Spanish Shilling

One of the most prominent memories in the Spanish scrapbook, along with the picture of the caudillo under the heading ¡Españoles, Franco ha Muerto! and another of the rebel Guardia Civil Antonio Tejero firing his revolver into the ceiling of Las Cortes, the Spanish Parliament, would be the smiling and unctuous photograph of José María Aznar along with Tony Blair and George W Bush at their meeting in the Azores on the eve of the (Second) American Gulf War and invasion of Iraq twenty three years ago this month.

Aznar paid dearly (as did Spain) for getting this country involved in a foreign adventure, especially so a year later on March 11 2004 when Arab terrorists planted some bombs in the local Madrid railway system, killing 193 people and wounding some 2,000 more.

Aznar compounded his error by blaming the wrong set of assassins, the Basque ETA group rather than Al Qaeda. This cost his party the general election just two days later, allowing the PSOE leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to become the new president of Spain.

One of his first acts was to reverse Spain’s participation in the war against Saddam.

The question of course now arises – what policy would an actual PP/Vox government have taken following the current Israeli/American attack against Iran?

As we don’t have such a leadership, let us look instead at Pedro Sánchez.

I like a quote of his: ‘Spain opposes this catastrophe. Because we understand that governments are there to improve people’s lives, to solve problems, not to worsen them. And it is unacceptable that leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this task use the smokescreen of war to mask their incompetence and line the pockets of a select few’.

Donald Trump answered this by saying something like – ‘who needs Spain anyway?’

That remains to be seen; as much of the European Union, after a certain hesitation, now appears to agree with Sánchez. Although, you see, there’s Feijóo ‘and his Mariachis’ who of course continue to see themselves as vassals of Trump. A plan which is not playing well with much of the Spanish electorate.

Why do the conservatives here (with their allies in the Media) always try and sink the Spanish ship of state?

68% of Spaniards, says El País, say they are against Trump and Netanyahu’s war, with 23% being in favour. Even El Mundo (a conservative newspaper) can’t do much better, with 62% against the war (although we are told in the same headline that those respondents prefer China to the USA).

We see that the right-wing’s patriotism, it seems, has exceptions. It works against immigration, against separatists, against the left, against anyone who doesn't subscribe to the right's short-sighted view of Spain. But it vanishes the moment a thug with an American flag arrives and orders everyone to stand at attention.

Sánchez says – before we all cry ¡No Pasarán! – ‘The people must be aware that what may happen to their wallets has nothing to do with the decisions of the Spanish Government, but with a war in Iran that is illegal and that will bring much suffering.”

We’ve already seen the rise in petrol prices and the next electric bill won’t be far behind.

The Guardian reckons that Pedro Sánchez is ‘one of the very few European leaders to openly and emphatically reject the demands of a US president whose trademark negotiating style is an erratic mix of bullying, humiliation and self-aggrandisement’.

The war (or invasion) has had some bad press, from torpedoing an apparently unarmed Iranian frigate in international waters, to callously bombing a girls’ school with at least 165 children dead. Then there was the obscene prayer-meeting in the Oval Office (our fundamentalists are better than their fundamentalists) as ‘non-commissioned officers were elsewhere being told that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”’. Not my Jesus, Buddy. 

Let’s give Sánchez the last word: ‘Es un orgullo ser español. Por defender lo que defendemos ante la barbarie y ante la guerra’. It is a source of pride to be Spanish. For defending what we defend in the face of barbarism and war.

No doubt I'll have to update this essay... (just sayin')

From the Spanish and international media...

The big news this week is the weekend Israeli and US attack on Iran (with the apparent support of France, Germany and the UK) and the consequences thereof. Spain has two US bases, Morón de la Frontera (Seville) and Rota (Cádiz). The Iranian ambassador to Spain said on Monday that his country considered any offensive base in Europe to be a legitimate target. The Spanish Government has insisted that it won’t participate in the adventure and warned the Americans not to involve the bases in any aggression. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez openly condemned the US and Israeli strikes on Saturday, warning that they could heighten regional tensions and “contribute to a more uncertain and hostile international order.” He later noted that "One can stand both against a hateful regime and an unjustified attack." El País in English says that the USAF has now moved its tanker planes elsewhere.

Around 30,000 Spaniards are currently in the Middle East. On Tuesday, ‘Minister Albares confirmed that "the evacuation operations" of Spaniards in the Middle East are already underway’. 

Infobae says that ‘Pedro Sánchez has once again emerged as the lone dissenting voice in the EU's Middle East crisis cabinet following the attack on Iran. The region is entering an escalation with "unpredictable" consequences. The Spanish leader has positioned himself as the critical voice in Europe in response to the attack by Washington and Tel Aviv’. EuroNews says on Monday that ‘Spain rejects Israel's accusation of “standing with Iran” and other tyrants’.

So, is Spain on ‘the right side of history’? The Israeli foreign minister for one thinks not.

From Business Insider here: 'The US president lashes out at the Spanish government for not allowing him to use the Rota and Morón military bases during the military operation against Iran. Donald Trump this (Tuesday) afternoon launched a scathing attack against Spain and the government of Pedro Sánchez, even ordering Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to initiate an "economic war" live on air. "We're going to cut all trade ties with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain," he told the press…’

Well then, it’s lucky that Spain is in the EU.

From RTVE here: ‘The Spanish government, responding to Trump's threat to cut off trade with Spain: "He will have to respect international law"’. The Lad Bible says: ‘Spain's PM fires back at Donald Trump over threat to 'cut all trade' for not helping US military. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has accused Donald Trump of instigating the breakdown of international law’.

Opinion from elDiario.es here: ‘Trump Returns the Spanish Flag to the Left. A leftist today can embrace a civic, pluralistic, democratic, respectful, empathetic patriotism committed to international law. This gift of the Spanish flag to the left would never have been possible without the invaluable collaboration of the PP and Vox, who have become satellites of the MAGA movement’.

The PP here and Vox here both say that Sánchez is on the side of the ayatollahs.

The Daily Telegraph ends a hostile editorial on Sánchez with ‘…For what it’s worth, my guess is that Trump has better things to do with his time than give Spain the kicking it fully deserves, and will simply content himself with publicly lambasting its useless leader’.

From 20Minutos here: ‘China defends Spain after Trump's threat: "Trade should not be used as a weapon"’ (with video).

It's early days, but this sneak attack by Trump and Netanyahu will likely not end well. 

*I look forward to comments on this one. 

Each Western power (at least, the ones in Europe) has a far-right political party which will fight tooth and nail, by fair means and foul, to gain ascendency in the national politics.

Here in Spain, it’s Vox (there are a few others, but currently of no interest). The party today has 33 deputies in the Spanish parliament making it the third largest group. These include their po-faced spokesperson Pepa Millán and the nephew of the disgraced conservative politician Rodrigo Rato, the oddly inept José María Figaredo (known as Frigodedo by his detractors).

Vox began in 2013, when its leader Santiago Abascal dropped his membership in the Partido Popular to start a fresh far-right party. Santi (as he is called by his supporters) is a handsome-looking fellow, and instead of sporting a wild hair-style, like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson or Geert Wilders, he is well-groomed, has a short beard, and – when the cameras are willing – he might jump on a horse in a manly sort of way. In short, he’s more of a Putin than a clown. 

All of the original founders of Vox have since squabbled with Abascal and have left politics – as Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, Macarena Olona, Rocio Monasterio, Víctor Sánchez del Real, Juan Luis Steegman… and now (hanging by his fingertips), Javier Ortega Smith – the Vox spokesperson in the Madrid City Hall, best remembered for swimming into Gibraltar in 2016 and raising – briefly – a Spanish flag on the rock there.

Ignacio Garriga is the party Secretary General, a highly religious man born in Catalonia with a Spanish/Belgian father and an Equatoguinean mother. For obvious reasons, he will have reached his zenith with his current position and is no threat to his boss.  

The party is present in the European Parliament – led by a man who came from the moribund Falange Española de las JONS and a lookalike for the baddie in the first Indiana Jones film called Jorge Buxadé. Vox is aligned with the Patriots for Europe (Fidesz, Rassemblement National, Vlaams Belang and others: parties in thrall to Donald Trump).

Vox is also found in most of the regional governments and many town halls – usually either in an uneasy alliance with the Partido Popular or sniffily standing aside. Says Abascal regarding any deal to be made post-elections in the two regions of Extremadura or Aragón: ‘The PP wants to treat us like savages’, he says. If they fail to come to an arrangement – and Vox increased its number of councillors in both elections – then the regions will need to call for fresh elections. The next regional ballot, with a similar PP/Vox forecast, is Castilla-León later this month.

The party program is simple enough: old school nationalism, tradition, Catholic, anti-immigrant, unimpressed by women’s issues and global warming, and in favour of lower taxes. The party does well with young men (who are apparently concerned that women have too many rights and protections). It’s also popular in the countryside, particularly in the provinces of Murcia, Almería and Cádiz (where there are lots of foreign immigrants working the fields: people – needless to say – who don’t have the Vote). Those underprivileged folk who back the ‘ultras’ are sometimes known as ‘los fachapobres’ – that’s to say, the poor fascists.

'Make España Great Again' could be its slogan, although Santi rarely wears a vulgar baseball-cap. 

Vox is in some ways merely an extension of the Partido Popular (which has recently been moving to the right in an attempt to claw back support), and notable extremists within the PP include Isabel Díaz Ayuso (president of the Madrid region) and the PP deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo.

There’s been another thorn in Abascal’s side down in Murcia, where José Ángel Antelo the alarmingly tall Vox leader there had fallen into disapproval with head office, and (like Ortega Smith above) wouldn’t leave his post. Earlier this week, the rest of the regional party councillors voted together for his summary ejection as leader and spokesperson.

As one headline says with satisfaction: ‘The far right is slowly devouring itself while selling order and discipline to its supporters’. Another is of more concern: ‘Centralized command and a personality cult: Abascal sidelines critics and completes his vision for the new Vox’.

Nevertheless, it doesn't look like this party will go the way of Ciudadanos or Podemos in the near future. 

Endesa (founded in 1944) was a public company which was sold off to the private sector beginning in 1998 and finally ending up under the control of the Italian (publically owned) Enel by 2009. 

...

Back in the summer of 2024, the electric company stopped sending me bills. Kind of them. I went to their local office several times, and also sent them a few emails, and was told on each occasion that the issue was 'una incidencia'.  

This continued until some fellow showed up, lost, to put in a new meter, sometime about November last year. By then, I had enjoyed sixteen months without a factura.

Since then, they've been coming in fast. Sometimes quite expensive ones as they adjust for the months consumed. Some of the facturas are for two months, others for one. I've been paying them as best I can. 

Yesterday, a Sunday (!), the company sent me nine emails. They were all different bills, some for dates I had already paid, some repeated and some new.

They added up to a lot of money.

I went to the local office and the lady there says that some of them were repeats indeed, but four of them were good... and besides, there were another two of them waiting for me in her computer. 

You can ask to pay them in parts she said helpfully...

I never got an apology or an acknowledgement - despite six visits so far to the regional office.  

I can see myself changing to another electric supplier in the days to come.