👋🏻 This Week in Spain: We're Back!

Oh, and August was the opposite of chill. Get ready, we have a lot of catching up to do.

Sep 07, 2023

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | September 7, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #27

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

🥜 This ~~Week~~ Month in a Nutshell: Oh, boy. Where do we even start. Puigdemontgate? Kissgate? People claiming PTSD after receiving a severe weather alert text message on their phones? And, of course, the fact we still have no idea who will become the next prime minister of Spain. Also, we’re happy to be back! Be kind with us this week, though: We’re still getting back up to speed (a like to this page would be nice).

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Here’s what you missed

Cruel Summer: August Was All About Politics

Yup, that video above is from a pretty awkward meeting that took place between caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and center-right PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo last week. Why did they meet? What did they talk about? We explain it all below. Here’s what happened in the last 30 days while we were off:

We still don’t know who won the national elections. Right before our break a month ago, we told you that once the expat vote was counted, the election results left the Feijóo-led right wing coalition of PP, Vox and UPN with 171 votes, virtually tied to the likely left wing coalition led by Sánchez that includes PSOE, Sumar and a small number of nationalist regional parties such as EH Bildu and ERC. So now the only way for Sánchez to get the 176 votes he needs to be elected the next Prime Minister of Spain is to get Catalan separatist party Junts, led by self-exiled former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, to vote in favor of his appointment (not just abstain). More on that below.
King Felipe VI asked Núñez Feijóo to try to form a government on Aug. 22, after meeting with all the leading candidates (as is customary), This wasn’t the King playing politics, he was just picking the PP candidate because he is the one that got the largest number of parliamentary seats in the elections (also customary).

Unfortunately for the conservative candidate, this won’t lead to anything and on Sept. 26/27, the voting session scheduled to take place in Parliament will end in a defeat for Feijóo because, again, he doesn’t have the 176 votes (unless some sort of miracle happens).
What happens then? Then it’s Pedro Sánchez’s turn and he will have two months to negotiate and get to the 176 he needs in order to be appointed Prime Minister. If that vote (scheduled for Nov. 26/27) also fails because he couldn’t get Junts to support him, then (you guessed it!) Spain is having a second general election this year, right in time for Christmas. Thematic elections are all the rage this year.🧑‍🎄

Batet Out, Armengol In. On Aug. 17, former Balearic Islands president Francina Armengol (from the socialist party) was elected president of Parliament, replacing Catalonian Meritxell Batet (from the same party).

Armengol obtained 178 votes in Parliament, in what seemed to be the first sign of fruitful negotiations between the PSOE-led leftist coalition and Junts (the separatist party agreed to vote in favor of her).
Of course, Junts will not agree to voting with PSOE in exchange for nothing. In a historic first, it was announced that this grand leftist-coalition would introduce a new law so that regional languages (or “co-official languages”) like Catalan, Basque or Galician would now be allowed on the floor of Parliament (only Spanish was accepted).
This has expectedly angered conservative leaders. Feijóo complained about the fact MPs would now “have to wear an earpiece” during parliamentary debate, and Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso called it “nonsense” and “an aberration”.

The Feijóo-Sánchez Summit: The strangest moment of the month was perhaps a meeting between both candidates, in which Feijóo presented the socialist leader with an 11-point proposal that included getting him to support the King’s decision and vote for the PP leader to become Prime Minister (!) and letting him run the country for just two years instead of four (!!).

The goal, Feijóo explained, was to find a way that helped both sides move forward without having to depend on separatist parties such as Junts and EH Bildu. But despite his big smile at the beginning of the meeting, Sánchez said no (shocker).
The meeting proved to be a nothing burger and they both quickly went back to attacking each other.

Vox MP Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, the party’s spokesperson and one of its most visible faces, resigned from his seat in parliament and announced he was quitting politics altogether. While he cited “personal reasons”, local media indicated that he was disappointed with Vox’s results after the 23J elections and that he felt increasingly sidelined by party leaders, who seemed to leaning more towards Vox’s Catholic wing.

Feel all caught up (sorta)?

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💬 Five Four things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. ⚖️ Puigdemont has a Christmas list

Catalan separatist leader and former regional president Carles Puigdemont, who moved to Brussels to avoid prosecution after 2017’s unconstitutional independence referendum ended in the takeover of the region by Spain’s central government, was perhaps the biggest winner in Spain’s inconclusive 23J elections.

His party (Junts) lost a quarter of its votes and one of its eight seats, compared to 2019, but a “Sí” vote from some of its remaining seven MPs will be absolutely necessary for Pedro Sánchez to repeat as prime minister.

As the leader of a small party with outsized power, Puigdemont played his hand hard after the elections.

Puigdemont’s party demanded full amnesty for those involved in the independence referendum and a real referendum on the region breaking off from Spain.

Analysts speculated at the time that Puigdemont might back down from some of the more extreme demands (like the referendum). And he has—to a point.

Leaders of Sumar—the further-left party that would form a coalition with Sánchez’s PSOE if he returns as prime minister—visited Puigdemont in Brussels this week. Second Deputy Prime Minister (and Labor Minister) Yolanda Díaz, as well as MP Jaume Asens, held talks with Puigdemont on Monday,
The meeting was meant to be “unofficial” and not sanctioned by Sánchez… but it felt a lot like the first step of negotiations to get the Junts votes.

Puigdemont did not push an immediate referendum, but he did demand amnesty for all those involved in the 2017 referendum (like fugitives such as himself), an international mediator, and “complete and effective abandonment of judicial action against independence”.

While Puigdemont said amnesty would be a precondition to negotiations, Asens fudged the whole language thing to say that it was a condition for Sánchez’s investiture, but not a precondition.

Whatever it means, it will be hard for Sánchez to give it. He already received pushback after his government pardoned imprisoned Catalan leaders in 2021, but Spain broadly accepted the move as a price to pay to restore calm in Catalonia. But amnesty for Puigdemont and the others who fled to Belgium and never faced trial—well, that not only angers those on the right (such as the PP) but some historical big names in his own party.

PP leader Alberto Feijóo, who is trying to build a majority to elect him as prime minister, rejected meeting with Junts after hearing Puigdemont’s current demands. The amnesty would be “impossible” and “unacceptable,” he said.
Instead, he pushed Sánchez to negotiate a “governability pact”—a kind of grand coalition or shared administration—between the PSOE and the PP, which account for almost three-quarters of Spain’s MPs. (Quick verdict on idea: No chance in hell.)

For now, Feijóo will fail to be elected, and Sánchez’s attempt in October/November will be fractious. As mentioned above, repeat elections—around Christmas—seem more likely than ever.

2. ☎️ Sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear

A Saudi government-controlled telecom will become Telefónica’s biggest shareholder. On Tuesday evening, STC Group (aka Saudi Telecom) announced it had taken a 9.9%/€2.1bn stake in the Spanish multinational (which also works as Movistar), news that sorta freaked out the Spanish political world.

Neither Telefónica management nor PSOE Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s caretaker government apparently knew about the investment beforehand, and the government immediately began saber-rattling about businesses of national importance falling into foreign hands. The fact that it was a Saudi company doing the buying seemed to only exacerbate the nerves.

Telefónica executive chair José María Álvarez-Pallete, who learned about the buy while on a trip to California, set off for Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to meet with the STC management team.
Economy Minister Nadia Calviño said on a visit to Brussels that the government would “apply all necessary mechanisms to protect the strategic interests of Spain”, while Minister of Territorial Affairs Isabel Rodriguez said, “Telefonica is not just an emblematic company but also a strategic one,” and that “there are channels to preserve our strategic autonomy that the government sets in motion.”

Calviño and Rodríguez may have been referring to the government’s right to review and approve purchases of over 10% stakes in companies (5% in ones that perform defense-related activities like Telefónica).

Sumar, the further-left partners of the PSOE in the caretaker coalition, went further. Party head (and Labor Minister) Yolanda Díaz, said, "Preserving our strategic autonomy is essential. Spain must ensure decision-making in companies like Telefónica, guardians of sensitive data."
Sumar-member Podemos’s head Ione Belarra said the government development group SEPI should buy 10% and the STC’s stake should be capped at 5%, while Podemos’s ex-parliamentary spokesman, Pablo Echenique, called Saudi Arabia a “murderous theocracy”. So they’re clearly looking forward to working together.

Sensing the nerves about the “strategic” company, STC emphasized that this was a friendly investment and it didn’t intend to take over Telefónica. “We see this as a compelling investment opportunity to use our strong balance sheet whilst maintaining our dividend policy,” it said.

Still, this is Telefónica’s fault in a sense. Palette has been in charge of the company since 2016 and it has struggled to increase its profits all the while. Its stock is down 60% since he’s been in charge, and later this year he is scheduled to unveil a new vision and strategy for the company in November.

(By the way, the title of this piece comes from the 1963 TV show The Outer Limits. Whoever called that gets the prize of a… virtual back slap.)

3. 🤦 Not all Ivanas are the same

Spanish fútbol gaffes are the gift that never stops giving. Hot off the Luis “¿Un Piquito?” Rubiales scandal and the firing of women’s team coach Jorge Vilda, Spain has hit the whoopsie trifecta—it mistakenly gave the medal of merit meant for one of the members of its victorious world cup-winning team to a reality show contestant and influencer who doesn’t play soccer.

Excuse me? It’s true. In the BOE (Boletín Oficial del Estado) published Tuesday with the names of the football players meant to receive the gold medal for sports merit, the first name is Ivana Icardi. The problem? It was supposed to be Ivana Andrés, the Real Madrid player who is one of the national team’s three captains.

So who’s this other Ivana? Icardi is not a footballer at all. Instead, she is an internet “influencer” best known for her role in the 2020 season of Supervivientes (aka Survivor Spain).

Nothing to do with football then? Well, not entirely. Icardi is the sister of Mauro Icardi, an Argentine footballer now with the Turkish Süper Lig club Galatasaray. Mauro shot to fame (or “fame”) for having an affair with his now-wife, Wanda Nara, while she was married to his Sampdoria (Italy) teammate Maxi López, another Argentine footballer (this did not make him popular in Argentina). So Ivana knows from football, at least a little.

What will Ivana Icardi do with her sports medal? Well, the Spanish government corrected its mistake (among others in the original announcement) and gave the medal to Ivana Andrés, who took the situation with good humor (see the X post above).

4. 🐊 We would have preferred 100 caimanes

Yunclillos is back in the news, though not for a reason it would want to be.

If you recall, we wrote about the small town in Toledo (Pop. 800) back in June when a farmer found a very clearly lost caimán—an alligator-like reptile—in one of his irrigation ponds.

It took three days, the Guardia Civil, and six wild animal specialists to capture the meter-long reptile and cart him off to Safari Madrid. (He managed to bite one of the specialists in the process.)

The Yunclillotes (an invented name, admittedly) must be thinking “Ah, those were the days.” The “caimán town” is now “DANA town”, as it was Ground Zero for the massive DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos) storm that slammed central Spain over the weekend.

The flooding from the overflowing Arroyo de las Calderuelas almost reached the ceiling of the first floor of some buildings (as shown by the bathtub line).
When the floodwaters arrived arrived midday Sunday, residents ran to save their cars from being washed away from the main plaza, but they were too late. In the end, the flood wiped out the pharmacy, health center, and half the town hall, said mayor Manuel Zamarreño, and left the town without electricity or drinking water for at least three days.

The good news: The town did not host any of the at least five deaths caused by the DANA.

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We’ll be back next week with more.