeopardise holidaymakers.
Inspectors are shutting down unlicensed holiday accommodation across Mallorca, meaning tourists could arrive in Spain to find their accommodation has been shut down. - WATCH: Two-metre long shark shocks bathers off Spanish island coast.
Local residents of Ibiza and holidaymakers alike were stunned to see a disorientated 2-metre-long shark floundering in the rocky shallows of Calo des Moro on Monday morning. - Carrefour launches Flavours of the United Kingdom campaign in Spain.
This week, Carrefour has launched its ‘Flavours of the United Kingdom’ campaign across 29 supermarkets in Spain, selling British goods until June 9. - Video captures bizarre clip of Orihuela Costa resident towing a tree down the street.
A video clip of a motorist towing pruning waste bigger than the car itself to dump near bins on a residential street in Orihuela Costa has been shared in a bid to shame the driver and act as a reminder to others.
That’s all from us for this week. If you’ve enjoyed reading this weekly bulletin (as you do every week, of course!) and know someone else who might want to read it too, you can send them the following link so they can sign up and start receiving the email too: https://murciatoday.com/weekly_bulletin.html
See you next week!
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