History made
Britons abandon
Málaga
There has been a mass exodus of
Britons from the province of Málaga
in recent years. According to data
from the National Statistics Institute
(INE), the number of foreign residents
in the first half of 2018 was down by
almost 4,000, compared with the
same period 12 months earlier,
making it the largest drop since 2002.
Miss Spain made history in last month’s
Miss Universe as the pageant’s first
transgender contestant. Angela Ponce
(pictured), a 27-year-old from Sevilla,
didn’t win the event held in Thailand, but
won a standing ovation and has been
praised for bringing diversity to the
forefront of a major event. In a Tweet,
Angela said her success was, “for you, for
those who have no visibility, no voice,
because we all deserve a world of respect,
inclusiveness and freedom.”
¡No Cuela!
The Spanish consumer organisation OCU
has warned that food and drink described
as zero rated are not necessarily free of
sugar. It says there is no legislation in
place controlling the branding of a
product as “zero” and that some
manufacturers use it as an advertising
message. The OCU is asking to consumers
to submit misleading or deceptive package
to [email protected] for investigation. (¡No
Cuela! means “Don’t fall for it!”)
Citrus crisis
This year’s citrus crop in Spain is being
described as the worst for 25 years.
Producers and cooperatives say there has
been a “perfect storm” with increasing
South African imports, heavy rain and
falling consumption across Europe. They
are demanding a revision of the EU’s
agreement with South Africa, claiming
that produce from there was entering
Spain in the autumn without any sanitary
controls.
Briton saved
Two local police officers have been
praised for saving the life of an 81-year-
old British man who suffered a heart
attack in Torrox. They arrived at the scene
two minutes after the emergency was
called in and found the victim with no
pulse evident. However, they applied
resuscitation procedures and were able to
restart his heart before the victim was
taken to the ICU unit at Vélez hospital.
The INE says that departures were
primarily of other EU nationals, most
of whom were British, a trend which
has continued for several years.
Despite that, the province’s
increasing population trend
continued, but to a total that was
only 0.25 per cent higher than in
2017. New arrivals are reported to
have come to Málaga mainly from
elsewhere in Spain, particularly
Madrid, followed by Cádiz, Granada
and Sevilla.
The INE says there were more than
14,500 foreign residents registered in
the province of Málaga in the first half
of 2018, of which around 9,300 are
from other EU countries, including
4,000 from the UK. They contributed
to the total population of almost 1.65
million, which is a fall of almost 2,000
in six months, the biggest drop in the
last 16 years.
Nationally, the INE says the final
population figure for 2018 will top the
2012 record of 46.8 million if present
trends continue. At July 1, 2018, the
total was 46.7 million, with the year
end figure expected to be announced
in July.
State motorways
slash tolls
Spain’s troubled toll motorways which
have returned to State control will be
free to use between midnight and
6.00am from January 15. The tolls on
nine motorways will be cut by about 30
per cent in the same day. The roads
were bought back from their franchise
holders by the previous Partido
Popular administration and the Public
Works Ministry believes that cutting
the charges will make them more
attractive to motorists.
The roads affected are the AP-7
between Cartagena in Murcia and Vera
in Almería, the AP-7 Alicante ring-road,
the AP-36 between Ocaña in Toledo
province and La Roda in Albacete,
Madrid’s outer-suburban “radial”
routes, the R-2, R-3, R-4 and R-5, and
the M-12 link to Madrid airport. The
AP-7 between Silla, south of Valencia
city, and San Juan, north of Alicante
city, is expected to be toll-free by
January 1, 2020.
The Ministry is also continuing
structural inspections on all motorway
bridges following the devastating
collapse of a bridge in Italy in the
autumn, and will develop repair
strategies for 66 defects already
12
detected. Public Works Minister José
Luis Ábalos, meanwhile, has asked for a
working committee to be tasked with
planning the future of Spain’s high-
capacity main intercity roads.
Abusive policy
The government of Cataluña has fined
Iberia €440,000 for a practice which
was described as “abusive” by Spain’s
Supreme Court in November. The
airline’s policy for a passenger who
buys a return ticket but fails to show
for the outward leg, is to automatically
cancel the return leg forcing the
individual to make alternative
arrangements at additional cost. The
Catalan authorities described the policy
as a “very serious” administrative
sanction.
Clinic compensation
A Bilbao couple have received hefty
compensation after a fertility clinic used
the wrong sperm to fertilise the mother’s
eggs. The mix-up came to light when it
was discovered that the blood type of the
twins who were subsequently born did
not match the father’s. A court has
ordered the unnamed clinic to pay the
family a total of €230.000 to
compensate for its negligence.