News
Scooters banned
Electric scooters are to be banned from
both travelling and parking on pavements
throughout Spain, under new regulations
planned by Trafíco. The authority’s chief
Pere Navarro said, “Pavements are for
pedestrians, wheelchair users and for
people pushing prams and pushchairs,”
he adding, “Our intention is that vehicles
such as scooters will not use them in any
capacity.”
Obsolete obsolescence
New rules are to be introduced to tackle
the problem of planned obsolescence.
Legislation planned for introduction in
Spain during April 2021 should avoid the
infuriating experience of owning a
household appliance which breaks down
shortly after its warranty expires. Under
the new EU law, spare parts will have to
be available to independent professionals
for up to ten years to ensure longer
working lives and greater operating
efficiencies.
Cam capture
A couple caught having sex in their car as
they travelled along the AP-6 motorway
in Segovia have been given six-month
suspended prison sentences and banned
from driving for two years. They were
reported in September after other drivers
captured images of their vehicle on dash
cams. The court ruling states their vehicle
hogged the middle land or zig-zagged
putting other road users at risk.
New job
Spain’s caretaker foreign affairs minister
Josep Borrell has been appointed Head of
Diplomacy for the European Union. He
was expected to start work on November
1. Sr Borrell says he wants to “restore
relations” between the EU and the USA at
a time of tensions over trade, adding that
action on climate change and a new
political strategy with Asia are also
amongst his priorities.
General Election on
November 10
A general election will be held in Spain
on November 10. Since the last election
in April, acting PM Pedro Sánchez of
the socialist PSOE party has been
unable to form a coalition to give him
a working majority in Spain’s lower
house of parliament.
Sr Sánchez says he wants this month’s
vote to, “break the deadlock and allow
Spain to move forward” with a
government which does not depend on
“pro-independence” forces, in
reference to activists in Cataluña and
the Basque Country. The Catalan
independence drive, along with Brexit
and the economic slowdown are the
biggest challenges facing Spain, he
added.
However, analysts say that the outcome
of the November vote could result in
another complex political mix.
Opinion polls during October were
showing a slight drop in support for
the PSOE, but a rebound for the
Partido Popular leaving the two main
parties seven points apart. Ciudadanos,
once expected to form a collation with
the PSOE, has dropped around five
points and the centre-right party is
now well below the Partido Popular.
Nonetheless, having spurned offers
from both sides of the political divide
in recent weeks, Sr Sánchez is
gambling that he will win more than
the 123 seats in the 350-seat parliament
which he achieved in April. Experts
add that a No-Deal Brexit could be bad
news for the Spanish economy given
the country’s close links with Britain,
ranging from important major
investment projects to the UK’s
dominance in bringing most foreign
tourists to Spain.
Gruesome discovery in
murder investigation
A court in a northern seaside town
spent much of October considering a
mystery death surrounded by money
and jealousy. A 61-year-old woman was
taken into custody after the gruesome
discovery of a man’s head in a
cardboard box.
British abuser The story came to light on September
28 when a woman in Castro Urdiales,
70 kilometres east of Santander,
noticed a bad smell coming from a box
she had been asked to look after by an
acquaintance. She had been told the
box contained sex toys which the
owner did not wish to be found in an
anticipated police search of her home.
A British school teacher who was cleared
of sex offences in the UK has been jailed
in Spain for the “continued sexual abuse”
of a 16-year-old girl in his class at a
British school in Roquetas de Mar. Last
month, an Almería court sentenced
Carlo Troiano to eleven and a half years
behind bars and imposed a fine of
€50,000. The ruling added that his
former employer must pay this if he
fails to because senior school staff had
taken no action until the girl’s mother
reported him. However, when the box was opened
and the head was found, a full scale
police investigation got underway to
identify him, with first thoughts
turning to the missing partner of the
box’s owner, Carmen Merino Gómez.
She married 67-year-old Jesús María
when she moved to Castro Urdiales
seven years ago, but in February she
reported that he had left on holiday
taking €12,000 from his bank account
with him.
10
While reporting restrictions on the case
remain in place, police are believed to
be working on the theory that Carmen
Merino used the cash to pay a hit man
to murder Jesús María. It adds that his
body may have been dismembered
and deposited in rubbish bins,
prompting a difficult search of the
local rubbish dump.
According to on-line newspaper El
Español, the couple’s relationship had
deteriorated over the years with both
reported to have had affairs. On
Valentine’s Day, Jesús María finally
asked her to leave his house, which she
repeatedly refused to do. He
disappeared days later.
Manilva fire
The AP-7 motorway was closed near
Manilva for a time and 40 people were
evacuated from their homes after a
countryside fire broke out in the Pinar
del Tábano area last month. The alarm
was raised in the early hours and was
fanned by strong winds. No-one was
reported injured and an enquiry into
the origin of the outbreak was
launched.