From typicallyspanish.com
Spain Papers Review - Monday March 17 2008
By h.b.
Mar 17, 2008 - 9:49 AM
El País leads with the fight against town planning corruption and reports that a third of the luxury hotels on Lanzarote are in fact illegal. The paper says the Canary Island courts have cancelled the licences for 22 complexes.
El Mundo leads today with the headline that 55% of Partido Popular voters want ‘a harder opposition’ from Mariano Rajoy. The number comes from an opinion poll carried out by Sigma Dos for the newspaper. The paper says that only 20% of the electors want a ‘more gentle’ attitude.
The poll also showed that 71% of PP voters wanted Rajoy to remain as party leader, and that 31% of Spaniards consider the PP lost because of Rajoy.
Staying with politics, El Mundo has an interview with Rosa Díez, the ex Socialist Euro MP who set up a new centrist party and the last election and won a seat. She is quoted as saying that another political force is needed to defend national unity as an instrument for equality.
ABC leads with the headline that the Socialist Party now considers the equality law they introduced as a failure, and are planning modifications. The paper says that a year after it coming into force the composition of Parliament, with 126 women and 224 men has shown it to be useless – and in addition women directors are earning less.
ABC also has an interview with the leader of the Socialist party in the Canaries. López Aguilar tells the paper that the Government has good reasons for a new relationship with a new PP.
ABC also notes plans between left wingers IU and the Catalan republicans ERC, both of whom suffered at the election, to join forces and form a single group in Congress.
El Mundo notes on the attack by 200 residents of a village in Extremadura on a family which had been terrorising the village.
El Mundo has a large front page photo of members of the red cross attending to some immigrants who arrived on a Cayuco in the early hours of yesterday at Los Cristianos on Tenerife.
The paper says that three civil guards are under investigation to see if they had punctured the life saving ring after an immigrant died off Ceuta. The paper says after intercepting the man on a lie-low they allegedly threw him back in the water with the defective floating device which had been punctured with a knife.
El País reports that Spain is no longer the El Dorado for immigrants, because of the current economic crisis. It comes after 1.3 million immigrants have joined the Spanish workforce over the past four years.
As the drought continues across Spain, La Vanguardia reports that seven tankers will bring water into Barcelona port from Tarragona and Marseille.
In international news:
El País reports that the protests against China have now extended outside Tibet. The paper says the Dalai Lama has called for an international investigation into what he called ‘cultural genocide’.
ABC reports that their special envoy was told ‘best come back in the summer’ when he was based in Xiahe.
El Mundo covers the French local elections and notes that Sarkozy is paying the price at the ballot box for his fall in popularity.
El País says the French right has suffered a harsh setback in the municipal elections. The paper says the Socialist have won back Toulouse after 37 years and have also triumphed in Strasbourg.
La Vanguardia in Barcelona, leads with the defeat of Sarkozy and has a picture of him on the front page.
Público shows a photo of Sarkozy with Rajoy, and headlines ‘Sarkozy also loses’.
El País has a front page photo of `The white tide for peace’ – More than 100,000 people dressed in white, singing and dancing on the border between Colombia and Venezuela – The peace on the frontier concert saw top pop stars such as Juanes, Alejandro Sanz, Carlos Vives and Miguel Bosé. The paper says there were no political speeches or politics – just music.
Back in Spain and looking at Sport, El Mundo has a small photo of Fernando Alonso who managed 4th in Melbourne in the first gran prix of the season, won by Hamilton. El País says that after the race Alonso said that everything in the car needed improvement.
ABC has a front page photo from the race, with a car flying through the air. Alonso missed the hold-up, says ABC, and arrived fourth.
El País also notes that Barcelona on closed the gap on Real Madrid by one point after drawing in Almería.
And finally,
El País reports that at the start of Holy Week, the BBC has caused controversy by suggesting that Jesus Christ was crucified in the foetal position.