💰 This Week in Spain: Corruption Scandal Hits PSOE

Now that’s how to campaign for Spanish nationality. Amirite?

2.   ⛔ Mi plaza no es tu plaza

King Alfonso XIII reportedly said when he visited Sevilla’s Plaza de España during its construction for the 1929 Iberoamerican Expo, “Sirs, I knew that this was beautiful, but not this beautiful.” It's been pretty much wowing visitors even since, and has even served as the a set for scenes in Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones (see video above). 

• Times are hard. Now, however, the lovely plaza needs some help. The pressure of the 3 million tourists who visit Sevilla each year has started taking its toll, as has a supposed lack of investment by the previous city administration (though, ojo, this is a claim made by allies of the current administration).

• Current Sevilla Mayor José Luis Sanz has now gone on Twitter/X to say that, “We are planning to close the Plaza de España and charge tourists to finance its conservation and ensure its safety.” He also added video that was intended to show its disorder and poor upkeep. His proposal, beyond an entry fee, was to create a kind of management consortium along with the Dirección General de Patrimonio del Estado, which is overseen by the Treasury Minister

The plan to charge tourists an entry fee left no one unmoved. The idea of closing and monetizing public space gives many people that icky feeling because, you know, it’s public, but then again many also think the place looks like poo and we should protect the quote-unquote cultural patrimony (The Asociación para la Conservación del Patrimonio en Andalucía, or Adepa, first suggested closing the Plaza in 2018.). And—surprise!—political argument ensued. 

• That current Mayor Sanz is from the PP and the former mayor was from the opposing PSOE, so that probably has something to do with it. While visiting Sevilla for the Día de Andalucia Wednesday, Deputy PM (and Treasury Minister) María Jesús Montero of the PSOE said that the government hadn’t yet seen the mayor’s proposal but that it rejected it because “it will not allow the privatization of any public space."

• Sevilla’s mayor hit back. He said if the government sent €5m he would have to charge any sort of entrance fee.

• And a prominent Sevillano writer agreed with the plan and took the moment to hit out…at the Sevillanos? ”The Plaza de España must be maintained, especially from the vandalism of the Sevillians themselves," said Carlos Herrera.

So where are we? Honestly, it’s too early to tell. We don’t know the intricacies of municipal Spanish law (we know—you’re shocked), but we’d guess closing the Plaza to charge an entry fee will require some kind of agreement with the national government, being that it’s national patrimony. 

• But it can be done. Barcelona began charging entrance fees for Antoni Gaudí’s famous Park Guëll in 2013, and expanded the for-pay area after COVID. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of tourists who entered dropped from 9m to 4.6m. And in 2023, local authorities announced a €16m investment in the park. So while queuing and paying is certainly annoying (as we can attest), it can offer an upside. 

• But…at the expense of public space.

3.  👑 Awkward royal family reunions are the best

 You know you have a slightly screwy family relationship when the media runs video of you helping your elderly father walk as surprising news.

• Royally awkward. That’s what happened Tuesday, when Spain’s King Felipe VI (aka F6) and Queen Letizia attended a memorial service at Windsor Castle for Constantine II of Greece (died Jan. 10, 2023) and ran into F6’s parents, ex-King Juan Carlos I (JC1) and Queen Sofía.

• F6 treated JC1 like a normal human being. He offered JC1 his arm to steady him and talked to him as they left the church. Wow! 😱

• Royal family Kremlinology. The relations between JC1 and his son have been the focus of constant observation and speculation since bad behavior (that Botswana trip with JC1’s former lover!) and investigations into his alleged financial improprieties impelled JC1 to abdicate in 2014 and then flee move to the UAE in 2020.

• Reading the tea leaves. Since then, attention has been paid to the tiniest changes, from JC1’s recent returns to participate in sailing regattas in his beloved Galicia, to the brief hug and kiss F6 gave JC1 last year at the funeral for Constantine II. (TL;DR: They—JC1 and F6—get along better now that JC1’s been away for a while and isn’t so embarrassing/likely to cause the end of the Spanish monarchy).

But what about this awkward memorial service? When Europe’s royals get together, it’s like one gigantic, and royally awkward, family reunion.

• Let us trace the lines between the attendees: Constantine II (aka the last King of Greece, who lost the job when the Greek monarchy was abolished in 1973) was: Queen Sofía’s brother, which makes him F6’s uncle; British heir Prince WIlliam’s godfather; Princess Benedikte of Denmark brother-in-law (he was married to Queen Anne-Marie, her sister); Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark’s father; and the second cousin of Prince Philip, father of current British monarch Charles III.

• And let’s not forget: JC1 is estranged from Queen Sofía (though no one wants to say it out loud) because of that whole former lover (actually former lovers) thing. But shhh… 🤫

To paraphrase an old Us Weekly feature: Royal families, they’re just like us.

4.  🤵‍♂️🤵‍♂️ A Gay wedding horrifies priests…in 2024?

“An act of sodomitic exaltation” may sound like a fun event to attend these days, but that’s not what Catholic priest Juan Manuel Góndora thought a few days ago when he saw an online clip of two men celebrating a civil wedding that resembled a Catholic ceremony in a hermitage outside El Escorial.

Based on what conservative newspaper ABC says, the footage, which shows two men on their knees by the altar and can later be seen leaving the building holding hands while everyone cheers, was enough to cause a ruckus and even get the Madrid Archdiocese involved.

• But wait… can men get gay-married by the Catholic Church now? Of course not, you silly goose! While the hermitage is indeed a recognized Catholic building located inside a private finca that allows all sorts of weddings, priests are not allowed to perform wedding ceremonies that involve homosexual couples.

• The images were enough to outrage a few men of the clergy who considered such a sacred sanctuary was possibly being defiled by the attempt to perform an act that is (at least for now) reserved for the straights.

• Or, as Madrid priest and blogger Jorge González Guadix posted online, maybe it was one of the “undesired” consequences of Pope Francis’ recent decision to approve the “blessing” of same-sex couples. “Will someone bring things to order?” he concludes.

• “If you’re Catholic and get invited to such irreverence”, Góndora tweeted, “do not be complicit in a mortal sin. Pray for their conversion”. He’s obviously getting uninvited to all the fun parties.

There doesn’t seem to be enough information about what transpired that day—mostly because as you can imagine no one cares—but we at Tapa are determined to get to the truth.

• So far it’s unclear whether an actual wedding took place (unlikely but what do we know). Whatever the case may be, the Madrid Archbishopric (a real word, by the way) decided to get involved and clarify that it wasn’t “consulted” about the event and that it was held unilaterally by the wedding finca (which is available for all sorts of events and film shootings but apparently not acts of sodomitic exaltation).

So while this all sounds like a nothing burger, this didn’t stop people online from being outraged by it.

• PP’s Deputy Health and Education Secretary Esther Muñoz de la Iglesia (her real name!) tweeted back at Góndora criticizing him (!!), saying she was “praying for him” because “his vision of ‘the truth’ wasn’t letting him see how damaging his post was”.

• Gondora responded by saying her party was complicit in the culture of death (because, you know, abortion).

Love thy neighbor, everyone!

5. 💸 Ready for national rent price control?

Spain is not impervious to the housing crisis that is affecting pretty much everyone. Skyrocketing rents in urban centers and stagnant salaries are pretty much a recipe for disaster.

• But fret not, fellow terrified human: the government is set rent limits…maybe.

That’s because Spain plans to use a “national rental price reference system” to set rental prices in areas that the autonomous communities declare to be “under tension” (the Right to Housing Law, approved last year, comes into play in such ares).

• How would that work? Funny you ask…

El País has put together a nice little guide to understand this very exciting and not at all boring topic, so we thought we’d help a bit with the translation.

• The declaration is to come into effect on March 13 and applies a different price system for current and future renters. For currently rented homes, if the contract needs to be renewed or a new one made, the price reference for the new contract will be the price of the previous one. Price adjustments could be considered in case of significant changes to the residence (for example, a remodeling or a better energy certificate).

• In the case of a previously unrented property, the reference price will be the index price.

There are other elements that determine how much you should be paying in your nice little Chamberí apartment. As El País explains, those factors include the age of the building, whether there’s an elevator or a pool, the floor of the apartment, its energy rating and whether it has special views.

• Will this new system will achieve anything? All signs point to no.

• Why? Basically nobody has signed up to use it. Only Catalonia has asked to declare certain areas (some 140 municipalities) to be “under tension”. And as we all know, there are many other areas that desperately could use a rental price cut (or higher salaries).

• Plus, the prices are far from reality. The media has been having a lot of fun by looking at what a specific apartment costs according to the government and then checking them out on Idealista only to find out that prices are like, 50% higher. Bummer!

• But, hey, why not try it? Check out the government’s website where you can price your own rental, at least according to Big Brother. It’s sure to provide cocktail party chatter!

🙏 Before you go, please remember to share this newsletter with your friends on social media. The more we grow, the more information we’ll be able to offer each week.