Princess is charged in corruption case and asked to resign dynastic rights

Husband Iñaki Urdangarín is main suspect in the Noòs case

Duke and Duchess of
Palma de Mallorca

MADRID -- When King Felipe IV gave his address when he was proclaimed King, he asked his subjects for transparency and exemplarity. At the time, his sister, the Infanta Cristina, and her husband Iñaki Urdangarín were immersed in a case of corruption. The princess had not yet been impugned in the Noòs case, but the investigative judge decided to do so last month on the grounds that she knew her husband, the Duke of Palma de Mallorca, had been hiding money offshore, and other such charges. Now, King Felipe IV has asked his sister to give up her dynastic rights (she is sixth in line to the throne), which would not affect the couple's four children, who will take one step in the royal hierarchy. Princess Cristina had been asked to take this step by her father, King Juan Carlos I, when the case first came to light, but she refused.

Spanish winds for British energy

Takes up twice the surface of the city of Bilbao

(ecofriend.com)

WEST OF DUDDON SANDS (UK) -- Spanish energy giant Iberdrola put the company's offshore wind farm at West of Duddon Sands into operation on October 30. Iberdrola Renovables bought control of ScottishPower Renewables back in 2011 in the largest purchase in the company's history. According to the Iberdrola Renovables website, "Located approximately 20km off the Barrow-in-Furness coastline in North West England, the wind farm covers a total area of 67km², has 108 Siemens turbines with 3.6MW unit capacity and has also seen more than 200 km of undersea cables installed. With an investment of €2 billion, this offshore wind facility developed by Iberdrola, through its subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables, in a joint-venture with Dong Energy was commissioned more than two months ahead of schedule."

Interpol issues arrest orders for former Franco ministers

20 people wanted for crimes committed during dictatorship

Martín Villa in times gone by

MADRID -- Interpol has issued 'very urgent' preventative arrest petitions for 20 people wanted by Argentine judge María Servini de Cubría for crimes committed during the Franco regime. The request is for their extradition to Argentina, under the Universal Law principle of international legislation. The order includes two former ministers in the 1970s: José Utrera Molina and Rodolfo Martín Villa, who said on Wednesday that he wants to appear in court to defend himself. It also includes other ex-ministers as well as retired policemen, judges and others.

However, it is unlikely that they will actually be extradited, although the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court) can have them arrested until extradition proceedings are completed. More likely, though, is that they might be put under a lenient house arrest, for instance, with periodic face-showing visits to the court and their passports removed.

Nice piece of property, only $65,000,000

More lovely properties on Christie's Great Estates for Sale, which features this
one at Dar Olfa, Morocco's most exclusive enclave.
(This is not an ad --wish it were-- just a fascination.)

The most pet friendly airlines

Guide and rescue dogs can travel free in the cabin regardless of size

MADRID -- There are some 16.1 million pets in Spanish homes, about 50% of them all but less than other countries. Nevertheless, pet ownership is on the increase (you wouldn't believe it with the amount of stray cats and dogs about), so the tourism industry has had to adapt to the circumstances. So the flight-booking website eDreams.es has rated the pet-friendliest among the top ten airlines. The top three happen to be Spanish, while EasyJet and RyanAir do not allow pets at all, except for guide and rescue dogs. See for yourself:

Is buy-to-let a good investment in Spain?

Financial crisis increases renting over buying

SPAIN -- (by Fuster & Associates) Buy-to-let is an incredibly popular investment method in the UK but it has still not fully caught on in Spain. This has been due largely to the Spanish rental laws which have historically been extremely rigid as well as the propensity for the Spanish to purchase their homes rather than rent which has held back demand. However, this could be set to change with the Spanish press revealing that the government is considering further changes to rental laws in order to provide flexibility. There are also currently very attractive rental yields with residential property offering 5.3% annual yields, well above returns available on government bonds and savings accounts. On top of this the current economic situation in Spain with low wages and a relatively high earnings to property price ratio mean that more Spaniards are being forced to consider the rental option. This rise in demand coupled with further changes in the law which would provide security against defaulting tenants could be the catalysts for a buy-to-let boom.

Famous architect Santiago Calatrava in trouble (again)

Castellón Convention Centre contract irregularities under judicial investigation

Never got off the drawing board

CASTELLÓN -- Castellón, home to the largest unused airport in the world (probably -- see Who's who in PP's largest corruption cases), does not have a convention centre designed by the internationally acclaimed architect Santiago Calatrava. He was the sweetheart architect at the time that people like Francisco Camps were in government, but Camps and plenty of others got into trouble for corruption. Now a judge is charging Calatrava with irregularities in the contracts pertaining to the convention centre that never got built, for which the architect received €2.7 million. Not that he hasn't been in trouble before.Santiago Calatrava has a long list of litigation behind him.

How many women are on the Forbes Rich List?

The richest Spanish women's wealth amounts to €24,125 million

L to R: Sandra Ortega, Emilia Botín,
Duchess of Alba

SPAIN -- The annual Forbes Rich List, in its Spanish variant and in the worldwide version, is predominantly male. There are only eight women on the worldwide list of the 50 richest people, mostly heiresses and their families (Christy Walton & family, Alice Walton, Liliane Bettencourt & family, Jacqueline Mars, Laurene Powell Jobs & family, Anne Cox Chambers, Gina Reinhart and Christy Walton & family, Alice Walton, Liliane Bettencourt & family, Jacqueline Mars, Laurene Powell Jobs & family, Anne Cox Chambers, Gina Reinhart and Suzanne Klatten. In order to create the Spanish Rich List, the magazine studies two basic sources: the Companies Registry through its Informa private data bank and the Stock Exchange Commission, both in Madrid. It does not count fortunes in jewelry or personal properties, nor bank accounts. The ten richest women in Spain are (in order of wealth):

Forbes Rich List 2014: Amancio Ortega is 4th richest man in the world

Follows closely behind Bill Gates ($82.5B), Carlos Slim ($78.9B) and Warren Buffett ($71.1), with €47.6 billion

(www.libremercado.com)

SPAIN -- The world's richest retailer, Galician Amancio Ortega, 78, came down one place since 2013 Forbes Rich List. Never mind, he just added €5.6B to his fortune since last year, slightly less than the rest of the list. According Forbes - there are several calculations around - he is some €21.31B ahead of himself since 2012. Ortega is best known for Inditex's Zara brand (and Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Oysho, Pull and Bear, Stradivarius, Tempe, and Uterqüe, among others) but he also owns 26 buildings around the world, including the iconic Torre Picasso in Madrid (where Google is a tenant). The son of a railway worker in his adopted A Coruña, Galicia, home, he and his deceased wife Rosalia Mera, with whom he had two children, Sandra and Marcos, began by making dressing gowns and lingerie in their living room. As a teenager he worked as a gofer for a shirt store. He is now married to Flora Pérez Marcote, with whom he has another daughter, Marta. Amancio Ortega also owns some 26 buildings, many of which he bought at rock bottom prices as a result of the crisis. He stepped down from the top job at Inditex in 2011 but still owns almost 60% of the stock.

Map of Corruption in Spain (to date)

Avalanch of cases make it difficult for media to follow

Click HERE to link to page

MADRID -- On Wednesday last week El Mundo published an interactive map of corruption in Spain. It is in Spanish and we have not been able to translate it, but if you click on your Autonomous Community, you will see how many and where the cases are. It is an impressive document that doesn't need a great deal of Spanish to understand. For some of the major cases, please see articles that have appeared here: Who's who in the largest PP corruption cases, Spain loses billions on tax evasion and errors, Pope Francis: "Corruption is worse than sin", Competition authorities to fine car dealers for price fixing, or just click on CORRUPTION on the label cloud in the sidebar.

Campo de Gibraltar suffered 94.1% of last summer's forest fires in the province

Poniente winds and arson were the main problems

Near San Roque
(andaluciainformacion.es)

CAMPO DE GIBRALTAR -- Thirty separate forest fires burned 394.21 hectares of brushland in the Campo area last summer. There was at least one incident in six of the seven municipalities, the exception being La Línea. This is according to a recent report by INFOCA, the province's fire prevention unity. The province itself was impacted by a total of 69 fires, just over 6% of Andalucía's total. In terms of the whole province, most of the man-provoked fires happened in the Campo area, particularly in San Roque, where the annual arson count continues unabated. There was also an arson attack in the Rio de la Miel section of Algeciras and the perpetrator was arrested shortly after. In fact, arson is believed to be one of the main reasons the Campo de Gibraltar has neared the top of the list for annual forest fire incidents.

Judge Alaya, the new star judge

Said to be 'horrified' by her popularity

(infolibre.es)

SEVILLE -- First there was Judge Garzón, who was pretty much ousted from his job in a major court in Madrid for getting too close to unseemly behaviour by some politicians (he had also been a Minister in the Zapatero PSOE government). Now there's Judge Mercedes Alaya, who is handling several major cases out of her Seville courtroom. Among these are the ERE Case (about dodgy employment dismissals), the false billing for adult education courses known as the Facturas Falsas case, etc. etc. In the ERE case, she has already officially charged 299 people, about which there are many complaints, mainly from the Junta de Andalucía (majorly implicated in the case) and the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía (High Court in Andalucía), her boss. Another significant case is that regarding the sale of the Real Betis Balompié football club; and a further one is that of Mercasevilla, from which is derived the very serious ERE case but considered separately, a case of extorsion against two business people who wanted to set up a catering school on land belonging to the city. In the meantime, Judge Alaya appears in the media, usually with photographs similar to the one illustrating this item.

Tax inspectors checking on Spanish football stars

Ramos, Casillas, Alonso, Iniesta, Xavi and Piqué, among the watched

'Gerard Piqué for H.E. by Mango'

MADRID -- According to El Mundo, several of Spain's most international footballers are being investigated because it is believed that many of the companies they have created to exploit their image register very little or no trading activity. However, as the result of a so-called 'political pact', since 1996 footballers can receive 15% of their club salaries via companies controlling their image rights. Nevertheless, the tax authorities are of the opinion that most of these companies have no real commercial activity of any kind. The remaining 85% of the remuneration is taxed at the tyop rate (56% in Catalonia and 52% in most of the rest of the country), while the exceptions (the 15%) are taxed at company rates, which was at 30% in 2014. Hacienda (the Treasury) is not seeking to charge anyone with tax evasion or anything similar as there is no indication of intentional fraud, but is demanding that the players pay the difference between one tax rate and the other for the last four years. Experts consulted by El Mundo think that Hacienda's change of mind is nothing more than an 'excess of zeal' on its part.

Education in Spain, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte (or, Things Haven't Changed Much...)

He calls various Education Ministers 'imbeciles'

MADRID -- (This article first appeared in the old JimenaPulse blog on February 2, 2008) In his column in a Sunday magazine, El Semanal, Spanish Royal Academician of Letters and highly successful novelist Arturo Pérez- Reverte (photo) has raised a series of matters regarding the education system in Spain. In speaking to a couple of teachers this morning, Prospero got the impression that it has also raised the hackles of the profession. Among other things and in his often magnificent language, he attacks successive governments, Ministers of Education and their ever-changing laws, calling them ‘imbeciles’ in the headline. He bemoans the absence of Latin, Greek, Geography, History and other subjects in today’s curriculum. He ridicules the Councillor for Education of the Junta de Andalucía, whom, he says, has blamed the ‘underdevelopment’ of Andalucía on ‘historical deficiencies’. He also ridicules the Minister for Education (or 'Ministress', as he calls her in his battle against political correctness), who has said that the ‘educational system in Spain not only does things well, but does them very well’. These despite the Pisa Report that places this country’s system very near the bottom of the European Community (and which puts Andalucía at the very bottom). Does this sound at all familiar to British expats? The article is too long to translate here (we make no promises,  but it is possible we will have time later, if there’s any interest among our readers), but we have decided to publish it in Spanish anyway:

Ceramic poppies all sold out

LONDON: From the Tower of London website: 

"We are delighted to announce that we have sold all the poppies. We do realise that this news may be a disappointment for those unable to purchase one of these unique pieces of art. We will be confirming orders in the next few days and should any further poppies become available we will put details on our website.

32 arrested in a new anti-corruption operation

Operación Madeja covers seven regional communities

One of many

SEVILLA -- Under the orders of Judge Mercedes Alaya, the Guardia Civil carried out a massive operation in seven different autonomous regions but centered in Seville. Called Operación Madeja or Operación Enredadera (approx. Operation Network or Vine, as in climbing plant, respectively -- the media has it under either name) resulted in 32 arrests on charges principally regarding bribes on construction projects. Among the arrested are politicians of PP, IU and Coalición Canaria), all level civil servants and employees of Councils, Diputaciones and the Ministry of Development, among others. Charges range from 'arranging' public contracts to crimes such as money laundering, false trading, tax evasion and belonging to a criminal organization.//Operation Network had been under way for 15 months and expanded to 13 provinces (Sevilla, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Badajoz and Lanzarote).

So what exactly happened in Catalonia on Sunday?

Is Catalonia ready to become an independent state?

Queuing to vote in Barcelona.
Photo courtesy of Simon Harris
via SandraInSpain

BARCELONA -- Here is a very good personal article by Sandra Piddock on a subject that hardly, if at all, got reported on in New CampoPulse. It is titled Never mind the percentages – look at the people who turned out to vote!. One of the sentences in Sandra's personal view of the situation there: "Forget percentages, forget the numbers, forget the negative attitude that ‘60% didn’t vote.’ The words will fade from memory, but the image of those snaking queues of Catalans will probably stay with me for ever." Any comparison to Scotland's recent venture is purely coincidental, if there is one at all.

Have a Monday morning laugh, cat lovers!

Santana Books ceases trading at the end of this year

Fantastic discounts on the best books about Spain

SPAIN -- The reason this piece is datelined 'Spain' instead of Mijas-Pueblo, where they're based, is that the news that Santana Books is closing at the end of the year will affect English-speakers all over the country. Self-described as Publishers of Essential Books on Spain, they (and the authors) have given us some of the best books on the country anywhere. Titles include You and the Law in Spain (by David Searle), now in its 16th updated edition, I believe, and a veritable bible on the convoluted laws of hereabouts. Other titles: A Guide to Wild Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar (by John Butler),  Apartment Gardening Mediterranean Style (by Clodagh and Dick Handscombe) ... you can check them out here; they're offering fantastic discounts on most of them, so get moving!

Thank you

Life goes on thanks to those who died

so that it could