The Political Scene

 We arrive at the end of another year, bowed but unbroken (as someone said somewhere). For Pedro Sánchez, it has been a tricky but mostly successful time. The budgets have gone through and the Government looks safe to continue until the end of its cycle in 2023. His greatest failure (as we shall read in the right-wing media over Christmas) will likely be his unfulfilled promise of a large drop in the electric bill by the end of the year, back to 2018 prices, which now looks increasingly unlikely, as even the European Commission doesn’t want to get involved.

Sánchez has seen off the opposition, who can make as much noise as they like – they are still standing outside on the terrace. If anyone has come to the front, it has been the fresh leader of Unidas Podemos: Second Vice-President, Minister of Labour Yolanda Díaz. How the Establishment must fear her!

Outside, warming their hands, we find the increasingly pointless Ciudadanos party. What’s the point of voting for a shrill leader of a tiny PP splinter, whose only remaining function is to remove support from the PP? They are forecast to get just two seats in a future election; and tiny parties that can be bisagra – that can carry the day thanks to the balance of the two main forces – are clearly counting more on Luck than on Grand Rhetoric.

On the other side of the PP – further still to the right indeed, is Santiago Abascal and his Vox. Perhaps (in British terms) a kind of UKIP or Brexit party, Vox has been doing dispiritingly well. Gosh darn those foreigners (with their pesky foreign ways) taking our jobs and our women! Only an increasingly rightist PP can stop them!

So, we arrive at the doors of the PP, led by the straw-filled Pablo Casado, increasingly known by the Wits as El Fracasado (the RAE describes this as ‘A person discredited because of the failures suffered in his attempts or aspirations’). Big business may be behind the PP, but the endless column of scandal, corruption and poor politics is paying a heavy price. What say it’s time for Casado to go, maybe replaced with a young, attractive, forthright, popular (and populist) leader to bring the limping conservatives back to the forefront, see off the neo-fascists back to their kennels and put an end once and for all to Ciudadanos?

In short, will 2023 be the year of Isabel Díaz Ayuso?

A Surprise Visitor to the Vatican

One might hesitate to call God’s Vicar on Earth a communist, but it seems most likely that, between his other duties, Pope Francis will have read the New Testament and picked up on some of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The Pope, known dismissively by his surname as ‘Citizen Bergoglio’ in certain circles, is – we read – in reality neither right nor left; and a story goes that when, back in 2015, ‘…an overly-enthusiastic Bolivian President Evo Morales presented him with a cross in the shape of a hammer and sickle, the pontiff looked as if he had been handed a dead animal.

“That is not good,” he reportedly told Morales…’.

This past Saturday, Yolanda Díaz, the Second Vice-president of Spain and Minister of Labour (and member of Izquierda Unida), was granted an audience with the Pope – an exception politically speaking, as the Pope normally only receives heads of state.

elDiario.es says ‘The meeting held in the Vatican by the pontiff and the vice president becomes a prominent chapter in the criticism and insults that the conservative Catholic sector utters to the Argentine Jesuit who speaks of the rights of migrants and the poor and who asks for forgiveness for the events of the past…’. Perhaps, says El País, the message was simply that the Pope wants us to understand that he will always support social justice and offer hope to the poor and the downtrodden (viz. his message of ‘las tres Ts – tierra, trabajo y techo’ – broadly: nationality, work and a roof over one’s head).

Thus, the 40-minute ‘cumbre comunista’ (the Communist summit), where the substance of the meeting has largely not been revealed (at the Vatican’s behest).  Yolanda Díaz merely describing it afterwards as ‘muy emocionante’. El Mundo nevertheless reports that the subject close to both – better labour conditions – was the main subject under discussion.

La Sexta brings us some of the reasons why the Spanish Right doesn’t approve of El Papa. The apology to the Mexicans for the sins of the conquistadores; his comments on the Spanish Civil War dead who’s bones are still lying in the ditches – and his support for a basic living wage (with video). There’s the fact that Pope Francis is a Jesuit (Spain in under the shadow of the Opus Dei, bitter rivals to the Jesuits). And also, needless to say, his audience with the upstart Commie lady…

Religión Digital reports that La Conferencia Episcopal (the Spanish bishops) are not entirely at ease with the Pope’s recent actions – with Isabel Celáa (the ex-Government spokesperson) approved as the new Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, and of course the surprise visit of Minister Díaz. Indeed, a tranche of Spanish bishops (including some leading critics of the current Bishop of Rome) will be meeting with the Pope today, Thursday – no doubt to test the waters.

 

Living the Good Life

We are often invited by publicists to ‘discover one of Spain’s best kept secrets’. No doubt, as we enjoy the cliché, we will be offered the chance to buy a ‘dream home’ while we are there, soaking up ‘the warm Mediterranean sun’ or enjoying ‘the welcoming smiles of the locals’ (as they gauge the size of one’s wallet).

I was up at the almazara the other day, converting a lorry-load of olives into oil. This process took several hours, as old Tío Juan likes to do things in an orderly fashion, and to make sure that your oil comes from your olives.

While my wife insisted on watching eagle-eyed to make sure that Tío Juan didn’t slip in a few acorns, I walked into the nearby village of Uleila del Campo (wiki) for a cerveza and a tapa or two.

It’s very pretty there, a white village in the plains (and hills) behind Sorbas (Almería), far-enough away from the coast to find that the northern Europeans are few and far between and that the dream homes – if one is so inclined – are still reassuringly cheap. Idealista I see has a place as low as 13,000€ (it, ah, needs some work).

The thing is, of course, that a spot on the map like Uleila del Campo – or a thousand others - may be a great place to retire too if you are completely antisocial and don’t mind roughing it, but otherwise it has a few decided drawbacks. There are a few northern Europeans scattered about, between Lubrín, Tabernas and Sorbas, and there’s even a British-run hostal/restaurant nearby (Tripadvisor). However, it can become very lonely living there unless you are writing a novel.

Even more lonely might be to live in another forgotten village further inland, maybe in Granada or Jaén perhaps. Idealista found me somewhere for 10,900€ in Hornos (wiki) – a pretty village in Jaén with a castle. There: One of Spain’s best kept secrets for your pleasure.

All of which is why so many of us prefer the coast. We have managed to make our own communities in several areas along the Med, with our own bars, clubs, restaurants and even newspapers. We can get by without having much contact with our host nation or its language or (when they finally turn off that dreadful Christmas music) even their customs. In return, we are largely ignored.

So, if one can manage to live inland, and integrate into the local society, so much the better, perhaps.

Or perhaps not.

Written while enjoying some bread dipped in our very own olive oil.