🔥 This Week in Spain: Little Fires Everywhere

Alvise admits to taking €100K, a scandal at RTVE and fútbol chaos.

Oct 03, 2024

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | October 3, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #72

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Everything Everywhere All at Once

Spanish politics? Take the mess and turn it to 11

So many bite-sized political stories, so little time. This week has been full of Spanish politicians acting out of character, sad, grumpy or downright crazy. The short version? The PP doesn’t know what it is, the PSOE can’t do anything, no one likes Vox, and Alvise doesn’t care what you think. Ready to jump in?

The PP found Jesus. Or at least progressive politics. Or “progressive” politics. It started on Tuesday when the center-right PP deviously registered a bill that would—hold onto your seats—helps families by mandating free preschool for 0-3-year-olds, expand parental leave from 16 to 20 weeks, and help companies that offer more than the legally mandated minimums of family/work conciliation by giving them more points when they bid on public contracts.

Why deviously? Because…divide and conquer. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE, their further left Sumar coalition junior partners, and the assorted separatists and nationalists they depend on are, well, divided. And PP boss Alberto Nuñez Feijóo saw an opening to drive a wedge between them by appealing to some of them with…social policy.
It worked, to be honest. The PSOE said, even before the specifics were filed, that it would not consider the PP proposal, which its spokespeople called “fake” and a “meme" (yes, we are living in polarized times). But Sumar—who is sore about being treated like a halfwit cousin by the PSOE—said that even though they disagreed on the measures, they were “encantados” to have the debate.
There are, of course, differences. The PP bill makes parental leave flexible while the current law states that fathers have to take six weeks immediately after a child’s birth—the argument being that men will often not take the time and leave the work (and the career damage) to the woman. And there are plenty more. But… the PP has made noises about the proposal being open to negotiation. For reals?
Sumar did a tiny troll. Sumar’s former bosslady Yolanda Díaz suggested that she hoped that the PP would next collaborate on a housing bill, which presumably would include rent controls and bans on tourist housing. Really don’t see the PP going there.

The PP got into being naughty. PP leader Pedro Rollán, the Senate President, has plans for a little jaunt to Argentina later in October, which we’d be really psyched about because we love Argentina and it’s been a while and who wouldn’t want to be in Buenos Aires when the jacarandás bloom and turn the whole city purple? 🪻💜

But we have a problem. Apparently, Rollán was meant to inform the Foreign Office before he went so they could weigh in if they felt the visit went against the Spanish government’s foreign policy. And, well…
Remember that spat between Sánchez and Argentine President Javier Milei? We had sort of forgotten it too. But Sánchez is still steamed that Milei called his wife Begoña “corrupt” (more on that story below) after Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente suggested Milei was doing drugs. Spain got angry and recalled its Argentine ambassador for consultations, Milei called Sánchez an arrogant totalitarian, Spain withdrew its ambassador (Milei laughed). En fin, Saáchez no like Milei.
Rollán says the visit is just “personal”. Some crime summit where he happened to be invited by the Milei gov. But we know he’s trying to troll Sánchez and have a vacation to boot. What’s gotten in the PP, all naughty these days?

And the PSOE’s not feeling so footloose and fancy-free right now. No siree. They just can’t win for losing. Let us count the ways. 🌼

The migration crisis keeps getting worse. After he failed to ink a deal with the PP to make each autonomous community take in some of the unaccompanied foreign minors overwhelming the Canary Islands (when they arrive on boats), Sánchez’s trip to Africa to address the issue yielded little. Then this week 54 migrants died near the Canaries when their boat tipped as it was approached by a rescue vessel, while another 55 made it alive on a separate boat. The issue is not going away.
The Supreme Court is not budging. 🔴 The state legal service, the prosecutor’s office and several of the Catalan separatists affected appealed a Supreme Court ruling that found that the amnesty law that the PSOE and partners passed to get the votes of Catalan separatists did not apply to “embezzlement” in the name of the 2017 separatist push (the oddish reasoning: that while the separatists didn’t take state money for themselves, it benefited them because they didn’t have to pay for the movement from their own pockets). The ruling on the appeal? “Nah, we’re not changing our mind. We meant what we said, and then some.” The next appeal will go to the Constitutional Court where the PSOE has a majority. Maybe?
No amnesty, no help from the Catalan separatists. The right-leaning separatist party whose votes Sánchez needs to do…anything, Junts, is really cheesed off and has basically decided it’s not playing until it gets the amnesty and pretty much whatever else it wants. The party of self-exiled leader/Separatist Yahweh Carles Puigdemont is going to put any collaboration with Sánchez’s government to the vote of its party members in late October, so everything—like, a budget—is frozen until at least then.

Well, at least the PSOE isn’t in Vox’s shoes. Spain’s Ultra party of tighty-righties got €9m from a Hungarian bank tied to Prime Minister Victor Orbán (why do we always expect him to say that thing the 🐷 said in Animal Farm, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”?).

Why did they go to a Hungarian bank? Because they don’t have any Spanish friends. Literally, they said, “No [Spanish] bank wanted to negotiate any credit at all for Vox.” 🥹 Then Vox said oops, it was really €6.5m and so nobody gets any ideas that we broke a law, it was a loan, not a gift. So…okay.

Finally, there’s Alvise Pérez from the infamous Se Acabó la Fiesta (SALF) anti-system party, who defiantly (and proudly) admitted to taking €100,000 in cash from a crypto dude because who cares anymore.

Saw this coming. Last week we told you that recently elected MEP Luis “Alvise” Pérez, leader of the anti-system party Se Acabó La Fiesta, was being accused of taking €100,000 in cash and not declaring it. And right after we sent out our newsletter, Alvise put up a video on YouTube (above) admitting that yes, he had taken the money and no, he doesn’t care what you think.

On brand. Alvise said he took the money because Spain’s tax revenue service “is a mafia” and by not declaring it “he could save more” for his political activities.

Own it. In fact, he claimed he had exercised “his legitimate defense against the fiscal terrorism of the State”. See what he did there? Trust us, his army of crypto bros was applauding him, especially after he said he “refused to let the State keep taking half of what’s mine”.
Who among us… “Tell me, who among you hasn’t made concessions or small moral sacrifices to get where you are?” he said.

Anyway, he’s now under investigation by the Supreme Court for illegal campaign financing. Oh, and his girlfriend left him. But in this post-consequence world we’re living in, if you think that his admission of guilt will make him less of a hero to many of his followers, we suggest you think again.

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. ⚖️ Justice is meant to be blind, but clueless?

At least the headline is clear. A Madrid judge is investigating PM Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gómez for possible influence peddling. But nothing else about the case is. And this week? It descended into ridiculousness when the judge involved seems to have, um, lost an important document.

The case. Gómez, as we’ve covered here, is being investigated by Judge Juan Carlos Peinado for influencing Pedro to help Globalia by bailing out Air Europa for €475m in 2020. The payoff? Apparently €1,700 in plane tickets to London.
Bit shaky, right? Lots of airlines were getting bailouts during COVID, and the €1,700 was meant to be part of a larger subsidy to an academic program Gómez was directing at IE. And the basis of the case? It was filed by Manos Limpias (clean 🤲) , a group with far-right ties, and based only on news clippings.

Now, we’re naive. We know that politicians are corrupt all the darn time, and we have no doubt at all that businesses would donate to a masters academic program run by the PM’s wife in order to get on said PM’s good side. Totally makes sense! But a quid pro quo €1,700 for €475m? Do not see it. Still…it makes for great drama for newsletter writers! 🎉

PM Sánchez government has been trying to get the case dismissed every which way. The prosecutor’s office has come out against it as baseless, some police reports saying that there was nothing there were seemingly leaked, and Sánchez has launched the frighteningly named “democratic regeneration” to fix things.

Things get weird. Gómez’s lawyers filed a request for the case to be closed for lack of evidence.

Gómez’s side. "Unfortunately," one lawyer wrote in a July 8 filing, "it is not at all unusual for many proceedings to begin as a genuine fishing expedition against the person under investigation, under the pretext of clarifying a particular criminal act, but which, in reality, seek to investigate the life and work of the subject to see if, in the course of said investigation, other crimes can be discovered."

Send it on. Gómez’s request for dismissal was meant to be considered by another Madrid court this Monday. So Peinado (or presumably one of his clerks) dutifully sent the documents to the other court. But then…

Wait for the punchline. The hearing was suspended because Peinado’s court had forgotten to include one very important document—the request from Gómez to toss the case. Whoops!
Gómez’s side went bananas. One lawyer even referred to it as an “unexplainable shitshow”.

In the meantime. The masters Gómez was running at the UCM (Madrid Complutense University) was canceled this week, apparently because of a lack of interest from students and the reputational damage it was causing the uni. The sponsors of the masters also fled. (Being at the center of possible political back-scratching never looks good".)

Next? The hearing has been postponed until Monday, Oct. 7. And there could be something to that bit about a fishing expedition: Peinado may be looking into possible misappropriation of UCM software for another case. Fun!

2. 🥘 Ayuso wants restaurants to serve food earlier

Ah, Spain. The land of sunshine, olive oil and Picasso. Also, the country where it’s totally normal to have dinner at, like, 11 p.m. As it turns out, we’re one of the few countries in the world that eats lunch at 3 p.m. and dines after 10 p.m. Monsters!

Shocking! This comes as a shock to many foreign tourists who like to sit down and order their paella at 6:30 p.m. while we’re barely getting ready to grab our merienda (and by merienda we mean a cold glass of Cola Cao and a Pantera Rosa, #iykyk).

But fear not, foreigner! Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso is here to help. On Tuesday, the PP leader spoke at the presentation of Madrid, European Capital of Gastronomic Culture 2024, and said that her government was “working with restaurants” so they would start serving lunch and dinner at an earlier hour in order to “adapt to the foreigners that visit the region”.
She also said her government’s war cry is now “Welcome Tourist” (yes, tourist. Singular) and that “we need each other” so that’s why we’re aiming to open our eateries earlier. “Just like happens to us Spaniards when we travel abroad and we lose track of time so we can’t have dinner (because everything’s closed)”. (Ed. note: She’s totally right. Ever tried to have dinner in Geneva after 9 p.m.? Good luck with that).

Not that innovative. Now, we know what you’re thinking and you’re correct. If you walk around downtown Madrid you’ll find that most ~~tourist traps~~ restaurants in the area already start serving food really early and ~~victims~~ tourists can be seen enjoying their reheated croquetas at 12:15 pm. So, what the hell is Ayuso talking about?

No coincidence. Her words come at a time when many cities around Spain (especially Madrid’s mortal enemy, Barcelona) are rising up against mass tourism due to housing shortages and the rising cost of rent. Remember the protesters using water guns to squirt tourists a few months ago in Catalonia? Yeah, that wasn’t a good look. And Ayuso is trying to capitalize on that by saying “they may not like you, but we do”.
All about the moneys. As El País explains in the link above, the Madrid government expects tourism to leave a profit of €20bn in the city this year. And the goal is to make sure that tourists not only stay in downtown Madrid but also visit other parts of the area where right now restaurants perhaps don’t take the needs of foreigners into consideration.

And then confusion. After Ayuso’s announcement, sources in her administration explained that conversations were being had with the hospitality sector to amend the 2022 opening hours order, but it is unclear who exactly they are talking to.

Most leading organizations in the industry said they didn’t know about this and that the announcement “took them by surprise”.
The regional government later said this was about “promoting the freedom to offer more shifts” (whatever that means) and it wasn’t about “imposing a new schedule”. Rather, this is all about making sure that restaurants can adapt to the customs of international visitors.

So while it’s not really clear what the Ayuso government intends to do, at least it is clear is that Madrid wants more tourists, not less.

3.🕵🏻‍♂️ The RTVE scandal over leaked exam answers is an intriguing whodunnit

Do you know what oposiciones are? Probably not, and that’s OK. However, if you’ve ever tried to work for the public sector in Spain, you will know that oposiciones are the exams that you must take in order to prove that you’re fit for the job. This stops politicians from just hiring their halfwit cousin a dedo. Well, at least in theory.

After months of study, 5,000 people were ready this week to take the oposiciones to qualify to be hired by RTVE, Spain’s public media corporation.
They traveled to Madrid from all over Spain, and many even flew in from abroad (someone even flew in from Argentina). Then, 30 minutes before the exam was set to start Sunday morning, the whole thing was called off by the organizing body to the dismay of, well, pretty much everyone.

It turns out that someone had leaked the exam’s 100 questions (and answers) via WhatsApp to some of the candidates: What broke loose? All hell.

It was all handed very poorly. How did applicants first find out? The head of RTVE’s Human Resources told the crowds from a second floor window. No, we’re serious (click on that link).
The response was chaos, outrage and lots and lots of crying. And the company filed a police report, because leaking sensible government information is — you guessed it! — a crime.

What the hell happened? That’s what everyone wants to know. Investigators are looking at the RTVE’s tribunal (a board composed of 10 members and a secretary). All of them have resigned as a result of this fiasco and, according to El Mundo, RTVE sources suspect it was one of the union representatives. So much intrigue!

This episode is one more in a long list of “inconveniences” surrounding RTVE’s oposiciones exam, the first of its kind since 2007. First, the exam was suspended last fall by the Audiencia Nacional after a ruling nullified some of the requirements to participate.
Then there was a data breach this summer on the exam’s application website (which was run by a third party) due to a security flaw that exposed some of the users’ private information.

But hey, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

RTVE set a new exam date for Nov. 2 and this time they have an anti-leak plan in which only the president of the tribunal will know all the questions.

Considering the company’s size (6,500 workers and an annual budget of €1.2 billion) you’d think they’d have this under control by now, and yet here we are.

4. ⚽😡 El Derbi descends into chaos

You know exactly what this is about if you follow Spanish footy—but for the multitudes who don’t… The Madrid derby between Real Madrid and Atlético on Sunday descended into utter chaos at around minute 64, after Real Madrid’s Éder Militão marked a goal to put the visitors up 0-1.

Members of the Frente Atlético—the far right-wing “ultra” fans of Atlético, who were in the usual spot in the southern stands behind the Real Madrid goal, manned by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, began to shower Courtois with cigarette lighters and a bag apparently containing dog shit.
Game referees then suspended the game for some 20 minutes. They spoke to players on both teams to calm tensions, while Atlético coach Diego “Cholo” Simeone and player Koke went to tell the Frente to stop f’ing around.
Atléti player Angel Correa scored at the last possible moment, sealing the game with 1-1 tie. Almost every media site and paper in Spain immediately referred to the game as the “derbi de la vergüenza”—The Derby of Shame.

So what the hell happened 🙄? First and foremost, the problem is the Frente Atlético. Unlike Barcelona and Real Madrid, which banned their ultras—the Boixos Nois and Ultras Sur, respectively (both far-right, with a neo-fascist edge)—from entering their stadiums at least a decade ago, Atlético has not managed to toss theirs.

There are an estimated 2,000 members of the Frente, and although most are just rabid fans, enough are ultras to make it pretty horrible.
The Frente has been involved in several murders, including that of Deportivo fan Jimmy, who was pushed into the Rio Manzanares by members of the Frente in 2014.
The Frente has also played an ignoble part in racism faced by Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr, hanging an effigy of him off a highway overpass in early 2023 (four members were charged criminally).

There were other, lesser, sparks. Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois played for Atléti from 2011-2014, on loan from Chelsea, and his return to Spain at Real Madrid was seen as a betrayal by some. His plaque outside the Atléti stadium was vandalized before the game, for example.

Courtois is also a classic shit talker, and when Militão scored he turned to the Frente and mocked them. For this reason, Atléti coach Simeone said that Frente members involved had to be sanctioned—and Courtois should face a sanction too. This (dubious) reasoning is why the video above suggests Courtois set off the problems.

Short version. While Courtois can be an ass, the real problem here is that the Frente has to be ejected from Atléti’s stadium, where they ruin the game for the vast majority. You just don’t need to be a member of a neo-fascist group to make the stadium a daunting place for opposing teams. In the near term, Atlético has been hit with the closure of its South stands (the Frente ones) for three games, and a €45,000 fines. One Frente member has already received a lifetime ban from the club.

5.👀 The Nacho Cano case continues

Nacho Cano is still under investigation for illegally employing immigrants (but a labor inspector says they were studying, not working)

Remember this little scandal? No? We’ll update you then. (So when someone brings up Mecano or Nacho Cano at the dinner table this weekend you can at least pretend to know what’s going on).

Acclaimed theater producer Nacho Cano was briefly detained a few months ago after being accused of illegally employing Mexican migrants - who had entered Spain as tourists - in his hit musical play Malinche.
Cano made the rounds on television claiming this was all PM Sánchez’s fault (?), who was conspiring against him because of his support of Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

Anyway, the case is still ongoing and the most recent report concluded that the student ”workers” were “performing non-employment practices at the artist’s company” under the “protection of a scholarship” to complete their training, even though it was “non-regulated training” and “not included in the educational system.”

However, according to El País, “it is now up to the judge presiding over this case to interpret the facts: the complaint filed by the intern that initiated the case, the police report, the labor inspection report, and the complaints and evidence presented by the defense”.
For now, “the judge has rejected the latest documents submitted by Nacho Cano’s lawyers, considering them “irrelevant” and “inadmissible” for clarifying the crimes he is accused of (facilitating illegal immigration and violating the rights of foreigners).

Stay tuned for more drama soon.

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