Election Results - Nationally and in Mojácar.

Nationally, I pretty much nailed it.
I said in Business over Tapas last Thursday: 'Who will win on Sunday? BoT says that Pedro Sánchez will be the next president, with the support of Unidas Podemos (and possibly the ERC and a couple of other tiddlers). Ciudadanos will continue to grow, and the PP will stumble badly. Other groups with seats in the next parliament will be Vox (doing better than expected) and maybe even Pacma'.

The results are now in, with the PSOE at 123 seats (up from 85 in 2016) , the PP tanking at 66 (from 137). Ciudadanos took 57 and Unidas Podemos just 42. Vox is at 24 seats. The rest of the board went to regional parties, with the Catalonian ERC republican izquierda taking 15. PACMA, we are relieved to report (and to coin a phrase), lost its deposit.
The evident probability is that the PSOE will pact with Podemos and the ERC, with the other regional groups abstaining. You need 175 seats for a majority.
In the Senate, the PSOE took a majority 122 out of the 208 seats (the PP took 54).

Mojácar's vote in the General Elections are a bit away from the national average, with the PP the largest party at 661 votes cast, the PSOE not far behind at 619 votes, the C's in third place at 338, the Vox Party next at 312 (that's 312 people who hate foreigners), Podemos at 219 and the comical Pacma chaps (Bizcocho for President) at 14. 
Vox was barely around in the elections three years ago (it got 4 votes in Mojácar), where the PP got 946 votes. If you add the PP and the Vox from Sunday, you get the same score as the PP took in 2016. Now, in the local elections next month, and Follow Me Closely Here, there's no Vox candidate.

While there were 65 parties, only ten of them were available in the voting station I went to in a pueblo close to Almería City. Being a foreigner, Io can't vote (bit, I'd still rather be a foreigner). 

Lots of People Clogging up the Bathrooms

The population of Mojácar has fallen over the last few years, as the Town Hall tightens its control of the population census: the padrón. With some reason, many people have fallen off the padrón - and as we shall see, these are mostly foreigners! This is because Spaniards who leave one municipality move to another, where they are re-registered (the second town hall informing the first) Other Spaniards, of course, die and, again, the authorities are informed and their name is struck from the padrón.
There is a story, no doubt apocryphal, to say that one old girl, unwilling to lose her rights (or maybe her family's rights) left her vote for her favourite party in her will.
It is also true that some Spaniards who live in one town are on the padrón of another - perhaps for political reasons. Perhaps someone bought their vote (as happened in Melilla this week).
Foreigners on the other hand may move away and they will often do so back to their own country, or to another part of Spain where they won't bother to register. They won't particularly be known to the local authorities - we all look alike - and there is also a good chance they weren't even on the town hall's register in the first place, because, well...
A few years ago, the government, aware of this singularity, ordered that all EU foreigners would have to re-register every five years, and all non-EU every two years. Probably a good idea, but what happens when the town hall, to lower the foreign presence, decides to strike a line through your name with the argument that 'they hadn't seen you recently'?
All this, to explain that Mojácar's numbers (currently figured at 6,301) are probably rather artificial.
Then, add those who are there for a short period (which explains those claustrophobic noddy houses we build). These characters are neither listed nor, of course, active as 'troublesome voters'.
The recent Town Hall plan, which decides the urban future for a municipality for six years (the last one was agreed - between the major families and property owners - back in 1987) has now been approved (while waiting for the Junta de Andalucía to graciously nod assent). This latest Plan General de Ordenación Urbanística (known as the PGOU) will make Mojácar grow rapidly to, so says El Diario de Almería - 7,343 inhabitants (we like to be exact here in Spain) by 2025.
The opposition says that Mojácar has tied into this plan just before a likely change of government and that furthermore, they (and the general public) have not been able to view it. 
The worrisome detail behind the new homes that must be built (612, apparently) is the figure bandied about for summer occupation by 2025:  38,016. Now, if seven thousand are on the padrón - contributing as they do to licences: funding; medical, police and school teachers; street lamps, fire engines, sewage and potable water, road repairs, merrie concerts and festivals, what then about the other thirty-one thousand (at any given moment, staying, says the tourist office, for a brief holiday)?
We have roads designed for six thousand, yet expect 38,000 on them (plus casual visitors from nearby, deliveries and bus-trips). To relieve this, the 'ring-road' behind the gas station has been inked in to relieve traffic from the beach.
The Town Hall has just sent out its usual triumphant press release regarding Easter visits. Our hotels were full. We have 'over fifteen thousand beds' (some of which are in all-inclusive hotels, where everything is free, as long as you don't go outside).
In all then, Mojácar is a tourist town - dead in the winter, and vibrant in the summer. For those who have a bar, a restaurant or a souvenir shop (or rather, those who rent them out like dodgem cars) business is booming thanks to this massive bucket and spade tourism - until somewhere better or cheaper comes along, or until a natural disaster strikes. Local people don't buy souvenirs and they won't make up the crowds necessary to fill several hundred bars and restaurants.
The rest of us, inconvenienced by this huge swell, can only wonder if their own particular investment, a house in Mojácar, can increase in price when they've just built a whole slew of them in front, demolishing the view to do so.

Three Parties are Competing for Mojácar in the May Elections

The lists for the local elections across Almería have now been published.
In Mojácar, there are just three choices this time (we remember in 2007 there were thirteen!).
The choices are the ruling Partido Popular, with Rosmari as mayor and the tourist councillor Emanuel as her second. In fact, except for Lucas Mayo as the token foreigner at Nº 7, it's the same list as before.
The second party listed is the PSOE with Somos Mojácar. The party is headed by Manuel Zamora with Jessica Simpson second. Adele Land is fourth.
The other choice for voters is the Mojácar Para la Gente group led by Carlos Rodríguez and with Astrid the Vet as number two on the list.
A few comments follow:
Rosmari has led her party and the town in a certain direction, having been mayoress for eight years. Mojácar is now more of a resort than ever, with thousands of visitors during the season, and the town somewhat forgotten during the quieter months. It is suggested that she has little patience for the foreigners living here (she has changed the name of the only street that acknowledged our modest share in Mojácar from Calle de Pedro Barato to Calle Cal). In fact, if we were all to suddenly disappear, there would be no evidence of our numerous presence here since the sixties. It may be that Rosmari will retire, following the election results, leaving her lieutenant Emmanuel Agüero to take the reins.
The PSOE took two seats (out of thirteen) in the past election, as did Somos Mojácar (We are Mojacar). We remember that the second party in votes for those 2015 elections was the Gas Station party of Diego García ahead of the PSOE (3rd) and Somos Mojácar (4th), which having discovered that it hadn't won, gave up the ghost the next morning.Two other parties on that occasion, Ciudadanos and Vox, didn't get enough votes to earn a councilor.
Mojácar Para la Gente (Mojacar for its People) is run by Carlos, who is an Argentinian. He has the BaRpública in the village and is a communist. He was an opposition councilor for Somos Mojácar in the outgoing town hall. He says his party is the only one that puts the residents in front of the tourists. Lenox (me) is on the list at Nº 9, so expect everything I write to be slanted towards the MPLG.

The party lists in other local pueblos:  
Turre has PP, PSOE, Turre Para la Gente and Vox. No foreigners.  
Bédar has PSOE (Marian Simpson is Nº4), PP and Bédar Para la Gente.
Garrucha has PSOE, PP, Garrucha Para la Gente and Ciudadanos (no foreigners).  
Los Gallardos has PSOE (Sarah Jane Dodd is at Nº 7), PP and  Ciudadanos.

National Elections on Sunday (local elections, one month later)

The Election Board (here) is under pressure to adapt to los tiempos modernos. For example, a ‘Day of Reflection’ (like, you’ve not made up your mind yet), when the political canvassing is over,  is a bit silly with the Social Media messages bombarding us all and every day – usually with negative messages. All the national election lists with candidates for the Congress and the Senate are now published, here. But Spain does have a few oddities (apart from Unidos Podemos changing its name to Unidas Podemos for its own reasons). We have the lista cremallera – the boy-girl-boy-girl list favoured by Podemos and the PSOE which particularly in local elections can make things hard to scrape up candidates (actually and officially, the Ley de Paridad is two of one sex and three of the other in every five names). But then, after the elections, people can drop out (heh heh) – like all the men featured on the list of the Feminism8. Now we have the mentally impaired allowed to vote (and drunk. Can we vote drunk?). Spain also uses a strange mathematical system called D’Hondt to decide which party gets what in the results. The Spaniards living abroad face huge hurdles (especially when there are two elections just one month apart). Expect around 6% successfully voting. Of course, the European lists are decided at party headquarters, so the early, cushy jobs are already written in granite before the voting begins. Finally, there’s a cynical yet instructive video to be found here which puts the wonders of the Spanish democratic system into tatters (does a blank vote, a no-vote or a spoiled vote help the largest party? You bet it does).

Euthanasia becomes a Political Point

Politics is about the struggle for the Greater Good – bringing wealth to society and better standards and quality of life for all; through judicious taxes, policies and laws which will affect the entire population, either directly or vicariously. We may wish to become a criminal by breaking a law or a code, but there are a few cases where circumstance has caused the crime, to be found as we come to those two crucial areas of life – the beginning and the end. A life denied by a grieving mother; a passing aided by a tearful criminal. 

Society, with the gentle aid of the Church, will decide on the subject of abortion. In some countries, it is seen as a sorrowful necessity which we hope must never occur, yet will be aided by Medicine and Care when the situation is needed. We may see abortion as bad, but accept that sometimes the alternative is worse.

Not like this revolting politician from Texas, who is calling for the death penalty for those mothers who terminate their pregnancy!

This week, Spain was faced once again with the terrible spectre of assisted suicide, as a woman was helped by her loving husband into Death. He broke the law, but he broke it through Love. As The Olive Press tells us, ‘...Ángel Hernández, 70, assisted the death of his wife María José Carrasco, 61, who had suffered multiple sclerosis for thirty years. The Spanish couple filmed a video of Carrasco swallowing a lethal dose of sodium pentobarbital through a straw...’. Hernández then turned himself into the police, but was released the next day. In the video he asks “Do you still want to kill yourself?” to which she replies, “Yes, the sooner the better.”.

The most famous case of assisted suicide, made into the Academy-award winning film Mar Adentro (Wiki) occurred 21 years ago. The woman who helped Ramón Sampedro die says, “all this time after and Society hasn’t advanced at all”.

The PSOE has tried to bring a law to allow ‘euthanasia and a dignified death’ through parliament but has been stymied by the PP and Ciudadanos. As the usually hostile editorial of El Español was gracious enough to report ‘“I shed a tear with the euthanasia of María José”: Pedro Sánchez asks to recognize the right to a dignified death. Sánchez regrets the "tricks" of the PP and Cs to avoid the processing of the law. "If we want dignity at the time of life, then it must be also present at the time of death".

The set up for this occurrence has brought with it accusations of electioneering (really!) with an interviewer on Antena3 asking Hernández if his timing was to coincide with the elections (his answer: ‘I couldn’t care a fig about the elections’).

The senior PP leader and president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, says defensively ‘You can’t debate euthanasia during an election’ (here).

Change.org has a petition on the subject, asking that Hernández should not be punished (further) here. A judge who handles ‘gender-violence’ crimes is now investigating the events. Hernández could (in theory) face up to ten years in prison for aiding a suicide.

An amusing meme on Facebook says (our translation): ‘If the prosecution were as quick to order the arrest of a corrupt politician as they are that of an elderly person who helps his terminally ill soul-mate to die with dignity, we’d probably be lending money to Germany by next Christmas’.