Early Elections
If Spain’s parliament rejects the 2019 budget proposal, the current minority Socialist government due to run till 2020, would be cut short .. so the party’s Deputy Secretary General Adriana Lastra said yesterday.
It is up to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to take the final decision on whether to call an early election, Lastra said during a conference in Madrid.The budget vote is due tomorrow.
Catalan Separatists
Spain is bracing for the nation’s most sensitive trial in four decades of democracy this week, with a dozen Catalan separatists facing charges including rebellion over a failed secession bid in 2017.
The proceedings, which begin today will be broadcast live on television and all eyes will be focused on the impartiality of the Supreme Court.
Catalonia’s separatists have attacked the court’s credibility in the run-up to the trial, saying it is a puppet of the Spanish government and any ruling will be a political one that has been decided in advance.
But Supreme Court president Carlos Lesmes dismisses that notion, saying the trial is the most important since Spain’s transition to democracy.
Spanish authorities say that the separatists are guaranteed a fair trial by the very democracy founded on the rule of law that they allegedly violated.
Valley Of The Fallen
The government aims to approve a decree on Friday ordering the removal of dictator Francisco Franco’s remains from a grand mausoleum outside Madrid.
His family opposes the exhumation.
Once the removal order has been approved, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government will give Franco’s family 15 days to choose a place for the dictator’s remains to be reburied.
The “Valley of the Fallen” site, marked by a 152-metre cross on a mountainside and criticized as Europe’s only remaining monument to a fascist leader .. is to be transformed into a memorial to victims of the civil war .. and is a longstanding ambition of the Socialist Party.
Beach Vandalism
DRAWING hearts in the sand could land tourists in prison, the Canary Islands Government has warned in a beach vandalism crackdown.
Graffitied stones, crosses made out of volcanic rocks and a smiley face carved into a cliff face, are among the activities criticized by environmentalists.
The Maspalomas sand dunes on Gran Canaria are part of a protected area, but tourists have desecrated the natural surroundings with their ‘works of art’, according to green groups.
A government spokesperson said they want to express its condemnation towards this type of act against one of the main environmental and tourist areas of the island.”
Perpetrators could be fined up to €600 or face prison.