Spain Notes, Sept 6: football + Puigdemont
1/ Jenni Hermoso has filed a criminal complaint for sexual assault with the Spanish prosecutor’s office about Rubiales’s kiss at the World Cup final ceremony. She was under a legal deadline to file it or not.
2/ Prosecutors reckon it goes straight to the National High Court in Madrid.
3/ Jorge Vilda is out as manager of the Spain women’s squad. Vilda said “it’s not fair, I didn’t expect that”.
4/ Montse Tomé, a woman, is in as the new manager of the Spain women’s squad. This seems like the right move after what happened.
5/ The Spanish FA issued a big apology “to all of global football”, to the women’s team and “to fans around the world” for Rubiales’s behaviour: “the noble spirit and international prestige of our society and our sport have been muddied over the past few days by the actions of Luis M. Rubiales”. The Spanish FA now says “enormous” damage has been done to Spanish football.
6/ La Liga chairman Tebas said the Rubiales kiss “has caused the biggest reputational damage ever to Spanish football”.
7/ The PP (national conservatives) have given up on any idea of trying to negotiate a deal with Junts (Catalan separatist conservatives) after Puigdemont’s bombastic speech in Brussels yesterday.
8/ Feijóo (PP) also had a dig at the new language policy in parliament (to allow MPs to speak in Catalan, Basque or Galician, not just Spanish). Spanish is our common language, he said, “Puigdemont and Diaz didn’t need a translator”.
9/ El País reported 80% of public language schools in the country don’t even teach Spain’s regional languages: “it’s easier to study Russian”.
10/ Yolanda Diaz has said she is “convinced” there will be a new progressive government in Spain after chatting to Puigdemont.
11/ Feijóo still doesn’t have the votes to become PM.
12/ Europa Press reported Puigdemont and Junqueras could even be all set to run in the 2025 Catalan regional elections if the amnesty goes through as planned.
13/ Prosecutors’ associations have issued statements about the rule of law and the separation of powers: the government should be trying to enforce the law, not do another end run around it.
14/ Vox still wants Deputy PM Diaz and her colleague Jaume Asens hauled before a judge for meeting with Puigdemont.
15/ Saudi Telecom just bought nearly 10% of Telefónica for €2.1 billion, instantly becoming the largest shareholder. The government is going to get involved under a defence industries clause related to foreign investments.