Current Affairs: Spaniards Take to Streets Before Vote

Spaniards Take to Streets Before Vote



With elections set for Sunday in Spain in more than 8,000 municipalities and 13 of its 17 regions, thousands of people, most of them young, have taken to the streets in Madrid, Barcelona and other large cities this week, calling for an end to suspected longstanding corruption among established parties. Fueling the demonstrators’ anger is the perceived failure by politicians to alleviate the hardships imposed on a struggling population by a jobless rate of 21 percent.

At sit-ins, street protests and on social media networks, the protesters’ message is that of an alternative campaign that could eclipse that of the established parties and result in a decline in voter turnout on Sunday, from 63 percent four years ago.

Some of the youth groups have made the fight against corruption their battle cry, like NoLesVotes, or “Don’t vote for them,” whose manifesto starts with the warning that “corruption in Spain has reached alarming levels.” The group recently published a Web site map pinpointing localities where more than 100 politicians seeking election were also under judicial investigation.

Other protesters are fielding alternative candidates, like the Pirate Party in Catalonia, founded 18 months ago, which is hoping to win about 7,000 votes across Catalan municipalities. One of its candidates in Barcelona, the 27-year-old Francesc Parelleda, said political corruption was a consequence of a “political system in which there is simply zero transparency and democracy within the main parties.”

José M. de Areilza, dean of the IE Law School in Madrid, said, “I don’t think that political corruption is necessarily worse in Spain than in other European countries, but I do think that the economic crisis is now generating a lot more anger and resentment here toward politicians.”

On Sunday, Francisco Camps is expected to be re-elected as head of the regional government of Valencia, which includes the third-largest city in Spain and some of the most popular Spanish resorts.

By the end of the year, however, Mr. Camps is also likely to be in court facing bribery charges, as part of a vast corruption investigation, dubbed the Gürtel case, that has also targeted several other politicians from the main center-right political force, the Popular Party.

Mr. Camps was charged in February for allegedly receiving tailor-made suits in return for granting public contracts, with further possible financial irregularities still under investigation. Nine other politicians standing for the Popular Party on Sunday in Valencia are being investigated or have been charged with fraud. Mr. Camps and his fellow candidates deny any wrongdoing.

For now, the corruption allegations have not hindered Mr. Camps’s re-election bid, according to the latest opinion polls. Like Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister who is engulfed in scandal, Mr. Camps has portrayed himself as the victim of a witch hunt by political opponents, judges and left-leaning media. Asked in December to comment on some of the allegations, he said that “nobody should believe Soviet-style propaganda against everything that has been achieved in Valencia.”

In fact, “many people in Valencia now talk about the Berlusconization of our society,” said Ferrán Bono, a Socialist lawmaker who represents Valencia in the national Parliament in Madrid. “Some people have seen so many political scandals that they just treat them as banal, but I think many also genuinely believe the conspiracy theory that Camps has been so actively promoting.”

The Gürtel investigation, which also targets some Popular Party politicians in Madrid, involves more than €120 million, or about $170 million, of public funds misspent by politicians in return for alleged kickbacks, according to a summary of the charges presented by the prosecution this year. Its alleged ringleader, Francisco Correa, is in jail awaiting trial.

But corruption investigations have not spared other main Spanish political parties, starting with the governing Socialists of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Socialist politicians stand accused in several of the property-related fraud inquiries that have mushroomed amid a collapse in the Spanish construction sector. Since April, the Socialist party in Andalusia, the largest region in Spain, has also been shaken by an inquiry into whether party officials provided fictitious early-retirement packages to friends and family members.

Mr. de Areilza, the law school dean, said: “We have built a democracy with political parties somehow disconnected from society, who have accumulated a lot of internal powers and have not been regulated in very important areas like their financing — and unfortunately they are also the ones who are in charge of pushing through any reform of the system.”

Mr. Camps’s anticipated victory in Valencia is expected to be part of a countrywide sweep by the Popular Party at the expense of the governing Socialists, whose popularity has plummeted because of the economic crisis.

Whatever the outcome Sunday, Mr. Zapatero announced in April that he would not seek a third term in office, paving the way for the selection of a new Socialist leader ahead of the general election, expected in March 2012.

In their campaigns, many regional and municipal politicians sought to distance themselves from the policies of Mr. Zapatero’s central government in Madrid in order to bolster their own prospects. In the case of Mr. Camps in Valencia, “the message has been that everything that works in Valencia is his doing while everything that is wrong, like a jobless rate that is four percentage points above the national average, is the fault of Zapatero,” said Mr. Bono, the Socialist lawmaker.

The reverse, however, has not been true, with national party leaders careful not to antagonize powerful regional politicians who could influence their chances next March.

For much of last year, Mariano Rajoy, the Popular Party’s national leader, refused to confirm his support for Mr. Camps because of his ties to the Gürtel corruption scandal. On Tuesday, however, Mr. Rajoy went to Valencia to join Mr. Camps at the city bullring. “You are a great president,” Mr. Rajoy told him in front of a cheering audience. “The people vote for you because they love you.”

Current Affairs: Protest in the Med: rallies against cuts and corruption spread

Protest in the Med: rallies against cuts and corruption spread

Sit-ins planned at parks and squares across Madrid, Rome, Barcelona, Milan, and Florence




The Guardian May 2011

A youth-led rebellion is spreading across southern Europe brought into focus by a new generation of protesters taking possession of squares and parks in cities around Spain, united by a rejection of mainstream politicians and fury over spending cuts.

Protests are also planned in Italy, where the tag #italianrevolution is a trend on Twitter. Plans have been announced for a Tahrir Square-style piazza occupation in Florence on Thursday night, and for further protests in Italian cities, including Rome and Milan, on Friday.

In Madrid demonstrators have refused to budge from the central Puerta del Sol despite a police charge that dislodged them temporarily on Tuesday night.

Now they have occupied a quarter of the square, covering it with tarpaulins and tents, setting up kitchens, tapping at laptops and settling down to sleep on sofas and armchairs.

Similar scenes were being played out in Barcelona, where protesters held a midday Argentine-style pan-bashing protest in the Plaza de Catalunya, and in numerous other cities where protesters raised the banner of what they call "the Spanish revolution".

The protests come as Spaniards prepared to vote for municipal and regional governments, which jointly account for half the spending and most of the welfare state in Spain.

Town halls and regional governments are expected to increase the rhythm of spending cuts after Sunday's vote as Spain battles to rein in its budget deficit and avoid the fate of other eurozone countries such as Portugal, Greece and Ireland that have needed bailouts.

"Everyone is here for their own reasons and with their own proposals," said Luis de Pinedo, 20, an anthropology student who was handing out flyers in the Puerta del Sol explaining that the protesters did not represent any political party. "We are having to pay for an economic crisis that we didn't cause but which was provoked by the banks," he said.

Groups of people were gathered in debate. About the only demand most could agree on was a change in the electoral law to end the two-party system that shifts power between the socialists of the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and the conservative People's party.

"Mostly people are tired of the two-party system," said De Pinedo. "But I am also angry about corruption."

Javier de Coca, a 32-year-old protester in Barcelona, said: "Some people are trying to turn this into a leftwing or Marxist thing, but that is not what it is about. The really important thing for the moment is that we are raising our voices. No one should think we are just sitting around and taking this."

All age groups were present in the protests but the emerging leaders were mostly under 30, part of a generation suffering 45% unemployment.

Protesters said they were inspired more by the protests that followed the recent banking crisis in Iceland than by those that have swept through north Africa.

"Spain is not a business. We are not slaves," read one of the hundreds of protest posters glued to the Pueta del Sol's metro station walls.

Demonstrations have been arranged outside the Spanish embassy in London and in other European cities. "A lot of people have left the country precisely because of the situation we are in," said De Coca. "And they want to protest too."

Police have been instructed to leave the protesters alone. Political demonstrations and campaigns are banned on Saturday because of the elections. Zapatero's socialists look set to receive severe setbacks across the country amid popular anger over 20% unemployment and the spending cuts. Spain faces a general election next March.

Italy so far has not been forced into the sort of austerity measures imposed on Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland. But its economy has barely grown in the last 10 years and there is increasing evidence of exasperation with its billionaire prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Over the past two years the Italian government's time has been increasingly devoted to finding ways of dealing with Berlusconi's legal problems. He is a defendant in three trials in which he faces vice charges and a range of accusations relating to his business conduct.

The frustration was evident in the results of partial local and provincial elections held last Sunday and Monday. Berlusconi's candidate for mayor in his home city of Milan, Letizia Moratti, was outstripped by a centre-left contender in the first round of voting, forcing her into a run-off on 29 and 30 May.

Finance&Economics: McDonald’s to shake up food ordering system

McDonald’s to shake up food ordering system



By The Financial Times May 2011

McDonald’s is to change the way customers order its meals in Europe, partly replacing cashiers and the use of banknotes at its 7,000 fast-food restaurants in the region with touchscreen terminals and swipe cards.

“Ordering food has not changed for 30 or 40 years,” said Steve Easterbrook, president of McDonald’s Europe, in an interview with the Financial Times.

The move is part of the fast-food chain’s efforts to woo cash-strapped customers by making its restaurants more convenient and convivial. It is refurbishing stores, and introducing longer opening hours and new menus.

At a time when many retail and consumer companies are racking up sluggish or even shrinking sales in Europe, McDonald’s like-for-like sales rose 5.7 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter – the highest growth out of its three main geographic regions.

Mr Easterbrook said that the changes would make life easier for consumers as well as improve efficiency, with average transactions three to four seconds shorter for each customer. McDonald’s European stores serve 2m customers a day.

Weiky Filho, a student enjoying a burger at McDonald’s in Wimbledon, London, was in favour of the changes. “You don’t need to communicate with staff and it would be much quicker,” he said.

But Joe Surkitz, 21, was less convinced. “I’m looking for work and if there’s more machines doing jobs I’ll find it harder. Plus you won’t get service with a smile.”

Mr Easterbrook said that the new technology would allow McDonald’s to harness more information about customers’ ordering habits. Supermarkets and other retailers have huge databases of information on customers’ shopping habits, which they gather from loyalty cards.

Diners at the 1,200 McDonald’s outlets in the UK will shortly be able to pay by simply swiping a Visa debit card, just as London’s commuters can swipe their Oyster cards at train stations.

McDonald’s does not expect any reduction in staffing as a result of the changes. “In fact the business is growing so we would expect to see an increase in overall staff numbers and we’re still on track to create an additional 15,000 new jobs in Europe in 2011,” it said.

Finance&Economics: Spanish economy weighs heavy on Telefónica

Spanish economy weighs heavy on Telefónica



By The Financial Times May 2011

Spain’s stuttering economy weighed on Telefónica in the first quarter as growth at the eurozone’s biggest telecoms operator continued to be driven by its Latin American operations.

Telefónica said that revenues in its Spanish business fell by 5.6 per cent in the first quarter to €4.37bn ($6bn) driven by high levels of unemployment and increased price-based competition among domestic operators.

Investor concerns about Telefónica’s Spanish business have depressed the company’s share price, which has underperformed the FTSE Eurofirst 300 telecoms index by 8 per cent over the past year, prompting chairman César Alierta to pledge an increase in pay-outs to shareholders.

Telefónica last month announced that it was preparing to slash up to 20 per cent of its workforce in Spain over the next three years as falling domestic sales dent profitability.

Spain currently has an adult unemployment rate of 21 per cent, the highest rate in the European Union and the country’s highest level of joblessness in 14 years.

A bright spot in its domestic performance was a 17 per cent annual fall in bad debt provisions in Spain to €34m, accounting for 0.8 per cent of domestic revenues in the quarter.

The faltering performance of the domestic business for Spain’s former telecoms monopoly contrasted sharply with its operations in Latin America, where revenues increased by 26 per cent year on year to €7bn.

This expansion, the company said, saw a 9.1 per cent growth year on year in Latin American mobile traffic on its networks, with Brazil, where it owns the Vivo operator, generating 50 per cent of regional revenues.

Rising use of smartphones in Latin America saw revenues generated by data access for mobiles on the continent increase by 32 per cent year on year for the first quarter.

Over all, first-quarter net profit dropped by 1.9 per cent year on year to €1.62bn, below various polls of analysts that had predicted a figure closer to €1.7bn, while group revenues rose by 10.8 per cent over the same period to €15.43bn.

Telefónica’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose by 9 per cent from the first quarter of 2010 to €5.574bn, but its overall ebitda margin shrunk by 0.6 percentage points, driven by a 2.5 per cent equivalent drop in the Spanish market.

At the company’s investor day last month it said it was aiming to increase revenues by 2 per cent this year, and spend about €9bn on capital expenditure.

Telefónica shares were flat after the results at €16.97.

Current Affairs: Seve Ballesteros: Spain mourns 'father of Spanish golf'

Seve Ballesteros: Spain mourns 'father of Spanish golf'



BBC

Spain's greatest golfer. An icon. An inspiration. These are just some of the tributes flooding in for Severiano, or Seve, Ballesteros, following the news of his death.

The announcement came on Spanish television, TVE, early on Saturday.

The Ballesteros family soon confirmed in a statement that the golfer had died at 0210 (0010 GMT), surrounded by relatives, at home in Pedrena, northern Spain.

He had been fighting brain cancer for two-and-half years, in what he himself called "the biggest battle of my life, my 6th major".

On Friday, his family announced that his health had suffered a severe turn for the worse.

'Symbol for Spain'

The news cast a dark cloud over the Spanish Open golf championship, under way in Barcelona.

Tournament flags were lowered, and players emerged wearing black ribbons in honour of the man they call the father of Spanish golf, their role model.

At 1445 on Saturday, all play froze for a moment of silence in his memory.

Footballers at Seve Ballesteros' local club, Racing Santander, also wore black armbands for their match - a tribute to a great sportsman, and a unique man, who fought against his illness to the last, according to club president, and Seve's friend, Francisco Pernia.

Seve's former golf partner Jose Maria Olazabal was in tears during practice ahead of day three of the Spanish Open. But he said he would play on, as the best possible homage to his role model.

"I have always been grateful to him, for giving me the chance to play at his side," Mr Olazabal recalled, and added that what he would remember is Seve's personality and strength, his passion for everything he did.

Many other sports personalities have expressed their own sorrow at Seve's death.

Formula One driver Fernando Alonso called him a pioneer of golf in Spain: A man who discovered the sport for his country, and someone who would always remain as one of the greatest in Spanish sport.

Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola said Seve Ballesteros was admired and loved in all the world. Footballer Raul commented that Spanish sport has lost one of its greats.

Alongside them, and Spain's Royal Family, the country's politicians have also rushed to remember Seve Ballesteros.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said his career marked a turning point in sporting history here.

Seve Ballesteros stormed the international sporting stage in 1976, when he finished second in the British Open. He went on to win three years later.

His huge success then made him an ambassador for a country just emerging from four decades of dictatorship and international isolation under General Franco.

"He was a symbol of the new, democratic Spain," Mr Zapatero said. "Open to the world, without complexes, and capable of being up there with the best in any discipline, including those we had hardly any tradition of, like golf".
His success helped Spain hold its head up high again.

"He was then, what someone like Rafa Nadal is today. But he came at a time, when we really needed those victories, on the international sports stage," agreed Spain's secretary of state for sport, Albert Soler.

As well as putting Spain on the golfing, and sporting, map, many commentators point out the huge boost Seve gave the game at home.

With his flair and famous charisma, he helped make golf something for the masses, not just the elite. He made it popular.

And, in remembering the golfer's life, many have also paid tribute to the great strength he showed in his illness.

The regional president of Cantabria, where Seve was born and where he died, recalled a recent trip to Madrid with the golfer.

"I offered my arm to help him, and he told me: "I'm stronger than you"," Miguel Angel Revilla said.

"He used to walk four or five kilometres a day and lift weights. He thought this was a battle he could win, but about 12 days ago, it seemed he was losing."

Severiano Ballesteros was 54. His funeral will be held on Wednesday, according to Spain's EFE news agency, and the golfer's ashes will then be returned to his home in Pedrena, as he himself wanted

Finance&Economics: Spain’s cajas reshape corporate landscape

Spain’s cajas reshape corporate landscape



The Financial Times

Ongoing restructuring of Spain’s financial system is likely to trigger the largest redistribution of holdings in some of the country’s biggest companies since privatisation in the 1980s and 1990s.

Academics, analysts and bankers argue that the amount of new capital required by Spanish companies during the next two years, combined with the radical financial surgery needed to save some of its savings banks, could dramatically reshape Spain’s corporate landscape.

The savings banks – known as cajas – are judged by the Bank of Spain to need €15bn ($22bn) in fresh capital to mend balance sheets ravaged by a decade of property-related lending now suffering from the country’s real estate bust.

Alongside the option of taking government rescue money, or raising fresh capital by stock market listings or by private investment, many cajas are preparing to offload industrial holdings.

The total holdings of Spanish banks and cajas in listed Spanish companies are estimated at about €40bn, including large stakes in national champions such as Telefónica, Repsol and Iberdrola.

“Spain needs to raise 3-4 per cent of its GDP in financing its current account deficit – or €30bn-€40bn a year; this implies selling Spanish assets to foreigners, as the other way would be to cut consumption or investment by the same amount, and [that] would produce a new recession,” says Ignacio de la Torre, a professor at IE Business School.

The need for foreign investment has led to a parade of private equity groups, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds descending on Spain seeking bargains.

Last month, the emir of Qatar reciprocated an official Spanish state visit to the Gulf state this year by visiting Madrid and declaring the continued interest of Qatari investment groups in the Spanish banking sector.

In March, Qatar Holdings, one of these groups, made a surprise 6 per cent investment in Iberdrola, Spain’s largest power utility, and it has said it is eyeing further investments in the telecoms and banking sectors.

Other recent purchasers from the Middle East include International Petroleum Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, which paid €3.7bn to buy shares in the oil company Cepsa that it did not already own, and Royal Emirates Group of Dubai, which purchased Getafe football club for about €90m.

Further investment by foreign buyers could begin to unravel a complex web of political and business relationships that have enabled cajas to exert a degree of control over companies that are viewed as strategically important.

Of the €40bn of listed equity controlled by banks, three-quarters is in the hands of three of the largest groups, Santander, BBVA and La Caixa.

Many of these holdings date back to the privatisation of companies such as Repsol, when government welcomed Spanish banks buying shares in order to maintain a degree of national control.

“The government wanted to retain some influence in the privatised companies and one way to do this was through Spanish banks,” says Professor Eduardo Martínez-Abascal of IESE Business School.

But the bulk of the remaining €10bn controlled by cajas now sits within the recently formed Bankia, a fusion of seven cajas including Caja Madrid.

Bankers working in Spain view the likelihood as high that Bankia will divest some of its holdings, which include 6 per cent of Iberdrola, and 12 per cent of the International Airlines Group, the merger of British Airways and Iberia.

The fate of some of the higher-quality holdings will be sensitive. ACS, the construction company chaired by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, is involved in a long-running and acrimonious battle to win board room representation at Iberdrola, of which it holds 18 per cent.

The probable availability of Bankia’s 6 per cent stake, and the possibility of the Basque caja BBK relinquishing its 6.6 per cent holding in the utility, means the stability of Iberdrola’s share register appears vulnerable

Current Affairs: Spanish GP's call for co-payment system

Spanish GP's call for co-payment system

New research shows that they consider 28.9% of their consultants are not needed



86% of G.P’s working in Spain have said that they think a system of co-payment, where the patient makes a contribution at point of use, should be introduced.

They say they want the change, not as a punishment, but as a solution to reduce the inadequate and unnecessary use of their time and services by a proportion of the population.

Julio Zarco, President of the Spanish Society of Front Line Doctors, SEMERGEN, was presenting a report on the situation of family doctors in Spain, based on a questionnaire sent to 1,500 doctors.

‘People have to understand that they should not go to the doctor with a cold or fever’, he said, with the research indicating that.

The G.P.’s consider that 28.9% of their consults are unnecessary currently, and take away time from their other duties, such as bureaucratic matters, and increase their stress level.

Zarco said the doctors were also in favour of more attention by phone to patients, and called for better education programs. He also noted that 58% of G.P’s are over the age of 51, and there was a need for a younger team.