Culture and Dysfunction

One of the things I love best about living in Begur is participating in the local festivities, of which there are many. Last weekend was a celebration of the famous Flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya, who was born in Barcelona, but who adopted Begur as her hometown later in life and died here in 1963. She has been called the greatest Flamenco dancer of all time. She was a gypsy and the first female to master some of the most intricate footwork performed by male dancers. On November 2, 2023, Google celebrated her 110th birthday with a Google Doodle. Bet you didn’t guess that one!

The celebration included a flamenco performance. Here’s a clip, though you can’t see the feet (the most important part) because I’m short (duh) and couldn’t see over the heads in front of me.

The prior weekend, the Scooter Club of Begur’s 50 km ride had a big sendoff from the Square. Not Easy Rider!

Political dysfunction knows no boundaries. It is epitomized here in Spain by the recent plight of the national government, which was basically in limbo for four months, similar to the recent situation in the U.S. House of Representatives. I’ve tried to provide a concise account as I see it, based on various sources. This is definitely overly simplified, but hopefully true as far as it goes.

Spain’s snap general election this past July failed to produce a majority in Congress for either the Spanish left or right. A sweeping majority for the center-right party had been forecast by political pundits and polls, but results of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party surprised Spain and forced a political stalemate. Hung parliaments have become the norm in recent years due to the fragmentation of Spain’s politics and the emergence of new parties challenging the dominance of the major left and right parties.

Each side began political jockeying, seeking votes for an absolute majority in Spain’s Congress of Deputies. The process is a parliamentarian investiture by which the head of government is indirectly elected by the Congress of Deputies. In practice, the prime minister is almost always the leader of the largest party in the Congress.

Sánchez and the Socialists on the left had the most realistic chance of reaching the votes necessary to govern, but to get to that number, Sánchez had to cobble together support from the far-left party and smaller regional parties, including the Catalan separatist party led by Carles Puigdemont. Puigdemont was the leader of the failed Catalan independence bid in 2017, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since that time. The separatists’ main demand in return for their votes to renew Sánchez’s term as prime minister, was amnesty for the leaders of that failed independence bid.  Sánchez agreed and proposed an amnesty law, saying it was necessary “in the name of Spain, in the interest of Spain and in defense of coexistence among Spaniards.” Sánchez had previously opposed such a move, but he agreed to amnesty now, despite major protests by the right. Most see this as his determination to stay in power at all costs. Lawsuits filed against the amnesty law will have to go through different courts until finally reaching the Constitutional Court of Spain, and, eventually, the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Sánchez was re-elected as Prime Minister on November 16, 2023, though the country remains deeply divided. The amnesty law is wildly unpopular, with over half of the citizens of Spain against it, and even many in Catalunya are not in favor of it. On the other hand, the failure of the right wing to win a clear majority in July represented a rejection of its proposed policies of rolling back laws on gender violence, LGBTQ rights, abortion, and euthanasia.

The 51-year-old Sánchez, known as “Mr Handsome” at the start of his political career, has had to play a delicate balancing act to stay in power. His current situation is “the most complicated he has ever known” because he will have to govern across a wide range of political parties.

Below on the left, Sánchez is voted in; on the right over 100,000 in Madrid protest the proposed amnesty…

For those with a knowledge of Spanish, this Huffington Post headline seems clever, a play on words meaning the investiture was hard: UNA INVESTI-MUY-DURA.

I’m having a sunrise/sunset battle of photos with a friend who lives in Begur. She has a different view than I do. She looks West and I look East. The oranges vs the pinks!