SPAIN: Farmers Protest & more – 8th Feb 2024

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 8th of February twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

Starting this week's episode, the agricultural industry fights back across the EU with mass strikes and demonstrations after years of allegedly being priced out.

The largest agricultural trade unions in Spain, COAG, Asaja, and UPA, have taken inspiration from recent protests in France, Italy, and Greece to plan their mobilizations. Demonstrations are scheduled for the 8th in Salamanca, the 13th in La Rioja, and the 14th in Palencia, with some already underway in Zamora. However, some protests have been arranged informally via social media channels and aren't linked to unions.

Major Spanish cities’ streets, including main entryways to Barcelona and Madrid centers, have been or will be filled with farmers on tractors protesting against the European Common Agricultural Policy or CAP. Specifically, the protesters denounce the amount of bureaucracy due to the twenty-eleven CAP reform. Eva Garcia, a farmer in Vitoria, in the Basque country, told the Reuters news agency that she spends more time on paperwork than in the field.

EU farmers fear that big corporations may leave behind small farmers. They say that strict EU environmental regulations, such as using certain pesticides and price controls, hinder their competitiveness globally– especially compared to peers in places like Latin America, which are significantly cheaper because they don't have as many regulations, so their products are less expensive.

On Wednesday, the 7th, the Ministry of the Interior ordered security forces to break up unofficial demonstrations lacking proper organization or communication with local representatives. Even though peaceful demonstrations and protests can be organized in Spain without much prior notice, the twenty thirteen Spanish Citizens Security Law imposes expensive fines on people who engage in spontaneous or violent protests. Filming the police during demonstrations is also penalized. Since twenty thirteen, this law has sparked widespread criticism and protests. Some Spanish constitutional lawyers argue that it infringes upon fundamental freedoms of assembly and opinion, branding it anti-democratic and repressive.

Want to know more about your right to protest in Spain? Link in the show notes.

Since we talked about farming, a tomato war broke out.

Ségolène Royal, a French MP, stirred up a huge controversy in a recent TV interview with the French broadcasting network BFMTV. She labeled organic Spanish tomatoes "inedible" and wrongly stated that "they do not meet French standards," despite both countries adhering to the same EU regulations. Amid protests, Royal's comments have struck a nerve in Spain, where tomatoes hold a lot of cultural significance. Tomatoes are the main ingredient in many of Spain's most treasured dishes, including salmorejo (or ardorío in Sevilla), a traditional Andalucian cold summer dish made with tomatoes, bread, virgin olive oil, and garlic.

Spanish president Pedro Sanchez even got involved, telling Royal to "Come to Spain and try the tomatoes for herself."

Luis Planas, the PSOE Minister of Agriculture, who is particularly busy this week, was on the chopping block. He defended the Government's support for farmers after the Partido Popular, or PP, criticized it for not doing enough. Planas responded, telling the PP to recall the 276 million euros given to Spanish farmers whose crops were most heavily affected by drought in twenty twenty-three.

However, opposition figures like Vox's Pepa Millán and PP's Rafael Hernando criticized the Government's policies, alleging injustice and a lack of effective action on most of its policies.

On Wednesday the 7th, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the PP president, and Sanchez, from PSOE, were at loggerheads in the government control session in Congress.

To kick things off on a "high note," Feijóo told Sanchez, "Without Puigdemont, you're nobody. Four years like this are unsustainable," referring to the instability of Sanchez's Government as they try to implement the amnesty legislation. Recall that the first bill was rejected last week by Junts per Catalunya, led by Carles Puidgemont.

And it seems like Sanchez faces increased opposition this week as Alfonso Rueda, the current Galician president and PP candidate for the region's elections, launched his campaign rally.

In an interview with news outlet Veinte Minutos, the PP regional president said he is hoping for a landslide victory on Sunday the 18th so that he’s re-elected. He told the news outlet that Galicians believe that the amnesty agreements between Junts and the PSOE breach legal equality, arguing that pacts between the two parties will mean that some autonomous regions are given more money than others. Galicia has its own language and culture, like Catalunya, and its language was also banned during Francisco Franco's dictatorship, so the two regions share many similarities.

Rueda also told Veinte Minutos that Sanchez is in the hands of the Catalan Separatist Movements and "doesn't even try to hide it," comments which Feijóo later echoed.

Moving on (pardon the oncoming pun), national train operators RENFE and ADIF face strikes in February as transport unions fight back against the lack of progress.

Comisiones Obreras called a twenty-three-hour protest for Friday the 9th on the Cercanias Madrid, the commuter rail service, affecting commuters in Madrid and its surrounding metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, the UGT union has called two-hour partial strikes in the capital every Monday in February if agreements aren't made.

In Catalunya, both unions have called strikes for Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., affecting seventeen lines across Barcelona city and nearby areas.

Unions accuse the government of undermining negotiated deals, such as removing income categories in Renfe and not implementing a thirty-five-hour work week in Adif.

Continuing with deals, although more successful ones.

Spanish multinational company Exolum, which deals with transportation services and oil product storage, announced it secured a 2.3 million euro contract to build a green hydrogen production plant and refueling station in Stockton-on-Tees, in the UK. The facility will produce green hydrogen using renewable energy and supply it to a refueling station and other regional customers.

Is the E.U. more efficient than the U.K. when it comes to infrastructure? A new study by the Boston Consulting Group or BCG found that E.U. countries pay less per kilometer of rail and highway than the U.K., U.S., and Australia, meaning that E.U. countries pay less for infrastructure projects.

For example, in the U.K., the average rail unit cost or total expenditure incurred by a company to build, store, or sell their services, including raw materials, goods, time, and labor for rail projects, up to 290 million euros, costs around forty million euros. In contrast, similar projects in Spain cost just over twenty-nine million euros.

In Spain, wages are also lower than in the U.K. As labor contributes to unit costs, salaries in the U.K. also contribute to the higher-cost rail projects.

Time is just as important, though. According to the Brussels Playbook summary of BCG´s study, E.U. countries are also slower at completing these projects. Generally, E.U. countries take longer but at lower costs.

Meanwhile, Amazon and BMW secure the first joint lawsuit victory in Spain against counterfeiters.

A group of Spanish residents were accused of selling fake valve covers, badges, and key chains with BMW logos on the e-commerce website. This week, the EU Trademark Court favored the company giants, ordering the defendants to remove their counterfeit products from the selling site and pay an undisclosed compensation.

Next up, Magaluf municipality, in Majorca, is set for a rebrand after years of partying and heavy drinking culture.

Hotel Teix, one of Magaluf's most iconic hotels, will be demolished and replaced by the local council in a bid to revamp the holiday resort and shed the area's party image as part of a four million euro facelift. An open space will replace the hotel, which spans an area of 2,500 square meters, and there are plans for new developments and apartments for families and kids.

And finally, the European Theater Fair for Children will light up Gijón, Asturias, from the 25th of February to the 1st of March. Children's theater professionals and amateurs worldwide are invited to the six-day spectacular. Performances will grace stages across a wide range of schools, centers, and theaters throughout the city. Enjoy the show and break a leg!

Wanna check out the event’s program? Link in the show notes!

Aand that is for this week.

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