Spain Notes, Oct 9: space rocket, Israel, royalty
1/ Spanish politicians mostly condemned the surprise Hamas attack on Israel over the weekend. Terrorism “must be defeated” (Feijóo, PP); “we demand an immediate ceasefire” (Sánchez, PSOE); “solidarity with all the victims” (Díaz, Sumar), who also called for “the Palestinian people to be able to live in dignity”; “It is repugnant to see the left, Sánchez’s partners, justify crimes and terrorism against the Israeli population” (Abascal, Vox)".
2/ The Spanish left no-longer-in-government was more critical of Israel. Former Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, for example, wrote on his Canal Red site that Israel was a “colonial occupying state” and that: “It’s obvious to any observer that the extreme violence applied by Israel on the population of Gaza would sooner or later provoke the response of the armed Palestinian factions”.
3/ Spain’s Foreign Minister, Albares (PSOE), said during a radio interview this morning that two Spaniards had been affected by the Hamas attack on Israel. He didn’t specify how.
4/ Sánchez tweeted that he had spoken to two Spanish generals in charge of UNIFIL troops in Lebanon. Spain has just under 700 soldiers deployed with that UN mission. Hezbollah and the IDF have clashed in the north.
5/ The right (PP, Vox and what’s left of Ciudadanos) went to the “constitutionalist” march in Barcelona on Sunday, against the amnesty deal being put together by the left and separatists, and insisted it was a neutral, citizen-led affair. Organisers SCC claimed 300,000 people; local police said 50,000.
6/ There was indeed a large sign at the march against the King (see image above): “Felipe VI is complicit in the coup against the ballot box, democracy and the will of Spaniards”. That’s from the right, the constitutionalist crowd.
7/ For royal fans, lots of media fuss was made on Saturday about the Princess of Asturias kissing the flag and swearing allegiance to Spain as a young officer cadet, thus symbolising the passing of the royal constitutional baton from father to daughter, or something like that.
8/ The CSIC says 2022 was the hottest year in 700 years in Spain, based on the temperature record and tree-ring studies. 2022, last year, not the monster oven experience of this 2023 summer we have just experienced. Here is the paper in Atmospheric Research.
9/ Here is an interesting study on corruption in Spain over the past 20 years, published at the end of last year. 3,743 cases analysed from across the country, but mostly in the south and Galicia. The PP and PSOE are about drawn, on 40% and 38% of cases each.
10/ Spain joined the private space club, over the weekend, with its first rocket, the Miura 1, built by PLD Space (Elche, Valencia), in Spain, launching successfully to a height of 80 kilometres above the Earth’s surface. It landed in the Atlantic Ocean after a short flight.
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