To get fresh news like this delivered by email to your inbox every day, go to http://www.valencialife.net/ and subscribe.
After yesterday’s announcement in Catalunia that the most voted party in the recent elections – CiU – would not have any post at all in the new government thanks to a pact envisaged by Josep Lluis Carod Rovira, and the radical ERC party, the Catalan Socialists of Jose Montilla (who lost five seats) and the Communist Coalition EU. CiU is apparently amazed at what has happened, particularly as the Socialists are way off obtaining their electoral promise of 56 seats. However, the party stated that the political panorama in Catalunia may well alter after the municipal elections next May, and have therefore decided to adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude. In a later statement, Mr. Mas revealed that the ‘big loser’ after the new agreement ‘would be Catalunia’.
---
The latest figures from Transparency International have revealed that Spain has slipped in its ranking due in no small part to corruption due to urbanizing projects and building generally. The latest report covers investigations by the organization that took place in 163 countries, and found that whilst Spain previously had a 7 rating or higher in combating corruption, this year that rating has slipped to 6.8, below Australia (8.7) Finland (9.6), the UK (8.6) or France (7.4) but below Italy (4,6), Portugal (6.6), Greece (4.4) or Poland (3.7). Jesus Lizcano, the President of Transparency International in Spain stated that the country is in a ‘central’ position, as whole corruption is not ‘alarming’ amongst the government and institutions, what appears to have dragged the country down is the ‘peculiar’ way that local town halls deal with urbanizing projects. He also added that his organization would soon make public an enquiry of its own into towns of more than 50,000 inhabitants.
---
The first queues started appearing last night after petrol stations in Spain went on strike. The queues were mainly in the big cities, but under the law 20% of all service stations in Spain must remain open. The strike appears to be nationwide with the exception of the Provinces of Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa, where service stations have their own agreements and the Valencian Community where many stations have not signed on to a national agreement. The strike is about better pay and working conditions after their associations reported that their members were losing about 50% of their income following the ban on the sales of alcohol and tobacco in petrol stations.
In his monthly press conference yesterday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked about the death penalty imposed on former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his reply was that ‘Britain is against the death penalty, whether it’s against Saddam or anyone else’. However, he added that the trial gave people a chance to see what the past was like in Iraq ‘the brutality, the tyranny, the thousands of people killed’.
Meanwhile, international observers have stated that even if Saddam loses his appeal and dies on the gallows, this will in fact have little overall effect on the future of Iraq. Apparently this is due to the fact that the Sunni insurgency is so firmly in place that the country seems set to continue its seeming never-ending spiral of violence. However, if the death sentence is ratified on Saddam, it is believed that he could go to the gallows before next spring,. And this leaves another problem: where to bury the former dictator in order that his grave not become a place of reverence.
---
It now seems highly probable that ousted former Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega appears set to become the next President after he polled 38.59% as his nearest rival Eduardo Montealegre only managed 30.94 %. Nicaraguan legislation states that the winning candidate must obtain at least 40%, and therefore a runoff vote between the two candidates is still possible.
© 2006 Valencia Life SL. All rights reserved.
This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.
