Spain Papers Review - Monday October 26 2009
larger | smaller
By h.b. - Oct 26, 2009 - 10:02 AM
The death of Sabino Fernández Campo, the Head of the Royal Household, is well convered in the papers.

El Mundo has a large front page photo of the man, described as a key player in the Royal Household and during the transition to democracy. The 91 year old died last night from a series of complications following an intestinal infection, after being admitted to hospital in Madrid on October 12.
La Razón has a large front page archive photo of King Juan Carlos greeting Sabino Fernández, with the caption, ‘A life in the service of Spain’. The paper says the Earl of Latores dedicated nearly two decade to the Crown.
ABC has a large photo of Sabino Fernández Campo taken last May.

El Mundo headlines that Ricardo Costa, the General Secretary of the Partido Popular in Valencia, is in fact still in his post. The paper says the official act shows that the regional party supports his management, and makes it clear that he will only be removed from his post on a ‘voluntary and temporary basis’, and then only if the PP bosses in Madrid open an internal investigation into the Gürtel affair.

El País has new revelations in the Gürtel case and says that Francisco Correa, the businessman at the centre of the affair, invested his backhander made from the Pope’s visit to Valencia, in business ventures with the ex partner of José María Aznar’s son in law, Alejandro Agag. The paper also claims that the corrupt network spent a million € on the purchase of land.

Público has its own new revelations in the Gürtel case and headlines today that four other of Aguirre’s councilors in the Madrid regional government signed contracts with the corrupt companies. The paper names them and says they backed 51 deals worth 719,000 €. The paper also has an interview with the ex PP councillor who broke the whole case; he tells the paper ‘Esperanza Aguirre called one of Correa’s employees every day’.

As the press has been full of the war between Mariano Rajoy and Esperanza Aguirre in the Partido Popular over the weekend, today El Mundo reports that Aguirre is now looking for consensus on who will be the new Chairman of Caja Madrid.
El País however headlines the quote ‘What Aguirre’s people are doing with Rajoy makes me vomit’. It comes from the Deputy Mayor of Madrid, Manuel Cobo Vega. He goes on to see that he has never seen so much hypocrisy or interventionism.

La Razón headlines that the Government is to cut investment in citizen safety by 46%. The paper says the fund to compensate the victims of terrorism has been reduced by two million €.

Público tells us that ‘supersueldos’ high wages continue in place among top executives in Spain.

La Razón reports that the Catholic Church is to deny communion to politicians who vote in favour of abortion.
ABC leads with the abortion debate and headlines that the Socialist Party will lose 500,000 votes because of their insistence on abortion reform. The paper says that could see them lose power in Castilla La Mancha in 2011. The numbers which show 40% of the party’s supports reject the abortion changes, come from the GAD opinion poll.

In international stories,
El Mundo has an interview with the Chief of the Defence Staff in Spain, General José Julio Rodríguez, who tells the paper that ‘the Spaniards don’t have their hands tied in Afghanistan’. The interview marks 20 years of Spanish participation in such ‘peace’ operations, and the General admits that Afghanistan has proved the most risky.
The paper has an envoy in Baghdad and Javier Espinosa writes today of ‘bits of meat in the gardens of the Hotel Mansur’. He reports on 132 deaths in the city from two car bombs over the weekend.
El País has a front page photo of a column of smoke over the Justice Ministry after the two attacks in Baghdad, which the paper describes as the worst bloodbath in the city for two years.
Público also calls it a blood bath and says that more than 500 people were injured.
Both Barcelona papers, La Vanguardia and El Periódico, lead with the massacre.

El Mundo notes that a spy who had been contracted by Prince Albert of Monaco is now threatening to reveal his secrets.

El País reports that Iran has opened its secret nuclear plant to United Nations inspectors. The paper says they visited the uranium enrichment plant yesterday.

ABC reports that the Spanish tuna fishermen off the coast of Somalia did not get military protection over the summer. The paper says that the P3 Orion plane and the Marqués de la Ensenada ship failed to patrol the area where fishing was taking place between July and September.

Click here for related stories

 mobile |  email this article |  printer friendly page

More Spain Press Review

Readers' comments:
Please keep to the subject. Opinions published here are of our visitors, not the Typically Spanish team. Comments which go against Spanish laws or which are libellous are not allowed. We reserve the right to delete any comment we wish. Placing a comment indicates you have read our terms and conditions and privacy policy.

Por favor, céntrate en el tema. Son las opiniones de los internautas, y no las de Typically Spanish. No está permitido verter comentarios contrarios a las leyes españolas o injuriantes. Reservado el derecho a eliminar los comentarios que consideremos fuera de tema. Escribir un comentario indica que has leído nuestros condiciones de uso y politica de privacidad.

 del.icio.us |  digg |  technorati |  yahoo | Stumble It!
Facebook | Reddit | Newsvine | Meneame | Wikio
Blink | Google | Fresqui | MSN reporters | Live Spaces
My Space | Fark | Mixx | Twitter