Esperanza Aguirre: Trabajar. Hacer. Crecer. Aparcar.

Esperanza Aguirre is a candidate for mayor of Madrid. She had a little run-in with the law last year after she parked her car in a bus lane on one of Madrid's busiest streets, so she could use a cash machine. As thinkSPAIN reported recently:

MADRID'S former regional president Esperanza Aguirre will not be tried for a criminal offence for her having allegedly fled the police after being caught parking in a bus lane.

She could have been facing up to two years in prison for 'serious disobedience', although she would not have to serve this as it was a first offence.

Instead, she will face civil trial, which would at worst end in a fine.

Esperanza had left her car in a bus lane on the Gran Vía with her four-way hazard lights on when she rushed to a cashpoint when she was caught.

Police claimed she got in her car and drove off when they were in the middle of issuing her fine, without permission, and knocked over a police motorbike. ...

Esperanza, who is candidate for mayoress* of Madrid and is still PP chair for the region, may still face a fine for driving off without permission.

So, perhaps the slogan her party has chosen for the campaign (Trabajar. Hacer. Crecer. / Work. Make. Grow.) could use a fourth verb in her case:

Aparcar. / Park.  

Photo: By PP Madrid (Comité de Dirección Regional) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

*  Mayoress?!?! 

UPDATE:

Carloz ‏@CarlozVine

Carloz retweeted Cristian Reche. 

Carloz added,

Vuelve la burra al trigo. / She's at it again.

Cristian Reche. @CristianReche

Trabajar Hacer Crecer Aparcar donde te salga de los huevos

0 retweets 0 favorites

5:34 PM - 16 May 2015

Jesus x 2; Catalonia, Scotland, Spain, UK; Queen Letizia Goes to School in New York; Madrid's Cruel Bus Shelters; Paragliding in Arcones

Excerpts from and links to my latest Newsvine articles and posts relating to Spain:

Miracle? Spain's monkey image of Jesus appears on a cake in Japan

Jesus appears to have forgiven the Spanish woman who botched his face in what was 'probably the worst art restoration project of all time.'  Yes, the Lord seems to have chosen to use the infamous monkey-like image of Himself to evangelize by appearing on a popular Japanese  …

'Beardless Jesus' found in Spain on one of the earliest known images of Christ

It is engraved on a glass plate dating back to the 4th Century AD, reports from Spain say. The plate is believed to have been used to hold Eucharistic bread as it was consecrated in early Christian rituals. It measures 22cm [8.66in] in diameter and fragments of it were unearth …

Catalonia tries to follow Scotland's example, but Spain refuses to follow UK's

Catalonia's president on Saturday formally called a referendum to decide whether Spain's richest region should be independent, defying Madrid which vowed to block the move. Shortly after Artur Mas set the vote for Nov. 9, the Spanish government said the referendum would not ta …

Queen Letizia of Spain promotes bilingual education at New York City public school

Arriving at the Dos Puentes [Two Bridges] Elementary School, the stunning royal was an immediate hit with the children who had hundreds of questions for the queen. "How come you aren't wearing a crown?" asked one schoolboy, while another said, "What's it like to be a queen?"  …

Madrid's conservative mayor replaces perfectly fine city bus shelters with new 'anti-homeless' models

With an unemployment rate nearing 20%, ongoing housing evictions and homeless shelters at capacity, Spain's capital is doing its best to prevent the destitute from finding a place to sleep. Take a walk on a busy Madrid street these days and you will soon see an example …

Great Paragliding Video From Arcones, Spain / Genial Vídeo de Parapente desde Arcones, España

Clive Mantle of South Africa recently posted this video of his August paragliding adventure just north of Madrid, near the village of Arcones, a place he calls a 'paragliding mecca.'  / Clive Mantle de Sudáfrica publicado recientemente este vídeo …

Spain Makes A Sharp Right Turn: Socialist's suffer biggest defeat ever at the hands of the Popular Party

Yesterday's local and regional elections resulted in a landslide victory for the right-wing Popular Party (Partido Popular, aka PP), and the biggest defeat in 30 years for the Socialist Party.

Elections for regional governments were held in 13 of Spain's 17 Autonomous Regions, and in none of them did the Socialist Party receive a majority vote. The PP will now govern in several Autonomous Regions, including Castilla-La Mancha where the Socialists have held power since Spain's return to Democracy in the late 1970s. Although they lost in Extremadura, too, the Socialists will probably be able to hold onto power there by forming a minority government with a minor party, United Left.

In the many provincial and municipal provincial government elections which were also held yesterday, the news was just as bad for the Socialist Party. This included losing control of Barcelona's and Seville's city halls, two other long time Socialist bastions.

In Guipúzcoa province and the city of San Sebastián, which are both located in the Autonomous Region known as the Basque Country, the recently formed separatist party Bildu obtained more votes than the Socialists to come in second to the more moderate Basque Nationalist Party (BNP). Before the election the courts had considered banning Bildu due to allegations of connections to the armed terrorist group ETA.

In Spain, voters can cast what is called a 'blank vote' - meaning none of the above. This year there were some 500,000 blank votes, or 2.54 per cent of all votes cast. This was the highest number of bank votes in Spain's history.

Despite the overwhelming loss, Spain's Prime Minister and Socialist Party leader announced he would not step down and has refused calls to move up national parliamentary elections, which are planned for spring 2012.

Of course these elections took place against the backdrop of large protests being held in city centers across the country. The elections may be over, but the protests are not.

Today's El País in English has a closer look at all of this: PP inflicts massive electoral defeat on Socialists.

And EuroNews has the following video report:

Hasta luego amig@s,

Carloz

Related posts:

Zapatero’s Socialists Head for Vote Defeat in Spain as Protesters March

Inspired by Arab Protests, Spain's Unemployed Rally for Change

100,000 protest against English classes in Valencia!

The largest street protest in Valencia since 2003's march against the War in Iraq occurred yesterday in response to the regional government's plan have the school system's new Civics classes taught only in English. A crowd that organizers estimated at 100,000 converged on regional government headquarters. Many carried signs with slogans in English, such as, "No, we can't," and "[Education Minister Alejandro] Font de Mora go home!"

However, Valencians are not up in arms about English, but rather about what many see as an effort by the regional Valencian government, which is controlled by the conservative Popular Party, to undermine the Civics curriculum. The national government, which is led by the Socialist Party, developed the Civics course for students who want to opt out of the Roman Catholic Religion course that is taught in schools across Spain.




Valencia is the only autonomous region that has mandated that the new course be taught in a foreign language, which is what led to the call for protests by the organization Plataforma por la Enseñanza Pública. (Platform for Public Education.) For the past three months parents, teachers and students have been taking to the streets throughout the region. Until yesterday's march the largest had been a gathering of 30,000 people on November 10th. In addition to this local reaction, many school officials and education experts across the country have criticised the Valencian government's action.

It is interesting that at the same time that this is happening there have been increasing demands for religious icons to be removed from schools and other public places. Two national police officers (guardias civiles) recently sued to have images of the Virgin of Pilar removed from their headquarters, while a city of Seville police officer has requested that two religious images be removed from the local police station.

Meanwhile, this month for the first time ever in Spain, a court ruled that crucifixes in a public space must be removed, when a judge in the town of Valladolid ordered a school to remove its religious symbols. The judge found that the presence of religious symbols in the school seemed to convey the idea that the state is closer to Roman Catholicism than to other religions. The school board had rejected the request from a parent in 2005 to remove the icons.

These things are happening 30 years after the end of the Franco dictatorship, which had previously made Roman Catholicism the state religion. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 guarantees a secular state.

Zapatero Zaps Opposition

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it had a nice ring to it. Anyway, Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist party, the PSOE, did win yesterday's national election. However, they only gained one seat in the Congress of Deputies (from 168 to 169 out of a total of 350), which means they are still a bit short of an absolute majority. (Seven, to be exact.) Mariano Rajoy's conservative party, the PP, picked up 6 seats (from 148 to 153). This increase might be enough to assure that Rajoy stays on as party leader, although he was not seen or heard from today.
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The enigmatic conservative Catalan party, CiU (Convergence and Union), is the only other party that increased its seats, going from 10 to 11. With the ruling socialist party not having a strong majority, this Catalan nationalist party could have significant influence in the new parliament.

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Perhaps the most interesting result of the election was the drop in votes for smaller parties: the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia), which advocates independence for Catalonia, went from 8 seats to 3. Another of the regional nationalist parties, the Basque EAJ-PNV (Basque Nationalist Party), lost one seat to go down to 6. The left wing IU (United Left) went from 5 to 2 seats and the party leader, Gaspar Llamazares has since announced that he would resign. The few remaining seats went to CC-PNC (Canary Island Coalition - 2 seats), BNG (Galician Nationalist Bloc - 2), UPyD (Union, Progress and Democracy - 1 seat) and Na Bai (Navarre Yes - 1). The Aragonese Council and Basque Solidarity parties did not garner enough votes to win parliamentary seats.

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Interestingly, in the Senate, where there are currently a total of 259 seats, the PP (Popular Party) technically won more seats than the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party), although both parties declined in their total numbers. The PP went from 102 to 101 seats and the PSOE went from 81 to 89. There are more seats in the Senate and 56 of those are not elected but are appointed by regional legislatures. Of the other elected seats, 12 were won by the Catalan Coalition called Entesa (Catalan for "understanding") which is made up the Catalan socialist party (PSC), the ERC, ICV (Catalan Green Initiative) and EUA (United Alternative Left); 4 were won by CiU and 2 by the EAJ-PNV.

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Of the two houses, the Congress of Deputies has more power, including the authority to choose the Prime Minister and the ability to override most Senate decisions with a majority vote. Apparently one unique power of the Senate is to appoint judges.

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At his party's headquarters in Madrid, Zapatero gave a victory speech in which he paid tribute to victims of terrorism and their families, including the Basque socialist party member, Isiais Carrasco, who was assassinated by ETA last Friday. He then went on to say he would continue with things he has done well and correct his mistakes. Today the media seem to be presenting him as humbler and ready for dialogue. Only time will tell.

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I suppose among the things some voters view as accomplishments during his first 4 years were withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq in 2004, giving more autonomy to the Regional Communities that make up Spain, making divorce easier and legalizing same-sex marriage. However, these are not things that touch on most Spaniard's day to day lives in a significant way. In fact, on the subject of the economy, which effects everyone, I hear many people (even some who say they voted for him) grumbling that he has done nothing to address it. Many people seem to think he has more or less just let it coast along, pretty much on autopilot -- and now it seems to be crashing.

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So, why did Z's PSOE win in the Congress of Deputies? Well the consensus among people I've talked with is that people voted against parties rather than for a party. Perhaps people were tired of the squabbling caused by the smaller separatist and nationalist groups. Perhaps the PSOE's publicity aimed at making people frightened of the PP worked. Perhaps the PP's own broken-record mantra of fear mongering against immigrants and bemoaning the decline of "Spanish" family values put people off. Perhaps no other parties seemed to be offering meaningful alternatives. Perhaps people simply preferred Zapatero to Rajoy, as opposed to the PSOE to the PP. (Surveys indicated that Zapatero won the televised debates he had with Rajoy, which were watched by many Spaniards.)

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One final note: at 75%, voter turnout was as high as it was in the 2004 election. How does that compare to voter turnout in your country? It puts mine to shame.

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Chao amig@s,

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Carloz

Z promises more English, Rajoy more Spanish

Z is the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodíguez Zapatero. One of his latest campaign promises is to put 20,000 native English teachers in public schools -- 12,000 part-time teachers and 8,000 English language assistants -- if the Socialist party wins the March 9th general election.

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Meanwhile, challenger Mariano Rajoy has said that if the Popular Party wins he will pass a law giving parents in Spain the right to have their children enducated in Spanish. This is actually aimed at the Autonomous Region of Catalonia, as public education here is conducted in Catalan. (All other Autonomous Regions where two languages are spoken give parents the option of sending their children to Spanish language or local language schools.)
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¡Vamos a ver!

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Carloz

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P.S.

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If you want to read more on the Spanish election, the BBC news website today ran a pretty good little overview of it in an article entitled, "Spanish PM Faces Voters' Verdict." I especially liked the following line in the article: "If the US election is a marathon, Spain's is a sprint." Thank God for that!

It's election time!

Not the US election, but the Spanish election. On March 9 Spaniards will go to the polls to vote for Parliament -- 350 seats in the lower chamber, the Congress of Deputies ,and 208 seats in the upper chamber, the Senate. The make-up of the Parliament determines which party (or which coalition of parties) selects the Prime Minister, who is also referred to as the President of the Government.
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The two major parties are the conservative PP (Partido Popular - Popular Party), led by Mariano Rajoy and the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers Party), led by the current Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Other parties include:the United Left (IU), Convergence and Union (CiU), the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).
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Compared to the USA, campaigns in Spain are relatively brief -- thank God! While there is plenty of maneuvering and posturing for a few months before the election, advertisements are only allowed during an officially designated campaign period. For example, on January 14 of this year the Spanish government approved the dissolution of Parliament and called for general elections on March 9. The official electoral campaign runs from February 22 until March 7.
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However, before the advertising begins parties issue statements, candidates make promises, polls are conducted and the media covers it all. So far the PSOE has promised to a 400 euro tax rebate for all citizens, while the PP has said it would require immigrants to sign a "contract" promising to learn Spanish, adapt to the culture and traditions of Spain and obey the nations laws. Both parties promise more nurseries and pre-schools, higher pensions and to plant trees to combat climate change. (The PSOE was the first to come up with the tree offer, and said it would plant 45 million trees nationwide. Last week the PP upped the ante by promising to plant 500 million! So, either way, Spain will be greener by 2012, right? Yeah, right!)
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As for controversy, well, the Spanish Catholic Church got into the act by issuing a letter telling its members not to vote for parties that support abortion rights and gay marriage -- in other words, don't vote for the PSOE. (The Zapatero government introduced full gay marriage in Spain in 2005. The PP has said it does not intend to overturn it.) The Government was so bothered by the Spanish Bishop's Conference intrusion into the political process that it had its ambassador to the Vatican make a formal complaint. (The Pope has yet to respond -- and if he does, I'll bet it's with a similar letter of his own.)
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The economy is a major issue and will surely affect the outcome. The Spanish housing market bubble is deflating, if not exactly bursting, with prices beginning to fall; price increases for basic necessities have been sharp; unemployment is rising; and because of world-wide economic instability, Spaniards seem to be a little jittery in general. This has been a rather recent turn around, coming after a few years of steady economic growth.
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This change in exonomic fortunes probably has done more than anything else to allow the PP to cut into the PSOE's lead in the polls. A month ago, the PSOE was widely seen as having the best chance at victory. Now, according to one major survey reported on in today's El Pais, the PSOE has only a 2.9% lead over the PP.
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So, who will win? ¿Quien sabe?