The shit in Spain falls mainly in the fan

[The Larch]

The prosecutor has dropped charges against former king Juan Carlos. He considers there was malfeasance, but it falls on the period he was still king, and he's thus non-prosecutable. He was being investigated for corruption, fraud, and money laundering. Reading the document, it seems that the fiscal fraud part is proven - and while it can't establish strong evidence about the other crimes, it's strongly hinted at (he would have hid the money from the taxman to hide an unlawful provenance). As a public official he was also forbidden from receiving gifts.

Given that everybody is distracted with what's going on in Ukraine, this feels like an attempt to bury the news.

Well, whatever happens to him judicially (AFAIK he also has other cases open at the moment outside of Spain), his reputation is already in the shitter, so it's not as if it could get much worse.

[celedhring]

Spun off from the Ukrainian thread:

Regarding Northern Africa, I do wonder whether Spain's sudden U-turn on the status of Sahara as something to do with all this affair - although it has greatly annoyed Algeria.

Don't think so, I'd say it's mostly for other domestic issues, but maybe we should bring back the "shit in Spain" thread for that discussion. 

What domestic issues? Annoying their own electorate? 

I'm kinda at a loss about the motivation for the change. I mean, I get it, it's plain political realism - the Sahara referendum is just a pipe dream by now -, but can't see what the government had to gain with going with the policy reversal so suddenly, and so bluntly.

[The Larch]

Spun off from the Ukrainian thread:

Regarding Northern Africa, I do wonder whether Spain's sudden U-turn on the status of Sahara as something to do with all this affair - although it has greatly annoyed Algeria.

Don't think so, I'd say it's mostly for other domestic issues, but maybe we should bring back the "shit in Spain" thread for that discussion. 

What domestic issues? Annoying their own electorate? 

I'm kinda at a loss about the motivation for the change. I mean, I get it, it's plain political realism - the Sahara referendum is just a pipe dream by now -, but can't see what the government had to gain with going with the policy reversal so suddenly, and so bluntly.

With Morocco it always boils down to cooperation in handling inmigrants and policing the strait. I believe there were also lingering border issues in Ceuta & Melilla and with cross-strait ferries. Spain will always need to keep Morocco friendly, and the relationship had been deteriorating for years already, so I guess this is a chance to turn things around.

[The Larch]

BTW,it seems that the EU want the irregularities in Ayuso's brother mask contract investigated. 

[The Larch]

The Iberian Socialist Tag-team attack seems to have been successful in the latest EU council meeting, and Spain and Portugal will now be able to further regulate their domestic energy markets on their own on account of their relative isolation from the rest of the EU energy market.

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, said this Friday following the agreement of the European Council that it allows the so-called "Iberian exception" in the electricity market that the objectives envisaged by Spain have been met.

Sánchez appreciated this agreement at the press conference he gave at the end of the European summit in Brussels with Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, to symbolize the unity of judgment of the two countries in their demands to the EU to seek solutions to lower the price of electricity. The one put forward by both, and which has been accepted despite the initial reluctance of partners such as Germany and the Netherlands, aspired that the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula can adopt specific measures due to their status as an "energy island" with the conviction that they do not harm the rest of the Member States.

The Chief Executive highlighted the importance of an agreement that is very beneficial for Spain and Portugal and that he stressed that it will provide more tools to deal with energy prices. After assuring that the two countries have led from the beginning the debate that is allowing concrete measures to be proposed, he stressed that what has been achieved in this Council is "an objective achieved".

Sánchez thanked the European Commission for making progress in this debate and stressed that "starting today" Spain and Portugal will be able to implement "exceptional and time-bound measures" to reduce electricity prices to consumers, industry and companies. The measures will be submitted next week by the two countries to the European Commission, which has already committed itself to urgently confirming that they comply with European law and, to that end, will take into account the special conditions of Spain and Portugal, such as their low level of electricity interconnection with Europe.

[The Larch]

Guardian article on the new PP leader:

Spain's conservative People's party to 'reboot' with new leader
Alberto Núñez Feijóo to take over after years of turmoil that have left PP in danger of being eclipsed by far-right Vox

Spain's conservative People's party (PP) will gather in Seville on Friday and Saturday to install a new leader and attempt a "reboot" after almost four years of infighting, strategic errors and ideological flip-flopping that have left it in danger of being eclipsed by its rivals in the far-right Vox party.

Pablo Casado, who has led Spain's biggest rightwing party since July 2018, has been forced to stand down amid terminal discontent at the highest levels of the PP. That dissatisfaction came to a head in mid-February when Casado publicly announced that the party was investigating Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the PP president of the Madrid region – an outspoken politician often touted as his rival – for alleged corruption.

The confrontation, which followed a disappointing result for the party in February's regional election in Castilla y León, proved a miscalculation too far for Casado.

This weekend, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who won four consecutive terms as president of the north-western Spanish region of Galicia, will be voted in as Casado's successor.

The party hopes that Feijóo, who is habitually described as a moderate, will steer the PP back to the political centre-ground while still winning back the voters who have deserted the party in favour of Vox. The far-right party, which was founded nine years ago by former PP members, is now the third biggest grouping in parliament and is nipping at its parent party's heels in the polls.

"The party has been through a very difficult time and we're going into the conference not to re-establish the party but to start over again," said a PP source. "This conference is about switching off and resetting just as you would when your computer stops working."

They said the time had come "to heal wounds, end rifts and to come together for a greater aim, which is to give Spain a good government". To do so, the party would set about highlighting its "centrist, reformist" history.

"A big party has to try to pick up votes to its right and to its left; to be a catch-all party," the source added. "We need to have a plurality of voices within the PP and we need those voices to talk to each other. The key – and this is what makes us a centrist party – is dialogue."

Casado, who pledged to "win back the hearts of all Spaniards" when he was elected, has had a complicated relationship with Vox. The outgoing leader dragged the PP further to the right to stop voters defecting to Vox, enlisted its support to prop up three PP-led regional administrations and recently gave the go-ahead for a PP-Vox coalition to govern Castilla y León.

But he has also occasionally rounded on his sometime allies. In October 2020, he accused Vox of practising a politics based on "fear, anger, resentment and revenge" and of peddling a "demagoguery that offers easy – and usually fake – solutions to complex problems".

Such ideological lane-changing confused PP voters and many within the party – as did the failed showdown with Ayuso. The PP's internal squabbling has left the party unable to capitalise on discontent with Spain's Socialist-led coalition government as the country suffers the highest rate of inflation since 1985, soaring energy prices and protests by farmers and hauliers.

The aim now is to jettison the mistakes of the Casado era and start again in Seville.

Although the PP source pointed out that parties across the European right were struggling to deal with the threat of a resurgent far right – "with varying degrees of success" – they said their own party needed to sound less like Vox and more like itself.

The PP is keen to emphasise Feijóo's track record as an experienced statesman who represents "the Spain of the constitution of 1978", which enabled the country's transition to democracy after General Franco's death.

The same has not always been true of Feijóo's predecessor. Despite a farewell speech to congress that lauded "national unity" and the importance of "respecting one's adversaries", Casado has previously stood in the chamber and described the Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, as a "traitor, squatter, villain, catastrophe, hostage and compulsive liar".

His commitment to national unity has also been called into question by the time he inadvertently attended a mass at which prayers were said for Franco's soul on the 46th anniversary of the dictator's death, and by his contention that the Spanish civil war was "a confrontation between those who wanted a democracy without law and those who wanted law without democracy".

Pablo Simón, a political scientist at Madrid's Carlos III University, said he expected the PP's change of leadership would be rewarded with "a mini-honeymoon" in the polls as the party prepared for this year's key regional election in Andalucía, adding: "If the PP does well, that will give Feijóo a boost and help them with the Vox situation."

Simón said one of Feijóo's biggest challenges would be balancing internal party pressures with the threat posed by its far-right rivals. "Feijóo's obviously a liberal conservative who will talk about all the usual things – lowering taxes, moderation etc," he said. "But for me, the important thing will be which route he takes. Is he going to go: 'Look, I'm going to do what the PP has always done and I'm going to start off by basing my agenda on economic issues'? Or is he going to get into the whole cultural war thing with Vox? I think the first option is more likely than the second."

I have the "pleasure" of knowing him pretty well, since he has ruled in my region for the last 13 years. It was taken for granted that he'd jump at national politics sooner or later, but it has finally taken him a bit longer than expected. Let's see how he does, I'm not really optimistic about his prospects, I think he'll find national politics a very different beast than regional ones. He's at the very least much cannier and strong willed than Casado, so I doubt he'll bend over to outside forces as much as him. It remains to be seen how he'll handle relations with Vox, since they're non existant over here, but essential for PP's prospects at the national level now that Ciudadanos are basically a relic.

[The Larch]

Heavy rumours around here about Juan Carlos having secretly returned from Abu Dhabi and "discreetly" staying in my region at the moment. 

[The Larch]

Btw, Cel, what is being said over there about the phone snooping?

[Syt]

Heavy rumours around here about Juan Carlos having secretly returned from Abu Dhabi and "discreetly" staying in my region at the moment. 

Can't he go to the Munich residence of the King of Thailand?

[The Larch]

Heavy rumours around here about Juan Carlos having secretly returned from Abu Dhabi and "discreetly" staying in my region at the moment. 

Can't he go to the Munich residence of the King of Thailand?

Depends, what's the level of legal protection that he can get over there? 

[Duque de Bragança]

Heavy rumours around here about Juan Carlos having secretly returned from Abu Dhabi and "discreetly" staying in my region at the moment. 

Can't he go to the Munich residence of the King of Thailand?

Depends, what's the level of legal protection that he can get over there? 

No exile yet to Estoril as in good old times? 
Galicia is one step closer to  Portugal. 

[The Larch]

Heavy rumours around here about Juan Carlos having secretly returned from Abu Dhabi and "discreetly" staying in my region at the moment. 

Can't he go to the Munich residence of the King of Thailand?

Depends, what's the level of legal protection that he can get over there? 

No exile yet to Estoril as in good old times? 
Galicia is one step closer to  Portugal. 

Offer him legal immunity and he'll be there in no time. 

[Duque de Bragança]

Heavy rumours around here about Juan Carlos having secretly returned from Abu Dhabi and "discreetly" staying in my region at the moment. 

Can't he go to the Munich residence of the King of Thailand?

Depends, what's the level of legal protection that he can get over there? 

No exile yet to Estoril as in good old times? 
Galicia is one step closer to  Portugal. 

Offer him legal immunity and he'll be there in no time. 

Gold visas are over, I'm afraid.
Maybe he could apply for refugee status? 
Legal immunity? Unless he joins the Portuguese governement... 

[celedhring]

Btw, Cel, what is being said over there about the phone snooping?

They are fuming (and tbf, rightly so if the allegations are true), but I have to say I'm not following Catalan press that much. I have enough with agonizing over Ukraine at the moment.

[Threviel]

https://twitter.com/OCCRP/status/1523409485364039682

Apparently Russia offered 10k troops to the Catalonian independence movement in '17...