Tag: Spain

ROME, Italy (AFP) — Spain offered Monday to take in a ship stranded in the Mediterranean with 629 migrants aboard after Italy and Malta refused to let the vessel dock in their ports. The migrants, including pregnant women and scores of children, were saved by the French charity SOS Mediterranee on Saturday. “The prime minister has given instructions for Spain to honor international commitments on humanitarian crises and announced that the country will receive the ship Aquarius,” his office said in a statement. “The priority of both the Italian and Maltese authorities should be ensuring these people receive the care they need,” European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters, calling for a “swift resolution.” Italy’s refusal to take in the migrants is the first sign of the new government’s hardened stance on immigration. Its far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini showed no sign of backing down on Monday. “Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not. Italy is done bending over backwards and obeying, this time THERE IS SOMEONE WHO SAYS NO,” he wrote on Twitter followed by the hashtag #closethedoors. ‘Vulnerable patients at risk’ “We haven’t moved since last night, people are starting to wonder why we’ve stopped,” journalist Anelise Borges, who is aboard the Aquarius, said in a tweet. We need to have an idea of what port to go to, something that up to now we haven’t had,” Aquarius crew member Alessandro Porro told news channel Sky TG24 on Sunday. The French organization said those brought on board included 123 unaccompanied minors, 11 small children and the seven pregnant women.

MADRID: Spain's Mariano Rajoy, who is to stand down as head of the conservative Popular Party after being ousted as prime minister last week, said Wednesday (Jun 6) he plans to quit politics altogether. "My intention is to definitely abandon politics, there are other things to do in life than dedicate oneself to politics," he said during an interview with radio Cadena Cope. Advertisement "I had an enormously intense political life and I think it makes no sense to stay longer here," the 63-year-old said, adding he would not attend an emergency party congress in July to elect his successor. Rajoy, one of Europe's longest-serving prime ministers, was ousted on Friday after he lost a no-confidence motion in parliament filed by the Socialists over a graft case that tainted his Popular Party (PP). He was replaced by Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez. Since taking office in 2011, Rajoy has survived a bailout for Spain's banking sector, an election that left him with a minority government and a separatist push in the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia. On Tuesday, he announced he was quitting as head of the PP. Advertisement Among those tipped to replace Rajoy as party chief is former defence minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal, currently the PP's deputy head. Others include former deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria and the president of the northwestern region of Galicia, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, who is close to the ousted prime minister.

In a historic day, the seemingly immovable survivor of the Spanish political right was ousted on Friday from office by the Socialist Party’s (PSOE) no-confidence motion, the first successful one in 40 years of democracy. Coming on the back of last week’s judgment in the Gürtel case – which saw the Partido Popular (PP) and one of its former treasurers sentenced in Spain’s largest ever probe into political corruption – the prospects of success for Pedro Sánchez’s tabled motion looked unlikely up until only two days ago. Now the reinvented Sánchez – despite not being an MP and with only 84 seats behind him – heads an interim government for a possible two years. This at once presents a potential car crash scenario, as well as an immense opportunity for the left. It may be tempting, after similarly catastrophic throws of the centre-left dice, to argue that Sánchez offers more of the same – a slick, centrist career politician making a final lunge at power while presiding over a moribund 20th-century social-democratic party. For a start, it overlooks the past year in Spanish politics. Although Sánchez has had an afflicted relationship with the more radical new left Podemos party, the question of whether they could ever work together in national institutions in some way is now being put to the test. Much of the week’s political focus in Europe has been centred on Italy, which itself saw a new coalition government finally sworn in on Friday. Sánchez is also coming in at a time of exhaustion and political apathy – altogether different from the political moment in 2015-16, when a left coalition government last appeared on the cards. But it is undoubtedly an opening of some kind.

HE LED his country from near-bankruptcy to economic recovery, and faced down the Catalan separatists. What doomed Mr Rajoy, who has led a minority government since 2016, was the verdict a week earlier in a long-running court case against a former treasurer of the PP and other party officials. The court found that the party had benefited from kickbacks, and cast doubt on the credibility of the prime minister’s evidence given to it, as a witness, last summer. Get our daily newsletter Mr Sánchez’s no-confidence motion was an act of “democratic hygiene” he said. But with his party becalmed at around just 20% in the polls, Mr Sánchez wants his Socialists, with just 84 of the 350 seats in parliament, to govern alone for an unspecified period. This put the result of the no-confidence vote in doubt. But after a day’s debate on May 31st, it became clear that a narrow majority of the chamber would support Mr Sánchez. As a concession to the Basque nationalists, he has promised to stick to this year’s budget, which is generous to them, and which the Socialists had opposed only days ago. Mr Rajoy accused his foe of naked opportunism, and of trying to govern against the wishes of Spaniards who had soundly rejected Mr Sánchez at elections in 2015 and again in 2016. He also said his opponent was pursuing a “Frankenstein programme” that would imply concessions to Catalan separatists (Mr Sánchez has merely offered them talks).

The lower house of the Spanish parliament is debating whether to end Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s close to eight years in power and supplant him with the leader of the Socialist opposition. (Francisco Seco/Associated Press) MADRID — The rhetoric in Spain’s political crisis, in which Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faces a no-confidence vote amid a corruption scandal engulfing his party, is turning ugly. The PP then struck back, saying the alternative would be for opposition Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez to head a “Frankenstein government” supported by anti-establishment and regional politicians that would be doomed to failure. While Rajoy’s chances of political survival have been dealt a severe blow, the veteran politician is fighting back. Spanish media dissected the case, from an unprecedented raid at PP’s national headquarters, to the destruction of hard drives there, and even published a barrage of private messages between Rajoy and Barcenas. All major parties have called for Rajoy to step down, but the prime minister has fended off pressure saying that political instability is bad for the country and for the economies in Spain and the European Union. Backed by his party and the far-left anti-establishment Podemos, Sanchez was due to speak Thursday in a bid to convince Catalan and Basque nationalist lawmakers to support his government plan and achieve at least 176 of the 350 votes needed to supplant Rajoy. The key is in the hands of the Basque Nationalist Party, or PNV, which has yet to decide how it will vote in Friday’s motion. “But it’s definitely the beginning of the end of Rajoy and his Popular Party.” If the Basques support the Socialists motion and their leader wins, Sanchez would take over from Rajoy immediately and possibly be sworn in as early as next Monday. But a minority Socialist Cabinet would be a “Frankenstein government,” as the Popular Party has characterized it, with hard to please nationalists and anti-austerity lawmakers.

Politics has shaped the identity of a number of Spanish football clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona's main rivals. Real Madrid fans don't want the club to be involved in politics Luis Camps, Real Madrid supporter Almost a century on, the club's historical link to the royal family continues to shape how it is perceived, particularly among rival Barca fans, according to Jimmy Burns, journalist and author of La Roja: A Journey Through Spanish Football. "FC Barcelona and a lot of its supporters live in Catalonia, a region in which many people regard themselves as politically and culturally different from the rest of Spain … they see Real Madrid as the team representing the rest of Spain," Burns told Al Jazeera. Some Real Madrid supporters, however, deny the club is wrapped up in political symbolism in Spain. "[The club] is one of the biggest platforms to tell the world what's happening in Catalonia and what people want to do in the region … [it] helps the Catalan independence movement," Bolea said. "Fans who come every week to the stadium are, in general, for Catalan independence … [it] represents more than a club for us." [FC Barcelona] is one of the biggest platforms to tell the world what's happening in Catalonia and what people want to do in the region Gerard Pique, a current FC Barcelona player, has gone further and offered public support for Catalan independence. Athletic Bilbao, the dominant club in Spain's Basque Country, have a policy of only fielding players either born or trained as a youth player in the region. Other clubs in the Basque Country, such as Bilbao's biggest local rivals Real Sociedad, have opted not to maintain a policy of signing only Basque footballers. Inextricable politics Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona and Real Madrid are three of the four most successful clubs since the founding of Spain's top football league in 1928.

Frenchman convicted of industrial espionage by Swiss in 2015 Falciani arrested in Spain for second time on Swiss charges Former HSBC Holdings Plc computer specialist Herve Falciani is in trouble again in Spain, and this time may be at risk of getting caught up in a Catalan political drama. The Frenchman stole client data and then leaked the information to authorities, triggering tax-evasion probes across Europe. It’s the second time the Swiss tried to get him from Spain, where judges rejected his extradition in 2013 because his actions in Switzerland weren’t illegal in Spain. Politics in Spain have been upset by the Catalan separatist movement, and there’s been speculation that the Swiss could demand Falciani in return for pro-independence leaders who fled for Switzerland earlier this year. “It would be difficult to see why the Spanish would accede to the request if nothing has changed.” On Thursday, Falciani appeared at a hearing in Madrid, where a judge turned down a request by Spanish prosecutors to hold him while the extradition request is considered. Puigdemont, himself, was released on 75,000 euros ($92,000) bail in Germany after a court declined to consider a Spanish judge’s request to have Puigdemont extradited on rebellion charges. Falciani was convicted of industrial espionage, which is considered a political crime against the state, and acquitted of charges he violated commercial and banking secrecy rules, Henzelin said. Laurent Moreillon, HSBC’s lawyer, told reporters after the trial that Falciani’s “a thief and a liar,” and that his argument he was a whistle-blower was “pure invention and is a lesson to anyone who might try the same thing.” Penalty Nevertheless, HSBC’s Swiss unit agreed to a pay penalty of 40 million Swiss francs ($42 million) to end a probe into allegations of money laundering by the Geneva prosecutor’s office and avoid criminal charges. The day after Falciani’s arrest on Wednesday, the FOJ submitted a formal request for extradition. Spanish authorities informed the Swiss last month that the arrest warrant would be valid in Spain, the spokesman said.