Spain Papers Review - Friday October 23 2009
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By h.b. - Oct 23, 2009 - 9:00 AM
El Mundo celebates its 20th anniversary

El Mundo covers the ongoing row on who will be the new Chairman of the Caja Madrid Savings Bank. The paper notes the Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, has asked for the PP leader, Mariano Rajoy, to chose the new Chairman, and that the PP regional leader in the capital, Esperanza Aguirre, has described that as ‘illegal’.
El País leads with the story and headlines that Rajoy faces up to Aguirre and vetos her candidate for the savings bank. The paper says there was a tense meeting between the two, during which Rajoy failed to impose his candidate, ex Minister Rodridgo Rato, to chair the fourth largest bank in the country. El País has a front page photo of Aguirre and her candidate Ignacio González in a car together in Madrid yesterday.
Público dedicates its front page to the subject, and headlines Rajoy decides to stop Aguirre. The paper says that Rajoy has said that he would never accept, under any condition, Ignacio González, as President of the bank.

El Mundo leads with the headline ‘Salgado employs 70 retirees as ‘facilitators’ for credit’.
The paper reports that the Minister for Tax and Economy says that pyme small businesses and the self employed who have not been granted loans can appeal to these professionals, who will then try and convince the banks.
El Mundo notes that the Bank of Spain is obliging the financial sector to increase their reserves ahead of a 2010 excepted to be ‘black’.
El País reports that the Socialists deputies are admitting in private that the PP ‘parliamentary tricks’ won the day against the Minister for Tax and the Economy, Elena Salgado, in the debate on the state budgets in Congress this week.
ABC tells us that the cabinet will today approve another Plan E to create employment, despite the failure of the previous one. The paper says that 5 billion will be spent, although the 8 previous billion only served to mask the unemployment numbers.

El Mundo notes differences of opinion within the Partido Popular on the future of suspended Party Secretary in Valencia, Ricardo Costa. A week after he was obliged to step down the paper says that Arenas and Cospedal have given opposing opinions. The paper has the new revelation that ‘El Bigotes’ was managing the reforms of the pharmacy owned by Camp’s wife.
El País says that Camps has been mocking the affair and has now linked the Socialists to the corruption.
ABC leads with the headline that the Government granted 300 million € to a company which appears in the Gürtel case. The paper says that Camps has said that some of his alleged friends are in reality ‘friends of the Moncloa’.
La Razón has a front page photo of Judge Garzón, and says that lawyers in Valencia have joined the complaints over his actions in the Gürtel case.

ABC notes that the vaccination against the A1H1 vaccinations will start across the country on November 16.

El País reports on the agreement of a new pact to keep the Opel factory in Zaragoza in operation. The new owners Magna has reduced the number of redundancies to 900 at the plant, a number accepted by the unions and the Government. Público notes the deal is for a ten year plan.

ABC has a front page map of Madrid city centre and the caption ‘Closed to traffic because of pollution’. The paper says the city is to stop the movement of vehicles in the centre from 2010 when pollution levels will reach the legal maximum.

La Razón reports on what it says is the lay offensive, and headlines that Cataluña wants to replace Christmas with ‘the Winter Fiesta’. The paper says the Generalitat Catalan Government is preparing a bill which will call Holy Week, the ‘Spring Fiesta’. Meanwhile the Church has launched a new campaign to raise funds, and noted that ten million Catholics go to mass every Sunday.

El Periódico looks at crime in Barcelona, and notes that 17 delinquents were arrested 437 times over a year, and that the three most active criminals were arrested 183 times. 80,000 thefts were reported in the city in 2008, that’s 219 a day on average. The paper notes that the prosecutors want harsher sentences for repeat offenders.

El Mundo celebrates its 20th birthday with a front page photo taken last night of the paper’s editor, Pedro J. Ramírez, with the PP leader Mariano Rajoy on his right, and the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, on his left, during the celebratory party. The paper quotes Zapatero as saying ‘El Mundo has to continue to offer, with the same vigour as it has to now, information and critical opinion on different media.
Rajoy congratulates the paper and says its success over the past 20 years reflects the vigour of the Spain over the time.

In international news,
El País reports on the first contact between Israel and Iran in 30 years. The paper reports that top members of both governments met in Cairo at the end of September.

And finally,
El Mundo has a piece on the new film by the Coen Brothers. The paper says they laugh at themselves with the funny and acid parody of Jews.

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