Spain Update –Racism & more –25th May 2023

th of May: 2023

It's not often that the European Commission has to slap a country on the wrist, but that's exactly what they did this week to Spain as Brussels recommends an “improvement to structural balance.”

ld be found and undertaken by: 2024

In addition, the European Commission went as far as to advise withdrawing the energy support measures of 2023 and allocating all the savings obtained this way to reduce the deficit.

How prevalent is racism in Spain? And what about Spanish football?

After the racial attack on Brazilian-born Real Madrid striker Vini Jr during a match on Saturday the 20th in Valencia, the world of football has opened up about racism on and off the pitch, while the incident sparked outrage both in Spain and Brazil.

Saturday's game was Real Madrid's away game. However, the match paused in the second half after Vini Jr alerted the referee that fans were shouting highly offensive racial slurs, leading to the subsequent arrests of three young people.

This isn't the first year that the striker has been subject to cruel racism. On Monday the 22nd, he hit back at La Liga president Javier Tebas on Twitter, outlining all the inhumane things he has received this season alone: "death wishes, hanged effigy of himself, offensive chants....the list goes on."

The Spanish football federation (or RFEF) said on Monday that "Spain has a problem with racism" and has released a new campaign called "Racists, get out of football," a day after Vini Jr tweeted, "I want actions to be taken. Your hashtags don't move me." Leading many people to ask whether this campaign is just a glorified hashtag. Regardless, football culture needs a shift, so who will do it?

Speaking of arrests, on Monday the 22nd, ten people were arrested in Melilla, the autonomous city of Spain in North Africa, for their alleged involvement in electoral crimes ahead of the autonomous communities elections on Sunday the 28th.

They have been arrested for purchasing votes and ballots in what police call a massive operation. These people include Mohamed Ahmed Al Lal, councilor for Districts, Youth, and Citizens, third on the electoral list, and many others. They are currently waiting for trial, where they will be charged with electoral crimes and for belonging to a criminal group, and have had their documents taken so they can't flee the country.

While political figures in Melilla buy votes, the Popular People's Party or PP is trying to win over Generation Z's votes on TikTok.

Since mid-April, when the PP published a song about voting for Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the Community of Madrid electorate, in the upcoming elections, it has been reshared many times and turned into memes and funny parodies. More than 250,000 Gen z's from Madrid will be eligible to vote, some of them for the first time, and according to the Center of Sociological Research, also make up the age group with the highest number of undecided, with around 23% of them undecided about who they'll vote for in the regional elections. It just so happens that around 60% of TikTok users are Gen Zers.

Next up, a DANA, an isolated upper-level depression or cold drop which happens almost every year in the Mediterranean, is causing havoc in Spain.

In Andalucia, the streets are flooded, schools are paused, and highway traffic is being cut off as rainfall comes on quickly and heavily, often accompanied by hail. In the south there are orange alerts, while in Aragon, Catalunya, and Castilla-La Mancha, they are yellow. Regions remain vigilant, especially as neighboring Italy struggles with devastating heavy flooding and storms that have already taken many lives and caused hundreds of evacuations.

On this topic, in Cartagena, residents complain that local authorities reacted far too late to the downpours, causing irreversible damage to businesses and homes. According to locals, when a DANA of this magnitude is expected, the council will raise the maintenance holes to encourage quicker drainage– this time, they did it, but too late.

While the south struggles with rainfall, according to a report into Immigration and demographic observations prepared by the Universidad CEU San Pablo in Madrid, provinces are experiencing huge demographic shifts.

According to the report, in: 2021

growth hasn't been seen since: 2008

ries. In the first quarter of: 2023

Let's see what the Government is up to now leading to Sunday's local elections.

On Tuesday, the 23rd, The Council of Ministers approved the Law of Parity Representation, requiring at least 40% of women representation in Governmental positions, boards of directors at large companies, and professional associations, hoping to make these decision-making spaces more equal for everyone. Now that the law has been approved, it will go through the Congress of Deputies and likely be implemented by the end of this year.

While most legislations are set to help residents and visitors, others hinder them.

That's the case with the Spanish Okupada rules or Squatting rights, as Spanish squatters target empty holiday homes, often leading to long battles in court, as the Spanish Eviction Law most say isn't up to scratch.

According to a report by The Olive Press, a British family was given a rude awakening when they arrived at their Ibiza holiday home at the beginning of April, only to find the locks had been changed, and another family was living there. The homeowners called the police, but according to Spanish law, they can't evict a family without a court order to prevent them from becoming homeless, and even if a court order is requested, it could take years to receive it.

Holiday homeowners in Cap-negret, Alicante, who have been subject to various squatters over the years, say they think the law is heavily weighted in favor of them, not homeowners.

Moving on, a potential new law was leaked this week that could see the end to Spanish end-to-end encryption.

In a leaked document obtained by the media company 'WIRED,' the Spanish government is planning to challenge the law on end-to-end encryption, a feature that creates and maintains privacy for users of messaging apps such as Whatsapp and Signal.

In the leaked document, there is strong support among EU member states for varying proposals to scan private messages for illegal content. Opinions vary across Europe on how much privacy an individual should have, especially on sites or apps used for communication.

Want to know about the leaked document, link to Wired in the show notes.

Next up, due to social media, Tossa De Mar on the Costa Brava has had a very sudden influx of tourists over the last couple of months.

But why? Well, it's being coined as K-pop tourism or Korean Pop, as young daytrippers from Barcelona flock to the Forat del Dimoni (or the Devil's Hole) to take pictures after hugely popular K-pop star YooA shot two music videos around Tossa.

The local tourism board isn't sure what to do and has been handing out questionnaires at the bus stop to see if this is just a fad or if it’s a place in the town that’s worth investing in.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! We want to hear from you! Write to us at spain@rorshok.com

¡Hasta la próxima!