Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Jan 22
CLICK HERE FOR THE FEATURE ARTICLE "Spain fines Ryanair 24,000 euros for making passengers pay for hand luggage"
Come fly with me once again as we take off into a land of inconsiderate airlines that fairly abuse their customers but still manage to increase profits and capture the lion’s share of the market, and the brave defenders of consumer rights who try to curtail their worst excesses with the few resources available to them.
And it’s not only the airlines, but public bodies and private ombudsmen who are feeling the sharp end of the stick this week as the courts fight back against those accused of polluting our natural environment, while legislators do their bit to try to make our cities a little greener.
Read on to find out more…
The no-cares airline
Back in 2018, Ryanair changed their policy on allowing passengers to take hand luggage on their planes for free like every other single airline and started making people pay for the pleasure. Any piece of luggage bigger than 25cm x 20cm x 40cm – the size of a small backpack – was fair game for Ryanair to slap a price tag on.
This week, a consumer rights organisation in Spain’s Balearic Islands, which include Menorca, Mallorca and Ibiza, have themselves slapped Ryanair with a fine of 24,000 euros for its “abusive” policy and claiming that the Irish ‘low-cost’ airline has an obligation to allow passengers to take hand luggage on board their planes free of charge.
The news has generally been welcomed as positive, with many aggrieved flyers feeling that Ryanair have got their comeuppance for taking advantage of travellers for so many years, and Ireland and other countries have been encouraged to follow Spain’s example. The company has also been accused of charging exorbitant rates up to 50 euros just to print passengers’ boarding passes, and of not allowing them to carry life-saving insulin on board because the bag exceeded their limits.
Since Ryanair made their controversial decision four years ago, other budget airlines like easyJet, Vueling and AerLingus have followed suit, slashing the base price of flights but charging extra for the basic right to take hand luggage on board. Granted, AerLingus thoughtfully lets people place their cabin baggage in the hold for free and easyJet allows any bags small enough to fit under its miniscule seats, but Ryanair has set a dangerous precedent which the others saw themselves forced to copy or risk being priced out of the market.
That’s not quite true, though. British low-cost airline Jet2 actually saw sales of flights from the UK to Spain go up 150% in the first two weeks of January alone, and they offer free hand luggage up to 10kg and 56cm x 45cm x 25cm. This shows that companies can offer good customer service and still survive in a competitive marketplace.
At the same time, it’s true that a 24,000-euro fine is a drop in the ocean for Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary in comparison with the millions he earns from charging as little as 15 euros for a basic flight (no hand luggage included!). Along with Vueling, Ryanair have basically dominated air traffic through Barcelona’s El Prat airport. And they may still lodge an administrative appeal against Spain’s decision in the courts, and so might feasibly end up not even paying the fine after all!It’s also highly unlikely that, in the absence of an overruling international regulation, Ryanair and the other skinflint airlines will be forced to overturn their policies and make cabin baggage free again, nor will anyone who has paid for hand luggage on a Ryanair flight receive a refund. And even if they did make hand luggage free again, they would only counter it by raising flight prices to cover their losses.
In the end, you get what you pay for, and shoddy service is the price you pay for cut-price air travel. If we all decided not to fly with abusive companies like Ryanair, they would see that their business model of preying on customers doesn’t work and would be obliged to change their attitude to one of respect for the people who pay their salaries.
Driving into the future
In its seemingly endless quest to modify and modernise Spain’s road infrastructure, the government has announced that later this year it is due to join the European electronic toll service (EETS), allowing drivers to drive through toll booths and just pay online.
Basically, it works on a contract basis. Drivers sign up to the European electronic toll service (EETS), get sent an on-board unit which they can place in their car, and then are able to drive through any participating toll booth on any paid motorway in the whole of Europe without having to stop and fumble with change at the toll gate.
The idea behind the scheme is to make travel across Spain and Europe smoother and more homogenous. EU countries from Switzerland to the Netherlands have already adopted the EETS with great success.
It won’t make toll roads more expensive, it won’t mean paying extra taxes and it won’t change which roads you have to pay to use and which ones you don’t, but it will make it easier for EU countries to exchange information about unpaid tolls in different Member States so that it’s harder for drivers to get away with not paying when they drive on a toll road.
It’s not yet clear when Spain will be introducing this system – sometime in 2022 – but it’s also thought that it will be compatible with other in-vehicle telematic services like emergency motoring assistance with eCall, which automatically makes a free emergency call if your vehicle is involved in a serious road accident, as well as real-time traffic and travel information.
There are more big plans in place for the following year as well, with all large towns and cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants being made to have low-emissions zones in their town centres, where only specialist low-emissions vehicles will be allowed to drive.
All these grand schemes to bring Spain’s roads and driving culture into the 21st century, from smart toll roads to climate-conscious city centres, should be welcomed as laudable and necessary. The next step, of course, if they ever get around to it, is somehow making sure people know how to drive safely and properly…
Mar Menor mayhem
It wouldn’t be another week in Spain if there weren’t further furore around pollution in the Mar Menor. To recap: Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon, a protected natural area of great beauty in Spain’s southwest Murcia Region, has been victim to nitrates and other chemicals leaking into its water for years now, with little to no oversight or concrete action from either regional or national officials. You may recall the images of thousands of dead fish washing up on the shore last summer.
Some good news, then, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office will ask a court in Murcia for 21 months in prison and a fine of 5,760 euros for two men accused of contaminating or doing nothing to stop contamination of the lagoon. Both Antonio Cerdá, the former Minister of Agriculture and Water of the regional government, and Manuel Aldeguer, former Water Commissioner of the CHS, are on trial in the so-called ‘Caso Topillo’ for crimes against the Mar Menor.
Another defendant in the case, ex-president of the CHS Rosario Quesada, is up for acquittal, but almost fifty farmers and agricultural companies are facing sentences ranging from five months to six years in prison, as well as civil damages of up to 1.4 million euros for watering their crops with nitrate-laden water and the use of illegal boreholes.
A step forward in prosecuting those responsible for the current mess, perhaps, but it’s no good if the contaminated water is still spilling into the lagoon unchecked and the existing algal bloom and organic waste is not cleared up properly. Enter Cartagena City Council, which has put on hold a three-year contract for the removal of biomass from the Mar Menor beaches following questions surrounding its legality, despite Mayor Noelia Arroyo warning back in November of the urgent need to have a contract for cleaning the beaches all year round.
“It is not only the cleanliness, the image of seeing the beaches like this or the health problems it can cause to users… this issue should be part of the protection strategies of the Mar Menor,” she said back then.
All is not lost, as there is still cleaning work taking place on the Mar Menor beaches by light machinery belonging to the Regional government, who are traipsing their caterpillar tracks all over the protected ground and churning it up. These crews, far from helping to alleviate the situation, are actually making the environmental situation worse and are accused of incompetence, using industrial rakes to try and clean the sludgy residue left in the water.
Cartagena Council has since met with local citizens to seek the Vox Populi and advice on how they should be handling this environmental disaster. Well, start by consulting with scientists and biologists, for a start – someone who actually knows what they’re doing when it comes to sorting out this horrible mess. This has gone on for too long.
Coronavirus
After 11 weeks of no let-up, the indications are positive that Spain may be emerging from the sixth wave of the coronavirus pandemic as the incidence rate has now dropped for three days in a row and hospital pressure has also begun to ease slightly. This is thanks in no small part to the success of the vaccination campaign, as less than 6% of the adult population remains unvaccinated.
And those that don’t get vaccinated can just chew gum. A company in Barcelona has developed a chewing gum that claims to prevent the transmission of Covid by neutralising between 75% and 99% of lipid layer viruses, a category to which illnesses like coronavirus and the flu belong. From next month, the ‘Chewing Mask’, as it is marketed, will be available to buy for just two euros after 18 months of research in labs in Spain, Germany and the UK. And it reportedly comes with a minty fresh taste, too.
The experts believe that this has been a key week in determining how the pandemic is going to develop from here on out, and the powers that be expect to see a spike in infections and even fatalities as the situation comes to a head before it begins to improve.
In light of the improving numbers, some autonomous communities in Spain have already chosen to reduce their restrictions. Catalonia has ditched its night-time curfew, while in Cantabria the use of the Covid passport has been abolished. The same can’t be said for much of the EU, however, as both France and Austria ramped up their Covid safety measures this week. With one of Europe’s lowest vaccination rates, Austria has become the first country to introduce mandatory vaccination for all adults, while in France Covid passports will only be awarded to people who have had three Covid vaccines (two if the person has recently recovered from Covid). These Covid passes are required for entry into entertainment venues and sports stadiums and it will no longer be sufficient to show a recent negative test, or even two vaccines.
Back in Spain, the latest Vaccine Report has ruled out extending the third dose to people under the age of 18, at least for now. Spain has also agreed to follow the guidelines of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and only offer a fourth dose to people with serious illnesses, who have undergone a transplant or cancer treatment and those who are generally immunosuppressed. Outside of these exceptions, the EMA sees no benefit in adding an extra dose for the rest of the population, but experts have acknowledged that from now on it is likely that annual vaccination campaigns will have to be carried out, similar to what is done for the common flu.
Pressure on hospitals and health centres in the Region of Murcia continues to rise amid reports that medical negligence claims increased by 25% in 2021. The increasing number of Covid patients combined with the sky-high demand for tests and the fact that a large number of medical staff are catching the virus and having to self-isolate has led to immense pressure on the healthcare system in Murcia. In fact, the Region is currently the autonomous community with the fourth highest number of healthcare workers infected with Covid, with 1,061 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals testing positive in the last two weeks alone.
The death rate remains steady too, with five or six people dying from Covid in the region each day. Among those who lost their lives this week were the Mayor of Totana, Juan José Cánovas, who had been in the ICU since before the New Year. The 63-year-old had other underlying medical issues, having been diagnosed with leukaemia years earlier. The tributes came flooding in from around the region, and an official mourning period was declared in Totana with flags flying at half-mast. Another victim claimed by Covid was a 5-year-old boy in Águilas, the youngest child to have died from coronavirus in the Region of Murcia, showing that no one is truly safe from the worst effects of this horrible disease.
The high number of coronavirus cases in the Region has caused many upcoming public events to be cancelled, including Carnival celebrations in several municipalities; Los Alcázares, Águilas, San Pedro del Pinatar and Cartagena are all going without their traditional festivities. However, some Town Halls are optimistic that Carnival parades and parties will be able to go ahead in the summer instead.
Until then, restrictions remain firmly in place, including wearing a facemask even inside bars and restaurants, except when eating or drinking. Nonetheless, in the first three weeks of this year so far, 66 fines have been issued by police against hospitality establishments in Murcia for allowing their customers to walk around without masks. It’s not the customers who are being fined but the bars and restaurants themselves, so if you have any love for the cafés you frequent, remember to wear a mask unless you have food or drink on the table in front of you.
This week saw another pandemic record in the Valencia region, with a staggering 34,774 infections reported over the weekend, more than 500 higher than the previous week, and the highest number recorded on a Monday since the beginning of the pandemic. This upward trajectory has barely let up so far this year, with only one day this week in which cases fell, only to spike again the following day.
The avalanche of new infections dealt a major blow to festivities in Orihuela where the Town Hall this week announced the cancellation of next month’s three-day medieval market. “Health and safety come first,” said the councillor for festivities, Mariola Rocamora, adding that the risk of holding the market in February posed too high a risk of further outbreaks given the difficulties of guaranteeing that safety distances and security measures are adhered to.
In Andalucía, the incidence rate has been on a mainly downward trajectory, although it has had a couple of bumps up this week, but the regional Minister of Health, Jesús Aguirre has insisted that the incidence rate is not a reliable figure anyway because lots of people take Covid tests and then don’t report it officially if they are positive. Instead, he said, it’s best to look at the number of hospital admissions and deaths to get a reliable and realistic view of how the pandemic is evolving, and since there is still significant pressure on healthcare and an increase in the number of deaths in Andalucía, we’re still not out of the woods yet and it’s too soon to relax restrictions.
For that reason, the need to show a Covid passport to get into restaurants and bars in the region has been extended to January 31, and may yet be extended a further two weeks pending a meeting of the committee of experts next week. In the meantime, the age group of people who can get a booster shot in the region continues to come down; as of Friday January 21, it is the turn of people born in 1983 and 1984.
We’re taking this health crisis seriously, and are of the opinion that the better informed everyone is about the latest of the fast-changing developments, the more protected we all are. That’s why we endeavour to bring you all the most up-to-date coronavirus news as it comes out, which you can always consult using the link above.
Murcia
A plummet into freezing cold weather kicked off the week in Murcia, with weather warnings issued for temperatures as low as -6ºC in some areas. The icy conditions have caused devastating damage to crops in the Region, with local farmers reporting that everything from lettuces to peach orchids had been affected by the cold snap, something which is expected to have a knock-on effect on fruit and vegetable prices.
While produce farmers were left struggling to save their plants from the freezing cold weather, livestock farmers in the Region were embroiled in a different kind of crisis: a fraudulent scandal involving horses destined to be sold for meat. Three farm owners, two vets and one administrative worker at a veterinary clinic were all arrested for providing false documents for horses of untraceable origin, allowing them to be entered into the food chain without meeting the requirements for human consumption.
As well as the Mar Menor contamination court case ‘El Caso Topillo’, the Region is hosting another high-profile legal case involving the Spanish air force – a military judge has found “serious indicators” that a deadly plane crash off the coast of La Manga del Mar Menor in August 2019 could be the direct result of the air force’s lack of safety checks and provisions. The judge has also concluded that the weather conditions on that day were unsuitable for the aerial manoeuvres carried out and has questioned whether the pilot was informed of the unfavourable meteorological conditions at the time, which are believed to have contributed to the fatal accident.
Elsewhere in the Region, a 41-year-old woman tragically died in a house fire at her home on the Playasol urbanisation in Puerto de Mazarrón. The blaze was spotted by neighbours at around 5.20am on Thursday morning, January 20, and they promptly called emergency services, who discovered the body of a North African woman inside the duplex flat. A local policeman, 43, who responded to the emergency call was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.
Also in Mazarrón, a British pensioner was found dead in his home on the Camposol urbanisation after concerned family members in the UK raised the alarm. A neighbour went to check on the deceased after speaking with his family and saw him laying immobile on the floor, but he was unable to access the property. The fire brigade was called to open the door to the house, which took around half an hour, but medical staff pronounced the victim dead at the scene.
In other cases such as these, where elderly, isolated people live alone, a few minutes could make all the difference in saving someone’s life, which is why an initiative has been launched in Cartagena to give police officers a set of keys to vulnerable residents’ homes. The aim of this proposal is to make response times much faster and ensure that assistance is provided with no unnecessary delays.
In a bid to reduce food waste in the hospitality sector, the Region of Murcia has joined a takeaway initiative aiming to encourage customers to ask for a doggy bag if they are unable to finish their meal. To promote the habit of taking leftovers home, the regional government is going to distribute 10,000 container tubs and as many bags to bars and restaurants across Murcia. However, some think that this initiative needs to go one step further in reducing food waste by including supermarkets. Large supermarket chains throw away millions of tonnes of products every year, products which are still edible despite being close to their sell-by date. There have been calls to force supermarkets to donate unsold food to charity, as is the law in other EU countries such as France.
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Spain
Spain is starting to climb the list of top holiday destinations once more, but those living here are certainly feeling the pinch with the seemingly unstoppable increases in the price of electricity and gas. After weeks of spring-like weather, Spain is experiencing a cold snap this week with temperatures dropping as low as -8ºC in some areas, but many will think twice about cranking up the heating as electricity prices have quadrupled in the past twelve months while the price of a butane cylinder reached record highs this week at 17.75 euros for a 12.5kg tank.
The oldest man in the world, Saturnino de la Fuente from the northern Spanish city of León this week, passed away this week. Mr De la Fuente was about to turn 113 years old on February 12, and had held the title of oldest man in the world since September. He died peacefully, according to his son-in-law, on Tuesday January 18 at around 11am.Finally, it’s been a great week for law enforcement in Spain as the authorities managed to nab a notorious criminal mastermind known as ‘the Spanish Pablo Escobar’. The gang leader reportedly trafficked huge amounts of narcotics from the Netherlands before distributing it through Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Extremadura, and during the operation, police seized 55 kilograms of heroin, one of the largest hauls in recent years.
Alicante
Despite rising cases in Spain and overseas, UK online travel searches for the Costa Blanca have soared this month following a relaxation of restrictions by Boris Johnson’s government. According to a study carried out by Benidorm-based Invattur, which analyses the trends of the most popular destinations in the Valencia region, the number of searches for travel between January 10 and 30 rose by 81.9% compared to the same period in 2021. Around 15,000 Brits are expected to arrive on the Costa Blanca in the first quarter of 2022, taking advantage of flight prices of between 39 and 45 euros, 9% cheaper than in 2019.
Alicante Provincial Council is also confident figures of holidaymakers coming to the area will reach pre-pandemic levels, and hopes to attract 15 million tourists this summer.
International news made local headlines this week when it was revealed the violent eruption of an underwater volcano near Tonga generated a shockwave that altered the atmospheric pressure and sea level along the Costa Blanca for several hours at the weekend. The eruption in the South Pacific on Saturday January 15 is believed to be the biggest recorded on the planet in 30 years, and generated atmospheric pressure waves that caused sea level alterations of up to 20 centimetres, tide gauges located off the Costa Blanca.
In addition to a temporary rise in sea level, a report from the Centre for Mediterranean Environmental Studies, based in Valencia, shows that sea temperatures on the Costa Blanca have also risen by 1.5°C since 1982 due to climate change. Scientists have warned that as the sea continues to absorb most of the excess heat from greenhouse emissions, leading to warmer temperatures, climate change is “an unstoppable reality”.
Waves of a different kind are being created in Denia where expats are furious about a lack of NIE appointments. The Marina Alta Business Circle (Cedma) is calling on the Valencia regional government to address a backlog of NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero or Foreigners’ Identity Number) applications and warned that a limited availability of appointments is preventing foreign investment in the Marina Alta.
Feathers have also been ruffled in Alicante this week after the Spanish Government excluded the provincial council from the Next Generation European Funds and refused to subsidise a project aimed at strengthening trade and the economy in tourist areas. The central government claimed the application was rejected due to budget restraints, but the Citizen (C’s) and People’s Party (PP) have accused Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet of “turning its back on the province” and of a lack of transparency.
From frosty relations to freezing temperatures: Alicante province is experiencing a cold snap which has led to a welcome boost for businesses selling electric appliances and warm clothing. Over the last couple of weeks, heaters have become one of the most sought-after items with average sales increasing by 40%. In Benidorm, which is usually slighter warmer than inland areas during the winter, demand for cookers and heaters has tripled. Demand for butane gas bottles grew by 8% in just two days in Alicante and Alcoy, despite the hike in prices, and electric heater sales shot up by an average of 40% compared to the second week in January.Elderly residents at a council-run nursing home in Denia spent a cold weekend without hot water after a boiler broke down last Friday. In some cases, residents were taken home by relatives so they could have a shower, but in the meantime, staff spent three days boiling pans of hot water to wash with before the boiler was fixed on Monday.
In other news, Good Samaritans helped nab a thief who violently snatched a 72-year-old woman's handbag in Callosa de Segura and a gang of four youths who allegedly hurled oranges and lemons at unsuspecting people and vehicles in Callosa de Segura have been handed fines of 400 euros each.
Andalucía
The economy in Andalucía is growing by about 4.8% based on 2021 figures, at a faster rate than in the rest of Spain, which is growing by 4.5%. But the Andalusian province of Málaga leaves them both in the dust, with a growth rate of 5.4%. This is down from the expected 6.6%, which was revised after the arrival of Omicron, but still speaks to the great potential of Málaga.
Economists are putting the province’s success down to its strong tourist sector, and the Andalusian president is hoping the rest of the region can follow suit with a projected 26 million passengers coming to visit in 2022. However, he has also warned that full economic recovery, bringing Andalucía back up to pre-pandemic levels, is unlikely until 2023 at the earliest.
One way of bringing normality back to Andalusian streets is the return of its famous carnivals, and the city of Cádiz has already started preparing for its Carnaval 2022 in June. Widely held to be one of the best and most colourful carnivals in all of Spain, the parade is usually held in Cádiz in February, but this year is being pushed back because of – yeah, you guessed it – Covid. While it’s likely to be much hotter watching a carnival in the midday sun in June and some of the magnificent costumes will have to be adapted accordingly, it still promises to be as frenzied and frenetic an event as it ever was, perhaps even more so than usual because we have had to wait so long and performers and participants are really going to give it their all this year. One not to miss!
Another aspect of Andalucía’s economy that seems to be doing well is retail, at least if we judge by the upcoming opening of a new Primark store in the Bahía Sur shopping centre in San Fernando, just across the water from Cádiz. A welcome addition for local residents, to be sure, as it means people who live around the Bay of Cádiz no longer have to go all the way to Jerez to shop at the popular discount chain, but some are pointing to the bad timing from Primark when it has just announced this week it will be laying off 400 staff in the UK.
True, the Spanish and UK markets are not the same, and maybe Primark is to be believed when they claim the redundancies are part of a “simplified administration system” to “provide more opportunities for career progression”, but the company’s UK sales have been down 10% in the last 4 months compared to two years ago, and all the signs point to economic hardship being to blame for these people losing their jobs. And it’s highly doubtful that they’ll be moved over to the San Fernando branch as part of their ‘career progression’.
As well as improving its economic fortunes, Andalucía is also making progress in stamping out black market trade. A drug trafficking ring which used high performance helicopters and vehicles to smuggle narcotics into Spain from Morocco has been brought down in Málaga. Undercover Spanish police filmed traffickers landing a helicopter in the Sierra de Torremolinos in pitch black darkness before stashing 211 kilos of hashish in the bushes.
Flying helicopters in the dark like this is considered practically a suicide mission as the aircraft are usually in a state of disrepair and flown by inexperienced pilots without any lights on, but has become more a frequent tactic used by smugglers in recent years. All the better, then, that police have managed to take down this outfit, whose reach spread as far as Marbella, Villanueva del Trabuco, Humilladero, La Linea, Almuñécar and Velez-Rubio. In all, officers seized almost 2.5 tonnes of hashish and 112 kilos of marijuana.
In Estepona, a 15-metre-long whale sadly washed up dead on La Rada beach on Thursday morning, with the town’s mayor sharing a powerful video of the incident on social media. Only a young calf, representatives from the Centre for the Recovery of Endangered Marine Species stated the fin whale had probably died after ingesting plastic which built up in its stomach.
You may have missed…
The shock wave from the Pacific eruption caused the sea level in the Region of Murcia to rise 15 centimetres.
Here’s a list of the 10 cheapest petrol stations to get the best deal on fuel prices in the Murcia region for both unleaded 95 and diesel.
A previously unknown 16th-century palace has been discovered near the church of San Andrés, but authorities are not treating it as a protected site yet.
Two new urban bus routes are now operating in the municipality of Torre Pacheco with the aim of providing better public transport links for residents.
The iconic Parque Sauces in Cartagena, notable for its huge dinosaur sculptures, has been vandalised barely a month after its long-awaited inauguration, with one of the park’s dinosaurs having its tail broken off.
And that’s your lot for this week! As ever, thanks so much for taking the time to read to the end, and if you liked this roundup, please do TELL A FRIEND about it and share this link with them: https://murciatoday.com/weekly_bulletin.html
See you next week!
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