News
Movie Money
Franco saga finally
ends
The final resting place of the late
dictator Francisco Franco continued to
make headlines in Spain throughout
October. In the last days of September,
the Supreme Court rejected an appeal
by Franco’s family to leave his remains
in the huge basilica at the Valley of the
Fallen near Madrid.
Fake bank notes used as film props in
Spain have made their way into
circulation in this country and
elsewhere. Although the €5, €10, €20
and €50 movie money is clearly marked
in English, “This is not legal tender. It is
used for motion props only,” a number
of businesses have accepted the notes in
payment. National Police say that
anyone receiving one of the rogue props
should pass it to them because using the
fakes is an offence.
Powerful women
The boss of Banco Santander has been
named one of the three most powerful
woman in the world. Fortune magazine
says Ana Botín has reinforced the
bank’s capital and increased customer
loyalty with on-line clients now
totalling over 32 million. She shares the
honour with the GlaxoSmithKline CEO
and the chair of Gree Electric
Appliances.
Women only
Spain’s first women-only hotel has
opened on Mallorca. Guests booking a
stay at the Som Dona Hotel in Porto
Cristo must be women aged 14 and over,
with a “no men allowed” policy
operating. Some staff are men, in line
with Spanish gender discrimination laws,
but the hotel says it hires female staff
whenever possible.
Security line
The National Cyber Safety Institute has
introduced a new phone number to
contact them for help and advice on
on-line security. Anyone can now call
017 to report bullying, threats, frauds,
hacks or suspicious websites, or to get
advice on security for any internet-
based device. Calls do not show up on
itemised bills, and the line is open
9.00am to 9.00pm every day of the
year.
The socialist government of acting
prime minister Pedro Sánchez has
made moving the remains to a more
discrete location a priority, arguing the
country could not “continue to glorify”
the dictator who died in 1975. Plans to
move them to a family tomb in June
were suspended by the Supreme Court
after receiving an appeal from his
family.
The Court ruled that the work planned
by the government is constitutional,
and does not infringe planning laws or
local legislation. The exhumation could
therefore proceed, it concluded, with
Franco’s remains to be reinterred
alongside those of his wife in the
family tomb at Mingorrubio El Pardo,
a state cemetery which lies 20
kilometres north of Madrid. Franco’s
family said they planned to challenge
the Supreme Court ruling, first in
Spain's Constitutional Court and then
in the European Court of Human
Rights.
In early October, the prior of the
mausoleum had warned that he
would prevent the remains from
being exhumed, even though the
courts and the Church have approved
the project. Santiago Cantera, a
candidate for the fascist Phalange
party during Spain’s 1993 general
election, invoked in his letter “moral
and religious principles” and the
“inviolability of places of worship.”
However, he later relented and
agreed to hold a special mass.
The presence of Franco’s remains at
the Valley of the Fallen has been an
uncomfortable reality for many
Spaniards over many years because the
basilica was built to honour those who
died in Spain’s Civil War. However,
there are also those who believe that he
should remain buried there.
Finally, the mausoleum in the Valley of
the Fallen closed to the public on
October 11 to allow the exhumation to
proceed a few days later. It was
anticipated the remains would be
reinterred, under conditions of extreme
secrecy, before the end of the month.
Gibraltar’s Spanish
workers protest
Last month, as the British parliament
sat on a Saturday for the first time
since 1981 to debate the UK’s exit from
the EU, residents of La Linea de la
Concépcion, close to the border with
Gibraltar, were on the streets
demanding a second Brexit
referendum. An estimated 2,000
people voiced their anger about the
effects Britain’s withdrawal from
Europe was likely to have on southern
Spain. warned that cross-border workers
were likely to be stuck in six hour
queues because of the already random
attitude of customs officials in
searching vehicles.
Around 9,000 Spanish residents cross
the border to work in Gibraltar every
day, but choose to live in Spain
because the cost of living is lower. The
protest was organised by the
Sociocultural Association of Spanish
Workers in Gibraltar which has Spain, meanwhile, is expected to
maintain its veto over Gibraltar under
arrangements secured with the UK last
year. Any future agreements on the
relationship between the UK and the
EU will only apply to Gibraltar if both
London and Madrid agree to them.
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The march was attended by the mayors
of La Linea, San Roque and Los
Barrios. It followed the re-election in
Gibraltar a couple of days earlier of
Fabian Picardo as Gibraltar’s Chief
Minister, his third term of office.