🇪🇸 This Week in Spain: Holiday Edition

Also a rapping queen, sky rockets in flight, and Mayor Danger.

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | October 12, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #32

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National Day of (Dis)Unity

Welcome to October 12, the National Day of Spain (Fiesta Nacional de España), not that you’d notice any national unity going on.

Begun as a way to celebrate Columbus’s arrival/“discovery” of the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492, it was called the Día de la Raza (little creepy), then Día de la Hispanidad before becoming Fiesta Nacional de España, thereby admitting that people in former Spanish colonies would just stick with their own monikers, which run from Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural in Argentina to Día de la Resistencia Indígena, Negra y Popular in Nicaragua.

But enough about history. Let’s get back to squabbling. Spain’s national day is a tough one for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the center-left PSOE socialists. For one thing, in Madrid it’s centered around a military parade (the air force practice for which makes the city sound like a war zone) and it takes place on and around the Paseo de la Castellana, bordering the pijo (posh) barrio of Salamanca. So?

Here’s a simple equation: Military + pijo = not PSOE voters. Add in Sánchez’s pardons of Catalan separatist leaders and last year you got lots of people in the crowd whistling and booing the PM (see video above) as he arrived after King Felipe VI et al to review the parade. Good times!

This year promises to be especially grumpy, though. The PSOE’s plan to win the seven votes of the Catalan separatist party Junts and return Sánchez to the PM’s office by offering amnesty to those with roles in the illegal/unconstitutional 2017 separatist referendum is especially unpopular with the right-of-center crowd (and some on the center-left too).

The review stand for the royals and the Sánchez government will be installed near Plaza Neptuno, where it will be far from the crowd, not in its usual place near the Bernabéu Stadium of Real Madrid. Ostensibly this is because the Bernabéu is under construction (which it is) but there’s been a lot of speculation on the right that the Sánchez government moved the stand to avoid having to face…unpleasantness.

Spain’s right-leaning parties haven’t been trying to make it more comfortable for the PSOE and Sánchez. Oh, not at all! They say they’re against the whistling at Sánchez, but add that it happens because Sánchez has been “lying to the Spanish people for five years.”

So let’s chat about pre-investiture ill-temperedness, and how Spain’s politicians are griping and sniping as their stake out territory before November’s nail biting vote on Perro Sanxe 2.

50 minutes of your life you’ll never get back

Sánchez met with the boss of the center-right PP Alberto Núñez Feijóo in the run-up to the Oct. 12 festivities, in the context of the upcoming (but as yet unscheduled) vote on Sánchez’s re-investiture as prime minister. And—surprise!—it did not go well.

The 50-minute meeting was tense. How tense?
Feijóo has urged the PSOE leader to call new elections to “consult the Spaniards” about offering amnesty to the separatists because he hadn’t exactly been selling amnesty in his 23J campaign platform (and has in fact rejected it multiple times). Feijóo also referred to the pardon measure as a “democratic involution” and said would appeal to the Constitutional Court. Nice start at friendship!
Sánchez for his part asked Feijóo for “restraint in his desperate attempt to agitate the street” — because the PP had participated in two protests against amnesty, first at the orthography-challenged march in Madrid and then (below) in Barcelona — and accused Feijóo of attempting “a partisan instrumentalization of the National Holiday of October 12.”
Basically, Sánchez accused Feijóo of planning the booing that greeted him on Oct. 12. Which went over poorly with Feijóo, who said (according to PP sources who spoke to El País), “Are you seriously telling me that we are instigating the whistles on October 12? Really?" and noted, with some irony, that Sánchez had been whistled in previous years when Feijóo wasn’t even president of the PP.

Really building up that friendship, folks. Don’t you feel a coalition government between these two coming on?

Marchy, Marchy, Marchy

And about that march in Barcelona on Sunday, which Feijóo attended the day before he met with Sánchez. The organizers—the Sociedad Civil Catalana (SSC), a “Constitutionalist” (read: anti-separatist) group in Catalonia—claim that 300,000 attended the rally against amnesty, which Barcelona’s Guardia Urbana said 50,000.

Though big, that’s a pretty typical difference in estimates—in the latest Sept. 11 Catalan Diada, big with pro-independence Catalans, the numbers were 800,000 and 115,000.
The Sánchez government was apparently annoyed by how large it was, and also no doubt was irritated by things Feijóo said at it, such as accusing the PSOE of skipping it (the socialist leadership had attended a similar SSC anti-secession march on Oct. 6, 2017, just after the referendum on independence) because it was “conducting business”, that is of trading the presidency of Spain’s government for the seven votes of pro-separatist Junts it needs to re-up Sánchez as PM.

If this is how well the PSOE and the PP get along weeks before the investiture vote, we can’t imagine how buddy-buddy it will get soon!

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1.👸🏻 Queen Letizia raps! (No, really, she kind of rapped)

Just when we thought we had seen it all, here comes Queen Letizia bringing royalty to the 21st century.

If there’s one thing we know she does well is handle the media (she’s a former journalist, after all). While presiding over an official event for World Mental Health Day in Madrid this Tuesday, the Queen decided to recite the lyrics of a song by local rapper El Chojín during her opening speech: "I do what I can, I reach where I reach, and it's not healthy to demand so much of me."

After doing a (all things considered) pretty good job at it, she explained that she “wouldn't attempt to rap, out of respect…for the artists of this genre. But if any media outlet titles ‘the Queen raps to raise mental health awareness,’ it will be good to once again try to bring attention to something so important."
The Queen also mentioned the need for institutions and society “to listen to those suffering from mental health problems so they know what kind of actions to take so that the rights of people with mental illnesses are not further violated”.
"Investment in mental health is the guarantee of a more prosperous, just, and equitable future for all people, as we all have limitations, doubts, and insecurities. We all need tools to face life," she explained.

The Queen’s words probably resonated positively in a country that doesn’t have enough psychiatrists and has an eerily high number of young people taking some sort of prescribed drug due to mental health issues. She was joined by caretaker Minister of Health José Miñones and the president of the Mental Health Confederation, Nel González Zapico.

Oh, and if you are wondering about El Chojín’s actual work, here’s one of his videos. Enjoy.

2. 🏀 Oops!...Almeida did it again

Click here for original tweet with video

Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida seems like a nice enough guy—but he’s got some issues. Like, he’s been epically unlucky in love (though that seems to have turned around!). Also, the Pope made fun of him. And then there’s sports. You don’t want to be around him when he’s got a ball. Seriously—it’s dangerous.

Almeida whacked a kid with a penalty shot at the inauguration of a football pitch in the Sanchinarro neighborhood in 2020.
The mayor walloped a photographer the next year with a kicked soccer ball at Atlético de Madrid’s stadium.
Then, to mix things up, he whacked another photojournalist with a kicked rugby ball in 2022.

For his 2023 violence, he’s chosen a new location and a new weapon—he used a basketball at the inauguration of two basketball courts that had been rehabbed in the barrio of Tetuán by the NBA’s Dallas Maverick’s (who were in town to play—and lose to—Real Madrid).

Almeida picked up a basketball and made pass fakes to people in the crowd (sending many a knee trembling). Luckily that was as dangerous as it got for onlookers. Then, he made a shot from the foul line—and hit it (!), earning him the nickname of “The Fresh Prince of Madrid.” (Check out above.)
But then tragedy struck, as it does when Almeida touches sports equipment. A quick pickup game ended when the mayor tried to get around a member of the press guarding him, banged his face into the guy’s arm—and broke his glasses.

3. 🚀 Spain’s very own Elon Musk (well, a little more chill)

Third times a charm! After two scrubbed attempts, Spanish company PLD Space finally launched its first rocket from the El Arenosillo Experimentation Centre facilities in Mazagón, near Huelva (Andalucía).

The suborbital flight of the Miura 1 was lower than expected—it reached a peak altitude of 46 km instead of the 80 km planned—lasted only five minutes instead of the 12 hoped, and the company was unable to recover the reusable rocket, but it was nonetheless a huge deal for Spain’s—the Europe’s—space industry.

Miura 1’s flight may be the launch of the first private European rocket, for one thing. Ars Tecnica notes that technically, this is not true, because Scotland’s Skyrora and the Dutch firm T-Minus Engineering also launched rockets last year, but they barely made it off the ground or were very small, respectively.

PLD Space intends to use what it learned from the Miura 1 launch to help build following generations, culminating in the Miura 5, a fully orbital craft that it wants to blast off as soon as 2025 from the European spaceport in French Guiana—and put into commercial service a year later.
The name Miura is inspired by a famous cattle farm in Sevilla known for its fighting bulls that are “indómito, huesudo, de patas altas, fino de piel y lavado de cara” (“untamable, strong-boned, long-legged, fine-skinned and clean-faced”). Also, this being space travel and all, hopefully very precise and not prone to explosions.

Europe is playing massive catch up with the U.S. in the space race. Billionaires Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) have pretty much sucked all the oxygen out of the room, and it’s fallen to companies like PLD Space to develop a reusable commercial European rocket that can compete. Because it’s great that we have better ham and tortilla, but spacecraft would be a real bonus.

“This launch culminates over 12 years of relentless effort, yet it marks just the start of our journey,” said Raúl Torres, PLD Space’s launch director..

Here’s Ezequiel Sánchez CEO of PLD, giving PM Pedro Sánchez a little model of the Miura in celebration. Photo: Pool Moncloa/Diego del Monte

4.🛫 AirEuropa’s Massive Cyber Attack

“YOUR DATA IN DANGER”

That’s how state-owned news network TVE decided to headline a story that freaked millions of people out this week. Spanish airline AirEuropa (Iberia’s younger, prettier sister) suffered a massive cyber attack on Tuesday and apparently hackers managed to access the credit card information of thousands of registered customers.

Naturally, the story provoked mass hysteria as many people (us included) have been lucky enough to fly the airline.

On Tuesday morning, many clients of AirEuropa received an email from the airline notifying them that the cyber attack had resulted in the theft of their banking information. A great way to start your day.
Specifically, the stolen data included an undetermined number of card numbers, their expiration dates—and the CVV (card verification value) number. You know, pretty much everything a hacker needs to make an electronic purchase using your card information. And just in time for Amazon Prime day!
The email explained to these clients that the best option was to immediately cancel any credit cards they may have used in the past to buy a ticket. The airline officially confirmed the hacking, which occurred due to a security breach in its payment systems.

While AirEuropa didn’t say how many customers were affected, it is believed that there are some 100,000 users in the registered database.

However, the company has stated that the systems' breach was controlled a few hours after it occurred, and they were not aware of any of their customers falling victim to fraud through the unauthorized use of their credit cards. They still had to cancel the cards though, just in case.

And… ruh-roh. After the hack, experts pointed out to a “very serious security flaw” because the company had allegedly violated a very strict regulation for companies that process online payments, which prohibits storing CVV security codes.

Bottom line: If you didn’t get a message from AirEuropa saying you should cancel your credit cards, you’re (probably) fine. Have you checked your spam inbox? If not, don’t forget to do so.

5. 🌞 Hot enough for you? (Yeah, that old chestnut again)

We’re all about balmy beach resorts, but this has gone too far. Now, in mid-October, the Canary Islands government has canceled classes at non-university levels Wednesday and Friday (Thursday’s a holiday, remember?) because, to put it simply, it’s too damn hot.

Did we mention it’s mid-October? Well, it’s mid-October.

The situation in the Canary Island classrooms was "unsustainable," according to the Minister of Education, Vocational Training, Physical Activity and Sports, Poli Suárez. In several centers, fainting and episodes of heat stroke had already been reported.

Temperatures in the islands are expected to hit 34°C (if not more). Let’s put that in Fahrenheit because it’s just a bigger number. Over 93°F. HOT!
And it had been even worse! The heat wave has been hanging out in the islands for 12 days, with temperatures up to (gulp!) 39°C. Did we mention it’s October? Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET), Spain’s weather center, says it hasn’t seen a late heat wave like this in over 50 years.
And it gets even worser than that! The islands are experiencing calima at the same time—you know that red dust from Africa that covers everything, turns the sky orange, and clogs your mouth and eyes? Yeah, that stuff.

Guess what? The cancellation plan hasn’t made really anyone happy. Parents of school kids are miffed because they don’t get the days off, while Canary Islands university students are protesting the fact that the universities aren’t closing, considering that the uni buildings seem to not have cold water and have many windows that won’t open. Which would be nice in a heatwave, right?

The upside? Meteorologists are predicting storms next week.

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We’ll be back next week with more.