Rock OK
Spain has withdrawn its demand for the
return of Gibraltar as a condition of Brexit.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said last
month that Madrid and London had
agreed a protocol. In March 2017, the
negotiating guidelines of the European
Council expressed the need for a bilateral
agreement between the two for the 27 to
approve and move forward with the UK’s
exit from the Union.
Capital airport
Madrid is to have another airport. Investors
have pledged an initial €148 million to
develop an airfield 35 kilometres south-
west of the capital with the intention of
attracting low-cost carriers. They say it will
open in 2023 and, within a decade, is
expected to carry seven million passengers
on 55,000 flights annually.
Tragic accident
A 16-month-old baby has died in Madrid
after becoming entangled in the cord of a
curtain. The child is believed to have got
out of her crib before being asphyxiated.
Her parents, both of whom are doctors,
applied reanimation techniques for half an
hour before the emergency services
confirmed the death.
Hepatitis outbreak
A dozen people have been confirmed as
having contracted Hepatitis A after eating
at an Italian restaurant in Finestrat.
Valencia’s health authority ordered La
Tagliatella, part of a chain operated by
AmRest, closed to the public on October 8
for the removal of stored food and the
disinfection of the premises. Eleven of
those affected, including staff members,
required admission to hospital.
Cuba visit
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has
accepted an invitation to visit Cuba. It
came from Cuban president Miguel Díaz
Canel during last month’s United Nations
meeting in New York and will be the first
visit of a Spanish political leader to the
island in 32 years. Sánchez will spend
November 22 and 23 there as part of his
administration’s re-launched policy
towards Latin America.
2019 budget promises
Details of next year’s State budget have
finally been agreed after weeks of
negotiations between prime minister
Pedro Sánchez and the leader of left-
wing Podemos, Pablo Iglesias. The
approval of Podemos is essential to
Sánchez whose minority government
has just 84 seats in the 351-seat
parliament. Assuming the budget is
approved when debated by Deputies,
these are amongst the changes which
will apply from January 1, 2019.
The minimum wage will rise to €900 a
month for a full-time employee
working 40 hours a week, with plans
for €1,000 a month by 2020. This
applies to those who work on a 14-
month basis (with double pay in August
and at Christmas) while for those
working on a 12-month basis, the
minimum will rise to €1,050, or a pro-
rata amount for part-time employees.
have no budget surplus will be able to
apply for grants to open free nurseries.
Income tax rates will increase for the
higher paid and, although exact figures
are yet to be announced, those earning
more than €130,000 are likely be taxed
two per cent more, rising to an extra
four per cent for those on over
€300,000.
The maximum level for cash
transactions between businesses will be
reduced from €2,500 to €1,000, but in
the continuing struggle against money
laundering, the €2,500 cap will be
retained for private cash transactions,
such as gifts from parents to children
or the private sales of goods.
Those renting their homes will be better
protected from next year with landlords
able to demand only two months’ rent
up-front as a deposit, and the minimum
let to rise from three to five years. Town
halls will be able to order landlords to
reduce rents if they are considered to be
“unreasonably high.” Diesel prices will come into line with
petrol, and a 20 per cent grant will be
available for domestic renovations
which save energy. Paternity leave will
double to eight weeks, and by 2021 will
have reached parity with maternity
leave at 16 weeks. Social security
payments may be linked to actual
income for the self-employed, while
child benefit will rise from €291 a year
to €473 in an effort to end reduce
poverty.
The government will allow town halls
to invest their budget surpluses in
providing free nursery places for
children up to two years old. With
early education reported to improve
academic performance, the
government hopes this will work
towards reducing Spain’s secondary
school drop-out rate. Councils which Finally, a number of improvements for
pensioners are planned “over time”
which will see state pensions rise to at
least 60 per cent of the national
average salary. Non-contributory and
minimum pensions will rise by three
per cent per year, and all others will go
up by the rate of inflation, which is
presently around 1.6 per cent.
Andalucíans furious over slur
“It is said that a child of ten in
Andalucía has the knowledge of a child
of eight or nine in Castille y León.”
The statement was made by an
opposition Partido Popular speaker
complaining about the “deterioration
of education” in Spain. Unsurprisingly, Tejerina’s comments
raised hackles in the Andalucían
education sector. She later clarified that
her criticism referred to the “bad
management” of the socialist PSOE
party which has controlled Andalucía
for four decades.
The words came from Isabel García
Tejerina during a TV interview the day
after the Education Committee in
Congress agreed that the syllabus for
older pupils should include Philosophy
and the History of Philosophy. It also
said that the subject of Ethics should
become compulsory. Regional president Susan Diáz
responded to the criticism by claiming
that Tejerina was “insulting” the region
with a “supremacist disdain” and “total
ignorance of this land.” Pointedly, Diáz
also asked the Partido Popular if it
would ever, “grow tired of insulting
Andalucíans.”
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