Catalan Separatists
Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that exiled former Catalan leaders should be able to run in the European election, but left the final decision to a lower court.
The court said there are “no reasons for ineligibility,” but told Madrid judges to make a final decision because it is within their competency to do so.
Former Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont and two others had appealed a decision by the Central Election Commission to exclude them from participating in this month’s European Parliament election because they do not reside in Spain.
All three fled the country in 2017 following the Catalan independence referendum
Puigdemont has said that he would return to Spain if he is elected to the European Parliament. The former president argues that he would be protected by parliamentary immunity granted to MEPs, but that is likely to be challenged in the courts.
Missing
POLICE are searching for a 69-year-old man who went missing during a family meal yesterday.
Antonio Hormigo Morales, disappeared from a restaurant in Estepona after having stepped out for a cigarette.
According to the family, the man is currently receiving treatment and is suffering from the beginning of what could be dementia.
The 69-year-old’s whereabouts is currently unknown.
Authorities have provided an official description he measures around one metre sixty, weighs around 70kg, has blue eyes and glasses.
The man was wearing a beige pair of trousers, a light blue long sleeve shirt and black shoes.
Meanwhile
It’s now more than six weeks since Irish holidaymaker Peter Wilson disappeared on Tenerife but local police still haven’t discovered any leads to help crack the case.
The 32-year-old father of two had gone to the island for a week-long holiday with a friend.
He was last seen on his second day there walking at midnight towards the beach on March 23.
Soon after Mr Wilson’s disappearance his family visited Tenerife to help find him.
MEMBERS of the Guardia Civil found a woman and five Swedish girls who had been missing since last night in the Rio Chillar in Nerja.
The group, who failed to return after setting out on a hike were eventually located by a police search party and helicopter.
family members alerted police to the disappearance of the 34-year-old woman and five girls aged between 12 and 15-years-old.
Mountain rescue workers, firefighters, and Guardia Civil officers took over the rescue operation, eventually finding the group unharmed this morning.
Unemployment
The number of people registering as unemployed in April fell 2.81 percent from a month earlier, official data showed this morning, as tourism and service sector jobs boosted employment over the Easter week.
Registered unemployment fell by 91,518 people in April, leaving 3.2 million people out of work.
Spain’s unemployment rate stood at 14.7 percent in the first quarter, the second highest in Europe after Greece.
MW
The service sector slowed in April to grow at its slowest pace since September.
Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of service companies stood at 53.1 in April, down from 56.8 in March.
Business confidence, according to the Markit index, fell to 62.7 in April, its lowest level since August 2013.