💸 This Week in Spain: The Kids Aren't Alright

Also a canceled actress, mean YouTubers and Junts continues to make threats.

Jan 18, 2024

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | January 18, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #40

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(Not) Home Alone

Only 1-in-6 Spanish Youth Moves Out of Their Parents’ Home Before Turning 30 😬

Things are not looking great for young people worldwide—and it’s no different in Spain.

The Spanish Youth Council’s Emancipation Observatory released its latest report this week, and the news is not good: only 16.3% of the country’s young population (roughly seven million people between the ages of 16 to 29) had left their parents’ home in the first half of 2023.

This percentage is a slight improvement (0.37%) compared to 2022 but leaves the Spanish youth emancipation rate far from the European average (31.9% in 2022) and the levels that existed in Spain before the 2008 economic crisis, when it was 26.1%. The percentage is also below pre-pandemic levels (18.7%). So…not good.
Of course, this phenomenon is not new, as demonstrated by the numbers above. Young people in Spain are struggling and even though the median salary for this age group has grown around 5% and unemployment has gone down to 2008 levels (before the Great Recession), the reality is that the rapid increase in rental prices and a skyrocketing cost of utilities has turned living alone into Mission Impossible for the youths.
Nothing left over: In fact, a young person “would have to allocate 93.9% of their salary to rent a home independently—or save four and a half years' worth of their full salary to afford the down payment on a property, according to Antena 3.

Andrea Henry, president of the Spanish Youth Council: "As you approach 30, the financial conditions to live alone are just not there for you. If you can afford it, you are forced to share a home with people with whom you have no bond, your private space is reduced to a 7m²-room, and that can affect your mental health, your peace,” she told El País. “it is very difficult to build an autonomous project under these circumstances." (Editors’ comment: That’s putting it lightly, Andrea.)

Stagnant: Henry adds that the average age of emancipation in Spain “remains stagnant at 30.3 years, compared to the European average of 26.4 years, according to Eurostat.”
Insult to injury: According to the study, even if they dedicate their entire salary to it, a young person can’t afford to live alone. Taking the age group’s median salary as reference (€1,005.22 net per month) and the median rent of a home (€944/month), plus the costs of electricity, gas, and other utilities (€138.12), they would still need around €77 to cover the total costs. And what about food?
Structural problem: Henry also called for tackling housing as a “structural problem, increasing public housing—which in Spain represents 2.5% of the total compared to the European average of 9.3%—applying the Housing Law, and raising the minimum wage”.

The Spanish Youth Council believes this issue “should be one of the priorities of the political class, as the inability to access conditions that allow for a dignified way of living not only poses material problems to young people but also impacts their mental health."

Labor reform: In 2022, the coalition government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (from center-left PSOE), implemented a labor reform that sought to revert this problem and that, according to El País, had a “dual impact” on the young population.

More permanent contracts, but… It led to a 23.9% increase in the number of young people with permanent contracts compared to the previous year. On the other hand, it resulted in a 64.6% increase in people hired with the so-called fijo discontinuo contracts (people who worked only a few months a year, although their contract was indefinite) compared to the first half of 2022.
Less temps, less dole. The number of individuals with temporary or seasonal contracts also decreased by 20.5% compared to the previous year. In the first half of 2023, youth unemployment dropped to 2008 levels, reaching 20.1%.

But despite these numbers, they problem is far from being solved.

Politicians have started responding to the report, hoping to tackle the issue—or at least make political hay out of it.

In Galicia, leftist party Sumar has proposed a universal income of €600/month for people aged 18 to 30. The northwestern community is holding regional elections on Feb. 18, and party spokesperson Paulo Carlos López has said this would be added to Sumar Galicia’s electoral program in its attempt to overturn the PP’s long hegemony in the region.

In Madrid, regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso (from center-right PP) also commented on the report, but (shocker) had a different take:

No rent control: Ayuso said she rejects Catalonia’s soon-to-be-implemented rent control strategy saying that "this is a national issue" and that many of the laws implemented by the government "have strained prices everywhere."
Bad opposition: She blamed opposition parties for delaying her public housing development plans but predicted that some of the recent measures put in place by her government (such as the My First Home plan) would help young people get loans to buy property.
Low pay or high unemployment? She warned, however, that “there are many sectors losing qualified workers because people often prefer not to work. Many times, it is more profitable not to work than to work". Yes, just like Kim Kardashian said.

No way to make ends meet. For Henry or the Spanish Youth Council, it isn’t that young people don’t want to work. Rather, she told El País, it’s that they don’t earn enough. "Our feeling is that we can never keep up with the market,” she says. In the past, she notes, it was very common for students to share an apartment: But now? “It's also common among those who work.”

Let’s look on the bright side: at least this isn’t Italy with its bamboccioni (big babies).

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 💸 ‘La Casa de Papel’ actress pays a high price for ETA prisoners march

The name Itziar Ituño might not ring a bell, but her face—made famous by her role as Raquel Murillo aka ‘Lisboa’ in the Spain-born Netflix hit La casa de papel (Money Heist in its prosaic English translation) certainly will. And that’s gotten her in trouble.

Ituño led the 2024 edition of an annual march in favor of imprisoned members of the Basque terrorist group ETA, in the front row alongside Catalan separatist leaders, former Bilbao footballer Edika Guarrotxena, and longtime Basque left leader José Luis Elkoro.
Led by the group Sare, the march in its early years called for the ETA terrorists to be moved to prisons closer to Basque Country (and their families) but now asks for their release.

Politics, meet commerce. Ituño’s prominent participation didn’t go unnoticed—and didn’t go down well with people with painful direct or indirect memories of ETA terrorism, members of the Spanish right, and other people who just generally find terrorists distasteful, no matter how long they’ve served in jail. So this being the Social Media Century, they did what anyone would do and…

Launched an online pressure campaign against the actress and influencer (>5m social media followers), pointedly asking brands that Ituño represented whether this was the brand image they wanted. And—you guessed it—some said ‘no.’

BMW Lurauto and Iberia both dropped advertisements featuring Ituño like the proverbial hot potato. The airline merely deleted a video in which Ituño recommended series to its fliers, while the car concessionaire went all out with an explanation why they dumped her.

BMW Lurauto wrote on ~~Twitter~~X: “We are not linked to any political ideology, so we regret that the image of BMV Lurauto has been linked to any type of ideological content, since we reaffirm our commitment to diversity, inclusion and respect for 100% of society.”
Translation: Please don’t mention ETA anywhere near us. We just want to sell lots of cars.

Sare hit back, denouncing a campaign of “criminalization” against Ituñoorchestrated by the Spanish right. “We cannot remain silent in the face of the injustice of this public lynching,” the group wrote. “We are talking about rights. Right to free expression and not to be persecuted and criminalized for exercising it.”

Free expression…and commerce. Ituño has previously spoken out in support of bringing the ETA prisoners closer to Basque country—in 2016 and 2017—which lead to calls for a boycott of La Casa de Papel when it was still a local Spanish TV series.
That boycott failed—presumably because, like, what would people get from not watching a hit series because they disagreed with one actor in it? But the boycott’s failure didn’t mean that supporting ETA members had become copacetic.
Since then, Ituño has become famous—and vulnerable. As someone who now has her own brand and influencer profile, she can be hit directly. And she has been. Her freedom of speech may be intact, but her freedom to make money has definitely been hit. Which in the Social Media Century may be the same thing.

Ituño has not commented on the situation.

2. 😵‍💫 Youtuber stars in Big Trouble in Little Andorra

TheGrefg, the famous Spanish Youtuber and Twitch star (of course you’re up on your Youtubers, but we just have to explain for the olds), is starring in his own very of Big Trouble in Little China but with Andorra subbing for the Asian giant.

He’s trying to evict an 80-year-old lady from an apartment block he bought. It involves trying to freeze her out, and accusations of lying all around. And it’s in court. Not. A. Good. Look.

Rewind a bit, right? Fine. The Murcia-born 26-year-old, whose real name is David Cánovas, first became online famous as a teenager, launching his YouTube channel (now with 18.2m followers) and focused on video games (like Fortnite) and esports.

TheGrefg got so big he won a Guinness record for the most simultaneous Twitch streams (with around 2.5m) during the 2021 reveal of his Icon series Fortnite skin. (Dude’s big online, in other words.)

Now, online fame often comes with real-world cash, and this was TheGrefg’s case. He moved to Andorra which, besides being close to ski resorts, has a generous income tax regime (i.e. low taxes). There, in 2020, his real estate company, Grefito, bought a 20-unit apartment building in the town of Escaldes (though its population only numbers 79,000, it does have towns outside its capital Andorra la Vella aka Hospitalet in the Pyrenees). And here’s where the scandal begins.

His renters left over time as their one-year rental contracts expired. That is, all except one: The previously mentioned 80-year-old woman.
She had been living there since 1989—previous to the current contract law (approved in 1993), and had an indefinite contract that apparently was, um, verbal. With the old owner. Who was related to the lady. No matter. The issue is, she refused to leave.
Grefito began working on the renovating the building, which by chance involved removing the windows and doors. Which, as you can imagine, got awfully cold in the Pyrenees winter. So cold, in fact, that the woman’s pipes froze. And she took Grefito to court, and won an order forcing them to close up the holes (see video above).

Now comes the war of the ‘relato’ (narrative). With the story hitting the papers—the the Youtuber Evicts Little Old Lady vibe not a good one—TheGrefg realized it was high time to respond. Which he did. On Twitter. Because social media.

Put simply, TheGrefg wrote (and we paraphrase): “I wasn’t running this thing because somebody else runs Grefito. But the old owner told the Old Lady and everyone else they had to leave because the building was getting a gut renovation, and she agreed. And her contract was year to year. And she hasn’t paid in three years. And she doesn’t even live there—her son does. Oh, and she’s a rich lady!”
The lady’s response (more or less)? She says she never agreed to leave and she hasn’t paid because Grefito won’t accept her payments (a common practice for landlords who want to evict a renter). Oh, and the only reason her son lives there is because it’s too cold for an elderly lady like her in winter.

So everyone looking great on this one. At the very least TheGrefg (how the heck do you pronounce THAT?) ended his comuniqué with irony aimed at those who’ve piled on him in recent days.

“I’ll say what you want to hear: I like to mistreat older ladies, in fact I like to eat them,” he wrote. ”In my next stream, I will put up a countdown to go after your grandmother and devour her.”

At least we morbid got a joke out of it!

3. ⏳ “And that’s all she wrote” (Catalan separatist edition)

“Y colorín colorado este cuento se ha acabado.” Anyone who’s read to a child (or been read to as a child) in Spain knows what that phrase means—basically, “And that’s all she wrote.” But what does it signify in politics?

Referendum or bust. Jordi Turull, the general secretary of the Catalan separatist party Junts, brought that question to the fore this week when he used the phrase to describe what would happen to PM Sánchez’s government if it “refuses outright” an independence referendum for Catalonia. Translation: Sánchez can kiss this legislature goodbye.

But we thought a referendum was off the table. Because it went so well last time. And Junts sorta kinda agreed it wouldn’t happen now. Right? Apparently wrong. Sorta.

Turull softened the comment, slightly. He said that, “If there isn't one, we will have tried.” and that the only thing that can “delegitimize” the 1-O referendum (the unconstitutional 2017 straw poll) was a “binding referendum agreed upon with the State." Which doesn’t sound likely.

So, maybe not the end of Sánchez’s legislature after all. True. But a sign that it will continue to be rocky, after Junts squeezed the government last week, supposedly gaining concessions such as regional control of immigration (how would that work?) in exchange to abstain from a vote on extending economic crisis measures.

Junts is currently in tough negotiations with the governing PSOE (and Sumar) over the amnesty law. Amendments are due today, and Junts reportedly wants to extend the amnesty to cover terroristic acts, to return fines paid by those already convicted, and to sort of add changes to make the law bulletproof from national or international appeals—and to make it impossible to prosecute Junts boss Carles Puigdemont for his role in the 1-O referendum and subsequent flight.
Last, best chance. Junts knows that this may be its last, best chance to get off the legal hook and for Puigdemont to return to Spain without facing the law. The high stakes bet is that Sánchez has more to lose than they do. It will be tense.

Next stop: The PSOE and Sánchez have said before they wouldn’t accept an amnesty. They then did. They’ve since suggested they don’t want to change the law as agreed. We’ll have some indication today if they blinked—and if not, what Junts is willing to do.

Care to make a bet? 🃏

4. 👶 Now, which crib does this one go in?

Spain’s “stolen babies” scandal and the argument over how big it was (300,000 babies? Or many less?) has gotten plenty of press, but what about La Rioja’s “lost babies because they were accidentally given to the wrong parents” scandal? That’s just plain embarrassing.

Sorry about that. Will 💰make it right? This week, La Rioja approved an €850,000 payment to a woman (let’s call her Ana) who was, up, given to the wrong couple when she was born back in 2002.
Probably won’t surprise you. To mistakenly swap babies requires two babies (natch), and this was the second payment to another woman (let’s call her María). The first (also €850,000) was ordered by the courts last April.

Weird, but what’s the big deal? Like all good tragedies, what makes this story is not the fact of the baby-swap (which is incompetent, tragic and ridiculous all at once) but the “how” of its discovery.

It was discovered back in 2017. That’s when the grandmother of María went to María’s father and demanded that he pay alimony because he and his partner had been ruled incompetent to raise María, so the grandmother was doing it.
He refused to recognize her as his child. (Sensed something or jsut not generous? Inquiring minds…) So the court ordered a DNA test which…proved him right 😱. He was not María’s father!
This is when things get weird. A DNA test of María’s mother (or “mother”) was taken, which you might think would prove that María was the product of an affair between her mother and another man.
But, surprise! Not her mother either!

Quite a pickle. Indeed. This was a serious heads-cratcher. After getting the court to legally emancipate her (being a kid wihtout parents after all), María went to the regional health ministry, which basically said, “We have no idea.” Then she went to the hospital, and it all began to fall into place.

Going over the birth records of babies born on her birthday in the hospital of her birth, and discarding the boys, the hospital discovered that there were two small babies born that day, who’d been put next to each other in incubators 6 and 7, and who had blood types compatible with both mothers: Ana and María.

Whoops! It turns out that the mystical magician “human error” somehow swapped the babies between the incubator room and the parents’ arms (no one has claimed this grand act for some reason) and off the story went, the plot lines of Ana and María forever changed.

Sad epilogue. María was never able to meet her birth mother, who died in 2018.
More money. Ana’s father was also paid €590,000 for his trauma, and Ana’s brother received €145,000. Both Ana and María have asked for €3m (not €850,000), and their cases are pending.

The hospital in La Rioja where the swap occurred was demolished in 2009.

5. 🚻 44.1% of men think the promotion of equality has gone too far (and now they are being discriminated against)

The war of the sexes seems to be alive and well in Spain, after a recent CIS poll showed that gender equality (or at least the perception of it) may be more out of reach than we thought.

44.1% of men in Spain believe that the promotion of gender equality has gone “so far” that now they are the ones being discriminated, according to the study published Monday.
…and a 32.5% of women say they agree with that premise.
Think ideology plays a part in this? You are correct! According to the CIS, it’s mostly people on the right and the far-right that feel this way. 88% of male Vox voters agreed with it, as well as 66% of male PP voters. People (well, men specifically) on the left? Not so much.
The poll also said that 51% of men aged 16-24 agree with the premise that they are the ones being discriminated now, which seems concerning.

Politicians on the left and right came out to offer their own points of view as and explain why those men are right or wrong. (We know: surprising, right?)

Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso said they were right to feel this way and went after former Equality minister Irene Montero (from far-left Podemos), arguing that such belief is the result of implementing “senseless policies that no woman with a bit of common sense wanted”.
“The Ministry of Equality has done so much harm in the name of equality,” Ayuso said. “Now there are indeed inequalities, and above all, there is discord between men and women".

Montero—surprise!—had a different take, and took to Twitter (X) to celebrate the results.

“That 4 out of 10 men believe that feminists have gone too far also means that 6 out of 10—that is, the majority—want a feminist Spain,” she wrote. (Though this logical leap doesn’t make total sense, we get the point…) “In both cases, more feminism than ever is needed”.

Statistics caveat emptor: It bears noting that these data alone don’t tell the whole story—have the numbers gone up in recent years? Or down? And what about other countries?

In fact, looking abroad kinds makes the Spanish numbers look not so bad. In a massive (25,000 people) 2023 global survey by Ipsos UK and the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's College London, 55% of men—and 41% of woman—agreed with the statement that “We have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men.”

Some (grim) numbers from the Spanish poll don’t need a lot of explanation, however: it looks like there is indeed work to be done.

78% of women think they have to work harder than men to prove they can do the same job (and 51% of men agree with this).
Men (52.9%) and women (68.9%) also agree that women’s salaries are lower than men. Promotion opportunities at work are also lower, according to 48.8% of men and 68.3% of women.

And now, a little humor: Among other interesting results, we have this gem:

Well, actually… 54.1% of women have frequently experience situations when a man has tried to explain (or mansplain) something to them, assuming they didn’t know it.

Say no more. 🤦‍♀️

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