Carlos Alcaraz wins Wimbledon & more –20th July 2023

Buenos días from Preston Center! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 20th of July, twenty twenty-three, A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

Starting with sports this week! Another Wimbledon season is over, and Murcian-borne twenty-year-old tennis player Carlos Alcaraz swept the competition. He won his second Grand Slam on Sunday, the 16th, defeating Serbian tennis player and World number two Novak Djokovic. Meanwhile, the King of Spain, Felipe VI, watched the victory from the Wimbledon Royal Box.

There wasn't as much jubilation on Monday the 17th, as viewers could cut the tension with a knife during a TV interview on the breakfast program La Hora de la Una with the leader of the Partido Popular or PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

During a tense confrontation, presenter Silvia Intshau-rrondo bluntly put Feijóo in his place, arguing that his statements were factually incorrect.

While discussing the PPs' stance on reevaluating pensions according to the consumer price index, he stated that his party has always revalued pensions, unlike the Socialist Party or PSOE. However, Intxaurrondo quickly fact-checked his statements, telling him that his party didn't do it in twenty twelve, twenty-thirteen, or twenty seventeen. Feijóo retaliated by asking her to fact-check her data; after a few back and forths PP leader eventually said, "If I am wrong, I apologize."

That wasn't the moment of high tension either. As Intxau-rrondo questioned Feijóo about his false comments about the Pegasus case during the face-to-face debate with PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez, Feijóo replied that it wasn't his fault, as he received incorrect information the afternoon of the debate.

Moving on now to Sumar leader Yolanda Díaz, as this week Twitter has blown up discussing her recent party promotional video called "A Day In The Campaign With Yolanda Diaz."

In the promo video, a team from The Publico newspaper followed Diaz throughout a day of the pre-election campaign, showing her ironing at home, which she described as "relaxing," and filming her meeting voters. However, many on Twitter have ridiculed the Sumar leader, saying she's trying too hard to seem normal, showing only a portion of her "huge home" in the video to make it seem smaller than it is.

Continuing with politics! The upcoming elections have everyone guessing. According to El Pais, predictions show PP getting about 142 seats, PSOE around 108, Vox with thirty-five, and Sumar with thirty-four, while smaller parties would share thirty-one.

So, if poll predictions are true, what policies are the PP looking to revert?

One of the PP's controversial policies is to bring back the "Wert Law" from twenty eleven, promoted by José Ignacio Wert. It aims to make Spanish the main language in education throughout the country, impacting regions like Cataluña, where Catalan is currently the primary language, and Spanish is a curricular one. Meaning Spanish would become equally important in schools alongside Catalan. How that would be enforced, nobody at the Partido Popular knows or wants to discuss.

Let’s go back to Feijóo for a second as his comments about the national postal service Correos haven't gone unnoticed as he told voters that voting via post might not be the safest.

Correos jumped to its defense, releasing a statement on Monday the 17th, stating that 98% of the votes requested through the company have already been delivered, representing around two million votes. Due to failed delivery, around five thousand forms are still at post offices waiting to be picked up.

It’s now mid-July, and many say that calling an election during summer was reckless. Summer elections are extremely rare because summer holidays throughout Spain are sacred, as many take vacations and administrative offices close. For its part, Correos has assured voters that they will be working until the end of July to ensure that voting goes through smoothly. Still, only time will tell, as it's crunch time.

Speaking of summer, things are seriously heating up weather-wise, as parts of the Mediterranean reach highs of 40° degrees Celsius or 104° Fahrenheit, mainly because of the Charon anti-cyclone.

However, despite headlines and warnings from neighboring countries, big tourist towns like Sevilla are busy, with many out in the midday sun.

Locals advice? It's simple, in the summer, no matter what you do, stay out of the sun, especially between ten am and four pm when the sun's rays are strongest. As bars, shops, and restaurants are open later throughout Spain, get into the local spirit and enjoy time outside later in the afternoon when it's a lot cooler.

While the main peninsula melts under the heat, La Palma in the Canarias archipelago has been dealing with a heavy wildfire since Sunday, the 16th.

Two aerial units and 300 firefighters were brought in to bring the wildfire under control as the Canaries archipelago suffers extreme temperatures. Around twenty homes have been destroyed, and many locals have been told to leave. In Tenerife, a forest fire also broke out on Saturday the 17th, destroying about sixty hectares and forcing fifty people out of their homes.

As a result of the increasing frequency of forest fires and low rainfall, which exacerbates drought conditions, locals are now resorting to digging up ancient aqueducts to secure essential water resources.

In the Southern mountains near Granada, groups of locals and volunteers gather to clear stones and piles of grass from a network of water channels built by the Moors over a thousand years ago called Athekias.

Faced with the reality of depleting resources and increasing temperatures because of climate change, Spanish farmers, volunteers, and researchers have decided to revive the abandoned Acequias — a low-cost, effective source that could mitigate droughts.

Want to know more? Link in show notes.

From the fascinating world of ancient aqueducts, let's fast forward to a more contemporary issue involving the Spanish antitrust watchdog.

On Tuesday, the 18th, Spain's antitrust watchdog imposed huge fines of over 190 million euros on Amazon and Apple for colluding to limit the number of Apple devices sold by competitors in Spain, meaning around 90% of existing retailers selling Apple products on Amazon marketplace were blocked.

Apple has said that this agreement with Amazon was designed to limit the number of counterfeit products sold online, while both companies have said they intend to appeal the fines.

Meanwhile, in a separate sector, supermarket shelves were forced to see a major recall of potato tortilla products by Grupo Palacios Alimentación this week.

An outbreak of botulism associated with pre-packed potato tortillas has, so far, put seven people into emergency care, two of which were Italian tourists who had already returned home when they were rushed to the emergency room.

Grupo Palacios Alimentación has voluntarily withdrawn its packaged tortilla products after they were associated with several cases, saying they are collaborating with health authorities to get to the root of the problem.

Next up, If you've ever moved countries, you'll know that something always surprises you when you relocate.

So, here's a short roundup of all the things that an American Barcelona-based journalist for The Local named Jennifer Lutz found shocking when she made the move. See if you agree!

Most cars in Spain are manual; you can hire an automatic, but it's rare. Violent crime isn't as common, but petty stealing happens frequently, especially in bigger cities like Madrid and Barcelona. Dinner is later than you think, especially if you're eating out. You can only buy medicine in pharmacies, including many creams and ointments, ice water is not freely given out, and, finally, air-con is not a given, even in summer.

Let us know what you think. Are we missing anything? Is there anything you found surprising if you moved somewhere?

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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¡Hasta la próxima!