đ„ŒThis Week in Spain: Run, Yolanda, Run
Also: Ayuso talks, Shakira throws shade, and Barça scandal continues.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | April 5, 2023 | Madrid
đ Welcome to The Tapa #8 (or The Brief, depending on your preference), an English-language, weekly newsletter about all things Spain!
Weâre publishing a day early and combining our news and to-do editions this week, before the holidays really get going tomorrow.
đ„ The Short Week in a Nutshell: Everyone is completely checked out for the week and ready to spend the super long weekend traveling, drinking or catching up with Succession on HBO going to mass and contemplating the cultural and religious importance of historyâs biggest comeback. So while the media (like us) have mostly focused on Yolanda DĂazâs big Sunday announcement, chances are you care more about weekend options.
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The electoral race is heating up
đłïž Yolanda DĂaz is Running for Prime Minister
What happened? Second Deputy Prime Minister (and Labor Minister) Yolanda DĂaz, a progressive coalition ally of Pedro SĂĄnchez, announced on Sunday that sheâs running for president of the Spanish government. The news surprised no one, as she has been expected to throw her hat in the ring for quite some time now.
DĂaz made the announcement before some 3,000 people during a political rally in Madrid organized by her leftist electoral platform Sumar.
She said she intends to be Spainâs âfirst female Prime Ministerâ, which means she will be theoretically running against incumbent SĂĄnchez (PSOE). Really, she will be running to be the junior coalition partner to SĂĄnchez, who is hoping to be reelected in the general elections scheduled to take place at the end of the year.
DĂaz was joined by feminist leaders and representatives of the LGBT community, members of the Communist partyâto which DĂaz belongsâand the mayors of Barcelona and Valencia, Ada Colau and Joan RibĂł respectively.
She was NOT joined by any top Podemos leaders (more on that next).
Why should I care? The announcement points to a reordered and at least temporarily fragmented left (DĂaz is positioned to the left of PSOE). Notably absent from the rally were far-left Podemosâ Equality Minister Irene Montero and Social Rights Minister Ione Belarra, who stayed away after DĂaz wouldnât agree to Podemosâs push for Sumar to have open primaries (which Podemos, because of its larger size, would likely win).
We still donât know if Podemos will join Sumar to form a coalition. A unified far left would likely have better election results, and thereby boost Pedro SĂĄnchezâs odds of repeating his coalition and continuing in power.Â
SĂĄnchez and the PSOE are betting on DĂaz to lead this far-left coalition because she is the highest rated politician in Spain. According to a recent poll by the Center for Sociological Studies, DĂazâs approval rate is the highest in the country with 4.89 out of 10 (she is followed by SĂĄnchez with 4.41).
Podemos is less appealing. Several recent controversies have strained SĂĄnchezâs relationship with themânamely the fiasco of the âonly yes means yesâ sexual abuse law, the Podemos-led legislative amendment that unintentionally allowed over 700 convicted sex offenders to have their sentences reduced. SĂĄnchezâs people have played up Sumarâfor them, the best outcome would be for Podemos to melt into Sumar and keep quiet. Which feels rather unlikely.
DiĂĄzâs decision to fly solo has embittered former Deputy Prime Minister and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, who anointed her as his successor. They grew apart over her increasing ambitions, as well as issues such as her support for sending weapons to Ukraine. Iglesias is not going away quietly.
Still, Sumarâs launch was choreographed and theatrically positive. But it wasnât all smooth. TikTok content creator Helio Roque spoke, and managed to offend the entire political spectrum.
Roque, who is 20, is well known on TikTok for creating popular videos about urban mobility or Eurovision. He was brought in because, letâs face it, all politicians need Gen Zers. In the last few weeks, however, he started getting political and has said he likes DĂaz.
In his speech during the event, he criticized those who call young people snowflakes and then said: âIf previous generations allowed all sorts of abuse or exploitation to happenâŠwellâŠthey should have put up a fightâ.
His statement immediately ticked off people on both the right and left, who criticized him for ignoring the many struggles and social causes people took up in the past. Roque later posted an online video apology, explaining that nerves got the best of him and that what he meant to say was that in with his generation âsome problems are more evident than they were in the past.â
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đŹ Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week:
1. đ€« Ayuso would like to be PM too
Madrid regional governor Isabel DĂaz Ayuso of the center-right PP declared her desire to run for prime minister, though of course she denied she was doing that. In a long ride-along interviewâthe first of any substance The Tapa has seenâEl Mundo trailed Ayuso to Valencia and back. And she had a lot to say.Â
The PP politician sorta feels she owns Madrid: âI really have no rivals in Madrid, I compete against [PM Pedro] SĂĄnchez.â
Her break with Vox in the Madrid assembly was because of âexhaustionâ after the far-right party voted against the kind of laws they had approved in the past (like the budget and tax cuts): âThey donât have a clear political criteria...Vox is in the ânoâ for the ânoâ, desperately.â
Ayuso thinks Pedro SĂĄnchez âdespises and attacks Madrid, because heâs given it up for lost.â
She blames Madridâs bitter, months-long healthcare providersâ strike on âa lack of doctors, especially pediatricians, that will continue for a long timeâ in part because of a lack of medical schoolsâand not on a lack of investment from PP governments, as the healthcare unions suggested. There is plenty of blame to go around: In Spain, Madrid invests the lowest percentage in primary care, has the second-lowest ratio of primary care personnel/residents, and indeed is only ahead of AndalucĂa in per-capita spending. At the same time, national health funding has been stalled since the financial crisis, COVID battered the system, and older doctors are retiring and not being replaced. But anywayâŠwe digress.
Now letâs go national. đȘđž
Ayuso is quite pleased she helped Pablo Iglesias out of politics by beating him in the regional governorâs race. âThe fall of Iglesias shows that citizens do not allow themselves to be manipulated no matter how vulnerable their personal situation may be.âÂ
And with that, cue the interviewâs one moment of soaring campaign rhetoric. âWhen people do not have resourcesâŠwhat they want are opportunities to find employment, to run a business, so that their children can prosper, that they grow and access the opportunities that they did not have. I believe that the humblest people in Madrid are precisely the people who most need to hear messages of hope, desire, in favor of effort.â
Nuance? The socialists are dead to her: âThe PSOE is completely destroyed. The PSOE doesnât exist any more. âSanchismoâ exists.â
About that run for the Moncloa? Insert not convincing denial: âIâm not contemplating it. Among other things because that would mean that things have gone wrong for us, and I only see the end of sanchismo.âÂ
Bonus round: She wears lots of sunscreen because âI have Vitiligo.â
Ultimately, the interview had the feel of the statement of political ambition of someone who wanted to reach the top, but knew it wasnât quite the timeâyetâlike Barack Obamaâs speech at the 2004 DNC convention (albeit without his crazy articulateness).
2. đ Friendship lasts longer than loveÂ
Shakira closed her Barcelona chapter this week, several months after finalizing her divorce from (now former) Barça defender Gerard PiquĂ©. After days of rumors, on Sunday eve she announced on Twitter her immediate moveâwith their two childrenâto Miami.Â
But the move was no calm departure. It was rather more in line with BZRP Music Sessions #53 (you know, âThe Songâ where Shakira compares PiquĂ©âs new girlfriend to a Twingo and says real women donât cry, they make bank).Â
First, PiquĂ©âs father served Shakira with an eviction notice, acting as the administrator of the house she had shared with PiquĂ©. It said she had to leave by April 30, according to La Vanguardia.
Then, PiquĂ© appeared to disparage the origins of Shakira and her followers on a Twitch interview, where he said, âMy ex-partner is Latin American and you don't know the hate that I have received on social networks from her followers.â
Shakira had long planned to move to Miami after Christmas with their kids Milan (9) and Sasha (7), according to the divorce agreement (which reportedly has them split all childcare costs and sell their Barcelona house), but the eviction and the interview made it all the more unpleasant.Â
Shakira used the departure message to sling a final few arrows and ironic shade at PiquĂ© (as if that song didnât).Â
âThanks to everyone who surfed so many waves alongside me in Barcelona, the city where I learned that friendship lasts longer than love,â she wrote. âThanks to my Spanish audience, who have always wrapped me with their love and loyalty.â (Unlike, say, you know who. đ±) Ouch!
3. ✠Barçaâs referee nightmare is not about to end
FC Barcelonaâs referee scandalâwhich involves the club paying the VP of the referees committee vast amounts of đ¶ (for what is unknown)âtook a dark turn in comments from Aleksander Äeferin, who heads Europeâs football association, UEFA.
"It is one of the most serious situations that I have seen in football," he said of the referee case in an interview with a paper in his native Slovenia.
UEFA is investigating Barça for a âpossible legal breachâ of its norms. Äeferin said he would not comment on the investigation because it was being handled by an independent disciplinary committee, but he added that he could say it was, âextremely serious.â
This could be very bad news for Barça because UEFA controls the purse strings. If they decided to punish the club by temporarily banning it from European competitions (i.e. the Champions League), it would be a big economic hit to a club also struggling with its finances.
Ominously, Äeferin warned that while La Ligaâs statute of limitations meant that it could not punish FC Barcelona, UEFA has no such limit.
Sideshow moment: Barça called for La Liga boss Javier Tebas to resign after Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia reported that he had provided false evidence to the investigation into the referee payments. Tebas responded that this was untrue and heâd been slandered. If past form holds, expect this latest round of the Tebas/Barça spat to come to nothing.
4.đžđ» Queen Letizia (briefly) returns to her roots
Queen Letizia briefly returned to the TV show that (kind of) shot her to stardom. Informe Semanal is a weekly news show broadcast on TVE covering current affairs with a format similar to 60 Minutes in the U.S. Last week, the show celebrated its 50th anniversary (itâs the oldest TV show in Spain and the oldest with that format in Europe; its first episode aired on March 31, 1973)âand a very special guest was in charge of the opening congratulatory message on Saturday:
Before becoming Queen Letizia, Letizia OrtĂz Rocasolano was a young journalist working for TVEâand in mid-2000 she was tasked with being the summer host of Informe Semanal. The rest is (quite literally) history.
In her prerecorded message to the show, Queen Letizia (now 50 years old too) harkened back to her past as a journalist and her brief stint as a TV hostâand how it taught her the meaning of journalism.
âI was just a summer replacement over 20 years ago. I tip-toed through it, excited to be able to see up close that newsroom that journalism students dreamed of,â she said, adding that Informe Semanal âwas and still isâ a part of her life.
The royal family can be a divisive issue in Spain, but Letiziaâs message was almost universally celebrated, with Twitter users praising her presence on screen.
5.đŁ Did I say daughter? I meant granddaughter
When the world zigs, Ana ObregĂłn zags. Just days after Ana ObregĂłn had a daughter (via surrogate) at the ripe young age of 68âand sparked a national debate about surrogate motherhood (which is illegal in Spain but all good in the U.S., where the child was born)âthe actress tossed the already weird plot out the window.
Turns out that her new baby, Ana Sandra, is not actually her daughterâŠbut her granddaughter. (Insert whiplash.) Thatâs right, little Ana is the daughter of her son Aless, who died three years ago after a long battle with cancer.
âThis was Aless's last wishâto bring a child into the world,â ObregĂłn told Hola! (whose likely payment for the exclusive story probably paid enough to cover the surrogacy).
Rumors of the (grand)parenthood had been swirling in the media for days, so this was more of a confirmation than news. But stillâŠ
đ„ 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
Now that the Holy Weekend is here, we can finally a) eat fish, go to mass and take it easy while engaging in four days of contemplation, or b) behave like heathens and use the four-day vacation to eat, drink (responsibly) and have as much fun as possible.
Here are five awesome â and sometimes holy â things to do this weekend:
1. Torrijas for brunch, lunch & dinner
After spending some time in Spain, you probably know by now that torrijas are just like French toast (except not really since they are usually fried in olive oil, not butter). You also probably know that this sweet treat can be found popping up everywhere during Easter, alongside the chocolate bunnies and the hooded penitents (which, for like the millionth time, have no relation to the KKK). So for those of you staying in Madrid this weekend, why not indulge in one or 20 of them? Lucky for you, the third annual âRuta de las Torrijasâ is taking place this month, organized by Madridâs City Hall and Cocina para Ti; 43 stores mostly located in Madrid Norte, ArgĂŒelles and ChamartĂn are participating in it. Click here for more information.
2. When in doubt, eat cod
Catholic tradition in Spain says you canât eat meat on Friday (donât look at us, we donât make the rules). But at least you can eat fish. And not just any fish: cod or bacalao (aka âthe star of Lent cookingâ). So if youâre feeling religious this weekend, head over to Casa Suecia in downtown Madrid to get a taste of their highly popular Jornadas del Bacalao, where they add five delicious options to their menu. They are so good that we actually didnât even bother translating them: croqueta cremosa de bacalao, soldaditos de pavĂa, lomos de bacalao a la portuguesa, bacalao a la riojana and tortilla de bacalao con cebolla. Ends on April 8 so hurry! Casa Suecia. Marques de Casa Riera 4, Planta Baja. From âŹ8 to âŹ20 per dish.
3. Head to Plaza Mayor for some Saetas Flamencas
If after the bacalao and torrijas youâre still in the mood for more religious experiences, itâs time go to Plaza Mayor for some saetas flamencas, a form of unaccompanied Andalusian religious song thought to date back to the 16th century. The twist here is that the performers will be singing from the balconies of the Casa de la PanaderĂa (you know, this building) as the processions march below. Flamenco artists Fernanda Peña, Ăngeles Toledano, Diego Amador Jr. and JosĂ© El Berenjeno will be in charge of the performances, scheduled to start this Saturday evening. Saetas Flamencas. Casa de la PanaderĂa, Plaza Mayor. Saturday April 8, 7 p.m. Free.
4. Say goodbye to Semana Santa with a Tamborrada
To bid adieu to the Semana Santa in style, go to Plaza Mayor (yes, again) on Sunday for a spectacular drum festival â the traditional tamborrada. Organized by the city of Madrid and the Real e Ilustre CongregaciĂłn de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad y Desamparo, drummers congregate there on Sunday morning to mark the beginning of the end for the Catholic processions. Their journey starts at the plaza de Conde de Miranda and they are expected to arrive around 1 p.m. at Plaza Mayor. So sit in the sun, grab a tinto de verano in one of the nearby tourist traps restaurants and wait for them to give you the spectacle you deserve. Tamborrada. Plaza Mayor. Sunday April 9, 1 p.m. Free.
5. An option for the heathens: The F1 exhibit
FORMULA 1 The Exhibition is the first international exhibition in the history of F1 to showcase one of the sport's greatest stories. Expect 6 rooms of driver uniforms and helmets, engines, cars (obvs), the burnt-out chassis from Romain Grosjean's crash in Bahrain (less obvs), interactive exhibits, tons of video, F1 history, future technology (i.e. the car of 2050) and âspatial audio projection mapping.â We donât know exactly what that last bit means, but it looks pretty cool. FORMULA 1 The Exhibition. IFEMA. Av. del Partenon, 5. Hall 1. Tuesdays to Sundays until June 16. Tickets start at âŹ19,99. Click here to buy.
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