2006 in Spain - the year ahead
As 2006 begins, it really is hard to know where to start. Traditionally when the years change from one to another, good wishes are exchanged as people gather to celebrate, and in the process express their hopes and aspirations for a better year next time around. However, with things as they are in Spain at the moment, it is very hard to see even a glimmer of light
It would be great to be able to say: “Now, in 2006, I can look forward to…”, but with prices of electricity, gas, motorways and petrol on the rise, it seems we are being hit in the wallet before we’ve had a chance to down our first glass of (non Catalan) champagne in 2006. For the Valencian Community, we have been totally cut off in next years budget by the Socialist Government in Madrid, with less than 0.5% being set aside for the High Speed Train tracks, whilst Catalunia has over 9 million Euros to spend on the same project. This shows that the Socialist Government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero thinks that the Valencian Community is ‘beyond the pail’. And why? For the very same reasons that what we here consider a success as ZP and Co consider it a failure. The Americas Cup, the most prestigious event in the Yacht racing world, which is certain to bring millions and millions into Valencia this coming summer, is treated with complete disdain in Madrid, where the Americas Cup is considered ‘for the privileged few’ and therefore something to be ignored. It doesn’t matter that billionaires such as Larry Ellison, who is behind the BMW Oracle USA team syndicate or Ernesto Barterelli who is the brains and financial clout behind the current defender Alinghi will make their headquarters and splash money all over Valencia from now until next year when the races end with the awarding of the Cup.
And what’s the other big thing for the Community this year? The arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, who will spend ‘at least’ two days in Valencia presiding over the World Family Meeting. The Socialists look down on this also, as their policies of enacting same-sex marriages, their confrontations with the radio chain that the Catholic Church owns in Spain – the Cadena COPE - their policies of removing the part of a tax return when any taxpayer can state how much of his or her taxes should go to the Church and the removal of the obligation to teach religion in schools has brought the Zapatero Government into direct conflict with the Vatican, with neither side refusing to back down – the Prime Minister saying he wants to modernize Spain, the Vatican stating that the Government is desecrating the very concept of freedom of choice, marriage and the raising of children.
At the top of everyone’s thinking at the moment is the problem that exists over the Catalan Statutes, and due to the Prime Minister wanting to cling to power at any price, it now becomes far more than just highly probable that these Statutes will be enacted into law, with the Socialists being backed by radical Catalan party ERC in order to do so. The result could well be the break-up of Spain as a nation, with each autonomy using the Catalan precedent as an excuse and term itself a nation in its own right. Goodness knows what the position of King Juan Carlos and his family is going to be in all this mess, but at least he has been given some encouraging words from Catalan President Pascual Maragall: “Just think, Majesty, you could reign over seventeen nations!”
Then the Catalans created the Catalan Audiovisual Committee or CAC whose aims are to control the Catalan media. Its statutes are enough to make Hitler, Goebels or Goering proud for they limit freedom of expression and freedom of speech so much that the creation of the CAC led to no less a personage than E. Markham Bench, the Executive Director of The World Press Freedom Committee writing to Mr Maragall and Ernest Branach the speaker of the Catalan Parliament: “The mere existence of the CAC goes against the democratic norms of freedom of expression accepted by the European Union, the European Court of Human rights and the immense majority of the democratic countries in the world. Such an undertaking as the creation of the CAC is strikingly similar to the censorship that used to take place during the days of Franco, who held the communications media in Spain under a tight fist for almost 40 years. The CAC is not a judicial entity, but a political one, controlled by the nationalist majority in the Catalan Parliament, and as such is not independent at all, nor does it have the means to deliver a fair or balanced judgement on any of those that appear before it, and as such is totally unacceptable.”
As usual, the reply from both the Catalan and central governments was one of total silence, either because they do not know how to get out of the holes they have dug for themselves or because they both tacitly agree that the CAC should exist to control the media. Despite all this, the Catalans have given themselves a New Year Present by enacting the CAC into law. Even Industry Minister Jose Montilla is said to be trying to put together a CAC for the whole of Spain, which may yet mean that columns such as these will cease to exist. If the Government is intent on intense media control, then it remains to be seen what will happen to newspapers, radio stations, television stations and even certain sites on the Internet that ‘dare’ to voice opinions against ZP and Co.
If you thought that I was a mere ‘voice in the desert’, consider a new book by Enrique de Diego, the deputy director of the weekly newsmagazine Epoca. Called “ZP in Wonderland”, Mr de Diego advances the view that the Prime Minister has absolutely ‘no moral values or scruples whatsoever, and we ought to have seen this being as how Mr Rodriguez Zapatero and the Socialist party used the terror, blood, death and grief that Spain underwent between March 11 and 14 2004 to seek his own political advantage.’ He also voices the theory that 80% of the Socialist ministers are no good at all at their jobs, ‘but this has not led to a governmental crisis as we have no government.’ When he was asked what worried him most this coming year, Mr de Diego replied: “The fact that the government such as it is has completely given in to the Basque terror organization Eta and totally ignored all the victims of terrorism. This is a lamentable style under which the Socialists believe that everyone has a price, whilst Mr Zapatero is a traitor towards the very nation he swore to protect.”
And now we have the visit of Evo Morales, the first ever indigenous President to be elected in Bolivia. In his first interview following his election success – which was granted to the Al Jazeera TV Network, traditionally the mouthpiece of Al Qaeda – Mr Morales gave vent to such statements as “President Bush is the world’s biggest terrorist, choosing to invade a foreign country”, and “Soon cocaine will become the top international currency, replacing the dollar”. And where does he visit first? Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez before coming to Madrid to meet ZP, where no doubt the pair cooked up their particular version of the world, with ZP stating that Spain would write off a large part of the debt owed by Bolivia.If, under the former Government, we had the ‘Azores Trio’ of United States President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar, who was Prime Minister at the time, now we have the somewhat pathetic Ipanema Quartet of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Mr Morales and ZP. Now, there are four leaders to be held up as an example of liberty, freedom and progress before the world
It would be great to be able to say: “Now, in 2006, I can look forward to…”, but with prices of electricity, gas, motorways and petrol on the rise, it seems we are being hit in the wallet before we’ve had a chance to down our first glass of (non Catalan) champagne in 2006. For the Valencian Community, we have been totally cut off in next years budget by the Socialist Government in Madrid, with less than 0.5% being set aside for the High Speed Train tracks, whilst Catalunia has over 9 million Euros to spend on the same project. This shows that the Socialist Government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero thinks that the Valencian Community is ‘beyond the pail’. And why? For the very same reasons that what we here consider a success as ZP and Co consider it a failure. The Americas Cup, the most prestigious event in the Yacht racing world, which is certain to bring millions and millions into Valencia this coming summer, is treated with complete disdain in Madrid, where the Americas Cup is considered ‘for the privileged few’ and therefore something to be ignored. It doesn’t matter that billionaires such as Larry Ellison, who is behind the BMW Oracle USA team syndicate or Ernesto Barterelli who is the brains and financial clout behind the current defender Alinghi will make their headquarters and splash money all over Valencia from now until next year when the races end with the awarding of the Cup.
And what’s the other big thing for the Community this year? The arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, who will spend ‘at least’ two days in Valencia presiding over the World Family Meeting. The Socialists look down on this also, as their policies of enacting same-sex marriages, their confrontations with the radio chain that the Catholic Church owns in Spain – the Cadena COPE - their policies of removing the part of a tax return when any taxpayer can state how much of his or her taxes should go to the Church and the removal of the obligation to teach religion in schools has brought the Zapatero Government into direct conflict with the Vatican, with neither side refusing to back down – the Prime Minister saying he wants to modernize Spain, the Vatican stating that the Government is desecrating the very concept of freedom of choice, marriage and the raising of children.
At the top of everyone’s thinking at the moment is the problem that exists over the Catalan Statutes, and due to the Prime Minister wanting to cling to power at any price, it now becomes far more than just highly probable that these Statutes will be enacted into law, with the Socialists being backed by radical Catalan party ERC in order to do so. The result could well be the break-up of Spain as a nation, with each autonomy using the Catalan precedent as an excuse and term itself a nation in its own right. Goodness knows what the position of King Juan Carlos and his family is going to be in all this mess, but at least he has been given some encouraging words from Catalan President Pascual Maragall: “Just think, Majesty, you could reign over seventeen nations!”
Then the Catalans created the Catalan Audiovisual Committee or CAC whose aims are to control the Catalan media. Its statutes are enough to make Hitler, Goebels or Goering proud for they limit freedom of expression and freedom of speech so much that the creation of the CAC led to no less a personage than E. Markham Bench, the Executive Director of The World Press Freedom Committee writing to Mr Maragall and Ernest Branach the speaker of the Catalan Parliament: “The mere existence of the CAC goes against the democratic norms of freedom of expression accepted by the European Union, the European Court of Human rights and the immense majority of the democratic countries in the world. Such an undertaking as the creation of the CAC is strikingly similar to the censorship that used to take place during the days of Franco, who held the communications media in Spain under a tight fist for almost 40 years. The CAC is not a judicial entity, but a political one, controlled by the nationalist majority in the Catalan Parliament, and as such is not independent at all, nor does it have the means to deliver a fair or balanced judgement on any of those that appear before it, and as such is totally unacceptable.”
As usual, the reply from both the Catalan and central governments was one of total silence, either because they do not know how to get out of the holes they have dug for themselves or because they both tacitly agree that the CAC should exist to control the media. Despite all this, the Catalans have given themselves a New Year Present by enacting the CAC into law. Even Industry Minister Jose Montilla is said to be trying to put together a CAC for the whole of Spain, which may yet mean that columns such as these will cease to exist. If the Government is intent on intense media control, then it remains to be seen what will happen to newspapers, radio stations, television stations and even certain sites on the Internet that ‘dare’ to voice opinions against ZP and Co.
If you thought that I was a mere ‘voice in the desert’, consider a new book by Enrique de Diego, the deputy director of the weekly newsmagazine Epoca. Called “ZP in Wonderland”, Mr de Diego advances the view that the Prime Minister has absolutely ‘no moral values or scruples whatsoever, and we ought to have seen this being as how Mr Rodriguez Zapatero and the Socialist party used the terror, blood, death and grief that Spain underwent between March 11 and 14 2004 to seek his own political advantage.’ He also voices the theory that 80% of the Socialist ministers are no good at all at their jobs, ‘but this has not led to a governmental crisis as we have no government.’ When he was asked what worried him most this coming year, Mr de Diego replied: “The fact that the government such as it is has completely given in to the Basque terror organization Eta and totally ignored all the victims of terrorism. This is a lamentable style under which the Socialists believe that everyone has a price, whilst Mr Zapatero is a traitor towards the very nation he swore to protect.”
And now we have the visit of Evo Morales, the first ever indigenous President to be elected in Bolivia. In his first interview following his election success – which was granted to the Al Jazeera TV Network, traditionally the mouthpiece of Al Qaeda – Mr Morales gave vent to such statements as “President Bush is the world’s biggest terrorist, choosing to invade a foreign country”, and “Soon cocaine will become the top international currency, replacing the dollar”. And where does he visit first? Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez before coming to Madrid to meet ZP, where no doubt the pair cooked up their particular version of the world, with ZP stating that Spain would write off a large part of the debt owed by Bolivia.If, under the former Government, we had the ‘Azores Trio’ of United States President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar, who was Prime Minister at the time, now we have the somewhat pathetic Ipanema Quartet of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Mr Morales and ZP. Now, there are four leaders to be held up as an example of liberty, freedom and progress before the world
posted by Charles Kent at 11:48 PM
2 Comments:
Hmmm .......I always thought the phrase was - beyond the pale - and that the America´s Cup and the Popes visit was in 2007. Accuracy will ensure more readers.
Hi there, uh, Charles! Well done with the new blog. They made me start one as well so I could write this.
Zapatero is proving to be a very divisive piece of work. Let's hope they keep the guns locked up. And talking of which - the big scandal at the moment is the exit (in chains) of the general who wanted to uphold the constitution (by threatening to tear into Catalonia in one of those nice new tanks).
Constitutions are, of course, a bloody nuisance - which probably explains how the Brits have managed so well without one.
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