Don't you go JC, You're all right with me...

The official Palace communication: Juan Carlos I de Borbón is to leave Spain and go into exile. El Mundo reminds us of the reasons here. Diario16 tells us that the ex-king will move to the Dominican Republic. By Tuesday, he was already there (a republic, as somebody points out). The much-suffering Queen Sofía remains in the La Zarzuela palace. The official Government opinion is to ‘respect’ the decision of the ex-monarch to go into exile and to applaud the ‘exemplarity and transparency’ of Felipe VI (here), with the vice-president Carmen Calvo saying on Wednesday that ‘the ex-king is not in flight from any legal cause’. Unidas Podemos seemed less sure of this, as they belatedly called for the arrest of the ex-king (here).  The foreign press was unsympathetic about the sudden departure into exile but the Spanish (printed) press was kind. ‘The political parties are divided over the former king’s decision to leave Spain. The rift is also apparent within the coalition government of the Socialist Party and the leftist Unidas Podemos, which accuses the emeritus king of fleeing the justice system’. Thus says El País in English here. A piece from The Spectator (firewall) has a good summary here (if you can read it) titled ‘Juan Carlos’ exile may not save the Spanish monarchy’. It says ‘…For the moment, the monarchy is safe: August is Spain’s holiday month – and a good time to bury bad news. King Felipe will continue to work to improve the monarchy’s image, and will hope that the problem blows over. The worry, however, is that there will be further revelations about the ex-king in the autumn and winter, when many Spaniards are suffering the economic consequences of the pandemic…’. El Mundo is more direct: ‘The PP and Ciudadanos criticize Pedro Sánchez for not stopping Pablo Iglesias' (‘intolerable’) "attacks" on the Monarchy’. As for Vox, notes the article, ‘Sánchez’ betrayal’, says Abascal, ‘is as disgusting as his concealment of paedophile plots or drug money’. Err, Quite.

Giles Tremlett writing in Spanish at elDiario.es: ‘Exile will not stop the process. What is more worrying than the alleged private sins of a monarch, which are yet to be proven in court, is how far the ruling class in Spain has gone to protect him’. He has something to say in The Guardian as well.

From The New Yorker here (humour): ‘Americans Insanely Jealous of Spain After Corrupt Head of State Flees Country’

Quarentino

Spanish tourism, or the art of putting all one’s eggs in the same basket, has taken another massive knock this week from the slightly odd British decision to oblige all those who come from Spain, returning tourists included, to spend fourteen days in self-quarantine - or maybe just ten days, if The Telegraph is to be believed. 

Another group inconvenienced by the sudden decision are those Spaniards resident in the UK who are either in Spain at the moment, or were planning to visit their family and friends in the coming weeks.

There were only a few hours of warning before Foreign Office advice for Britons to avoid Spain plus the quarantine obligation swung into place on midnight Saturday and despite repeated figures from Facebook warriors and elsewhere showing that more people were being diagnosed with Covid-19 in the UK than they were in Spain.

Adding to the worry, the Anglo-German travel company TUI says that, for the moment, it has cancelled all Britons’ holidays to mainland Spain up to and including Sunday 9 August. Jet2 quickly followed suit, in their case until August 16th.

The Spanish are understandably concerned about losing most or all of the usual 5,000 million euros (2019 figures) that the Brits habitually spend on their Spanish hols. That’s 20% of all foreign visitors.

Norway, Belgium and France are all recommending their subjects to stay away from Spain at this time, adding more woes to the hoteliers.

It’s true that not much of this windfall makes its way to the ordinary, interior bits of Spain, the places without interesting castles, museums, hot springs or wineries to visit. They must make do as they can, but the rest of the country, plus of course its coast and islands, clamour for more tourism each year – the one industry which sells you pleasure, and where the only things you take away in exchange for your cash are a pair of plastic castanets, a touch of sunburn, some stories to tell and a hangover to forget. Come, they say, spend your money (at our slight inconvenience), but then go home again until next time.

Someone who buys a house in a resort or maybe a moribund interior village, along with a car and who plans to live all year round, will clearly be spending a lot more than a visitor. But Spain doesn’t have a ministry or an agency or a budget for them, even though, in these times of pestilence and plague, settlers are even more useful than ever to the Spanish exchequer.

For those Spaniards who work in the tourist sector – waiters, room-cleaners, barmen, tour-bus and taxi-drivers – it means less work, more unemployment. For the owners of many pubs, discos and tee-shirt shops, already beaten down by the past few months, it can mean final closure.

Spain was hoping to persuade the British to allow returning visitors to the Canaries to be let off, with ‘safe corridors’ between the airports – and then, ‘what about us?’ simultaneously asked the Andalucía tourist minister and the Valencian president (here and here), ‘we are pretty safe too!’ they said.

In the end, briefly held talks with Spain on Monday about introducing air bridges with the Balearic and Canary Islands were quickly dismissed by the Foreign Office.

It's Not Looking Good, Captain

From The Local (firewall) here, ‘Is it worth booking a beach holiday in Spain right now?’ And there’s the rub. A number of bars, beach-bars and clubs have been closed down in tourist ‘hotspots’ while the beaches themselves – in some cases – have been given limited access due to the coronavirus fears, or even closed down entirely due to the pressing crowds.  The Spanish authorities don’t want an escalation – or the bad press associated with infections either from or to the tourists.

The trippers, who won’t find the same laisser-faire in 2020 Spain as they found in other years, may consider it too much of a hassle and decide to keep away, preferring instead to visit their own beaches and spas with a ‘staycation’.

At least if the infections were to suddenly soar, it’d be easier to get home.

Maybe too, a fresh threat from the British government to re-introduce a two-week quarantine for returning holidaymakers from Spain might dampen their enthusiasm.

The forlorn hope back in March of a hot summer reducing the Covid-19 has not panned out; indeed, between one thing and another, we appear to be heading towards a second wave of infection and France is considering closing its border with Catalonia (and its high number of Covid cases).  

Spaniards also need a holiday, and much is being written of the Catalonians driving off over the weekend to their favourite resorts (and, in many cases, not returning).

Will tourism keep things ticking over? A brief trip to the local resort (Mojácar) on Monday appeared to suggest that business is doing pretty well considering, but – away from the beach – many companies are foundering.  La Información says that ‘658 major companies closed in June’.

They're Back: The Brits, Unmasked

Andalucía has now joined certain other regions of Spain, including Mallorca, Navarra, Cantabria and Aragón, and has decreed that one must wear a face-mask when outside. It’s a bit of politics – now the health responsibilities have been passed (at their insistence) to the regional governments – mixed with a lot of common-sense.

However, we are now in the high tourist season, such as it is this year, and many potential visitors may be thinking that it won’t be like other years. Indeed it won’t, with rationing and booking bits of beach and half the pools closed and no disco dancing (or apparently singing!). Others won’t take kindly to being fined for not wearing their face-mask, which – needless to say – is only allowed to be removed when one is sat in front of a beer or a chicken sandwich. 

It being the season, we have been inundated with stories of Brits leaping off roofs of hotels, or jumping onto the roofs of cars, or coughing on their fellow diners, or falling about drunk in one or another way: the subject for yet another indignant story on the Spanish news.

The Telegraph claims that ‘Spaniards are most opposed to the arrival of UK holidaymakers, with nearly two thirds (61 per cent), keen on Britons to stay away this year, 15 percentage points more than any other European nationality…’.

Do other nationalities feel as bad about their own fellow-citizens as we British resident in Spain seem to feel about ours?

Spain needs the tourism, both for the income and the jobs, but no doubt it could do with a bit better behaviour from its guests.

A Treat for the Poor

It’s a truism that the poor could always do with some extra money but the rich never seem to have enough. Thus we have the disturbing phenomena of tax evasion and other legal or semi-legal measures designed to protect or increase wealth and then, on the other side of the fulcrum, we are blessed, occasionally, with philanthropic gestures, breadcrumbs brushed from the table of giants.

The suggestion to increase tax on the wealthy (those with over a million euros) has met with resistance not only from the right, but also from the heartland of the PSOE. While President Sánchez supports Podemos’ proposals, many of the regional ‘barons’ are in discord.  After all, perhaps even more wealthy folk will be shortly considering moving their portfolios to the Cayman Islands…

But this week, the poor have something to cheer about, as the Minimum Vital Income was approved on Wednesday in Congress by all the parties except for Vox, which abstained. After all, the funds will be back in circulation again quickly enough...

La Vanguardia says ‘It is estimated that some 850,000 households and 2.3 million people will benefit at a cost to the exchequer of around 3,000 million euros each year’.