Freedom for Francisco Camps! Death to Garzón!
Francisco Camps, former PP president of the Valencian autonomous community was today acquitted of corruption after a witch-hunt in Valencia's courts that has lasted nearly three years. The put-upon ex local party leader was ruled not guilty in a near-unanimous verdict of 5-4 by a jury this evening, after 15 hours deliberation. Today's events bring to an end what has been a living nightmare for Camps, whose innocence we never doubted. Last year, he nearly pleaded guilty to the corruption charges just to end this farce of a kangaroo court; but on second thoughts (and after his two friends pleaded guilty that morning), he changed his mind and valiantly fought on. For justice, for liberty, for free gifts that definitely didn't affect his decision making skills.
The devil behind this horror story of a near travesty of justice is none other than Baltasar Garzón, the crusading Marxist-Leninist investigative judge, famed for his collection of anti-PP tattoos. Camps will no doubt find some solace in the fact that Garzón remains on trial himself, for having the temerity to investigate the deaths of a paltry 114,000 people during Spain's "long transition" (1939-1978). It's a shame that Mañuel Fraga didn't live to see the verdict delivered.
"Quin país de merda, tú!" - a traditional saying from Cerdanyola which roughly translates as "Freedom for Francisco Camps! Death to Garzón!".
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What happened to Valencia?
This post could have been a kind of thebadPoll but in the end, I decided an open question suits the subject matter better.
Gemma and I watched the Granada TV (UK) 1983 documentary about the Spanish civil war this weekend. Among many other conversation points, it raised an issue I've never quite understood since the first time I read about the war: how did Valencia move from being one of the last bastions of the Republic to becoming the key PP stronghold it is today? I've heard claims that Valencia was 'settled' by Francoists in an attempt to break left-wing loyalty there, though I've never seen any evidence for this.
So what happened? Was there a concerted effort to change Valencia's demographics, and therefore politics, or did this shift occur 'naturally' because of changes in industry and other conditions there? Or maybe it was a mixture. Or maybe Valencia was never as socialist as I've been told. All opinions are welcome, but what I'd like best is some evidence supporting your position.
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Ha ha you're dead!
Most of you will have seen that disgraceful video that has been doing the rounds, which depicts a festive celebration called the Toro Embolao. This fun activity involves tying a bull to a stake, settting fire to his horns and then watching him go mental. It's obviously top-class fun for all the family. If you haven't seen it, you can click here (be warned: it's pretty unpleasant).
Well luckily, the bulls have been doing a bit better recently. First came the great news that prize bullfighter, José Tomás was seriously injured after a bull gored him twice. Well, he still killed the bull so hardly a taurine victory. But then I heard that a chap in Valencia somewhere was killed by a bull over the weekend. And what, pray, did he do to the bull to prompt this reaction? Oh just a spot of Toro Embolao.
Surely, you deserve a nomination in the Darwin Awards if you expire after being gored by a bull which you were trying to drive mad. Well, it brought a smile to my face!
By the way: if you want an alternative opinion, check out Erik's blog about animal torture and Catholicism. He makes the salient point that those who oppose bullfighting "advocate obscene acts among members of the same sex". Shhh, Erik: you're giving away the whole militant gay/animal rights axis! Check out the rest of his blog, too: it's hilarious.
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Expats against immigration!
The BBC's got a story on how some expats living in Spain are getting involved in Spanish municipal elections. All EU citizens are eligible to vote - or stand - in council elections. I mentioned last week that I'll be voting for the Green/United Left (aka the communists) as they've done a lot to improve both the look and the feel of Cerdanyola.
Much further south (the traditional home of the British expat), people haven't got so much to be grateful for. Successive administrations from the PP, the PSOE and other parties have been criticised for large-scale corruption, especially in their dealings with land and building permissions.
So some Spaniards and ex-pats have united in a party called 'Progreso y Orden' (Progress and Order). The party's platform is to do away with those problems that ruin life in la Vega Baja of Alicante. Problems like corrupt politicians, excessive land speculation, 'delinquency', drug use and... immigration! Unusual as it may seem, non-Spaniards are involved with a Spanish party which is opposed to immigration. As you might have guessed, I smelled a rat. A big fat racist rat.
So I had a look at Progress and Order's homepage (web geek's observation: probably the worst designed website in existence: I had to use Firefox's 'Page info' dialogue to navigate the site!) (Updated: here's the link to their homepage!). When I eventually managed to find the Spanish language 'About us' page, I found out a lot about the founder of Order and Progress. He's called Fernando Gadea. He's an ex Guardia Civil (not that there's anything wrong with that), an 'intelligence expert', an expert in 'electronic security systems', a former Spanish legionnaire and a former municipal official. He spends quite a lot of time talking about himself (even more than I do in my 'About' section), and seems to be your typical ex-military, ex-Guardia, private detective sort of nice chap.
Unfortunately, he forgot to mention one thing on his new party's site which might be of interest to residents of San Fulgenio, as well as the BBC journalists who missed this little tidbit. When he was a 'concejal' (town councillor), he was there as a listed member of España 2000. Those of you who haven't heard of España 2000 can check out its Wikipedia entry which is both accurate and amusing. Other Nazis in Spain consider them to be something of a joke. A splinter-group of theirs is apparently based in Catalonia, and puts up stickers in Cerdanyola which call for the repatriation of 'non-Spaniards' (which we can assume doesn't include wealthy Brits or Germans: the photos all seem to be of Muslims).
So there you go... not exactly surprising that a party called Order and Progress is a bit dodgy. The BBC should probably have done some better research for their story, as it would have been interesting to read a 'Brits and Germans in far-right Spain pact' headline, but never mind. It's also worth noting that not all Brits in Spain are voting for the local equivalent of the BNP. While many expats see fit to spew invective about the 'Asians' back home, there are plenty of us who didn't leave home because we were sick of seeing brown faces everywhere.
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As has been reported on other blogs, British involvement in Spanish politics doesn't stop at San Fulgencio. Bernie Ecclestone, short-arsed owner of the Formula One franchise, has just announced that there'll be a new Grand Prix in Valencia ciutat. But only if the electorate remember to vote PP in the regional elections, as the local party boss is a chum. What a revolting little episode. I'm boycotting it. But good luck, Lewis, anyway!
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FCB-Valencia tonight
I'm really looking forward to this evening's massive game. Not only is it one of the hottest matches of the season but also, I'm going to watch it live at the Camp Nou! I'll try to take some decent photos while I'm there and post them later.
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US involvement in the Madrid coup
I missed a Televisió de Catalunya documentary last night which examined the alleged involvement of the US (or at least the CIA) in the attempted coup of 1981. Briefly, sections of the army and paramilitary police force attempted to re-establish a form of ultra-right wing dictatorship. For one reason or another, King Juan Carlos refused to give his backing to the coup and it failed. The city of Valencia was also placed under military control.
Spanish blogger Aykela has some stuff about the coup, and the alleged conspiracy which included the US Ambassador to Madrid, Terence Todman.
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