Female Football Team in the Final & more – 17th Aug 2023

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 17th of August twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

Kicking off this week, the Spanish women's national football team has made history!

On Tuesday the 15th, at the Fifa Women's World Cup semi-finals, Spain's female team will be playing in the finals for the first time since they beat Sweden 2-1 in a nail-biting match at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.

Spain will play against England in the final this Sunday, the 20th of August…at high noon.

.The upcoming plenary session for the constitution of Las Cortes is approaching, with the election of the Congressional Bureau members being a pivotal point.

In Spain, the Bureau comprises nine members, the president, four-vice presidents, and four secretaries. The Chamber of Congress has 350 deputies with at least two representatives from each province. So, a majority must be reached; otherwise, important laws and policies could be blocked in the upcoming plenary session.

Each political party proposes a president to preside over the Congress. This year, Cuca Gamarra is the proposed PP candidate, and Francina Armengol is the PSOE. In the first round of secret votes, candidates must gain a majority of 176 deputies in favor. If this isn't achieved, voting continues between the two with the most votes until one has more yeses than the other.

The Catalan Independence party, Junts per Catalunya, holds a lot of influence this year as they are tiebreakers; if they abstain or null their votes, then the voting swings toward PP candidate Cuca Gamarra. However, former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont says that Junts per Catalunya "has no confidence in the Spanish political parties." So whether they will commit to voting for PSOE candidate Francina Armengol is up in the air.

The major Catalan independence party has made it clear they doubt government proceedings. However, to make constitutional talks more accessible and available, Congress has introduced a new information channel on the social network and messaging app Telegram. It will now also broadcast all future plenary sessions on YouTube.

But, what’s Vox up to?

The Cordoba lawyer Pepa Millán will be the new spokesperson of the ultra-right wing in the Congreso de los Diputados. She will replace Espinosa de los Monteros as spokesperson of the parliamentary group. The departure of Espinosa de los Monteros has not been easy: it has destabilized the party and has caused a strong internal division that leaves the future of Abascal's party up in the air. Without going any further, after his departure, his replacement should have been the deputy Juan Luis Steegmann but he also resigned his deputy's seat. The resignation of Espinosa de los Monteros exposes a pretty open secret: the hyper-Catholic crew internally dominates Vox.

In other news, a group of Spanish nationals has been returned to Spain from Ethiopia after fifty hours of gunshots and sitting in silence with no aid or understanding of the situation.

The tourists, who found themselves trapped outside Adis in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, were evacuated to nearby the Bahir Dar military base to escape amidst Ethiopia's political unrest.

Luckily all tourists returned safely, and the evacuation from the country's capital, Addis Ababa, was carried out successfully.

Also over the weekend, on Saturday, the 12th, Spanish singer Eva Amaral gave a powerful performance at the Sonorama music festival, where she sang about women's freedom while bare-chested on the main stage highlighting the need for greater freedom and equality. Everybody there loved it, she was a big hit.

Speaking of baring things, according to a formal complaint by The naturist-Nudist Federation of Catalunya to the region administration, nudists in the region are getting increasingly annoyed at beachgoers at naturist beaches who decide to keep their swimwear on, as they see it as a "lack of respect."

In Spain, nudism is not banned, so you can technically strip off on any beach you like. However, out of respect for others, many prefer to head to one of the 400 traditional naturist beaches dotted around the coast.

But, as social media rises and travel blogs and guides lead sun-worshippers off the beaten path, nudist beaches, often the most pristine and hidden, are getting overrun. The other issue is the right to privacy, as many nudists decide to stay fully clothed as they don't want their photos to end up on social media.

While Catalunya struggles with an oversaturation of tourists, tourism isn't new in the northwest of Spain either, but with the increased popularity of the famous Camino de Santiago, Galicia's capital may have to do something before it's overwhelmed.

For the locals of Santiago de Compostela, the impact of tourism on daily life, housing availability, and the preservation of the city's cultural identity is turning negative. The rise of Camino tourist numbers has increased demand for accommodations, driving up housing costs – making it difficult for residents to find affordable places to live.

The problem doesn't end in Santiago de Compostela either; it has stretched another eighty kilometers to the small town of Fisterra, where the City Council has already had to intervene to stop the false ritual of burning the boots to mark the end of the famous walk.

Some things got to give, and local authorities are considering measures to address these issues, such as promoting sustainable tourism practices, implementing regulations on vacation rentals, and investing in infrastructure to manage the flow of visitors more effectively.

Let's hope something as culturally significant as the Camino can continue before tourism changes it forever.

From bustling crowds to dwindling howls, the Andalucian region's environmental department announced the Iberian Wolf's extinction after decades of the animals' decline. According to the department, since twenty twenty, there hasn't been a sign of these wolves, despite it being a protected species.

The World Wildlife Fund in Spain says this news confirms the conservation charities' suspicions, blaming the Andalusian regional government for its lack of coordination and planning to prevent an entire eradication of an important species. The Fund said that the region failed to list the wolf as a species in danger of extinction. Had it been categorized, the Andalucian government would have been legally bound to take protective measures.

Let’s go back to housing for a second. The Generalitat has completed the process to limit the price of rent in 140 Catalan municipalities that meet the requirements set by the state housing law. It has also reduced the number of properties from ten to five that must be owned to be considered a large tenant.

Another thing that Spanish people love is TV presenter and journalist Mercedes Milá who is currently on vacation in Menorca. Twitter or X, however, had a lot to say about her this week.

On Monday the 14th, while at sea with her niece and dog, their boat ran out of fuel near the Mahón port where they had gone to refuel. Unfortunately for them, the port was out of fuel, so they were left stranded nearer the rocks. All turned out fine as a close friend rescued them - towing them to safety.

Twitter, however, was in an uproar, as Mercedes Milá is well known for lessons telling people they should ride bicycles because fossil fuels are destroying the planet - which she isn't wrong about. Still, renting a gasoline boat for the day was questioned, as many called out her "progressive hypocrisy" as classist and anti-poor.

Estrella Galicia, one of Spain's most popular beer brands, has recently announced a significant expansion plan in the United Kingdom.

Estrella Galicia, a brewery that is often mislabeled as a subsidiary of Estrella damn, is actually a family business in its fourth generation of management.

The company has shifted its focus on strengthening its presence and brand awareness in the UK and plans to allocate more resources to marketing, distribution, and partnerships.

This move comes as part of the brewery's broader strategy to capitalize on the increasing popularity of craft beers and imported beverages in the UK, a market growing exponentially over the last few years. Let's see if the UK is ready for a flagship lager from one of Spain's most loved companies! Hope they drink it cold like they do around here!

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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¡Hasta la próxima!