government

In Spain, Spanish Politics 22nd March 2023

No-confidence motion against Sánchez: How good my government is, how incompetent the opposition is

Fernando González Urbaneja ! The no-confidence motion against the government led by Ramón Tamames and promoted by the parliamentary group VOX will conclude this Wednesday with an unfavourable vote for the promoters and without major consequences, beyond two parliamentary sessions in which Sánchez has deployed the familiar arguments about the achievements of the government and the incompetence of the opposition, especially the one who was absent, namely Nuñez Feijóo. The…

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 21st February 2023

Renfe president and ADIF former president leave posts over scandal of trains too big for tunnels

The president of Renfe, Isaías Táboas, and the Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera (former president of ADIF, the company that owns the railway network) have left their posts yesterday, after the major scandal that Renfe, to cover the service of the Spanish north coast, had ordered 31 trains with such dimensions that they did not fit through the tunnels of the route: https://bit.ly/3YSJvIj The fact was…

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 16th February 2023

Pointless interventionism

J.P. Marín-Arrese | It is not surprising that on the eve of elections, government coalitions should be breaking up, with each partner distancing itself from its former allies in an attempt to improve its election results. What is surprising in our country is the deliberate intention of publicly banging each other’s heads together while at the same time pretending not to get out of the official car. It is understandable…

In Spain, Spanish Politics 13th February 2023

Spain loses its bearings: up to 18 months in jail for killing a rat

The Animal Welfare Law promoted by Minister Ione Belarra and approved in Congress with the votes of PSOE, Podemos, ERC and Bildu has introduced an important change in the Spanish Penal Code by changing the term ‘domestic animal’ to ‘vertebrate animal’. A vertebrate animal is any animal that has bones and an articulated skeleton or backbone. Now, under the new law, striking, injuring or killing a vertebrate animal will be…

Spanish economy 3rd February 2023

€146 million: Sánchez doubles propaganda spending of last PP government

The year 2023 is marked by the regional and municipal elections in May and the general elections in December. This fact is noticeable in the budgets dedicated by the Government to institutional advertising. The plan approved in the last Council of Ministers foresees an expenditure of €145.98 million in campaigns of all kinds. Since Sánchez arrived at the Moncloa, the number of institutional campaigns has not stopped growing. From the…

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 2nd February 2023

Sánchez goes to Rabat, Mohamed VI calls him from Gabon

Mohamed VI’s approach to Pedro Sánchez tarnishes the High Level Meeting (HLM) between Morocco and Spain, which La Moncloa expected to be “historic”. The Alaouite monarch did not receive the President of the Government yesterday on his arrival in Rabat for a bilateral summit that had not been held in this way for eight years, and limited himself to dealing with diplomatic formalities via a phone call from Gabon. Over…

Spanish economy, Spanish Politics 1st February 2023

Populist Sánchez announces new increase in minimum wage (€1,080), blames employers for Spaniards’ loss of purchasing power

“Let’s talk in depth about what the two processes are that have led to the loss of purchasing power by the middle and working class in our country. The first process is that real wages have been falling for more than a decade”, the president explained yesterday in his debate with Nuñez Feijóo, leader of the opposition, adding that “big companies do not raise their employees’ wages by a single…

Spanish Politics 23rd January 2023

Drifting from ‘No is No’ to ‘Yes is Yes’

J.P. Marín-Arrese | When the Spanish elections in 2016 delivered a hung Parliament, Pedro Sánchez stubbornly challenged the only potential right-wing candidacy able to set up a minority Government. His resistance led to a protracted stalemate, leaving another fresh poll as the only way out. Fearing a crushing defeat in that bid, the Socialist party ousted Sánchez and allowed Mariano Rajoy to snatch the Premiership. Only a handful of loyal…

Spanish Politics 19th January 2023

Former PSOE ministers “alarmed” at Sánchez government’s “desertion of constitutional commitments”

A total of 255 personalities have signed a manifesto against the government in which they criticise the recent reforms it has carried out to the Penal Code and the attempt to modify the system of election of the Constitutional Court, warning that the regime of freedoms could fail if this governmental and legislative dynamic continues. The manifesto calls on the PSOE to recover its historic project, which led it to…

Spanish Politics 2nd January 2023

Council of State report warns of government’s legislative bungling

The Council of State has had enough of Pedro Sánchez’s Government’s way of legislating and has issued a harsh judgement in which it warns of “unjustified urgencies” that affect the quality of laws and the “control of legality and constitutionality” and warns of “guarantees” that “suffer”. The highest advisory body demands “respect” for its function and the legal framework, in the face of an “absurdity” that comes close to being…

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