SPAIN: New Public Housing Company & more – 5th Dec 2024

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 5th of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

First up, on Monday the 2nd of December, Spanish President Pedro Sánchez announced the government will create a new public housing company that will deal with measures to combat Spain’s housing shortages. This includes measures to ban short-term rentals in high-demand areas and introduce a progressive tax on owners of three or more vacant properties.

By twenty thirty, Sánchez’s Socialist Party plans to restore over 1.5 million homes to livable conditions, expand public housing, and reduce housing-related financial strain for vulnerable households.

The government also vowed to combat illegal tourist rentals and grant municipalities authority to define high-demand zones. Despite opposition from some regional governments, Sánchez reaffirmed the Socialists' commitment to ambitious housing policies, including constitutional protections for public housing ownership.

Also on Monday, thousands protested in Valencia on the east coast, demanding that Carlos Mazón, the President of the local Government of Valencia, resign. They gathered to criticize and demonstrate against the government's handling of the October Valancian floods.

This latest protest is one of many that have taken place since the floods first disrupted life in the autonomous community. Protesters are complaining that reconstruction efforts have been slow, that several affected homes are still uninhabitable, and that financial aid hasn’t reached many who need it.

Amidst ongoing flood protests, on Thursday the 28th of November, the government introduced a climate leave law to protect workers during fossil fuel weather events as part of its climate emergency response measures.

Yolanda Díaz, the Labor Minister, announced the measure, allowing workers to skip work or shorten hours when authorities issue climate-related alerts. The move addresses criticism of companies that forced employees to work despite the recent red alerts.

On the same day, Carlos Cuerpo, the Economy Minister, announced a 2.3 billion euro aid fund for flood victims. Though, considering protestors say that financial aid hasn’t been received yet, there’s skepticism over whether this new aid will reach flood victims.

In an update to a story from a previous show, Spain's new tourist registration system, implemented earlier this week, has faced major disruptions, leaving many businesses in chaos. Recall that the new platform is part of wider legislation that aims to improve security, but the tourism sector has criticized it for violating privacy and creating unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles. Hotels, car rental agencies, and travel companies are required to submit over forty pieces of personal information about tourists to the government’s new platform.

However, the system crashed at midnight on Sunday the 1st of December, hindering businesses from complying with the law, which carries fines of up to 30,000 euros.

Activists warn that the new system could push tourists to choose destinations with fewer data demands, and several organizations say they are considering legal action against the government for this new law.

From one possible misstep to another huge mistake, on Tuesday the 26th of November, the Partido Popular, or PP, in the local government of the Balearic Islands off the eastern coast of mainland Spain, mistakenly approved amendments by the far-right-leaning party Vox and legally reduced the use of Catalan in public administration and education in the region.

During a vote on the Administrative Simplification Law, PP deputies, led by spokesperson Marga Durán, accidentally supported Vox’s controversial proposals due to a procedural error.

Despite PP’s request to re-vote, Vox refused, cementing the amendments into law. The Balearic government pledged to issue a decree to reverse the changes. Opposition parties criticized the error as a legislative disaster, demanding urgent rectification.

In other news, Spain’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of displaying the rainbow flag on public buildings during Pride celebrations, stating it is not a partisan symbol and aligns with constitutional values of equality. Four of five judges supported the ruling.

The Court has now overturned these prior rulings by regional courts, in Valladolid, in the northwest in twenty twenty-one, and Zaragoza, in the northeast in twenty twenty, where conservative group Abogados Cristianos said that such displays violated a nineteen eighty-one law regulating official symbols.

On a related note, Spain’s ruling socialist party has sparked outrage by announcing plans to drop the Q from the LGBTQ acronym and ban trans women from women’s sports.

This move, revealed by President Pedro Sánchez in Seville on the 28th of November, is part of an amendment to the twenty twenty-one Trans Law aimed at appeasing people who are against the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports events.

The amendment would exclude anyone assigned male at birth from participating in women’s sports. Activists, including Irene Montero, former Equality Minister, condemned the decision as transphobic and trans communities are asking the executive to revise the law to ensure equal rights for trans individuals in sports and society.

Now for a long-awaited update. Recall when Spain fined the owners of food delivery service Glovo over 80 million euros in twenty twenty-two for improper contracts and not adhering to Spanish employment laws? Well, on Monday the 2nd of December, Glovo announced that it will be adjusting its contract policy so that employees no longer have to work as self-employed.

In supermarket news, popular British supermarket chain Marks & Spencer is making a return to Madrid twenty-three years after closing its stores in the Spanish capital as part of a two thousand one restructuring plan.

The British retailer will start by opening a clothing and beauty store in Madrid’s La Vaguada shopping center. Additionally, the company plans to launch a store in Granada, in the south. offering menswear, womenswear, lingerie, and beauty products.

Let’s talk about tobacco. On Wednesday the 4th of December, Spain’s government reported that only 36% of its population smoked in the past year, marking a 2% decline since twenty twenty-two and continuing a thirty-year downward trend.

Daily smokers fell from around 30% in twenty twenty-two to roughly 25% in twenty twenty-four. These reported gains are attributed to measures such as increased tobacco taxes, the expansion of smoke-free zones, and the implementation of anti-smoking programs.

While tobacco consumption goes down, e-cigarette use has doubled over four years, though exact numbers are unknown, this has prompted the government to consider banning indoor use and restricting the production of different flavors.

Now for something interesting, let’s head underground! According to an El País article released on Sunday the 1st of December, Spain boasts over 4,500 kilometers (or about 2,700 miles) of caves, with about fifty kilometers of new passages discovered each year and an impressive 280 caves spread across the peninsula.

In October, explorers discovered two kilometers (around thirty miles) of new passages to the Aradelas cave in the northwest, Galicia’s deepest, in the UNESCO Courel Mountains Geopark. The team also uncovered a stunning turquoise lake, called a Hydra, and mapped a new entrance to the site.

You can visit the Aradelas Cave with a special tour, and see permanent lakes, stalagmite formations, and numerous paintings believed to be from the Palaeolithic period.

The article is in Spanish and behind a paywall. You can check it out with the link in the show notes.

In media news, the companies Anonymous Content España and Alea Media have partnered to produce a series based on Spain's Toxic Oil Syndrome epidemic, one of Europe's deadliest food poisoning incidents. The docuseries will show the deadly food poisoning outbreak, linked to contaminated rapeseed oil, which killed over 4,000 people and left thousands more affected.

The series, set to explore the fifty days between May and June nineteen eighty-one, will focus on victims and their families, as well as two pediatricians working to identify the cause of the disease.

The series is still awaiting a title so stay tuned!

Closing this edition, an interesting story that sounds more like a movie series. Axel Pons, a former professional Spanish motorcyclist rider, has walked barefoot from Spain to Pakistan after starting his journey in March twenty twenty-three.

His goal was to reach India, but border closures have delayed his plans.

He spent six months in Pakistan, exploring the Himalayas and gaining unexpected fame after a viral video showcased his journey. Pons is currently waiting for a visa to enter India, after which he’ll achieve his ultimate goal.

Head to the show notes for more on his fascinating journey!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Do you know that besides the Rorshok Spain Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Ocean Update, about 70% of the world covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates for the full list, the link is in the show notes.

¡Hasta la próxima!