FREE!
costa calida EDITION
Your English Newspaper
roundtownnews.com
Make Murcia a fracking free zone, say the IU-Verdes
EQUO denounce that the new license granted for drilling in Murcia is the second license, not the first p6
Annual bird migration study underway in the Isla Grosa 80% of these tiny travellers weigh less than 20 grams p15
UK unveils exchange of information agreement with France, Germany, Italy and Spain
p34
Sailing Association Mar Menor The racing season opened last Sunday. p58
Should boxing be boxed off? Boxer Michael Norgrove passed away last Saturday as a result of injuries sustained in the ring nine days earlier, Andrew James reopen the debate as to the safety of boxing as a sport p63
Issue 24
12 - 18 APRIL 2013
Noisy escraches in 40 cities across Spain by Murciatoday.com
A row has broken out in Murcia following claims that protestors called President Valcárcel a murderer outside his home on Saturday On Tuesday night PAH, the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca, which is an organisation dedicated to fighting evictions across Spain, orchestrated noisy ‘escraches’ outside the headquarters of the PP in 40 Spanish cities in protest against evictions. These escraches are the latest “protest craze” and have attracted controversy in the last few days as various members of political parties at both local and national level have been hassled in front of their homes by the protestors. The larger scale protests took place in cities such as Madrid, the PP headquarters in Calle de Génova cordoned off with a strong police presence ahead of the hour set for the protest on the social networks. Helicopters were also on standby to give aerial vigilance should the protest disintegrate into social disorder. “The PP has to listen to the voice of the public, they can choose to accept the demands of the public or continue to perpetuate a situation which dooms thousands of people to civil These death, “ the protestors said, as well as shouting, “Sí, attacks are se peude” a chant which has become synonymous attracting controversy with the activities of PAH. In Cartagena 40 people protested in front of PP headquarters, although Cartagena council made paperwork, or expressing an interest in taking on public the news on Wednesday that in spite of the one of the properties prior to the date of the first publicised plan to grant housing from the FSV, So- allocations on 1st April. The lawyers College have said that an estimated cial housing fund, to those without homes, that within the Cartagena municipality, the banks had 150 evictions have taken place annually in their juonly made 7 individual homes available for FSV dicial area, which covers Cartagena, La Unión and allocation. However, not one family had applied Fuente Álamo. The escraches have been taking place at both to the council ( via the municipal institute of social services) for help in preparing the necessary local and national level, including here in Murcia,
Photo courtesy of www.murciatoday.com and on Saturday protestors accosted the President of the Region of Murcia, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, in front of his own home in Murcia. This incident has provoked a fair amount of media coverage, as the President asserts that he was called a “murderer” by the protestors, although PAH Murcia refute this claim and have gone as far as calling the president a liar, and demanded his resignation. Continued on page 15