Spain Papers Review - Friday March 19 2010

Spain Papers Review - Friday March 19 2010
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By h.b. - Mar 19, 2010 - 7:03 AM
Cuts in health services dominate many of the papers today

Público today

El Mundo headlines what it says is the only agreement between the Socialists and the Partido Popular – to pay less for medicines. The paper reports that the Ministry for Health has done a deal with the health regions to cut the spending on pharmaceuticals by 1.5 billion €, and to contain wages and staff numbers.
El País has a photo and headlines that the Health Ministry has achieved the first austerity pact with the regions, and describes it as part of the plan for the sustainability of the system.
La Razón says the measure will avoid bankruptcy, describing it as a drastic crash plan, and says that the state will no longer pay for medicines for minor ailments.

El País headlines that the President of the High Court in Madrid, Francisco José Vieira, who has to decide with two other magistrates on whether to declare as void the evidence recorded in prison by Judge Garzón in the Gürtel case, has ordered that a search be carried out for the hidden microphones.

ABC says that Esperanza Aguirre’s rebellion against the IVA/VAT rise is now extending across the regions controlled by the Partido Popular.
ABC notes too that Catalan Duran Lleida has proposed compensating for the VAT increase with a reduction in the payments to Social Security.
ABC notes too that Aguirre’s health councilor, Juan José Güemes has resigned and is leaving politics, ‘for personal reasons’, and there could be more problems for Aguirre according to Público. The man, Eduardo Tamayo, who allowed the PP to Govern the Madrid region by swapping sides, was refused entry to see Aguirre yesterday. The paper shows him leaving the building and notes he has threatened to spill the beans – ‘Things are not going to stay as they are’, he said.

El Mundo has a photo of a man with his wife watching a bullfight in Zaragoza. The caption tells it all – The man who stole 10 million lives on the charity of an accomplice.
That man is Luis Roldan, the ex Director of the Guardia Civil, who is released today after spending 15 years in prison. The paper says a friend has been paying him 600 € a month, even though the money he diverted from the Guardia Civil remains missing. El Mundo notes that he has married for the third time, to a Russian woman he met on the Internet.
As ABC says, Roldan free – of the money – not a trace. It says there is more than 10 million somewhere.

El Mundo notes that the profits of the savings banks in Spain in January were 46% down on a year ago.

ABC says the new PER agricultural plan will take 200,000 day workers off the unemployment lists by paying more subsidies, although the unions say it will be 300,000, mostly in Andalucía where the Government is under pressure in the polls.

El País notes that Mediapro, the paper’s rival, has been ordered to pay 97 million for the ‘football war’. It’s all over TV rights for football.

In international stories,

Many papers show Sarkozy today who has warned ETA that there will be no mercy. He has increased the maximum term in France for the murder of a policeman from 22 to 30 years. ABC leads with the story and has the headline – ‘Against ETA, no mercy’.
ABC shows Sarkozy at the funeral for the policeman in France.

El País reports that Greece is threatening to go to the IMF, if there is no European rescue soon.

El País says that the EU is demanding Israel put an end to its blockade of Gaza.

And finally
El Mundo reports that’s that the Chávez Government has accused the paper of being ‘a laboratory of racism’.
‘They hate Venezuelans, Caribbean citizens, and Latin Americans’, said the Interior Minister.

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