SELECT A PUBLICATION FOR THE LATEST SPANISH LANGUAGE NEWS FROM SPAIN
| Welcome to our weekly review of the Spanish media. Our reviewer and translator Cristina Marquez A de Camihort has selected a wide range of articles covering general news about Spain, politics, business and culture. We invite you to view the latest news from Spain (in Spanish) at the web sites of El Pais, El Mundo, ABC and El Periodico |
SELECT A PUBLICATION FOR THE LATEST SPANISH LANGUAGE NEWS FROM SPAIN |
NEWS REVIEW 24 - 29 June, 1996NEWS INDEXITALIAN PRESIDENTIAL VISIT...The president of Italy arrived in Madrid today for a two day official visit to Spain. Scalfaro was greeted by their majesties, the King and Queen of Spain, and will meet Jose Maria Aznar, President of the Spanish Government. The relationship between the two countries is smooth and peaceful, but both governments consider they are not close enough given the proximity of their territories. UNIONS PROPOSE FUNDS CONTROL... The UGT and CC.OO unions. have proposed the government create an agreement to remove politics from the Rural Employment Plan, thus avoiding fraud. This agreement, which appears to be approached by the government in a positive way, will take away from the Mayors their capacity to hire and select workers on behalf of INEM, and will allow a provincial supervisory unit to control the use of the allotted funds. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION TO STAY... Jose Maria Aznar, president of the Government, stated yesterday at the plenary session of the congress that religion will continue as a subject in the school curriculum, which will be graded but will have no academic value, therefore it will not be counted as average for the selectivity process. However, other elective subjects such as games and puzzles like Parcheesi, will be removed from the Curriculum. Religious Culture will also be retained. EX-MINISTER PRAISES ETA DIALOGUE... "One-sided goodwill negotiations", is the term used by Juan Alberto Belloch, ex-Minister of Justice and Interior, to define the negotiations done by peaceful men and many organisations with ETA, through meetings where the negotiators acted not on the government behalf, but on their own, according to the Socialist ex-government officer. Belloch praises these contacts, and acknowledges that they were known to the Ministry. NEWS INDEX ETA THREAT TO CYCLE TOUR... The terrorist organisation ETA has sent a letter to the General Director of the French Tour de France cycle race, Jean Marie Leblanc, threatening to commit a terrorist attack during the sections of the tour that will take place in Navarra and the Basque Country, unless some of their demands are met. The terrorist group claims that the Organisation Committee of the race must recognise Euskal Herria as a nation. Otherwise, the physical security and integrity of the participants and personnel of the Tour is in danger. PARTIES FAIL TO REACH AGREEMENT... The PP and PSOE could not reach agreement that would have allowed the renovations of the General Council of the Judicial Power, after a long day of negotiations which resulted in a first list of the 20 candidates who were accepted by all the groups. However, early in the evening, Joaquin Almunia, socialist representative, tried to change it by introducing a name that was not accepted by the members of the PP. SPAIN OBJECTS TO CUBA SANCTIONS PROPOSAL... The Spanish government presented a verbal note to the government of the US expressing their objection against the Helms-Burton Law, which Washington intends to use in order to sanction foreign corporations who are investing in Cuba and using properties that were expropriated from American citizens. The Government asked President Bill Clinton to have the Article III of the Bill suspended, which should be enforced by August 1st. SPAIN IN CHINA TALKS... President of the Government, Jose Maria Aznar, asked Jiang Zemin, president of the China, to encourage political and institutional reforms in his country, to improve the consolidation of a lawful state, according to government sources. Yesterday, the Chinese Minister of Foreign Relations, Qian Qichen, avoided any contact with the press after his meeting with Abel Matutes. NEWS INDEXRADIO FUTURA... Besides sound, The radio of the future will offer all types of texts and images. Quality will be similar to that of Compact Discs, and the number of channels available will be increased at least six times, thanks to the compression of signals. The digital radio (DAB) will be available worldwide in a couple of decades, but yesterday was announced in Spain, during the UIMP seminar on new communication networks. BASQUE VIDEO SURVEILLANCE PLAN... The Ministry of Interior is analysing the viability of a plan to install video cameras on the streets of some cities in Euskadi, as a new way to fight the urban vandalism committed by groups of ETA sympathisers. This project, which is called video-surveillance by Jaime Mayor Oreja, follows a petition formulated by the Basque Country. A similar project was rejected two years ago by Antoni Asuncion, then Minister of Interior, due to the legal connotations involved. VITORIA POLITICIANS IN ETA ANNOUNCEMENT... The political forces participating in the summit of Ajuria Enea in Vitoria, indicated that only an end to kidnappings and terrorist attacks will be interpreted as a symbol of an authentic will for peace coming from ETA. This is in response to a communique published by ETA announcing a one week truce. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS EXPELLED... The 103 illegal immigrants transferred from Melilla to deportation centres in Malaga had been expelled from Spain, it has been confirmed by the Ministry of Interior. The operation was carried on under maximum secrecy. The Prosecution, Judge and Humanitarian Organisations have demanded an explanation from the government. NEWS INDEXPRIVATISATION PLANS REVEALED... The revenue expected by the government from the State Industries privatisation plan, as approved yesterday at the Cabinet meeting, will amount to one billion pesetas during 1996 and 1997. Financial experts estimate that the share of the market in Public Enterprises could be about 600.000 million during the next 18 months, while the rest of the profit will be generated by the placing of share issues between stockholders and employees and other type of financial operations. The Secretary of Industry Josep Pique, who presented the plan yesterday, and Rodrigo Rato, Secretary of Finance do not agree completely in the privatisation strategy. The revenue from the privatisation process will be used to redeem the public debt, according to Josep Pique, who made this statement at the conclusion of the Cabinet Meeting. This will help to meet the accumulated debt provision, one of the four Maastricht criteria towards a single currency. The revenue will also help to improve the structural elements of the deficit. The governmentīs plan is to mobilise a national savings plan to deal with privatisationīs. The secretary explained that the Government would prefer the placing of shares in the stock market and public bidding as procedures to place equities and state agencies to be privatised. There will be also some share participation in some agencies, the secretary did not want to elaborate on those which would be offered to their employees and institutional investors. In these cases, the shares will be offered at a lower price. The Government will not take an active position to favour the setting of majority shareholders. According to Pique, this would only be in exceptional cases. The majority shareholder model exists now in Telefonica (Argentaria, La Caixa and BBV), Repsol (Pemex, BBX and La Caixa) and Endesa (Argentaria, Santander and BCH). The statements made by Pique indicates a change of mind in the PP. The Secretary denied that BBV and La Caixa had decided to buy the 10% of Repsol which still belongs to the State. Tabacalera, Transmediterranea, Aldeasa and Paradores are the first State Industries in the privatisation schedule approved by the Government. They were probably the subject of the statement made by Josep Pique, secretary of Industry, when he said, in the very near future there will be privatisation bids in the Stock market. The sale of Tabacalera could represent a revenue of some 125.000 millions pesetas for the Government. The plan is to privatise the company in three stages, it will be offered to tobacconists, it will be placed in the Stock market, and in a third stage, it will be offered to a majority shareholder to avoid the absorption of these industries by the multinational companies in this sector. The group FCC, property of the Koplowitz sisters have showed an interest in the capital of Trasmediterranea and Aldeasa, in conjunction with El Corte Ingles. In the case of Aldeasa.Trasmeditirraneaīs revenue could represent more than 25.000 millions, with Aldeasa with its duty-free shops at Spanish airports, the amount could be in the 50.000 millions. The privatisation of all these enterprises,was practically decided by the previous Government. The operations will be conducted by business banks, and priority will be given on bidding formulas.The schedule of placements will be affected by the privatisation process in the rest of the European countries. According to Pique, the privatisationīs announced to date in Europe represent a volume of 11 billions pesetas up to 1998. NEWS INDEXPSOE ACCOUNTANT IN ILLEGAL PAYMENTS... Two checks amounting to a total of 20 million pesetas from the payment of illegal commissions in Marbella, were given to ex-accountant of PSOE at the headquarters of the socialist party in Seville during several electoral campaigns. This is the accusation presented by the prosecution in corruption cases, after several reports from ABC newspaper against the family of the ex-vice-president of the Council of Andalucia, Jose Miguel Salinas, and Jaime Montaner Rosells, ex-councillor for Public Works during the term of Rodriguez de la Borbolla. ETA PRISONERS TRANSFER... The Ministry of Interior plans to complete the transfer of 29 members of the terrorist organisation ETA to prisons situated closer to the Basque Country. Additionally, one inmate will serve his time in the prison of Nanclares de Oca, and another three in different Basque correctional facilities. This measure is part of the new policy on terrorist prisoners elaborated by the Government with the approval of the Nationalist Basque Party. Family circumstances and prisoner reports have been taken into consideration for the selection of the inmates. PP LADIES AT ROYAL CELEBRATION... The ladies of the PP were at their best yesterday, as for the first time, the wives of the members of the government were invited to attend the celebration on the occasion of the onomastic of King Juan Carlos, at the palace of La Zarzuela. A second change was also added by the Monarch this year, who also invited for the first time all the presidents from the democratic period, Adolfo Suarez, Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo y Felipe Gonzalez. NEWS INDEXPOLITICIANS AGREE ON REFORM... The majority of the political parties with parliamentary representation expressed yesterday their satisfaction in the house of representatives for the agreement reached by the group of fifteen, to reform the European Agreement for Extradition, which was promoted by the President of the government, Jose Maria Aznar, on the occasion of the recent summit in Florence. In his report to the Plenary Session, Aznar revealed that this is one of the greatest achievements from a Spanish point of view, because the implementation of this reform means the elimination of the concept of terrorism as a political crime. OPERA OF THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY... As in years gone by, the plaza of Las Ventas, Madrid turned into a theatrical colliseum to present the opera Aida, staged by Giuseppe Raffa, who has taken his production around the world, and will be here until Saturday (June 29). Close to 15.000 people attended. Aida has been dubbed the opera of the 21st century with the high-tech effects employed in the production.the debut of the season, due to the huge media attention and the size of the staging. |Welcome | Learning Spanish |Spanish Real Estate | Arts & Culture | Spanish News | Travel |Embassies & Consulates of Spain | Spanish Web Sites | Living in Spain | Business & Commerce |Point of View | A Nationīs Heritage | Galería de Arte | Craft Gifts | Language Services | Classified Ads. | Environment | Guestbook | Search | Your Letters | Write to usNEWS INDEX
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