From typicallyspanish.com
Spain Papers Review - Friday May 2 2008
By h.b.
May 2, 2008 - 9:36 AM
El Mundo leads with what it describes as the inclination of the Constitutional Court to allow Cataluña to be described as a nation in the preamble to the Catalan statutes. The paper says the court can allow it as it has no legal value when merely in the preamble to the document, but that the Court is likely to reject the relationship between Spain and Cataluña being referred to as ‘bilateral’.
El Mundo also notes that the PP has offered a deal to the PSOE Socialists over the Citizenship classes in Spain. They want what they see as ideological contents to be dropped in exchange.
El Mundo covers the continued unrest in the opposition Partido Popular where it reports that a group of party conference delegates are demanding a democratic regeneration of the party. They want to see a system of primary elections to choose the party leader and heads of the candidate lists.
El País picks up on the theme and leads today with the news that some PP deputies are reported to be supporting Eduardo Zaplana to make a challenge on the leadership of the party. The paper says the group is more than 30 deputies. However Zaplana has said he is leaving politics for a while, to work, for ten times the wage for Telefónica.
ABC leads with the story and says that the previous Prime Minister, José María Aznar is ‘very worried’ and has called on party veterans to bring stability to the party. The paper claims that Aznar has not spoken to Rajoy since the General Election
The El Mundo photo sees a demonstration in Lérida where farmers are demanding water for their crops. The paper says some 2,000 people took part in the protest yesterday.
Despite the financial crisis, the trade unions are reported in El Mundo to reject the idea of any moderation in their salary increases.
El País tells us that the number of people to die on Spain’s roads in April was under 200 for the fourth consecutive month. In the first four months of the year 169 fewer people died compared to last year at the same time.
Público considers that the PP President of the Madrid region, Esperanza Aguirre, has taken over the May 2 celebrations in the capital as her own. As the 200th anniversary of the Spanish war of independence against the French is celebrated, she has ordered that opposition parties be excluded from the commemorative acts.
Few international stories in the Spanish papers today.
El País reports that the rich in Bolivia do not trust the country’s President Evo Morales. The paper tells us that a referendum on autonomy in Santa Cruz is putting the unity of the country in danger.
ABC notes that the PP and Spanish military associations are asking for explanations as to why the navy was ordered not to act against the Somali pirates who had kidnapped the Spanish tuna fishing boat.
El País has more details on the monster for Amstetten. It says that Josef Fritzl had threatened to gas the occupants of his basement if they tried to escape, and also that it has emerged that Fritzl was jailed for rape in 1969.
And finally, back in Spain,
ABC has a photo of the fountain in Cibeles in Madrid which the paper says has ‘suffered’ another May 1. Among the people to climb all over her yesterday, and shown in a front page photo, a man waving two flags – one for the PKK and another republican flag.