Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable: Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Cosas de España

Post-election Politics . . . The stalemate drags on, says The Guardian here.

I cited yesterday the FT’s claim that Madrid’s Isabel Díaz Ayuso was boosted as leader-in-waiting by the right’s election setback. Given that the far-right was rejected at the election, I have a little difficulty believing that the PP party will want someone to the right of Feijoo as leader. At least not if there’s another election next winter. Or even in 4 year’s time. Madrid is different, as they might say.

Anyway, . . . Never one to understate things, Ayuso has claimed that: “In the next 2 weeks, with Spain on holiday, [the PSOE leader] is going to ensure via the back door that he stays in power at all costs by literally selling our nation to its enemies.”, thus displaying her ignorance of the meaning of ‘literally’.

As of today . . . Here’s the VdG’s editorial comment: Now we’ll see . . on August 17: The PSOE leader yesterday rejected the PP’s latest request around “avoiding a blockade” and “ungovernability.” Pedro Sánchez reminded the PP leader that his party had historically applied the principle of governing without being the party with the most votes. In his letter, he agrees to meet, but only after the constitution of Congress on August 17. Separately, the Electoral Board yesterday dismissed the PSOE’s request to review all Madrid’s votes of 23 July.

I’ve started reading a new history of modern Spain and was rather taken with the opening paras of the Intro. I knew of the developments but hadn’t seen them described so starkly: The year 1898 is known by Spaniards as ‘the Disaster’. In the Spanish-American War of that year, Spain lost its last major colonies – Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico – to the USA. What had been a ‘splendid little war’ for the United States could hardly have been more devastating to the pride and prestige of the defeated, as Spaniards now came to the realisation that their nation was no longer a great power. ‘What bitterness! What disillusionment! ” exclaimed the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and physician Santiago Ramón y Cajal. ‘We believed we still had a glorious empire but it turns out that we are nothing’. The shame and humiliation were especially acute as Spain had lost the colonies just as other European powers were glorifying in their far-flung empires. The Spaniards’ patriotic bravura of the ‘ante bellum’ period, when the Americans had been ridiculed as ‘adventurers’ and ‘barbarians’ bereft of ‘a history’, promptly gave way to a self-flagellatory culture of intense pessimism. The Spanish ‘race’ was denounced as decadent and its ‘character’ dismissed as unfit for the demands of the modern world by the Spanish themselves. The literary and intellectual ‘Generation of 1898’ set about analysing the so-called ‘Spanish problem’ – the nation’s dizzying drop from imperial ‘grandeur to insular irrelevance – in pitiful tones of self-loathing. ‘Where is the bomb that destroys the wretched clod of Spain?’ bemoaned the [Galician] playwright and novelist Ramón de Valle-Inclán. ‘Spain’, he lamented, ‘is a grotesque deformation of European civilization’. This grievous sense of inferiority was not only to haunt Spaniards for most of the 20th century, but also to shape profoundly the debate about their country and its place in the world. Following the disaster, Spain appeared to lurch from one failed regime to another in the quest for regeneration.

Things have certainly come a very long way since then, with both Spanish pride and power slowly returning. No more so than in Brussels, notwithstanding current political problems.

En passant . . . We have a bronze statue of Valle-Inclán in Pv city. Showing it to visitors, I like to point out that, despire being small, ugly and one-armed, he’s reputed to have been a successful womaniser. ‘There’s hope for us all, then’, I like to add. Assuming we can turn our hand to a bit of romantic poetry.

If you’re not an EU citizen – e.g. British, (North) American or Russian – the EU’s new ‘not a visa’ ETIS entry-permit scheme will hit you some time next year. Details here. As it says there, it’s been a long time coming. As with many EU initiatives. Already delayed more than once, it might not even begin in 2024. I can’t helo seeing the hand of Spain in the reported requirement of naming your parents . . .

Back to trivia . . . Passing the Pv city bullring with my daughters and my grandsons yesterday, I saw that the gate to the pens was open and asked if we could take a look at them. The obliging keeper-of-the-gates not only allowed us to do that but also then took us into the ring. The 4 year old was a little nervous about bulls being around but the 2 year old shot off to run right around the edge of the ring. Finally, we were shown the bulls’ entry tunnel from the street and the weighing facility there. I very much doubt this would never happen in the UK. And not just because there aren’t any bullrings there. A classic Spanish experience.

Portugal

Portugal’s tax-holiday deal for pensioners was once so financially attractive that, 5 years ago, I considered moving there. Since then, the (socialist) government – via a couple more schemes – has made its major cities very attractive to those still in work. But The Guardian reports here on the doleful effect of these. Taster: Portugal’s economic recovery, fuelled by deregulation and a series of schemes designed to lure foreign investment, has distorted the housing market beyond all recognition in a place where the monthly minimum wage is €760 and where 50% of people earn less than €1,000 a month. ‘Mileuristas’, as they’re called here in Spain.

But if you’re only a would-be tourist . . . Another secret exploded. Why Green Portugal is Europe’s lush overlooked gem: The north of the country is a wonderland of national parks, river valleys and lush landscapes, and now’s the perfect time to visit. Yes, please go there instead of very-much-the-same Galicia. Much cheaper.

The Netherlands

Hmm. I’ve asked my several Dutch friends if this is an exaggeration: Liberals living in fear warn of a new nastiness gripping Netherlands. More here.

The UK

Richard North, like others, is convinced of 2 things: 1. That global warming is taking place and needs to be countered, and 2. That Net Zero by 2050 is not just unfeasible but quite mad. Here he presents an analogy between a new UK (dishonest?)carbon-capture scheme and one of his own, referencing Swift’s famous sunbeams-from-cucumbers scenario.

(A)GW/Energy/Net Zero

I see that NZ now not only means New Zealand . . . A dangerous fantasy??

Quote of the Day

Voters like eco policies, as long as they cost net zero.

This is a reference to UK voters rebelling against a ‘green-scheme’ to extend the taxation of cars to Outer London. Which has shocked all political parties and is forcing them to re-think Net Zero (alleged)plans.

The Way of the World

A bit more on the threat to the footballing world as we know it from Saudi billions.

Finally . . .

Real trivia . . . I normally have 3 tea-towels in my kitchen, and use them in rotation. My 2 daughters felt these were not enough, essentially because they use all 3 at the same time and then throw them into the washing machine after a single use. After they, understandably, complained that we kept running out of tea-towels, I bought another 2. So, now they use all 5 at a time and still complain. So . . . My question is: Is this just my daughters? Or is it modern, super-clean women? Or is it a reflection of the consumerist times we live in? My mother would have been astonished. But, then, having had 4 kids in a little over 4 years, she had quite enough to go into the washing machine every night . . .

For new readers:– If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there – updated a bit in early July 2023.