🗳 This Week in Spain: Home Is Where the Campaign Is

Also: Barça's 'public lynching', academic prestige for sale, and that cave lady.

Apr 20, 2023

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | April 20, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #10

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

🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: The campaign for municipal and regional elections is heating up and that means time to court the youth vote. Considering that millennials and Gen Zers are finding it nearly impossible to move away from their parents’ homes, political leaders are now trying to show that they are worried about that. Speaking about parents, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I is back in Spain and giving his son a bit more than a public relations headache. Oh, and there’s also more football scandal. Because no week is complete without a bona fide football scandal.

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Courting the ‘still living with mami and papi’ demographic

🏠 Pedro Sánchez Wants to Be Your Homey

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government announced a massive-sounding housing plan to add 50,000 public/accessible housing units to Spain’s stock, then upped the ante by adding 43,000 more a few days later. It comes as the coalition between the center-left PSOE and the far-left Podemos push through their last major piece of legislation—a housing law that extends rent rise caps, among other things—and arrives only six weeks before May 28 local and regional elections (not that we’d be so cynical as to suggest it had anything to do with that).

First, the specifics. The first 50,000 of the 93,000 total will come from Sareb, the bad bank set up in 2012 with $50 billion in toxic assets—finished and unfinished houses and plots of land—left stranded by the savings and loan collapse.

21,000 are empty Sareb homes that are meant to be sold to municipal and regional governments that will then be turned into public housing.
14,000 are already occupied Sareb homes that will be regularized (their developers may have gone bust or something similar) and turned into social housing whose renters pay a low/symbolic rent.
15,000 will be new public housing units built on Sareb land whose construction rights will be passed to developers.
43,000 will be new public and low-cost units built with €4bn in EU funds

Spain’s social housing shortage is undeniable, and huge. Spain, along with Portugal, has among the lowest stock of public housing, at around 2.5%—miles from the Netherlands, with 30%, Austria, with 24%, and the European average of 9.3%.

Spain has one of the highest levels of home ownership in Europe, at over 75%, so falling short was okay in the past when homes were cheap. But the housing boom of the last decade has vastly outstripped wage growth, and young Spaniards can’t afford to buy. Worse, rental prices have boomed as supply has dropped

Prices are at an all time high of €11.30/m², up 7.9% from a year ago, while supply is the lowest since 2016, with one firm pegging the drop at 50% since 2020—in part inspired, analysts say, by a 2% cap on rent rises.
In part because of housing costs, Spaniards don’t on average leave home until they are almost 30 years old, three-and-a-half years later than the average EU resident,

So the plan is a good one, right? Well, yes, but devil, meet details.

Sareb’s assets were toxic for a reason. Many, maybe most, are inconveniently located when it comes to a young person wanting a career. They’re largely on the Mediterranean coast (Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia) but not near big population centers where there are actual jobs. El Español reports that only 279 are in the city of Valencia, 767 in Barcelona, and 1,189 in Madrid—a help, but not generally needle-moving numbers
Beyond being built in poor locations, more than half need to be renovated. Of the empty 21,000, only 9,000 are ready to enter, according to El Español.
The first new-build units will take until late 2024, at least, to license and build. But that’s no surprise.

Ultimately, adding 93,000 units to Spain’s paltry social housing stock of 290,000 is a necessary move, but don’t expect a huge influx of units—or drop in prices—anytime soon. In addition, the limits on rent rises could keep supply constrained for the time being, as owners consider selling or, where they can, using the housing they own for short-term or tourist rentals. But do expect to hear plenty about the new units on the campaign trail—both from the PSOE and Podemos promoting it, and from the PP saying the new housing law will decrease supply.

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week:

1. ⚽ Barça is really unhappy with its referee nightmare

FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta finally gave Barça’s defense in the mysterious case of the €7.3m paid to the VP of Spain’s referee committee, José María Enríquez Negreira, between 2001 and 2018—two months after the scandal broke. His press conference was expected to be a show—and it lived up to the hype.

The point of the event, at least in theory, was to present evidence showing that no crime had been committed and Barça had definitely not ever tried to affect the outcome of games by paying the refs. “I will defend the institution until my last drop of blood,” Laporta said.

To that end, Laporta appeared onstage with four boxes meant to contain 633 reports and 43 CDs of “important and necessary” scouting reports Barça received from Javier Enríquez Romero, Negreira’s son, between 2014 and 2018 (earlier documentation had been destroyed according to club policy). Barça paid the father because of the family relationship, but the son did the work, Laporta said.
Laporta said it was common practice to get referee consulting and these were “well written reports, of high quality.” To be clear: “FC Barcelona has never carried out any action that has the purpose or intention of altering the competition in order to obtain a sporting advantage,” he said.
In fact, Laporta suggested, Barça may have been a victim in the case, with people siphoning off some of the money meant to go toward consulting services.

But defending the institution of FC Barcelona was far from the only motive for the presser. Laporta’s real passion—and anger—was saved for La Liga boss Javier Tebas and Barça’s eternal rival, Real Madrid.

He accused Tebas, who has called on Laporta to resign if he can’t explain the payments to Negreira, of going after Barça because it signed up for so-called European Super League—a sort of American-style league (read: no relegation) of Europe’s elite teams—and refused to join La Liga’s fundraise from the private equity firm CVC. He called Tebas “irresponsible…unwise, and with an evident lack of professionalism.” Ultimately, “He is trying to damage Barça's reputation.”
Real Madrid, which signed up to the state attorney’s legal case against Barça, got it even worse. Madrid's decision to take part in the legal case as an injured party was an act of “unprecedented cynicism” from a club that has been “considered the regime’s club because of their closeness to political, economic and sporting power” under Franco and had been “favored historically and now” by referees.

Ultimately, Laporta’s presentation offered more smoke than fire. While he exhibited boxes meant to be filled with reports, he didn’t release any proof, and the exact relationship between Negreira, his son and Barça remained hazy.

Laporta did not speak to important issues such as Barça’s decision to end Negreira’s contract when he left his job as referee VP in 2018, or the burofax Negreira then sent to Barça threatening to expose “all the irregularities”—which happened before Laporta returned the presidency in 2021. “I do not speak in the name of third parties,” he said.
What Laporta did speak to tended to be historic claims and grievances: That Real Madrid was Franco’s club, that the attacks on Barça in the Negreira case were a “public lynching” that was going after Barça as a representation of Catalonia, and that vague forces wanted to “take control of Barcelona”.

And then things got even spicier when Real Madrid responded with a video that said, “Which is the regime’s team?”—and pointed the finger at Barça. The video was of course in many ways unfair—it portrayed the awards Barça gave to Franco and his regime as proof of their closeness, but in a dictatorship that’s sort of what one has to do—and largely served to resurface the ugly animosity and grievance that has dogged La Liga over the years. In the end, unless Negreira speaks—and he is claimed to be suffering early Alzheimers—or a referee confesses to receiving payoffs, the case is likely to drag on in Spain’s glacially slow court system, and amount to a legal nothingburger.

But Barcelona’s not free: UEFA, the soccer body behind the Champions League, is also investigating. UEFA boss Aleksander Čeferin, has called the case on of the “most serious situations that I have seen in football," and if investigators agree, Barça could be barred from appearing in a future edition of that competition. Knowing this, Laporta buttered up Čeferin in his presentation.

2. 🇸🇦 Spanish scientists fake it for Saudi money

Scandal! (Yes, another one.) A recent exposé by El País has revealed that almost a dozen highly prestigious local scientists have been taking money from Saudi Arabia in exchange for saying that their primary research work is conducted in…Saudi universities. “Well, they could have been working remotely,” you say?

That’s the problem. These scientists are actually working and primarily researching for universities here in Spain. Confused? Let us explain:

There’s a list of the best: As El País describes here, the Highly Cited Researchers list, created by English company Clarivate, is a compilation of the nearly 7,000 most-cited researchers from around the world. These researchers are usually employed at universities, and the more cited a university researcher is, the highest the institution will appear in the Shanghai Ranking, a prestigious annual publication of world university rankings.
So change your address for 💶: What the Saudi government is doing is simply paying scientists to change their information on the Highly Cited Researchers list and add the name of a Saudi institution as a first affiliation. Et voilá! Suddenly the Saudi university skyrockets in the ranking, giving it the prestige and influence it’s after. According to the article, there are 112 researchers representing Saudi Arabia on the list—a number that’s five times higher than Germany.
An example: The article from El País describes how scientist in Girona named Mira Petrovic (who is on the Highly Cited Researchers list) received an email from a Saudi university right before the start of the pandemic that offered “€70,000 in her bank account” if she agreed to make the change. She would only have to visit the Middle Eastern country a couple of times a year. She says she rejected the “indecent” proposal. Yet many others didn’t.

This may be the first time you’ve heard about this, but this is part of an aggressive program by the Saudi government to artificially inflate their university rankings that, going by this 2011 Science magazine article, has been ongoing for over a decade.

Scientists from all over the world have been caught doing this, but China and Spain are the countries with the most researchers (12 and 11 respectively) participating in this scheme. 🤦

3. ⛺500 days in a cave? That’s impressive. Now, why?

Beatriz Flamini emerged after 500* days isolated in a cave near Granada (more on that * in a moment). The madrileña mountaineer/spelunker/extreme athlete set an apparent Guinness World Record by entering a dark hole in Nov. 2021 at age 48 and leaving last Friday at 50—a process that saved her from experiencing the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and the entire first season of Soy Georgina.

The now less isolated Flamini approached the film company Dokumalia in 2021 with the idea of doing a documentary—called Timecave—about spending 500 days in a cave without external contact, as an experiment on how isolation affects the human body and mind (guess: not in a positive way). So there were cameras for her to record videos.

Flamini spent her days (and nights, not that she knew the difference) in a cave 70 meters underground, where she exercised, drew, and knitted woolly hats. She also read 60 books and drank 1,000 liters of water.

A team of scientists monitored her progress (and mindset) via basic messaging technology (Flamini experienced "auditory hallucinations", she said. “You are silent and the brain makes it up,"). Her monitors delivered fresh treats such as avocados and eggs and removed her, um, waste from a set collection point "every five poos." "I left my offerings there, as if to the gods, and the gods left me food," Flamini said.
Upon leaving, the blinking Flamini said she thought only 160 to 170 days had passed, and called the process "excellent, unbeatable." She added: "In fact, I didn't want to come out." Take that, human race.

Now, about that asterisk. Flamini’s panic button—to allow her to call for emergency help—stopped functioning after some 300 days, so she spent eight days on the surface in a tent—still isolated, but aboveground.

As any good madrileña would on a Friday, some of Beatriz’s first words upon exiting the cave were, “Who's buying the beer?” 🍻

4.🤴🏻 The Return of the (Emeritus) King, Part II

King Emeritus Juan Carlos I is back in Spain, as we said would happen in last week’s issue. The former king landed in Vigo, Galicia, yesterday afternoon, and hopped on a car that took him to the nearby coastal town of Sanxenxo, where he will be staying for four days to participate in a regatta.

This is the second times he’s visited the Galician municipality in 11 months. His surprising decision to return to Spain has allegedly upset the Royal Palace, as we’re weeks away from the municipal and regional elections, and his presence could be used by anti-monarchy political leaders to fire up their base.
And this won’t be his only trip. To make matters worse, local media is reporting that he will also be coming back to Sanxenxo in May, June and July to participate in the regattas scheduled to take place there. His goal is to train as part of the crew of the Bribón yacht, and be ready to compete in the International Six Metre Championship, scheduled to take place between Aug. 31 and Sept. 8 at the Isle of Wight, U.K. (Apparently Sanxenxo is an ideal location to train, since the weather conditions are similar to those experienced in southern England.)
So why is the former king of Spain is so interested in sailing competitions, you ask? Here’s a fun fact for you: his yacht (the Bribón) actually won the international championship in Canada back in 2017 and then again in Finland in 2019. Both times he was part of the crew. And he now wants to win again.

His visit has upset the Royal Palace—which apparently only found out about it after El Mundo broke the story—and while there’s no official confirmation that he will be back next month, we better brace for impact. This is going to be bad. Especially if he shows up right before the elections.

One last thing: It was reported that Don Juan Carlos was scheduled to have a “private lunch” with King Charles III during his stay in London, but while Juan Carlos did take in Real Madrid’s victory over Chelsea in the Champions League quarterfinal, it appears that he did not lunch with Charles III. There’s also some question as to whether he’s invited to the British monarch’s coronation next month, although King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are expected to attend. Bummer.

5.😡 RTVE has a beef with Elon Musk

Elon Musk spoke to the BBC a few days ago, and he acknowledged that “many mistakes” had been made since he took over Twitter last year. One of the mistakes the BBC wanted to talk about was Musk’s site labelling the BBC as “government-funded media”, which felt a bit too much like it was being put on the level of state-owned propaganda networks like Russia’s RT. (Now, admittedly the BBC gets government money, but putting it in the same basket as RT is disingenuous at best.) Elon climbed down, and since then, Twitter has stamped the BBC with a “publicly-funded media” label. Which sounds nice.

What do those labels mean? Here’s what Twitter says.

“Government-funded media is defined as outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.”
“Publicly-funded media refers to media organizations that receive funding from license fees, individual contributions, public financing, and commercial financing.”

Why do we walk you through these boring definitions in a Spain newsletter? Because this week, it was the turn of Spain’s public media, Radiotelevisión Española (commonly known as RTVE), to complain.

All of RTVE’s Twitter accounts were stamped the label “government-funded media” a few days ago, which ticked off the organization.
RTVE quickly expressed its “total disagreement” with Twitter’s decision. “These labels are erroneous and go against the essence of Radiotelevisión Española,” the organization said in a statement released this Tuesday, adding that “editorial independence” was part of its identity.
Editorial independence of RTVE workers is protected by Law 17/2006, which protects the organization from any interference from the government or public administration representative.
RTVE executives asked Twitter to remove the “government-funded” label and, at least, replace it with the “publicly-funded media” label.

“We hope this petition is heard as soon as possible,” the RTVE statement ended. So far, it hasn’t been. And it may take some time—or, really, an interview with Musk—to get that to happen. Twitter has laid off most of its staff in Spain, and it appears that it is deciding which label to give broadcasters at least in part based on this Wikipedia page, which it likes to in its definitions page. And Wikipedia is always right…right?

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We’ll be back next week with more.