🥊 This Week in Spain: Trouble in Catalonia (Again)

Also: King Felipe VI's 10th anniversary as regent, Ayuso and Milei are BFFs and the discovery of some really aged wine.

Jun 20, 2024

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | June 20, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #62

🎉 Welcome to The Tapa, an English-language, weekly newsletter about all things Spain!

🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: Catalonia is the gift that keeps on giving. If you thought separatist Carles Puigdemont would go quietly into that good night, you’re dead wrong. Because he won’t stop until he’s regional president (or in his view, just president). He’s like the Terminator relentlessly going after Sarah Connor. He’ll be back.

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Oh #FFS

🤦‍♀️ Catalonia May Be Heading Towards Elections Again, Again

Israel held parliamentary elections five times between April 2019 and November 2022, or about once every 11 months. Why? Because they couldn’t form a government, or the government that was formed was so wobbly it couldn’t last. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Wait, but isn’t this a newsletter about Spain? Yes, in fact it is. But that’s why we’re talking about Israel. It’s, like, a metaphor. Or a simile? Just wait, we’re getting to it.

Josep Rull, the president of the parliament of Catalonia, this week started the countdown on the formation of a government of the famously “restive” region, knowing full well that no-one had the votes to be elected leader.

Heading to new polls? For a variety of reasons—like, there’s no separatist majority, and the separatists are scared of working with non-separatist parties because they’ll be called sellouts by the other separatists, so there’s no other majority—there’s plenty of reason to believe that no one will cobble together the votes to head Catalonia before the Aug. 26 deadline, which will mean… new elections.
And then? There’s not a lotta reason to think things will change with new polls, and there are plenty of politicians who see benefit from political limbo (at least for now), so Catalonia may be heading toward doing the Full Israel (like the Full Monty but with elections?).

Why wash, rinse, repeat?

Let us count the ways.

Close, but… As we explained last month after the regional elections, no party managed to get the necessary 68 seats in the regional parliament in order to form a government alone.
PSOE “Winners”. Sure, the Catalonian socialists (PSC), led by former Health Minister Salvador Illa, “won” because they got the most votes. However, those votes only got them 42 seats, meaning they are 26 short and have no choice but to form a coalition with other parties if they hope to rule for the next four years.
Be my friend? That’s why the socialists started courting ERC (aka Esquerra Republicana Catlana, or “Catalan Republican Left”), who managed to get 20 seats. If they could close that deal and add another leftist party, Comuns (six seats), a leftist coalition government would clinch 68 seats and Illa would become regional president of Catalonia. Woohoo!

However, things are never that simple. ERC is caught between a rock and a hard place. They are a leftist party that is in favor of an independent Catalonia and they need to pick a partner. None of them is ideal.

Left but not separatist: On one side there’s the PSC who are center-left but believe the region should remain a part of Spain.
Separatist but not left: And on the other side there’s Junts, who are center-right but believe Catalonia should be independent.

How would that work? Now, Junts managed to get 35 seats in the regional parliament so not even a deal with ERC and some other minor separatist parties would get them across the finish line (the best case would get them to 61). But… are ERC leaders ready to risk being called traitors by separatist voters if they make a deal with PSC?

ERC now needs to pick its priority: Leftist policies? Or the dream of a free Catalunya?

Heading to Madrid

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is also stuck in a version of political limbo. His coalition government with Sumar needs the external support of Junts and ERC to pass, um, anything. Which makes this whole “form a Catalan government” thing a Gordian Knot.

Damned if you do. If Sánchez and his brethren in the PSC convince ERC to drop Junts and Puigdemont and turn the PSC’s Illa into Catalan presi, Puigdemont could just have a tantrum and withdraw support in Madrid. His people might even get so cranky they’d be be open to joining with the PP and Vox (‼️) to launch a no-confidence vote and oust Sánchez. 😱
Damned if you don’t. Then again, if Sánchez just folds and tells Illa to abstain so that Junts and ERC can make Puigdemont presi and have him return like Catalonia’s Savior, that might actually be a step too far. For Illa, for other people in his party, for other Spaniards. Then again people said other steps (forming a gov based on Junts, amnesty, etc) were too far, and Sánchez is still here…
Hail Mary pass. Sánchez’s latest high-risk strategy is to propose “singular financing” for Catalonia, which would be sorta like the special deal the Basque Country has, where instead of the central government collecting taxes there, the local gov does and sends a little part back to Madrid. There are some doubts whether that would be constitutional, though, and—surprise!—people in other regions aren’t at all happy about Catalonia getting a bigger piece of the pie at their expense. Oh, and Junts has suggested it’s “blackmail”—as in, “If you vote Illa in, we’ll give you money”. Which is sorta is. But anyway.

How about a holding pattern. So in this case, maybe just repeating elections wouldn’t be so bad? Of course, the coalition in Madrid could still collapse, and the budget would probably be delayed, but it does buy you a few months…

WWPD (What Will Puigdemont Do)?

Almost there. In the meantime, Puigdemont (who, in case you have forgotten, is still an outlaw) is getting antsy about this whole amnesty thing.

A law, yes, but… The amnesty bill has been passed by Parliament and turned into law, and now the gears of government are (slowly) turning so everything sorta seems headed his way. However, the Junts leader can hardly wait.
…an applicable law? Last week, Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, who handles the case surrounding the 2017 illegal independence referendum in Catalonia, asked whether the amnesty law could be applied. One of the concerns is related to the diversion of public funds. If they were diverted to finance the “independence process” known as procés, then the amnesty in theory applies (as long as there was no personal financial gain).
Can I come back to Spain, please? On Tuesday, Puigdemont’s lawyer asked Llarena to lift any personal restrictions on the former Catalonian president—mainly the national arrest warrant and imprisonment order. He’s been living in Brussels since he fled the country after the referendum and it seems like he’d like an honest-to-god paella. 🥘

Let’s see what happens next week.

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 🤴🏻 Felipe VI’s (aka F6) 10th anniversary as King

“I’m really sorry. I made a mistake. It won’t happen again”. That was the phrase that back in 2012 started the downfall of then-King Juan Carlos I of Spain, whose controversial safaris in Botswana and peccadilloes with, ahem, “special friend” Corinna Larsen had turned the Head of State into a meme.

Two years later, Juan Carlos I’s popularity was flatlining, so he abdicated to make room for his son Felipe, who had the monumental task of reviving the Spanish population’s trust and respect for the monarchy.

On June 19, 2014, Prince Felipe became King Felipe VI and he’s certainly done better than his father ever since. In fact, recent polls (take this with a huge grain of salt) seem to suggest that between 50% and 60% of the Spanish population supports the monarchy, which isn’t bad, all things considered. The rest is history.

Spain commemorated the tenth anniversary of F6’s proclamation as King yesterday, in a ceremony held at the Royal Palace in Madrid and with thousands of plebs (that’s us) attending.

Hello, King. Joined by Queen Letizia and his daughters, Princess (and future queen) Leonor and Infanta Sofía, Felipe VI arrived at the Palace’s Plaza de la Armería around noon, where he was greeted with a cannon salute. They later watched the change of guard from the Throne Room’s central balcony (Queen Letizia, you may notice in the video above, was sitting on a stool because she’s still recovering from a broken toe).
Then came the six fighter jets (aka “Patrulla Aguila”), painting the sky with the Spanish flag. It was all very pretty.

Food! Then came an indoors ceremony and lunch in which F6 honored 19 “anonymous and exemplary” citizens (one for every community in Spain plus Ceuta and Melilla) for their “effort and work”.

The King also reflected on the last 10 years in a speech, saying that he remains committed to Spain’s Constitution and that “coherence and integrity” are the values that guide him despite great “personal cost” (i.e. the estrangement from his father who lives in Dubai since learning there was an investigation into his finances).

Nice kids. But it was his daughters Leonor and Sofía who totally stole the show a few minutes before lunch with a “surprise toast” (totally planned, of course, but let’s just say it was a surprise, OK?) that started with “sorry for interrupting but we also have something to say”.

Everyone went quiet and probably all heard an imaginary record scratch sound effect in their heads. (If teen movies featuring young royals have taught us something is that nothing good comes after that statement). But we were wrong: they just wanted to thank their parents for “reminding us that over these 10 years we have learned… what it means to be committed to all Spaniards". Aw.
“Dad, mom… your majesties… thank you”, they concluded, while a visibly emotional F6 and the other guests (including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez) applauded.

Royals. They are just like us.

2.🏅 Argentina’s Milei getting a medal from Madrid’s Ayuso

Oh, boy.

Thought the very public fight between PM Sánchez and Javier Milei was over? Think again. In fact, you can thank Madrid regional president (aka governor) Isabel Díaz Ayuso for keeping it very much alive.

Fun fact: Milei, the (literal) chainsaw-wielding, anarcho-libertarian president of Argentina, is landing in Spain tomorrow morning, the first stop in a European tour that also includes Germany and Czechia.
Can we be friends? No. And while he will be holding official meetings with the heads of state of those two nations, he has no plans to meet with PM Sánchez here (which is not surprising, to be honest, after Transportation Minister Oscar Puente suggested in May that he was on drugs and he responded by saying that Sánchez and his wife were corrupt). Let’s just say they are not in the best of terms.
Ratchet that up. In fact, only two days ago, Milei once again called Sánchez a “coward” during a televised interview for “sending his ministers to insult him”.

Enter Díaz Ayuso, the center-right (PP) president of Madrid who really, really dislikes Sánchez (and likes to flirt with the far-left from time to time because why the hell not). What better way to annoy Sánchez than to award Milei with the International Medal of the Community of Madrid?

International medal: Ayuso’s team confirmed that they were finalizing the details and that both leaders are expected to meet in a ceremony scheduled for tomorrow at the Real Casa de Correos (the regional government seat). In the past, Ayuso’s government has awarded this medal to leaders like Venezuela’s Juan Guiaidó and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.
🔥🔥🔥 This unleashed a firestorm in the Madrid Assembly today, with the head of the socialist caucus, Juan Lobato, saying that pinning this medal on Milei is not done “in his name nor in the name of millions of madrileños”.
Even Vox? Yup. Vox spokesperson Rocío Monasterio warned Ayuso that Milei may enter the Royal House of the Post Office building in Sol tomorrow “wielding a chainsaw after learning of the regional government’s increase in public spending” (remember that in Madrid, Vox and the PP are not getting along).

Foreign Ministry not happy. Also this morning, diplomatic sources at the Foreign Ministry said it was “surprising and anomalous” that a foreign president wouldn’t ask for a meeting with his counterpart and would yet hold them with regional leaders.

They also said Ayuso was showing “deep disloyalty” to the Spanish institutions by not informing the ministry of her meeting with a foreign leader.

Meeting the 🤴. On top of that, El País reported this morning that last month Milei apparently asked for an official meeting with King Felipe VI during this weekend’s visit (PM Sánchez is the head of government, but the King of Spain is the head of state) so technically the King is Milei’s counterpart—but that’s not how things work.

Don’t get us involved in this mess. The Royal Palace however responded that “it’s up to the Foreign Ministry to coordinate the King’s meetings with foreign dignitaries”, and the Ministry has said they don’t comment on “the agenda of foreign leaders”. So it looks like the meeting won’t happen—for now.

3. 🥓 A butterfly flaps its wings in China and Spanish pig farmers weep

We smiled when we dove into this story about the pork industry. Who knew that Spain’s pork industry lobby is called Interporc? Or that there were industry news sites called Swineweb.com and ThePigSite.com? 🐷 Or that Politico would start an article with, “Western European leaders have trotted into a swine of a week…” 🤣

Spain’s pork farmers were less amused, however. The reason we were pork researchin’ was because China announced it was launching an anti-dumping probe into EU pork and pig by-Chinacts.
Why? Because 🚗. China was peeved that the EU had announced new tariffs of up to 38.1% on Chinese EVs, making it hard to sell cars just as its local market slowed down. It also noted that Spain (behind France) was a top proponent of the tariffs, so it hit Spain where it hurt: in the 🐽.

But seriously, folks. Spain’s pork farmers are freaking out because of the €3bn in pork exports the EU sent to China last year (half of all that China imported), Spain accounted for €1.3bn—making it Beijing’s biggest pork supplier.

So maybe being super loud on those EV taxes wasn’t the best idea? Spain pork princes are trying to sound conciliatory now, “The pork sector advocates for a trade understanding between the EU and China,” Interporc said, "What we hope is that the relationship between the EU and China will always be a good one, and we are working to ensure that this good relationship continues." Translation: Sorry!

The upside? Maybe if Spain isn’t exporting so much pork products (and we’re not trying to use a 1970s term for 👮here), jamón ibérico de bellota will come down in price in the local market? Maybe? Asking for a friend.

Yes! "If EU exporters, particularly Spain, cannot sell pork to China, some sales would have to be made within Europe and downward pressure on EU pork prices can be expected," a spokesperson for Germany’s largest meat processor Toennies told ThePigSite.com.

Sorry pork farmers. But we like ourselves some jamón.

4. 🥛 Barcelona’s tooth-rotting child food juggernaut

If you are in Spain, have children between, say, ages 7 and 12, and are not great parents, you know that you can basically feed your kids entirely from two Barcelona-based chocolate milk powerhouses—ColaCao and Cacaolat. Well, guess what: They are merging into one world-dominant teeth-rotting monopoly and you can’t do anything about it! 😁

Indeed it’s true: ColaCao owner Idilia Foods announced Tuesday that it was buying 50% of Cacaolat from Damm, which owns lots of beers with the word “Damm” in the name, as well as several others.
Not just chocolate milk. Idilia Foods owns other cavity causing foods, like Nocilla (as well as Paladin and Okey), which is why we said you can basically feed your kids with this merger. If they only had a pizza brand 🍕
All the money and business stuff. Idilia is about twice the size of Colacao, having made €194m in 2023 compared to €82 for Cacaolat. The big deal, the business press seems to think, is that Damm will distribute all of the chocolate milks and stuff which is good for everyone (except, obvs, your kids’ teeth).

So much more than chocolate batido action! Both being Barcelona born and bred, Colacao and Cacaolat have had their ups and downs with the Catalan independence/secession movement.

Like many businesses, Idilia foods moved its registered HQ office out of Catalonia during the 2017 not-exactly-legal referendum/straw poll thing (it’s in Valencia, though operations are still in Barcelona, as with most companies that did this).
Cacaolat for its part has had run-ins with Catalan language activists on social media in recent months. It apparently stopped or reduced using Catalan on its front labels and in March created a secondary Twitter handle (@cacaolat_catala) for its Catalan content, which left its main handle (@Cacaolat) for Castilian Spanish—a relegation that did not sit well with some.

Happy times in the land of chocolate milk!

5. 🍷 Oldest wine in the world is Spanish (though we hear it’s corked)

The Roman tomb complex found in the Andaluz town of Carmona (Sevilla) has been giving up treasures since it was discovered in 2019—including a bottle of perfume that, when analyzed, turned out to be patchouli (who knew the Romans were hippies?). Now we have a new treasure: wine!

Not what we expected. While investigating the tomb that held the bodies of Hispana, Senicio and four others (unnamed), archeologists discovered a glass funeral urn inside a larger one (apparently metal). Inside, they found the burned bones, carved bone, and gold ring one might expect. But also a liquid: “The liquid had a reddish color and was bubbling, perhaps due to the movement of the transfer,” said Carmona archeologist Juan Manuel Román.
Better with beef or fish? Researchers from the organic chemistry department at the Universidad de Córdoba then went to work. Studying the liquid, they found polyphenols—which affect the taste, color and mouthfeel of wine—and determined that, because of the absence of one (Syringic acid), the liquid had been a white wine—quite possibly a Montilla-Moriles. 🍾

Did we mention it was 2,000 years old? Well, now we have. The age of the tomb—from the 1st century AD—and the fact that the urn had been perfectly sealed, makes the wine about two millennia old, breaking the previous “oldest wine in the world” record, until now held by Speyer wine bottle, found in Germany in 1867 and date to 4th century AD. Ha!

Pour out one for Hispana: “This tomb, actually a circular mausoleum that probably housed a family with high purchasing power, was located next to the important road that connected Carmo with Hispalis (Seville),” the researchers wrote. “Two thousand years later, and after a long time in oblivion, Hispana, Senicio and their four companions have not only been remembered again, but have also shed light on the funerary rituals of ancient Rome.”

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