Between the shocking event at the White House last Friday and the ramifications here in Europe of that fall-out from Trump and his disciples with Zelenski, which you have all seen or read and will have formed your own conclusions, I thought, numbly, to tell a story to take our minds off that distressing turn of events.
And anyway, it’s raining.
Lenox’ Anecdote:
We were talking over a bottle of wine about some of the old times and I remembered this story about one of the many differences that exist between Spain and the UK; and while we should celebrate and encourage those differences - after all, Spain is a wonderful place to live and Britain isn't - this particular item may not be the finest example in Spain's quiver of attractions and curiosities.
I refer to the humble suppository.
Chris had long hair and a thin moustache. He favoured pink shirts and kept his things in an off-the-shoulder handbag. His girlfriend was a pretty looking Danish girl, and we find her seated beside him on a train chugging slowly north towards Madrid.
They had arrived in Mojácar that summer of 1968 in a purple mini-moke, a type of low-slung jeep – much to the understandable horror of the small group of foreigners seated outside the village’s only bar and enjoying their early-morning brandies. Chris, it emerged, was a writer doing research on Carlos, the murderous ex-bodyguard of Rafael Trujillo, the assassinated dictator from the Dominican Republic, whose disgraced minder was now running a beach-bar in our quiet resort. According to my dad, Carlos made a good Cuba Libre and anyway, one should always try to forgive and forget.
Chris’ research, once he got around to it, involved a few talks over a glass of rum with Carlos Evertsz about his ghastly experiences as a torturer, inquisitor and bodyguard and Carlos, a short black fellow with a nasty look to him, must have taken offence at one of Chris’ questions on a particular occasion.
Or perhaps he just had a hangover that day.
The jeep was found, smashed to pieces.
Chris and his girlfriend, Gitte, decided to take off to Madrid for a week for some research and a release from the volatile Carlos. On the way to the train, Chris visited a farmacia to get something for a cold he’d picked up.
We are in the train again. It’s just left Linares where it had stopped for lunch. In those days, the conductor would go through the carriages asking what everyone wanted to eat and would then phone through to the station, where twenty-seven portions of meat and fifteen of fish would be waiting in the restaurant: along with chips, salad and wine, followed by a small plate of membrillo (a lump of quince jelly) for ‘afters’.
Not bad for sixty pesetas.
Back on the train, Chris sniffled again and remembered his package from the chemist. He opened it up and extracted a metal-foil-wrapped bomb-shaped item. The carriage, drowsy from its lunch, watched with mild interest.
Chris had never seen a suppository before and, as he peeled the foil off the plug (principal ingredient: cocoa butter), he decided he couldn’t eat it so, after a moment’s thought, decided to ram it up his nose.
The carriage stirred in anticipation. ‘No’ said some old girl in black.
No? thought Chris. Perhaps, since it’s a streamer, I should open another. He placed the second suppository, with its agreeable smell of cocoa butter, into his other nostril and sat back with a satisfied groan. The two suppositories dangled slightly from his nose, and he found that he had to hold them in place. His girlfriend tittered suddenly and the carriage, released, burst into laughter.
The man sat facing Chris lifted himself partway from his seat and made an explicit motion towards his backside. ‘Aquí’, here.
Chris, his face the colour of his favourite shirt, excused himself and went to find the lavatory. He told us afterwards that he could see the tracks flashing by when he looked down the pan, and that, after an embarrassing but successful operation hovering over the seatless commode, he unfortunately coughed, firing the luckless suppository down the hole and into the heart of the Andalusian countryside.
He eventually completed the book about Carlos, carefully waiting until that disagreeable fellow had been deported from Spain.
I think I must still have a copy somewhere.
Housing:
A useful guide from Idealista here: ‘Property buying costs in Spain: taxes and fees in 2025.
We have all the details of the cost of buying property in Spain, updated for 2025’.
From Spanish Property Insight, an interesting developement here: ‘The Junta de Andalucía has unveiled a series of fiscal incentives designed to breathe life back into the region’s dwindling rural municipalities. At the heart of this initiative is a substantial reduction in property transfer tax (Impuesto sobre Transmisiones Patrimoniales y Actos Jurídicos Documentados – ITP/AJD) for homebuyers in eligible areas, alongside increased financial support for families with children...’
According to a report by the consultancy Atlas Real Estate Analytics, 61% of new building for housing in Spain are found in just ten provinces, many of them with low demand and an already abundant real estate supply. Diario As says ‘Spain faces a paradox in its real estate market: the construction of new homes is concentrated in areas with lower demand, while in large cities and metropolitan areas, where housing needs are highest, new projects are insufficient. This phenomenon is causing concern among experts and citizens, as it not only makes access to housing difficult in areas where it is really needed but also increases prices in stressed markets such as Madrid and Barcelona...’
From the Majorca Daily Bulletin here: ‘It would appear, in light of the recent new moves by French politicians to make life easier for British homeowners, that the British government is aware of the problems of the 90-day in 180-days rule. Mallorca home owner and leading British businessman Andrew Hesselden who four years ago launched ‘180 Days in Spain’ campaign to challenge the 90-day rule has told the Bulletin that the new Labour government “gets the problem” and that talk of a reset with the EU is encouraging...’
Neighbourhood communities (las comunidades de vecinos) are to change forever from April 3rd with new powers to regulate tourist apartments. The reform of the Horizontal Property Law (la Ley de Propiedad Horizontal) will allow residents to make decisions about holiday rental apartments in their buildings’. Infobae has the item here.
From The Huddersfield Hub here: ‘End of an era for ex-pat Brian Hayhurst as he returns to Huddersfield after 26 years in Spain’. One of those sad stories we sometimes hear about.
...and to continue with another idiotic story, here’s Birmingham Live with ‘An expat has shared why moving to Spain may not be the best idea for UK tourists - warning some people "don't give a stuff about anybody else". Stuart from Spain Speaks (find him on YouTube) warned about "why moving to Spain might not be for you", saying: "A lot of people here are just not that friendly." He explained that the Spanish have an expression, ir a su bola, meaning "to do your own thing". According to the expat, many locals uphold this view and consequently, "don't give a stuff about anybody else". Stuart proposed that this may have something to do with where he lives - Madrid - and the fact it is a "big city"...’
Finance:
Spain is now the eighth largest defence power in the world. The sector's turnover is approaching 14,000 million, and generating around 215,000 jobs in the sector. Out of every 100 dollars moved by the world armaments market, more than three come down to Spanish exports says La Razón here.
‘The number of unemployed registered at public employment service offices fell by 5,994 people in February compared to the previous month (-0.23%) due, above all, to the services sector, which accounted for a large part of the decrease in unemployment, according to data published this Tuesday by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy. After the fall in February, the total number of unemployed people stood at 2,593,449 people (still a horrific amount), the lowest figure for a month of February in the last seventeen years, the Ministry stressed...’ El Huff Post reports here.
Andalucía, Catalonia and Murcia are the regions most exposed to the increase in agricultural tariffs planned by Trump says 20Minutos here. ‘Olive oil, wine and table olives are among the products that may be affected by the increase in trade taxes that the new US Administration will approve starting on April 2nd’. Trump's agricultural tariffs threaten 3,800 million in Spanish exports: particularly oil and wine (here).
Politics:
‘Pedro Sánchez, speaking to the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (Cepyme) and with the presence of the president of the employers' association, Antonio Garamendi, and several IBEX 35 executives in the face of Trump's threats: “It is time to stand up for Europe. It is time for moderation, but also for firmness and we will defend ourselves responsibly,” proclaimed the president at an event of the employers' association following the latest steps of the president of the United States this Wednesday’. elDiario.es reporting.
From Público here: ‘Feijóo says that Valencia’s Carlos Mazón was not "up to the task" over the late October floods (while pointing at Central Government as also failing in its obligations) but insists that he should be in charge of the reconstruction. The president of the PP criticises – for the first time – the management of the president of the Generalitat, while defending that his position is "clear from the first moment" and that it is not going to "change every ten days"’.
On Saturday, 30,000 people took to the streets in Valencia (again) to demand Mazón's resignation: “We can't take it any longer”.
It seems that, prior to the tardy official flood-warning on 29th October, the emergency 911 phone-line received no less than 19,821 calls.
‘The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso (thinking perhaps that Feijóo will soon be history), called this Sunday on businessmen, civil servants, prosecutors and politicians to confront the Government, to “stand up” and openly attack Pedro Sánchez. At a PP event in Madrid, Ayuso considered that it is time to “lose fear and comfort” and “take a chance, come out of the closet” and “say I am tired of Sánchezism ruining Spain”. “This is about brave people and people committed to their country,” emphasized the regional president, who appealed to big businessmen, the media and people from the cultural world…’. elDiario.es has the story here.
This week’s poll comes from El País here: ‘The PSOE is closing the gap with the PP, which has accumulated four months of falling vote estimates. The barometer confirms the upward trend of Vox, the only party that would improve its result from the July 2023 elections’. The poll gives PP 32.2%, PSOE 29.6% and Vox 14.1%.
The Government proposal to reduce the debt from the autonomías by an average of 20%, as we read last week, has met with the frontal opposition of the Partido Popular (for some reason). Andalucía, set to drop its debt by 18,891 million euros (thus lowering substantially its interest payments), is criticised in an article at El Plural titled: ‘The Government representative in Andalucía sentences Andalucía President Juanma Moreno Bonilla for his refusal to forgive the debt: "It will be his political grave"’.
Felipe González, the famous leader of the PSOE back in the late years of Franco, and the president of Spain between 1982 and 1996 (Wiki), has apparently softened in his old age and turned to the right. From elDiario.es here, we read ‘Felipe González, the socialist who does not know how to criticize the right. The former president insists on his attacks against the Government’. Vanity Fair España runs an interview with González here.
From a press release by the Mayor of Carboneras (Almería) regarding the doomed Hotel Algarrobico and the Government’s plans of demolition: ‘...the Mayor has highlighted the impact that the situation has on the municipality and its residents, who are the main victims "with a hotel and the jobs linked to it that have not seen the light of day; with promises of compensation over the years that have never materialised; and with a poor external projection that damages our image as a tourist destination"’.
Europe:
‘The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed on Sunday the need to "rearm" Ukraine and Europe "urgently", at the end of an informal summit held in London to discuss European security and the war in Ukraine’. From El Imparcial here. From Ukraine’s Militarnyi here, ‘European diplomats expect the United States to reduce its military contingent in Europe by 20,000 troops’.
From The Guardian here: ‘Britain is back: did Ukraine crisis talks create a post-Brexit turning point? Keir Starmer won praise for taking the UK ‘back to the heart of Europe’ at the weekend, but will it be a long-term move?’
Courts
From BBC News here: ‘Father tries to block daughter's euthanasia in landmark Spanish case’. The case is being heard in a court in Barcelona.
Corruption:
It's 2025 and the Gürtel case is still going on. A construction businessman admits to paying a bribe of 25 million back in 2004 to Francisco Correa and the PP in the Madrid town of Arganda del Rey.
More on the apparently illegal home owned by Judge Peinado in La Adrada (Ávila) – according to El Plural, which says that someone in the local town hall has been juggling the paperwork.
‘The Madrid Court approves the extension of the investigation against Ayuso's partner for his relationship with Quirón (the private health company). The court rejects the appeal of businessman Alberto González Amador against the judge's decision to open a separate part of the investigation for tax fraud to analyse his work for the health group’. Thus, elDiario.es is on the trail of Ayuso’s boyfriend. A comment here: ‘I'll tell you the surreal argument of Ayuso's boyfriend to defend himself from the ramifications of his case: as he is now being investigated for irregular payments from Quirón, his lawyers say that if the payment was for something illegal then he could not pay taxes on it and therefore the original crime of tax fraud does not exist’.
El Corte Inglés warns all its customers of a cyber-attack that could have stolen thousands of accounts says adslzone here.
It’s no secret that the military lean towards the right, politically speaking. Here at Público, we find an article about- ‘The latest challenge by the far right to la ley de memoria democrática – the democratic memory law – has the support of a large number of retired military personnel who until a few years ago wore uniforms and, in many cases, held high positions. Today, now retired, they do not hesitate to add their signatures to the manifesto launched in defence of the dictatorship.
The so-called Platform 2025, promoted by far-right militants to pay tribute to Franco on the 50th anniversary of his death and "counter-program" the acts in defence of democracy promoted by the Government, has received the support of at least 44 former members of the Armed Forces…’
Media:
A poll reveals what Spain really thinks about Donald Trump – and it’s pretty conclusive says The Olive Press here. ‘An opinion poll carried out by 40dB for El País revealed that 65.7% of those surveyed feel either worried or fearful about Trump being back at the White House’.
Ecology:
‘Europe wants hunters to stop poisoning the environment with 14,000 tons of lead a year. The European Commission's draft that includes this measure comes two years after the endorsement of experts and seeks to reduce, by at least 70%, the polluting heavy metal left in the EU’s ecosystems’. The story is at elDiario.es here.
Various:
‘Let’s not forget the migrant workers who end up being exploited in Spain’. The Guardian lays bare the reality of the thousands of people who make their way to the country only to find themselves homeless and jobless.
See Spain:
España Fascinante features the Castle of La Iruela (Jaén) with some photos.
Finally:
Rozalén with Luz de Luna on YouTube here.
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