🤴🏻This Week in Spain: The King's Speech

Also: Puigdemont is already making threats and Netflix doesn't know what Rio looks like.

Nov 30, 2023

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | November 30, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #35

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🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: King Felipe VI officially opened the 15th Parliament yesterday and, in case you’re wondering, of course there was drama. Also, the bilateral relations between Spain and Israel are going through a really, really rough time.

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So very solemn

King Felipe VI Makes Strong Defense of the Constitution at Tense Opening Day

Alright, it’s been two weeks since Pedro Sánchez was appointed Prime Minister of Spain—or a century in geological time—which means yesterday it was time for the ceremony known as the Solemn Opening of Parliament. That is, when the Speaker and the King deliver speeches to the new cabinet and MPs present along with senators and members of the judiciary. Oh, and it’s solemn.

The King delivered a 12-minute speech (see above) that focused on defending the 1978 Constitution and how it exists as a legacy of democratic culture for the younger generations (those kids!) who may not have a clear idea of the state Spanish society was in 45 years ago.
This comes as some parties that support this new coalition government are calling for a revision of what they refer to as “the 78 regime” (these parties claim that the Monarchy was “imposed” on society by dictator Francisco Franco).
The King said that “to reclaim the profound significance of that great pact among Spaniards that is at the origin of our democracy is not, in any way, looking back with nostalgia. It is, however, a proud and conscious reaffirmation of our capabilities as a country."
Separatist parties EH Bildu (Basque Country), ERC (Catalonia) and BNG (Galicia) decided to skip the ceremony (just like last month during Princess Leonor’s swearing-in) and issued a joint statement saying: “We don’t have a king”.

The King also dedicated large parts of his speech to young people (like his daughter and heir to the throne Princess Leonor), explaining that the Constitution provides Spain with the democratic framework needed to form the “cohesive and united” country that the younger generations need to “develop their ideas and project their illusions”.

He reminded them that "democracy is not an aspiration, but a reality" stemming from the "great collective success of our democracy, supported by the Constitution," whose values "must be projected into the future."
Addressing the members of the Spanish parliament, he insisted that their obligation is “to pass on to the younger Spaniards a solid, united Spain, without divisions or confrontations." Like, don’t screw this up.
He also seemed to speak as a father (don’t forget Princess Leonor, a future queen, is meant to be a role model for the youths). Young people “have the moral duty to protect and preserve what has been achieved,” he said. Like, you kids don’t screw this up either.

The King also congratulated Pedro Sánchez on being reelected and called for the “respect”, “mutual understanding” and acknowledgement of political differences, especially at such polarized times (not that anyone listened to him—more on that below).

Oh boy. Right before the King’s speech, Parliament Speaker Francina Armengol (from Sánchez’s center-left PSOE) had also been tasked with delivering a few words, as protocol dictates.

This normally isn’t controversial, as speakers are expected to make non-partisan comments about the importance of Parliament and making Spain a better place.
Today this wasn’t the case, and a certain progressive leaning made the conservatives go nutty-pants.

Armengol used her time to say that the new coalition government is legitimate as it is the result of a deal between multiple parties that helped them obtain parliamentary majority (which is true). Considering that far-right Vox is not only calling this new government “illegitimate” but also “illegal” that didn’t go well with them.

Then she criticized those MPs who “distort reality or question important democratic values from the opacity of dispute” because this only “increases society's alienation from institutions” and asked everyone to “exercise coexistence” against “tension, polarization and noise”.
Finally, she decided to highlight the many laws that “expanded rights and improved people's lives” since the return of democracy (such as the minimum wage law, the divorce law, the same-sex marriage law and the suspension of mandatory military service). But note: of all the laws she mentioned, this last one was the only one passed by a conservative government (the center-right PP in 2001).

Both the PP and Vox were angry. So angry that they refused to applaud when she was done, something that hadn’t happened since, well, who knows. Maybe their hands hurt from so much clapping. But we think they were angry.

“When the Speaker behaves like a party representative, she doesn’t deserve applause,” said PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo (see video above). “We’ve been respectful but applauding this provocation is inappropriate. This is the worst speech from a Speaker I’ve ever heard in my life.” But really, Alberto, what do you think?
Meanwhile, when Vox leader Santiago Abascal was asked about his refusal to applause, he responded that “the only political rallies we applaud are our own”. Ooh, snap!

So much for “coexistence”. But there’s more!

Yes, it’s true. There were also intra-family roces (friction) between members of PM Sánchez’s cabinet: Economy Minister (and first Deputy Prime Minister) Nadia Calviño, and Labor Minister (and Second Deputy Prime Minister) Yolanda Díaz.
Fight, fight! When Díaz arrived at the ever-so-solemn opening of parliament, she was asked what she thought about some suggested edits Calviño’s ministry made to her proposal to expand unemployment benefits. Her answer? She didn’t think much of them at all.

Díaz, who heads the hard-left Sumar coalition member, marked her territory, saying that “unemployment reform was the purview of Labor” and her team was in “absolute disagreement” with the Calviño team’s suggestions: “We don't share their ideas at all."

So what’s the problem? Díaz wants to lower the age of eligibility and increase the amount given for extended unemployment benefits. Calviño, who’s of the center-left PSOE and is trying to get a big job in Brussels, seemed to suggest some limits—that people on this unemployment should only be able to turn down a certain number of jobs while collecting it, and that the benefits should shrink over time (both to encourage people to work).
Díaz felt this questioned the “honor” of those on unemployment, and would turn her benefit expansion into a cut. “The government is not going to cut unemployment benefits; it’s going to expand them,” she said.

And this is only the first day of the legislature! Much more fun to come.

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 🐴 The strangest of bedfellows

Self-exiled Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was full of ideas—and a threat or two—this week, according to an eye-opening Politico report.

So why the horse’s head above? We’ll get to that in a minute.

The excitement began Tuesday evening, when Puigdemont and his political sidekick Antoní Comín arrived at the POLITICO 28 gala dinner in Brussels.

Comín and Puigdemont (who’s been dubbed “Puchi” by everyone from the La Sexta left to the Esperanza Aguirre right) ran into Manfred Weber, the head of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP)—the umbrella group to which Spain’s PP belongs.
Puigdemont and Comin tried to convince Weber that a “consultative referendum” on Catalan independence was possible constitutionally, and that Weber’s criticism of the deal between Spanish PM Sánchez and Puigdemont’s Junts party was off base. (Weber had said Sánchez had placed “personal egoism” ahead of national interests by signing a “legally unthinkable” deal.)
Weber, um, politely disagreed, and said that the deal and the Junts indy push would only serve to inflame the far-right Vox and its supporters. “In fact, you are both feeding each other,” he said, according to Politico. So far, all according to (ideologically expected) plan.

But then it got interesting. Puigdemont said to Weber—shocking the guy in the process—that he could imagine doing a deal with Spain’s PP to bring down the Sánchez government halfway through the term.

What? Yup, you heard that right. Politico apparently asked Puigdemont to repeat this, and he did.
You’re gonna have to explain this. Puigdemont’s idea, as whacky as this sounds, is that if Sánchez’s gov didn’t make the proverbial “sufficient process” towards recognition of Catalonia as a nation, they could team up with the PP, file a motion of no confidence, and dump Sánchez.
Junts was actually more aligned with the PP than with the PSOE on issues like Israel, Puigdemont claimed (we didn’t know that Junts has any policies beyond separatism, but you learn something new every day…).

Magical thinking: Spanish politics being what they are right now, that Puigdemont would float this suggests he’s been away for too long. Because the PP and Feijóo (or whoever is in charge of the party in two years) would have to give him more than the PSOE, which isn’t likely.

Still, Puigdemont’s got ideas. Junts and the PP would just have to agree on an independent replacement PM, and, Puigdemont said, the PP would have to stop “treating me like a terrorist.”
Shockingly, Feijóo said thanks, but no thanks. Actually, he just said no, or rather, that he hadn’t accepted Junts’ conditions to form a government because “they are illegal and violate the Constitution and the equality of Spaniards.”
Ultimately, there is little to no chance of this happening. But it shows the (relative) leverage Puigdemont has. He can (and likely will) continue to push Sánchez and irritate the PSOE via such statements as the legislature goes on, to prove he’s indispensable and because, presumably, it’s fun

Now, about that horse’s head. Politico also asked Puigdemont about the inclusion in the agreement with the PSOE of “lawfare”—the theory that the courts use the law to attack political opponents and should have government oversight because of this, which has led to massive criticism by judges’ groups of all colors.

Puigdemont said its inclusion was meant as a warning to judges and others who promoted “lawfare” with his group (i.e. those who didn’t act like he wanted). Politico reports he said it was meant to be like the horse’s head in The Godfather — where the severed animal noggin is placed in Jack Woltz’s bed to show the Corleone family means business. “It’s a warning that we’re serious,” Puigdemont was quoted as saying.

Somebody seriously needs a beach vacation. Maybe that’s why Puchi seems so desperate to get back to Spain. Just an idea.

2. 🇮🇱 The Spain-Israel diplomatic mess goes on

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s fist overseas trip after being reelected was to Israel last week. He was joined by his Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo, as Belgium is set to take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union in January (Spain currently holds it). There, they both met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, well, things didn’t go well.

In fact, the whole thing ended in a pretty bad diplomatic conflict, as Israel accused Spain of supporting Hamas’ terrorism.

How did we get there? During the meeting with Netanyahu, Sánchez expressed his solidarity with Israel over the Oct. 7 attacks but argued that the fight against terrorism following the attacks by Hamas cannot rely solely on force and must offer a horizon of peace and security.
A day later, speaking alongside De Croo (see video above) at the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, Sánchez called for a permanent ceasefire and said Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself, but that it “must do so within the parameters and limitations imposed by international humanitarian law, and this is not the case. The indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of boys and girls [is] completely unacceptable”.
Sánchez also said that there was a need for “the establishment of a viable Palestinian state” and that “the two-state solution should be implemented to defeat terrorism and guarantee Israel’s security”.

The Prime Minister’s comments didn’t fly well with the Israeli government, which immediately took action.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly summoned the ambassadors of Spain and Belgium in retaliation for what they said were “false statements” that they considered to be supportive of “Hamas’ terrorism”.
The Spanish government wasn’t happy about this either, and Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares summoned the Israeli ambassador in Madrid, asking for “explanations” for the “unacceptable and false” accusations against Sánchez and De Croo.
“These accusations are particularly serious because they involve the President of the [Spanish] Government, who holds the Presidency of the European Union,” he said, “and the Prime Minister representing the country that will take over it as of January 1”.

Albares also stressed that since Oct. 7, the Spanish government has not hesitated to “condemn the terrorist attack by Hamas, to make it very clear that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people and is solely a terrorist organization.”

This didn’t smooth things, however. Israel announced it would not attend the Forum for the Union of the Mediterranean, held in Barcelona this week. The friction with Sánchez was not mentioned as the motive, but the announcement occurred during the tensions.

This whole mess seemed to divide Spain’s population (as with everything these days), with some calling Sánchez’s words “brave” while others called them “reckless”. Just look at how the country’s two largest newspapers chose to headline the story.

The papers: El País, which leans center-left, said “Israel opens diplomatic crisis with Spain”. El Mundo, which leans center-right, went with “Sánchez opens a crisis with Israel”. 🤷‍♀️

This has been the first major diplomatic crisis between Spain and Israel since the establishment of bilateral relations in 1986.

3. 🦩 Is the Doñana wetlands controversy actually over?

The political steel-cage match/wildlife feud that was the PP/PSOE fight over the Doñana wetlands in Andalucía might be done. Wait, you mean that they, like, agreed on something? Yes, Dorothy, it’s true: Cats and dogs now lie down together.

Agreement: Andaluz president Juan Manuel Moreno (PP) and Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera (PSOE) on Monday announced a deal whereby the region would withdraw its plan to expand irrigation around the protected wetlands in exchange for money to pay farmers to stop using water from the aquifer.
The payback: Each strawberry farmer who abandons his greenhouses in order to “rewild” the area they are on will receive €100,000 per hectare over a decade (which is nice).
Overall cost: The project to revitalize Doñana will cost approximately €1.4bn overall, including €356m the central gov sent last year for environment improvement, €350m more for the current deal, and €700m from the Andalucía government.
The announcement of the deal even included snuggly photos of Moreno and Ribera in wildlife-casual jackets (see above) standing alongside the wetlands and looking at birds through binoculars. Maybe we can get these guys on First Dates.

The Doñana controversy has been going on a long time. It’s been 685 days, according to El País, since the Andalucía government first registered a plan to regularize 1,500 hectares of illegal strawberry farms near the Doñana National Park

Things really blew up this Spring, when (as we wrote) both the government of center-left PM Pedro Sánchez and EU authorities in Brussels slammed the plan. EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius told Andalucía’s environment minister that the European Commission was “deeply concerned” the plan could “degrade” Doñana,
This concern wasn’t new: In a 2021 ruling, the European Court of Justice ordered Spain to address the unsustainable extraction of groundwater in Doñana. And in April,
Hotting up: This concern led a German consumer group to collect over 160,000 signatures calling for a boycott of the strawberries grown by the farmers in the zone. And that’s a big deal, because Germany imports 30% of the strawberries grown in the area.
A group of German parliamentarians even planned to visit to find facts and express concerns. And they did (sorta)…but after arriving in Madrid they turned back from their visit to Andalucía because they didn’t want to be used as pawns in the 23J elections.

Now take a breath. All this fighting didn’t seem to be helping anyone, so climbing down began.

Andalucía presi Moreno announced (as we reported) in September that the Junta of Andalucía would buy 7,500 hectares around the park to protect and expand it. Moreno got qualified praise from the WWF and Ribera, who said the move “goes in the right direction” but was “insufficient.” Translation: temperature eased a little.

What was announced this week seems like an actual resolution. Really. Everyone seemed to like it, save for some criticism from ecologists that some farmers who’d illegally used aquifer water might get paid.

Moreno called it “an agreement that demonstrates that dialogue works when it’s practiced in a sincere manner, always with the aim of the general interest,” and said, “Everyone wins and no one loses with this agreement.”
Ribera for her part praised it as a “consensus that’s above the noise, the tension, the party slogans, and the clashes.”

Let’s hope so. It’s been a while since we’ve seen something like that in Spanish politics.

4. 🚄 20 years and €4 billion later…

Yes, it’s true, we’re excited about the opening of a train tunnel. And it’s not just because we’re high-speed-train-loving dorks (which we are). Rather, it’s because it’s an exceptional tunnel.

King Felipe VI, PM Pedro Sánchez, and a grab bag of regional and national luminaries inaugurated the high speed train from Madrid to Asturias Wednesday. Which means our secret favorite vacation place is really no longer secret, and we can also get head-exploding cabrales cheese with an hour less of a delay. Which is good for us.
The King and PM seemed to enjoy the ride and in the pictures from La Moncloa look a lot like little boys who always wanted to be train engineers.

But the big deal is the tunnel. You see, to get from León (in Castilla y León, natch) to Pola de Lena (in Asturias) you have to get past the Cordillera Cantábrica (aka the Cantabrian Range), which in the past meant taking a crazed trip over the mountains that included a nausea-inducing 49km zig zag to cover the last 16km.

Now, however, there is a 50km series of tunnels that go straight through the mountains, including on 25km tunnel called the Variante de Pajares (because it's a variant on the old madcap route past the town of Pajares).
That tunnel (or rather tunnels, because there are two tubes) was so difficult that the project cost €4bn, took 20 years (or about 13 more than expected), required 5,000 workers on some days, and involved excavators that were as long as the Eiffel Tower is high. Crazy!
And did we mention that it’s now the 7th longest tunnel in the world? Well, it is.

Trends using the new tunnel can cut an hour off the travel time from Madrid to Oviedo, to about 3 hours and 38 minutes, and when new faster trains come online that can drop to 2 hours 45 minutes. You’d think everybody would be thrilled to, at last, have the damn train.

But Spanish politics…so there’s a fight. Specifically, it’s between the government of PM Sánchez and Madrid’s regional president (of the PP) Isabel Ayuso.
You see, Sánchez’s gov didn’t invite Ayuso to the inauguration, even though the train started in Madrid. So Ayuso? Angry.
Ayuso then decided not to invite reps from Sánchez’s government to the traditional celebrations of Constitution Day (Dec. 6) in Madrid. Well, save for the regional delegate of the central gov, Francisco Martín, whose invite went out before Aysuo got wind of the Sánchez government’s “contempt”.
We’ve been here before. You may recall the Dos de mayo incident (which we reported here) when Ayuso’s team wouldn’t let Sánchez’s Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños up on stage for the day’s military-civic parade because he wasn’t invited (and because Ayuso + Sánchez ≠ amigos).

At least we have the train! 🤷

5. Murcia de Janeiro, now streaming on Netflix

Squid Game: The Challenge is the new Netflix reality show everyone is talking about. It’s based on the streaming platform’s 2021 South Korean hit show Squid Game, in which people trying to survive late stage capitalism must go through a series of quite literally deadly trials to get a cash prize. People don’t die in the reality show version, of course. (At least not for now, although with the way things are going we’ll all be watching the real-life Hunger Games by 2030. But we digress.)

In Squid Game: The Challenge, people from all over the world take part in these trials. And the show’s intro begins with footage from some of the most iconic locations around the globe in order to depict its massive reach: London’s Tower Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, Chicago’s Sears Tower and… Murcia’s Cristo de Monteagudo?!
Yes, that’s right. That lit up statue of Christ that you see in the photo above (actual footage from the show’s intro) can be found on top of the Monteagudo Castle, outside the city of Murcia. And this was confusing to many because, hey, Murcia is cool… We just didn’t know it was that cool.
But the reality is much simpler: whoever edited the show’s intro probably lacked some geographical skills and mistook Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer for… the other one in Southern Spain.

And yes, lots of people made fun of Netflix on social media. But no matter how hard you try, you can never beat the streaming giant when it comes to humor. Netflix Spain took to ~~Twitter~~ X to make fun of itself and posted the following image:

For those who of you who haven’t watched the show, that is a scene in which the main character opens a tin can to find a cookie inside (one of the many trials he needs to go through to win the game).
In the image above, Netflix Spain simply replaced the cookie with a marinera murciana, a traditional (and delicious) tapa from Murcia that is usually made with a combination of dough, ensaladilla and anchovies.

Somebody give whoever is their social media manager a raise! 👏

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