Podemos Walks Away from Sumar & more – 7th Dec 2023

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 7th of December twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

Five deputies from the Podemos party have decided to break away from the leftist alliance Sumar.

As well as adding complication to an already exhausted political scene, this development may inhibit Sanchez's ability to pass legislation, as he now needs the support of both Podemos and Sumar in the 350-seat chamber. He will also need support from smaller parties such as the Catalan separatist Junts group and the PNV, the Basque Nationalist Party. However, Podemos has assured that it won’t put the stability of the executive at risk.

Tensions between Podemos and Sumar escalated, leading to the break. One of the reasons could be that Sumar refused to allow Podemos to participate in a press conference on the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, the main reason could be that Podemos had no official representation in Sanchez's new government cabinet.

Amnesty talks are underway between the socialist party PSOE and Junts Per Catalunya, but what's public opinion?

The December barometer, conducted by El Pais and Cadena Sur, asked participants to associate four words—privilege, injustice, coexistence, and integration—with the term "amnesty." Results indicate that Catalunya and the Basque country are the only regions that significantly support amnesty, with 53% in Catalunya and 46% in the Basque Country thinking of the word coexistence. However, it's a different story in Madrid and Andalucía, as just over 60% associated amnesty with an unfair privilege. In contrast, only 30% said coexistence.

Meanwhile, over 60% of participants associated amnesty with injustice in Valencia and Castille y Leon.

Moving on to education…

The study results for the International Student Assessment or PISA twenty twenty-two were released on Tuesday the 5th of December and Spain could have done better.

The PISA study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (or OECD) examines fifteen-year-old students from around eighty countries in March twenty twenty-two, marking the first academic standard results post-pandemic. It’s designed to see educational gaps in partnering nations.

According to the twenty twenty-two PISA results, over 20% of fifteen-year-olds in Spain repeated at least one year since primary. In Iceland and Croatia only 1% had. France reported 11%, Italy 9%, and Portugal 17%. At the bottom of the list were Colombia with 39% and Cambodia with 29%.

There has been a decline in math performance in Spain since the twenty eighteen study, with an average score of 473 points in twenty twenty-two compared to 481 points in twenty eighteen. However, there is positive news for science, with the average reaching 485 points in twenty twenty-two, matching the OECD average, and an improvement from the twenty eighteen score of 483 points.

Want to know how well each country did? Link in show notes.

While the whole of Spain contemplates its first post-pandemic PISA results, Catalunya lost twenty-one points in math scores between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty-two, equivalent to a full academic year. Only the city of Melilla fared worse, with twenty-eight. The OECD average is seventeen. In contrast, Madrid and Austrius improved, gaining eight and four points respectively.

On Tuesday the 5th, the government quickly blamed low scores in Spain on immigration, saying that average drops in results in Catalunya were due to the migrant population in the region. According to the OECD's results, there is an unfortunate disparity between the results of migrant and non-migrant students throughout Spain. Still, Antoni Castellà, a deputy for Junts per Catalunya, warned them against using immigration as an excuse.

Next up, the monarchy has some infidelity allegations, and we’re not talkin Juan Carlos.

This week, Jaime del Burgo, a friend who later married Letizia's sister, has alleged that he and the queen had a romantic relationship before and after she married King Felipe in two thousand four.

The allegations surfaced in a book by royal reporter Jaime Peñafiel, where Del Burgo also stated that Spain's secret service surveilled him due to the relationship.

Spain's royal household has not commented on the matter.

EU countries rejected a plan by the Spanish Council presidency to use the income from Russian assets - frozen since the start of the invasion - to support Ukraine’s reconstruction. Some ambassadors from EU countries said that giving Kyiv the economic boost might undermine the Union’s commitment to supporting Ukraine. Not sure how that works? But ok.

Meta has its own problems to deal with this week.

On Monday, the 4th of December, a group representing eighty-three Spanish media outlets just slapped Facebook's Meta with a whopping 550 million euro (or a $600 million dollar) lawsuit.

They're crying foul, accusing Meta of gaining an unfair advantage by systematically and massively using personal data from users on its Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp platforms to create and offer personalized ads. Which is kind of the whole point of Facebok, but hey, let’s hope they pay up.

The tech industry is struggling as twenty twenty-three becomes the year of mass layoffs.

On Monday, the 5th, Telefónica, the multinational provider, informed unions that they need to shave around 5,000 jobs by twenty twenty-six, so they will start putting groups of people on The Expediente de Regulación de Trabajo or ERE, a permanent termination of an employment contract.

And they're not the only ones. According to the Layoffs research portal, in twenty twenty-three, over 1,000 tech companies have laid off over two hundred and fifty thousand people. Spotify is contributing to this trend by letting go of 17% of its workforce, approximately 1,500 employees, in the coming year.

Tech giants said that the pandemic ushered in a golden age for tech companies, as people increasingly relied on technology while at home, leading to the expansion of their workforce. However, due to the uncertain economic climate, less essential projects are now being scaled back. What they mean is that they don’t want employees cutting into high corporate profits.

As if on cue, just a day after announcing mass layoffs, Telefónica announced it would pay around eight million euros in dividends at a rate of 15% per share to shareholders on Thursday the 17th. Despite the current situation, the company emphasized its dedication to fulfilling the commitment made in November twenty twenty-two to reward its shareholders.

Moving on, Tariku Novales, a Spanish long-distance runner, made history on Sunday, the 3rd of December, after stopping the clock at two hours and five minutes at the Valencia Marathon.

However, in his post-race interview, Novales directly criticized the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation for inadequate support of marathons. The runner said that, despite setting records, he funded everything independently, with some support from Adidas, and received no financial assistance from the Federation.

In other news, law enforcement in Spain and Italy arrested eleven individuals involved in a large-scale "food fraud operation," producing over 68,000 gallons of olive oil unfit for consumption.

Police discovered the olive oil, falsely labeled as high-quality, in raids across both countries, exposing an underground network of fraudulent food sellers targeting the demand for premium olive oil.

The arrested individuals diluted their olive oil with lampante oil to make it cheaper. Since lampante oil is an unrefined, high acidity, raw version of olive oil they are also able to compete within legal supply chains as it isn’t an illegal ingredient.

The twenty nineteen European Commission report cited Olive oil as the most investigated product in the EU for consistent mislabeling, making it difficult for consumers to know whether the product is authentic.

Olive oil isn't the only reason to visit Spain. On Wednesday, the 6th of December, the country launched the 'Spain for All' campaign, focusing on enhancing accessibility and inclusivity to attract additional tourism.

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The goal is to establish a socially inclusive tourism model, taking notes from accessible tourism cities like Bilbao and promoting geographic and economic sustainability throughout the country year-round.

And finally, big news for the Canary Islands this week: the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition (MITECO) has committed 85 million euros ($91 million dollars) to renewable energy. The MITECO has greenlit funding for fifty-one renewable energy and storage projects across the islands. In Layman's terms, that's a lot of green energy for Spain, and it's a big step in addressing the archipelago's historical reliance on fossil fuels.

Aaaand that’s it for this week. Do you ever wonder who these Rorshok people are and why they care about what is going on in Spain? If so, head over to our website to find out more about us and the other things that we do! You can read all about the organization, other projects we are carrying out, and the other podcasts we do. If something catches your eye, or you have any questions, please reach out. You can find all the contact information and the website link in the show notes.

¡Hasta la próxima!