Bbudget
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his cabinet presented their 2019 budget in Parliament on Friday
although as yet they do not have sufficient support to push it through.
Backing from Podemos is likely as long as the socialist government agrees to its requests to reduce the
cost of household electricity bills, increase paternity leave and to reduce the price of renting a home.
Votes from Catalan Separatist parties ERC and PDeCAT are likely to be crucial to make up the numbers
needed for the budget to pass it through Parliament.
The main processes and the preliminary stages will get under way this week and, if the budget proposal
gets the required support the official Parliamentary debate will take place in the first fortnight in
February.
ETA
A campaign to allow members of separatist group ETA to be relocated nearer to their Basque Country
homes has split public opinion, with terrorism victims condemning the move.
Since coming to power last June Pedro Sanchez has promised to reverse an official government policy to
keep jailed ETA members in prisons across Spain. Family members of prisoners, 46 of whom are in jail
in France claim moving nearer to their homes will assist their eventual reintegration into society.
Since Sanchez announced his new policy, 19 ETA prisoners have been transferred back to the Basque
Country, however, only two of these had publicly given up any links to the terrorist group.
International Kidnap
Police in Costa Rica and Spain say they have arrested 12 people alleged to have been involved in the
kidnapping of a missing American.
Police from both countries say that the joint operation led to the arrests of Costa Rican suspects on
Friday.
William Sean Creighton Kopko, an American businessman, was kidnapped in Costa Rica on Sept. 24.
and authorities say he’s still missing.
The three people arrested in Zaragoza are considered by police to be the ringleaders.
Costa Rican police arrested another nine people.
Weapon Find
police are investigating the discovery of a stash of weapons including two sub-machine guns and two
hand grenades in a stolen UK-plated car.
The weapons were found inside the abandoned Volkswagen Golf after it was towed away from a
residential street in Benahavis near Marbella.
Officers ordered the removal of the vehicle after UK authorities reported it as stolen.
Investigators discovered the weapons when they opened it in a police pound.
A loaded pistol was found in the glove compartment and a rucksack containing two submachine guns
with four boxes of ammunition, two hand grenades and two detonators was found in the boot.