Death wish costas
I watch as Guardia Civil officers enter the lively restaurant whilst ignoring the Chinese sellers of bootleg CDs standing in groups outside. Identifying the eatery’s owner they tell him in no uncertain terms that he must stop the live music or he will be closed down.
The officers’ visit leaves tourists and diners crestfallen. They came to enjoy the sub-tropical atmosphere and entertainment. Shaking their heads in silence they look at each other resignedly as the truth sinks in.
Nothing underscores better the reason why tourists are deserting the Costas in their millions. A festering culture of antipathy towards tourism and la dolce vita Spanish-style has set in. Reason seems to have deserted the policy makers.
A fellow diner says: “If their purpose is to return Benidorm to fishing village status they could hardly do it better. There is no need for eastern Mediterranean resorts to pass the brown envelopes in pursuit of high-spending tourists: the Spanish do it unpaid. They are misguidedly reversing the gains of decades.”
HANDING IN THE KEYS
The Poor Man’s Solution
Handing in the keys by hard pressed homeowners unable to meet their mortgage payments can lead to collateral damage that worsens the problem. The banks, the biggest unwilling estate agents in the UK and Spain are not happy. Repossession proceedings are time consuming and expensive. The procedure can take up to three years and there is the additional haemorrhage of lost interest and legal fees.
The legal procedure known as a Dación en Pago may be a better option for the defaulter who may otherwise face years of legal wrangling and even bankruptcy: The outstanding mortgage is still an obligation as are the additional costs in the event of default.
Put simply it means surrendering the keys to the bank by formal declaration before a notary. In return the bank agrees to cancel the balance owing and release the mortgage holder from further liability.
SPANIARDS AIR VIEWS ON CORRUPTION
The El Mundo daily newspaper has been running a series of surveys of its readers to find out what they think of various aspects of national life at the end of the first 30 years of democracy. Some of the results have been very damning, but it's doubtful that the politicians will take much notice of them. Contrary to popular belief, the Spaniards are not indifferent to corruption in high places and know exactly where to place the blame: Socialist politicians, local builders of all political parties and local councils of all political hues. More than 27% said the current Socialist government was more corrupt than the first one under Felipe Gonzalez (24%). Only 14% said the Partido Popular government headed by José María Aznar was corrupt. More than 62% said the politicians were the most corrupt, followed by the judiciary (14.4%) and the media (9%). As for politicians, the most corrupt were those in local government. On the economic front, nearly 60% thought the construction was the most corrupt, followed by the banks (18%). Nearly 80% want to Constitution changed in order to put limits on the nationalist parties while at a local level, the party that gets the most votes should form the local council, doing away with alliances between minority parties. And two thirds of those question said they did not believe that the whole truth about the 2004 Madrid bombings had been told.