Coalition's Plans & more – 26th Oct 2023

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 26th of October twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

A thirty-seven-hour and thirty-minute workweek in Spain might become the standard by twenty twenty-five if socialist leader Pedro Sánchez secures the presidential position through coalition pacts. The date this will happen is still to be confirmed, but he’s getting ready as King Felipe’s VI deadline is looming.

On Tuesday the 24th, Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz, the Sumar leader, presented their finalized coalition plans. Key highlights include gradually reducing the working week for the same pay for around twelve million salaried employees. In twenty twenty-four, it will be reduced from forty to thirty-eight and a half hours, gradually decreasing to thirty-seven and a half by twenty twenty-five.

Another joint proposal involves repealing the controversial twenty fifteen Protection of Citizen Security law, — the Gag Law or "Ley Mordaza," which has faced global criticism for imposing fines on unauthorized protests and limiting certain public demonstrations, including authorities using the law during the COVID-19 pandemic to fine residents for violating confinement orders.

Sumar is also asking for an increase in minimum wages so purchasing power isn't lost, proposals for statutory dismissal procedures and protections for fired employees, and reforms over how government equally distributes money between regions.

The investiture deadline is just over a month away, and Sánchez still has a few more hurdles.

Once Sánchez and Díaz close coalition pacts between Sumar and the socialist party PSOE, Sánchez must close amnesty deals with Junts per Catalunya and the Republican Left of Catalunya.

Negotiating with Junts is proving to be the most challenging. The Catalan pro-independence party is demanding significant concessions. These include co-official language status in parliament, which has already been implemented, and registration of an amnesty law - which would drop the sentences for around 4,000 individuals convicted of their involvement in the twenty seventeen Catalan independence referendum.

Junts is also seeking permission for a legal and democratic vote to validate the twenty seventeen independence vote, which judges called “illegal.”

Moving to the weather, Storm Bernard is causing havoc in the south with heavy rain and strong wind. The Huelva Consortium Firefighters have said they have had to carry out more than thirty interventions since Sunday, the 22nd. On the same day, also in Huelva, in the town of Trigueros, one person was sadly pronounced dead after their vehicle overturned because of a landslide on the road caused by the storm. Another person is in serious condition in hospital after a tree fell in Moguer. In Granada, three people got injured after a tree toppled over in the Alhambra Gardens.

It's been a week since Alvaro Prieto, the young Córdoba footballer, was found dead near the Santa Justa train station in Sevilia. On Sunday, the 22nd, his teammates from Ciudad Deportiva Córdoba dedicated a heartfelt tribute before playing against Pozoblanco. Just before kickoff, the two teams' captains carried a bouquet and a shirt with his name on it, followed by a hugely emotional minute of silence.

Still on football, Jenni Hermoso is back and will be playing for Spain in the upcoming UEFA Women's Nations League matches against Italy and Switzerland at the end of October.

Luis Rubiales, Former President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation or RFEF, faced allegations of kissing Jenni Hermoso without her consent, ultimately leading to his resignation and prompting Hermoso to file a restraining order against him. Subsequently, Hermoso was left out of the team when Montse Tomé, the new head coach, cited her omission as a "protective measure." However, Tomé reversed this decision on Wednesday, the 18th, when she announced that Hermoso would return to play.

On the same topic, after several months of negotiations and back-and-forth, the women's Spanish team has reportedly ended their boycott against the RFEF after successful negotiations with the football body.

The Spanish women's team's boycott might have ended, but other kinds of protest are still going.

On Wednesday, the 25th, thousands of educators of classrooms for 0-3 took to the streets to protest against unfair working conditions and lower-than-average salaries in the education sector. The Education Federation of Comisiones Obreras, or CCOO, has been fighting for salary increases for the last two years.

Since twenty twenty-one, the proposed salary agreement has been just over 1,000 euros per month. This falls below the standard minimum income for full-time work, set at 1,260 euros per month if paid over twelve months or more commonly 1,080 euros per month if paid in fourteen payments, where two additional payments are made in June and December.

If things don't change, two more strikes will take place on the 8th and the 15th of November.

The prohibition of short flights within Spain's borders, when there is an alternative train route of less than two and a half hours, will only impact four air routes, which won’t be able to operate. All of them depart from Madrid. The destinations are Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Seville.

Going back to education for a minute, many schools across Spain are embracing environmental projects.

Non-profit organization Ecoembes is going into schools and has partnered with over 2,000 teachers with its Naturaliza project. Students in Ávila, in Castilla y León, have grown vegetables in an intergenerational project. At the same time, other schools working with Ecoembes have activities that include gaining knowledge of sea turtle preservation in collaboration with the Center for Studies and Conservation of Marine Animals. The Naturaliza project has also helped aid school trips to the beach to collect waste and hiking routes so that students get to know their local natural environment.

Want to know more? Link in show notes.

Shifting the focus to economic policies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, recommended that Spain withdraw the support measures it brought into force to mitigate rising inflation. On Wednesday, the 25th, the OECD pointed out that while support measures like VAT cuts on essential food items have significantly helped households, they should end to recoup fiscal funds. Instead, going into twenty twenty-four, the OECD recommends Spain adopt specific measures to help the most vulnerable through a new minimum income guarantee.

Tap water safety is a growing concern. According to a National Consumer Water Information System report, over 400 municipalities have restrictions on tap water due to nitrate contamination.

This summer, Torrejoncillo del Rey in Cuenca warned residents that tap water wasn't safe for human consumption, with nitrate levels reaching eighty milligrams per liter—exceeding Spanish law's fifty milligrams per liter limit.

Excessive nitrate levels can obstruct the oxygen-carrying capacity of red blood cells, which is especially risky for young children. Greenpeace attributes nitrate contamination to local livestock farming, particularly pig farming and synthetic fertilizers, as the leftover waste seeps into the ground, polluting the water supply.

O Sunday the 22nd, seventeen-year-old Spanish forward Marc Guiu made an incredible senior debut for FC Barcelona, scoring the winning goal just thirty-three seconds after coming onto the field in the seventy-ninth minute. This achievement is the fastest league goal in the club's history.

This week Partido Popular Madrid President Isabel Diaz Ayuso has alluded on social media that the Central Government is complicit in human trafficking. Her tweets imply that they are "collaborating with mafia" groups due to their efforts in accommodating migrants who arrive in the Canary Islands.

The recent influx of migrants in the Canary Islands and the subsequent distribution of new arrivals to different mainland provinces has escalated the conflict between the PP and José Luis Escriva, the acting Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration. This month, the archipelago has seen an influx of over 9,000 migrants, prompting the need to transfer them to various mainland hotels and private accommodations to prevent overburdening the islands.

Escriva has since said Ayuso's comments were unsupportive and accused them of having a "xenophobic" tone.

Cheers, or Salud, with our next story!

Sips Drinkery House in Barcelona has been ranked number one in The World's 50 Best Bars competition. The cocktail bar near the Hospital Clinic in upper Eixample was crowned the winner for twenty twenty-three. Double Chicken Please in New York was the runner-up, and Handshake Speakeasy in Mexico City came in third.

And that's it for this week!

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¡Hasta la próxima!