Global swanning

Cassandra Nash

OPPOSITION leader, the Partido Popular’s Albero Nuñez Feijoo accused Pedro Sanchez of “paying homage to autocrats” at the recent Ibero­American summit.

It was unclear which autocrats the president of Spain’s government fawned over, as Venezuela’s undeniably autocratic president Nicolas Maduro was absent, although the country was represented at the summit.

Likewise Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s former revolutionary­turned­dictator. Instead, the country’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada listened with gritted teeth as Chile’s president Gabriel Boric condemned Ortega’s decision to strip 94 Nicaraguan writers, journalists and human rights activists of their nationality. Cuba was present naturally, but Spain has always had a co­dependent relationship with Cuba and Franco, a Galician like Fidel Castro, maintained friendly relations with Cuba . Castro reciprocated with three days’ mourning when Franco died in November 1975.

Former PP president Jose Maria Aznar was once photographed with Fidel Castro and another PP president Mariano Rajoy, who participated in Ibero­American sum­ mits, reprimanded socialist president Jose Luis Zapatero’s for missing the 2010 Argentina meeting during the economic crisis.

Notably present at the Santo Domingo meeting was Spain’s head of state, King Felipe, also presumably kowtowing to the Latin American autocrats.

Moncloa ­ Spain’s equivalent of Downing Street ­ was quick to respond, counter­accusing Feijoo of “ignorance” as well as “insolvency” and “bad faith.”

Feijoo is unlikely to lose much sleep over any of this.

As the local and regional elections approach, the PP leads the PSOE in most polls, apart from the Centre for Sociological Investigation (CIS) whose president Jose Felix Tezanos is a Sanchez fan. CIS predictions consistently contradict other polls, including that of the largely pro­government daily, El Pais.

As Spain prepares to take over the sixmonth European Council presidency on July 1, Pedro Sanchez is currently here, there and everywhere, not only in Santo Domingo but also Beijing.

He admittedly cuts an imposing figure but not only PP voters are tired of his global swanning and their PSOE counterparts increasingly fail to share the CIS’s confidence.

Hi Euro Weekly LETTERS

I thought your viewers would like to hear my experience with Spain’s bus services. My wife who had a stroke in July and now uses a wheelchair wanted to go to Fuengirola for the day on the bus. Local people said the bus was very good for disabled people, so we set off. The bus pulled up, driver said no and left without us. So I pushed the wheelchair into La Cala. The next bus driver also said no. I asked if I could use the ramp. He said not possible, so two unknown men offered to lift the wheelchair onto the bus. The driver said ok however the same thing happened on the way home. A man came over to me and lifted my wife onto the bus. What I can’t understand stand is why a bus has a disabled logo on the side then you are told you can’t use a wheelchair. Anybody had the same experience as us? My wife and I are both 76 years old.

Regards Jeff & Maureen Milner, Alcantara

Hi Leapy

Unfortunately I am back in the UK for a while due to this ridiculous 90­day rule because my lovely lady has Parkinson’s and thought she would be treated better in the UK. She wouldn’t sign up to being a Spanish resident although we had lived in Spain for circa 13 years and paid all our non­resident taxes and everything we were asked to pay, but I love her so much I agreed. Possibly a mistake, but as they say love is blind. Now I have a gallbladder full of stones, an enlarged prostate which keeps me going to the toilet all night and a hernia that has reappeared after 30 years like a duck’s egg sticking out of my groin. Of course when I went to my doctor’s surgery after paying my National Insurance non­stop since I started work at the age of 15 and on April 6 I will be 75, there wasn’t a chance in hell of it being repaired, so on the 19th I go in to a private hospital here to get it sorted and will leave hopefully ok, but £3,500 lighter. We have also spent a bloody fortune on private health care in Spain so we wouldn’t be a burden on the system but of course it is a repair so not covered. Had it been a new hernia I would have been straight in to San Carlos and it would have been sorted now. I am sure I have bored you beyond belief but actually the whole purpose of this email was for me to see if you could find out who signed off the paperwork to enable that vile scum Glitter to go straight in front of people who have been waiting for months if not years and have a private room and have a very expensive op (at taxpayer’s expense) to have his knees operated on. I myself feel he should have been so far down the waiting list that he would have been long dead before he was called up and hoped he had suffered more pain than those poor children that he abused, it just beggars belief Leapy. Now I know as you say you get so many people contacting you that you can’t reply and I fully understand that but it would be nice to read in the EWN that at least you have voiced your opinion on this. Keep up the good work and although we are back in the UK for a little while we always check your opinions on line and 99 per cent of the time agree with you entirely.

Joe

Dear Sirs

I have just read with great interest your article on applying for a blue badge. I started the process for applying for a blue badge for my husband in February 2020 and he finally received it in December 2022, which is two months short of three years and nothing actually went wrong. Your article seems to imply that your doctor can declare you as having at least a 33 per cent disability. This is not the case. You have to have an interview at the Centro de Valoracion y Orientacion in Malaga. You have to apply for this interview submitting all of your relevant medical history. After submitting the application we waited for this appointment for over two years.

Then several months after the interview for them to award their decision, then we were able to start the process for applying for the blue badge. Never in all of this procedure were we asked to provide passport photos. I have actually heard that the process is now taking even longer. I cannot help noticing recently that there are many unoccupied disabled parking spaces. I presume this is down to the virtually impossible task of actually obtaining a blue badge.

Kind regards

Valerie Neal, Mijas Costa

Just a thought

Lanzarote’s president has a point. Spain’s tourist image is damaged by an irresponsible minority.

For many decades, excessive drunkenness by certain British tourists has been a problem in Spain. The consequences can range from loud, juvenile groups at the next table in a restaurant to fights, vomiting and vandalism in public areas.

This behaviour can ruin a night out or even a holiday for more mature holidaymakers and is an unacceptable inconvenience for local residents.

Other nationalities don’t necessarily drink less than these Brits; the point is that they generally handle it better ­ possibly because they are in better mental and physical health.

David R Worboys