🚜 This Week in Spain: The Farming Sector Rises

Also: the Benidorm Fest winner, the Galician elections and Podemos evicted.

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | February 8, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #43

🎉 Welcome to The Tapa, an English-language, weekly newsletter about all things Spain!

🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: No big amnesty news for a change (for now) 🙏. In exchange, Spain is dealing with a massive farming sector protest that’s just like what’s been happening in France (but less French!). On a positive note, at least we know who’ll be representing us in Eurovision this year—and (spoiler alert) it’s amazing.

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Tractoria’s revenge…

🚜 The Farmers Are Coming to Town!

European farmers are tired of tough times in the campo, and Spain’s are no exception. To make that point, they organized tractoradas (you know, blocking roads and stuff with tractors) at various highway chokepoints—and in various cities—across Spain. Country mouse, meet city mouse!

• The precipitating action was an EU plan to halve pesticide use across the bloc by 2030, a roadmap to which was meant to be published this week but was scrapped after farmers protesting against the plan—and, more importantly, its cost—caused a bunch of damage in Paris and Brussels.

• Farmers aren’t done yet. They’re pleased by the nixing of the pesticide proposal, which European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen now calls a ‘symbol of polarization’. But they’re still cheesed off by high energy and fertilizer costs (blame close Tucker Carlson pal Vlad P. and his war) and the low prices they get (blame imports). Plus, they’ve already gotten the tractors out the barn, so…tractor party! 🥳

So what do Spanish farmers want exactly? Spain came behind early protests in France, Belgium, Germany and Portugal, but it has the same problems—and a few of its own.

• Costly environmental regulations: Farmers are tired of the EU’s Green Deal and its expensive-to-comply-with regulations like cutting pesticides, improving animal husbandry and leaving land fallow for environmental recovery. Those especially don’t sit well with European farmers when the same rules aren’t enforced on imports from other countries.

• ‘Unfair Competition’. Farmers are complaining of cheap food imports from countries that don’t have the same rules (see previous point) — the Spanish farm groups demanded better border controls with Morocco — and warned the EU against signing trade deals with South America’s Mercosur and the like. 

• EU First. “It is vital to regain preference [for EU products] to recover and guarantee our food sovereignty," the Spanish farmers said. (If that sounds like funny EU English, we meant it that way.)

• Dry times in farm-landia. In Spain you can add on a drought, including the tightest restrictions on water use ever in Cataluña, which is, like, Lunar Surface Dry. And farmers want more generous drought insurance to cover their losses because, man, it’s hot out there! Who can blame them?

Did Spain’s government do anything? Well, sorta. 

• Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in his Parliament Q&A Wednesday that he had “absolute willingness to dialogue” with the farmers, and offered them an attitude of “empathy”, but he refused to entertain solutions based on “climate negationism” and “anti-europeanism” (he is obliquely referring to the PP and Vox here, in case you didn’t guess). 

• The head of the center-right opposition PP Alberto Nuñez Feijóo replied that the “problem” facing  farmers “is not only in Brussels, but also in the Government’s parliamentary seats.” 😱

• This back and forth tells us that a) we’re still fighting, which means we’re still alive and b) Spain’s politicians still retain the ability to passionately say nothing, which means nothing has changed.

Blocking a highway is hungry work! Source: El País/Marcial Guíllen/EFE

But seriously, did anything happen? Actually, a little bit.

• Sánchez said he would “reinforce” the Ley de la Cadena Alimentaria (Food Chain Law), a law reformed in 2021 that essentially says that farmers can’t be forced to sell their goods at a loss. Which only seems fair. 

• Spain’s agriculture ministry, led by Luis Planas, announced Tuesday some €270m in aid to 140,000 farmers to help face the crazy drought and problems caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine.

That’s it? Really? Yeah, mostly. There was other talk about simplifying  EU PAC subsidies easier to get and pushing for “reciprocity” (or “mirror”) clauses to force countries exporting to the EU to follow EU rules, but good luck on that one. 

And the fun stuff, the roadblocks? At least we’ve got that, right? Yup!

• Over 1,000 tractors flooded the center of Barcelona and plenty more blocked highways in Cataluña, Murcia, Extremadura, Navarra, La Rioja, Castilla y León, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalucía and Aragón. Basically everywhere.

• And they blocked the Málaga port—to stop imports. And there were clashes with police. And arrests.

This is just the start—it all goes on until Feb. 21 (at least), when a tractorada is planned to arrive at Planas’s Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid (no suggestions that he’ll be strung up—yet), and some are calling for a protest at the headquarters of Sánchez’s PSOE on Calle Ferraz (we’ve seen that before).

• But it gets better! Spanish media have found plans, circulating on Farmer Telegram and WhatsApp — in this case, the 6F Platform — to completely “collapse” Madrid by driving tractors around the M-40 ring road and strategically popping some of their tires to cause a totally colossal traffic jam. 👏

• Tough talk: One 6F member wrote, “We are going to paralyze Madrid with transportation and we are going to paralyze the economy through the ports, which is where the merchandise arrives.”

So don’t let your guard down: Tractoria is coming—and it’s gonna be bigger than you think.

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 🎗️ Amnesty update: More smoke, no fire

Since the amnesty bill negotiated by the Catalan separatist party Junts was shot down by the Catalan separatist party Junts a little over a week ago, a lot and nothing has happened.

• No progress: Negotiations between PM Sánchez’s PSOE-led coalition and Junts have gone nowhere. So that’s fun.

• Hot judicial action: If anything, things got a bit more awkward for the bill, as 12 of the 15 prosecutors who make up the criminal board of the Supreme Court prosecutors' office voted that there is evidence of terrorist crimes being committed in Catalonia during 2019’s violent protests and “airport invasion”. Which makes offering amnesty…complicated?

• Ever hotter: Worse, 11 of these prosecutors believe there’s evidence to indict Junts exiled boss, separatist Carles Puigdemont—which would mean he’s not protected by the amnesty bill and why his party is insisting on an amendment that makes sure he is. Like, the “No One Can Prosecute Carles Puigdemont for Anything Act”.

Bark! Bark! Prime Minister Sánchez and PP’s Núñez Feijóo yesterday had their first face-to-face of the year in Parliament to shout about the situation.

• The PP leader attacked Sánchez because this whole amnesty thing seems to be making it impossible to run the country. Sánchez is unable to “pass laws” and the initiatives that he proposes are “overturned by his partners [Junts]” and there are “no budgets in sight”. Which are fair observations.

• Periodic table diss: In response, Sánchez used Feijóo’s recent mix-up in Galicia (he said “methanol” instead of methane) to ask Feijóo to “stop using methanol” against him: "The three properties of methanol are: colorless, like your political project for Spain; flammable, like your zeal for hyperbole and insult; and toxic, like your economic catastrophism". Not bad for a parliamentary burn. 🔥

Oh, and don’t forget about the Russian connection to the separatist movement that we mentioned last week.

• Turns out that the European Parliament has now expressed “deep concern” over the allegations of “Russian interference in the democratic processes of the European Union”, specifically the connection between Russia and the separatists.

• A resolution that’s expected to be approved by the EU Parliament today highlights the need for Spain to conduct a thorough investigation into these accusations—with particular focus on ties between Puigdemont and Russian officials.

Russians + Methanol = 🧨 !

2. 🗳️ Galicia plans for the polls

It’s regional election time, people! Galicians are gearing up to elect the 12th Parliament of their autonomous community, with all 75 seats up for grabs.

• Ballot fillers: The electoral showdown on Feb.18 features a mix of seasoned politicians and a few fresh faces. 🤡

• Not alone: Galicia, along with Andalucía, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Castilla y León, holds elections separately from the rest of the autonomous communities.

This election is particularly intriguing because it's the first in 14 years without PP boss Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the party’s helm in the region (he’s from Galicia, remember?), so the PP is seeking to maintain its stronghold, leveraging the recent approval of budgets to promise economic stability.

• It’s expected that current regional president Alfonso Rueda (of the PP) will be reelected, but there's the chance of a shift in political alliances and the prospect of a new leadership style.

• Coming in second is Ana Pontón of the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). She is the only candidate with prior runs for the presidency. With luck and a coalition she has a chance.

• Third on the list is José Ramón Gómez Besteiro (from center-left PSOE) who is hoping to find a way to dethrone Rueda, but won’t (at least not personally).

• Then there’s Marta Lois from Sumar, who’s basically the underdog pushing for a more progressive agenda and would just be happy to be in a lefty coalition.

• Last and definitely least is Isabel Farado from Podemos, who started her message during this week’s debate with: “I’m aware not many people know who I am”.

So who’s going to win?

• According to most polls, the PP is headed to victory again and, despite his party losing three seats, Rueda will manage to remain in power with 45.5% of the vote (39 seats).

• BNG, led by Pontón, is expected to win two more seats and get 26,5% of the vote (21 seats in total) and PSOE looks like it will retain its 18 seats with 18,8% of the vote.

• As usual, the outlier here is the CIS (Center for Sociological Investigations), now run by a PSOE-appointed boss, which is predicting that PP will obtain between 35 and 38 seats, while a left-leaning BNG-PSOE coalition could get between 35 and 42 seats (unseating Rueda).

This suggests a possibly tight race, with the PP's grip on power facing serious challenges from the left. Or it could just be a(nother) bad prediction from CIS. 🤷 Let’s talk Feb. 19.

3. 😞 The Dani Alves trial: Let it end

Former Barça soccer star Dani Alves’s rape trial was held this week. Which is no cause for celebration, except for the fact that it means that this painful spectacle will soon be over with. 

• For those who forgot or never knew: Alves, who was playing at the Mexico City team UNAM, came back to Barcelona after Christmas 2022. During a visit to the Sutton nightclub, he and a friend had club staff invite three girls to their table in a VIP area.

• What happened next is the crux of the trial. The woman says Alves shoved her into the bathroom, pushed her to the floor and, when she refused to perform oral sex on him, slapped her and then raped her. Her story has never changed.

• Alves’s version was…less consistent. First, when he returned to Spain to answer police questions, he claimed he didn’t know the women. Then he said she came into the bathroom when he was inside but nothing happened. And then he said there was oral sex. Finally, he said they had sex, but it was consensual.

• His justification for the changes? He didn’t want his wife Joana Sanz to know he had been unfaithful (she’s since separated from him).

Alves looked like a liar imperfect defendant with a losing hand even before the trial started. And, after three days of the trial, we can tell you that nothing has changed.

• The young woman and her friends with her that fateful night stuck to their story, and it is tragic. The being called up to the VIP, the dancing, Alves’s very physical attention to the presumed victim, the rape, the tears as she told her friends and the nightclub staff, her staying out of work because she feared that everywhere she went someone would stare or take her picture. 

• More corroboration: Making the case seem even more obvious, the nightclub director and staff and police first.responders all corroborated what she said, her tears and her state of mind at the time.

• Sutton nightclub director: "It didn't seem like the typical story of ‘they touched my ass’ or something like that. I asked her if it had been something more serious and she said yes. I asked her, wondering if there had been penetration, and she said yes."

Alves and his defense seemed to gather that he was on the losing end because the facts weren’t friendly to his story. 

• Alves used his testimony to tell the story no one believed. That is, that he and his friend invited the girls up to the VIP, that one was very interested in him, touching him, more than willing to go to the bathroom with him, and there she basically surprised him with a oral sex. Huh? Like we said, hard to believe.

• Enter, the alcohol defense. In the trial, Alves’s defense played up how much he’d been drinking that day. His friend Bruno said they’d had a bottle of whiskey, several gin-tonics, and four bottles of wine 🍸; the VIP room manager said he was obviously drunk and “wasn't like he usually was”; and his wife Joana Sanz (see above) said, “He came home very drunk, smelling of alcohol. He crashed into the wardrobe and collapsed on the bed. It wasn't worth talking to him."

A possible ‘why’ for the alcohol defense: In their closings, the prosecutors asked for many years for Alves, while the defense basically said he didn’t do it but if he did, he should get a reduced sentence because he was drunk—which under Spanish law can be an extenuating circumstance/mitigating factor that can lower the prison term.

• It’s a risky strategy and one that, we suspect—after Alves has changed his story so many times—will ultimately be fruitless.

We will know mercifully soon. Just. Let. It. End.

4.  😳 Dear Podemos: Get out—and stay out!

It means your relationship is over when your significant other tosses your stuff out on the curb, right? Just asking for a friend—and that friend is Podemos.

• Wow, that’s embarrassing! Members of the far-left Podemos’s five- four-person congressional delegation came back to their Parliamentary offices to discover that someone had taken it upon themselves to gather up their belongings and dump them in the hallway—and changed the signs and the lock codes on the doors. Hmmm, that’s odd… 🤔

• I demand justice! 🌶️ Podemos party leader Ione Belarra got spicy and filed a complaint with the Policía Nacional office in the Congreso over the “irregular access to the offices” and asked the police to to clarify the facts "in case they constitute crimes" because the objects included "work documents, computer devices, personal and confidential objects".

• But who could it be?! 😱Oh, come on. We know. Ever since Podemos stomped out of the Sumar coalition in December, claiming it was “impossible” to continue as part of the coalition because Sumar boss Yolanda Díaz basically ignored them and didn’t allow them to speak in Parliament (which was true), Sumar’s had the long knives out for the far-lefties. 

Sumar didn’t admit they'd tossed out the Podemos gear, but they didn‘t exactly deny it either. 

• Sumar “sources” told local media that after Podemos had stomped out of the coalition, Sumar had asked them to please stomp out of the offices too, and they’d been given all the time in the world to do so. “We’ve been waiting for them to act because we have colleagues who have to work and cannot get set up,” a Sumar leader told El Páis.

• A Jan. 30 meeting of congressional leaders then decided to make this happen—by moving Podemos to new offices in some far corner with the Grupo Mixto (Parliament’s Not Cool Kids). 

• But…confusion. Podemos claims it was never told it had to move, and the Jan. 30 meeting resolution only said that two offices were being added to the Grupo Mixto, not that they were for Podemos (duh!). Like, seriously?

You’ve gotta feel for Podemos. 🤦 Seriously, this is some humiliating stuff, having your ex bag up your belongings and leave them on the street for all to see. It’s just been one dis after another for these guys, repeated reminders that it’s slipping into irrelevance. 

• Note to Belarra: We seriously doubt the police investigation will find a team of nefarious office emptiers.

5.🇪🇺 Nebulossa’s “Zorra” is Going to Eurovision

The Benidorm Fest music contest finished Saturday night with Nebulossa’s “Zorra” as the clear winner, earning the right to represent Spain in this year’s Eurovision song contest, scheduled to take place in Malmö, Sweden, on the second week of May. But you knew that, right?

• Nebulossa’s victory was nothing short of spectacular. Seriously. “Zorra” drove the crowds wild, with people in the audience screaming the chorus so loud that at times it eclipsed the singer’s voice.

• And statistically spectacular too! The video of the duo’s performance (above) started trending in countries around Europe the day after, garnering close to 2 million views in the first 24 hours, and the song reached #2 on Spotify’s most viral list.

Now, this year’s Eurovision contender is not your typical Benidorm Fest winner. Why?

• The age thing: Nebulossa is a relatively new electropop duo from Ondara, Valencia, formed by singer “Mery” Bas, 55, and her husband and keyboardist Mark Dasousa, 49, in an industry where being 25 years old means you’re basically geriatric. On this stage, mother is serving diva realness.

So what’s their song about? Glad you asked.

• There’s been a lot of debate about how to translate “Zorra” to English. The argument seems to be between those who say it means “slut” and those who say it means “bitch” (as in Spain it can be used for both). Based on the context, we’re gonna go with the former.

• The song is about a woman’s struggle for recognition and it aims to reclaim a much-maligned word that has been used as an insult towards women for ages. And featuring 80’s synth sounds, it’s catchy as hell.

• 🎶 “I’m in a good moment …. Reconstructed on the inside … And that slut that you feared so much became empowered and is now a picture-perfect slut” 🎶

• We bet “Zorra” will become an anthem for female empowerment… or at least one of the hit songs of the summer (wait until Pride month—you’ll see what we mean).

Still, some people are (surprise, surprise) upset with the choice, saying it’s “inappropriate” for Eurovision and that it uses “demeaning language”.

• Banned? Conservative media in particular ran articles warning that the song could be banned from participating as the Eurovision Song Contest has some strict rules about profanity.

• Nope! Eventually, the organizers soon explained that they were a-okay with it as the word “zorra” (literally a female fox or vixen) has “multiple interpretations”. And thus, “the song is eligible”, they told El País. Phew.

Another (not) surprise: Considering how some see the song as a feminist/LGBT anthem—including Nebulossa, who said it’s also meant to send a message of inclusion towards the LGBT community—and considering how some on the other side of the political spectrum didn’t like it, things obviously got political.

• Enter Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez: The PM jumped on the “Zorra” bandwagon when asked about the song on left-leaning laSexta TV, saying that he thought “feminism is not only just but also fun, therefore this sort of provocation has to necessarily come from culture”. But that’s not the funny bit of what he said.

• Dig time: “I understand the ‘fachosfera’ (or “facist-sphere”) would have like to see Cara al Sol (a Francoist anthem) there but I prefer this kind of song,” he said. 🔥

Ouch!

P.D. The downside of Sánchez’s dig is we are now facing a deluge of earnest articles in the Spanish media titled “What is the fachosfera and where does it come from?”

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