Results seen as protest vote against Spain’s José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s handling of the Spanish economy since 2008This article titled “Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for The Guardian on Monday 23rd May 2011 17.28 UTCThe socialist party of Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is licking its wounds after defeat by the conservative opposition People’s party (PP) in municipal and regional elections.In what was widely seen as a protest vote against Zapatero himself and his handling of Spain’s economy, his party lost control of key city halls in places such as Barcelona and Seville while the PP took control of most of the country’s powerful regional governments.The central Castilla La Mancha region, Aragon and the Balearic islands all ejected socialist administrations.“We are aware of the situation that had distanced people from our party and caused them to criticise us with their vote or abstention,” party spokesman José Blanco said.The socialist drubbing came just 10 months before a general election and appeared to clear the way for PP leader Mariano Rajoy to take possession of the prime minister’s Moncloa Palace residence on his third attempt.The voting coincided with the eruption of numerous popular protests against established politics across Spain, with demonstrators camping out in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and in dozens of other cities. A backdrop of 21% unemployment and sluggish growth has spread pessimism throughout Spain as the country struggles to find its feet after the 2008 crash.The socialists lost one in five voters on Sunday, compared to the municipal elections of 2007. Not all those votes were picked up by other mainstream parties, however, and the number of spoilt ballots doubled. But overall turnout was a high 66%.Zapatero is blamed by some for mismanaging a debt crisis that saw Spain on the edge of disaster last year. Others dislike the austerity measures he has since imposed in order to avoid a Portuguese- or Greek-style debacle in Spain.His popularity has plunged since a U-turn last year saw him bring in a strict deficit-cutting plan, which he has pledged to stick to, along with labour and pensions reforms.Markets reacted nervously to the poll result on Monday, pushing up the price of Spanish bonds and pushing down Spanish share prices.The PP urged Zapatero to call a snap general election. “Zapatero and the whole socialist party must reflect on what has happened. Spain cannot waste another year like this,” said the party’s general secretary María Dolores de Cospedal.The one socialist leader to have survived Sunday’s debacle, the head of the Extramadura regional government Guillermo Fernández, also suggested that an early general election might be considered.The socialists must first choose a new leader to take them into those elections, with deputy prime minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and defence minister Carme Chacón as favourites.Party officials said that a timetable for electing the new leader would be set on Saturday.With a general election due in Portugal on 5 June, and with opinion polls showing that socialist prime minister José Sócrates will struggle to hang on to power, the rolling back of leftwing politics that has already taken place in northern Europe now appears to have moved south. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogZapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional electionsRelated posts:Blair to go, now give back the Labour PartyCatalan independence boost after Barcelona voteZapatero says Spain safe from bailout
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Zapatero’s socialists defeated by People’s party in regional elections
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May 23 2011, 12:35pm | Comments »
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Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/21/spain-reveals-pain-over-cuts-and-unemployment
Spain protests: Young protesters in Madrid and beyond have many different demands, but they are united in opposing the Spanish governmentThis article titled “Spain reveals pain over cuts and unemployment” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 21st May 2011 11.59 UTCThe arrival of the table, a battered piece of formica bashed on top of four rough, oversized legs raised a cry of joy. Never mind that anyone on a normal chair would barely be able to see over the top – here was another small triumph of the new Spanish revolution, the gathering of angry Spaniards of all colours, ages and persuasions that is sweeping across the country and beyond its borders.The table that arrived in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square was part of the swirl of creative chaos, naive enthusiasm and pent-up frustration that has transformed it into a makeshift camp for thousand of protesters who call themselves los indignados, the indignant ones.Tents and mattresses, armchairs and sofas, a canteen, portaloos and solar panels have sprung up in a remarkable display of organisational prowess. And the mass of people jostling around, each pursuing their own dream or demand, or just watching others doing the same, seemed more like something transported from the Arab spring in North Africa than from Europe.As the protests continued to swell on Friday, with 60,000 people defying authorities to obey the campaign’s “Take over the square!” slogan in dozens of Spanish cities, and with copycat demonstrations across Europe, the question was whether this was the new May 1968 – a youth-led popular revolt against an establishment deemed to have failed an entire generation.Esther Gutierréz, an elfin 26-year-old, wandered through the crowd with a battered shopping cart full of fruit.“We’ve got so much food we don’t know what to do with it. People just bring it to us for free and it’s wonderful stuff,” she said. “We want real democracy. Not just freedom for bankers. You’re not from the Spanish press, are you? We don’t speak to them.”Cynical and ingenuous by turns, the Madrid protesters and those who last week refused to obey orders to budge from the occupied city squares have torn up the rule book of Spanish public politics. The heavyweights of old – political parties, trade unions and media commentators – are not wanted here.“I was sacked when the Madrid regional government closed down a women’s centre last year when it imposed cuts,” explained Beatriz García as she bashed a small frying pan with a wooden spoon. “The unions didn’t even bother to turn up.”The political parties were worse, she said. “There is no renovation. There is nothing new or different, just two parties who take it in turn to govern because our electoral laws favour them.”Just a week ago Spain was known for the passivity of its citizens as they put up with one of the most depressing eras in recent history. Despite unemployment hitting 21%, widespread spending cuts and a socialist government bound to obey the diktats of Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the financial markets, they had refused to show their pain. Marches, sit-ins or riots were for the French – or British students. The real drama, anyway, was in North Africa. Spaniards stayed at home.All that changed this week as demonstrations organised via Facebook and Twitter became static protests in city squares, mushrooming into something that caught politicians, unions and the media by surprise.While journalists were following the dull routine of campaigning for Sunday’s municipal and regional elections, the steam was beginning to escape from a pressure cooker of discontent.Many Spaniards had told pollsters they were tired of the same, well-known political faces – especially those who are due to be re-elected despite being mired in corruption scandals. Politicians have rarely been held in such disregard, with the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy, of the conservative People’s party, rating lowest. Rajoy seems set to take over after a general election next March.When police forcibly evicted the Madrid demonstrators on Tuesday morning, they came back in even greater numbers later that day. By Friday night authorities had lost the battle to impose rules banning public politics on the day before elections. Police could only look on. “Join us, police officers!” the demonstrators shouted.By the early hours of Friday, it was already elbow-room only in the Puerta del Sol – the square which prides itself on being Spain’s “kilometre zero”, the spot from which all other distances are measured.On the statue of King Carlos III, somebody had pinned a sign that read: “We are anti-idiots, not anti-politicians.” Other placards read: “We aren’t against the system, we want to change it”, “Democracy, a daily fight”, and “Take your money out of the bank!”“We’ve brought tents, food and even Trivial Pursuit to keep us entertained,” said Pablo Cantó, a fresh-faced 23-year-old journalism student. Like many younger protesters, and the movement as a whole, he had trouble expressing exactly why he was here. “We want change,” he said. “Things just can’t carry on as they are.”The heavy clouds of cannabis smoke suggested others had brought their own form of entertainment.“I’ve been protesting for decades,” said 60-year-old school teacher Rosa Marín. “I’m glad to see so many young people here. The questions is this: Is this another May 1968, or are they just here for the party?”A gang of drunken skinheads, mindlessly chanting football terrace slogans, were there for the latter.But a neat, disciplined circle of people intently debating social reform showed many were here in earnest. They took turns to stand up and make their proposals, the audience listening and using the sign language applause of the deaf – by shaking their hands above their heads – to show approval without drowning the speakers out.The proposals, due to make their way through a laborious process of committees, working parties and general assemblies, varied from calls for less spending on the military to helping businesses. “Because it is not just money for the owners. They are the ones who give people like us jobs,” said one young man.For some younger protesters, it was a political baptism. “I don’t know what will come out of this, but it is enough just to show everyone how upset we are,” explained Javier de Coca by phone from the protest camp in Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya, where there was a surprising absence of the nationalist or separatist symbols of protest movements in recent years.“It’s as if they’ve realised they have more serious problems to deal with,” said one protester. One of those problems is 45% youth unemployment.On a wall beside the tarpaulin-covered command centre in what some were calling Madrid’s “Republic of Sol” – home to a press office, an infirmary and a legal centre – a list of needs had been pinned up. Toilet paper and food were scratched off the list. Bookshelves, wood, rubber gloves and bottles of cooking gas were on it. Volunteers were needed for a creche.“We process the proposals and try to turn them into something that makes legal sense,” explained a volunteer at the legal centre.However, the open assemblies are painfully slow. Some last for hours, as everybody is given their turn to speak. After almost a week of protests, the demonstrators have failed to come up with a coherent set of demands.Electoral reform to end the two-party system and action to both punish corrupt politicians and limit their luxuries and privileges were the main areas of agreement.So is the Arab spring spreading to southern Europe? “You can’t really compare us to people who were risking their lives by protesting,” said 23-year-old computer engineer Jaime Viyuela. “But yes, you can say that we are inspired by the courage of the Arab spring.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogSpain reveals pain over cuts and unemploymentRelated posts:Zapatero says Spain safe from bailoutProtest march against coalition cuts expected to attract 300,000Anti-cuts campaigners plan to turn Trafalgar Square into Tahrir Square
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May 21 2011, 8:54am | Comments »
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Catalan independence boost after Barcelona vote
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/04/11/catalan-independence-boost-after-barcelona-vote
Nine out of 10 of voters in Barcelona backed independence for Catalonia.
This article titled “Catalan independence boost after Barcelona vote” was written by Giles Tremlett in Madrid, for The Guardian on Monday 11th April 2011 17.08 UTC Campaigners for Catalan independence claim they have made significant advances after one in five people in the region’s capital city, Barcelona, backed a call for a separate state in Sunday’s unofficial referendum. Although the vote was organised by volunteers and had no legal standing, organisers said it had pushed the issue of independence further into mainstream political debate in this wealthy and populous north-eastern Spanish region. Alfred Bosch, spokesman for the organising committee, was happy with the 21% turnout. “We could never, even in our wildest dreams, have imagined a turnout like this,” he said. Nine out of 10 of those who took part backed a separate state, reflecting an overall 20% support for independence seen in similar votes held in hundreds of Catalan towns and villages over the past 18 months. Among key politicians reported to have voted in favour of independence was the regional prime minister, Artur Mas, of the nationalist Convergence and Union coalition. “This marks a change in the political cycle,” Felip Puig, a senior member of Mas’s government, told the Catalan language newspaper Ara. Critics accused Mas of being a “Sunday separatist” as his party has indicated it would not back a vote calling for independence in the Catalan regional parliament on Wednesday. Some observers claimed Mas was using the referendum to put pressure on the central Spanish government of Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero amid a bruising battle over funding of the Catalan government. The regional government, which is in charge of major services such as education, health and policing, must cut spending to help Spain meet its deficit reduction targets this year. Mas has vowed to negotiate a new and exclusive fiscal deal with Madrid. Anti-Madrid sentiment has been on the increase in Catalonia ever since the constitutional court last year struck out parts of a new autonomy charter for the region that had been approved at a legal referendum. Non-separatists pointed out that the weekend referendum in Barcelona showed the vast majority of Catalans were not interested enough in independence to take part. Spain’s constitution does not allow for the independence of any of the 17 regions into which it is divided. Constitutional change requires the approval of two-thirds of the deputies in the Spanish parliament and two-thirds of the people at a national referendum. Both of Spain’s two largest parties, the governing socialists and the opposition People’s party, oppose the independence of Catalonia. They jointly account for 323 of the 350 votes in parliament.
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April 11 2011, 12:16pm | Comments »
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Golden rower Tom James forces his way back into Olympic reckoning
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/25/rower-tomjames-olympicgames-boatrace
A Welshman Tom James heads the British squad‘s internal rankings for the boat race at the London 2012 Olympic games.
This article titled “Golden rower Tom James forces his way back into Olympic reckoning” was written by Martin Cross, for The Guardian on Wednesday 16th March 2011 15.33 UTC Tom James, one of the men who took a fours gold medal in Beijing, has made a dramatic return to the sport by heading the rankings of the British squad’s internal races, held last weekend. The Welshmen took a year out after Beijing 2008 and missed the 2010 season after an operation for a back injury. But the 27-year-old, who is still intent on forcing his way into the team’s top boat in 2012, surprised with his performance. On this form, it is likely that James could have a major influence on the shape of the British Olympic team. James will now be teamed up with Alex Gregory, a former fours world champion, who also came well in well in the internal series of races. Remarkably, though the two men have not raced together before, they share the same age and birthday. Britain’s chief coach, Jürgen Gröbler, will be hoping that this new combination will have enough synchronicity and dynamism to challenge his top pair of Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed – who were told by Gröbler to sit out the trials. But despite being the anchor men of the British squad, since 2004, Triggs-Hodge and Reed – also Olympic champions – have recently suffered 12 straight defeats at the hands of New Zealand’s top pair. Now, Gröbler will hope that the new partnership of James and Gregory may just be the combination, either to beat Triggs-Hodge and Reed or push them hard enough to help them find more speed for the 2011 season. The 38-year-old Greg Searle is also a man in search of more speed. The Barcelona Olympic champion wants a second gold in 2012 but found the pace tough last weekend. While his physiology is still developing well, Searle knows he must be fully focused on delivering a better result in the next crucial trials race, now just four weeks away.
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March 25 2011, 3:37pm | Comments »
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Divine decadence
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/21/divine-decadence
Glass of absinthe in hand, Jonathan Glancey takes the Eurostar to Paris to explore the art nouveau movement’s sinuous roots.
This article titled “Divine decadence” was written by Jonathan Glancey, for The Guardian on Saturday 11th March 2000 17.51 UTC In 1900, curators from the Victoria & Albert Museum took themselves to Paris to shop at the great Exposition Universelle held that year in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and along the banks of the Seine. The V&A team was not alone. More than 48m came to see the show that year. It was a marvel, featuring dual-speed travelators to take the millions around the expansive site and the African villages that with their exotic peoples and artworks inspired the young Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques. Cubism was on the way. But, what the V&A team came to see and collect for their grand pantechnicon of the decorative arts back in South Kensington, that most Frenchified part of London, were examples of art nouveau design. As a result of their trip, the V&A boasts one of the finest collections of art nouveau. This, and much more drawn from other collections, is about to go on show in what promises to be a superb blockbuster, Art Nouveau 1890-1914, curated by the V&A’s Paul Greenhalgh on its own highly decorative turf from April 6. The V&A’s role was important in the development of this florid, serpentine, self-consciously “aesthetic” style. We know that, among art nouveau designers, Emile Galle, Victor Horta and Odon Lechner visited the museum in search of inspiration. Art nouveau is loosely associated in British minds with Paris Metro entrances, the Biba fashion stores of 1970s London, and perhaps something to do with Oscar Wilde, absinthe, Aubrey Beardsley, lilies, sexy ladies writhing around lampstands and poor Ernest Dowson, the “decadent” poet whom everyone loved but of whom W B Yeats said he could imagine no world at any time in history in which Dowson would have been a success. In fact, art nouveau was an international phenomenon that raised its serpentine head in many of the great and, if not great, then industrious towns and cities of Europe, from Paris and Brussels, via Lille and Nancy, to Barcelona and then across to Turin, Venice and Vienna, back up through the Low Countries to Scandinavia and Finland. In Italy, the style was known as Stilo Liberty, in Austria and Germany as Jugendstijl, in Barcelona as Modernista. We can also include the styles known variously as National Romanticism in Scandinavia and, to a limited extent, Arts & Crafts in Britain. There is, though, very little full-blooded indigenous art nouveau in Britain. Did I hear you sigh with relief? But, if you are inspired by the V&A exhibition, where might you travel to see more? How can you pick from such a wide range of places? Let’s make it easy(ish). Sit down for a glass of absinthe or ask for a weak hock and seltzer at the Black Friar, the delightfully unspoilt art & crafts pub (H Fuller Clark, 1905) at 174 Queen Victoria Street near Blackfriars Station in the City of London. Suitably fortified, a bracing walk across the Thames will have you on board a Eurostar train bound for Paris and Brussels (and Nancy too) and on a long weekend’s tour of art nouveau architecture. You will have seen the objets d’art at the V&A. Now for the buildings. Don’t worry. This tour doesn’t have to be a marathon. It can be gently decadent. There is not a building coming up in the next few paragraphs that isn’t within a louche slouch from a café or bar. In fact you couldn’t do better than taking coffee at the Café Falstaff (E Houbion, 1903), 17-19 rue Henri Maus. Now you are within reasonably easy reach (no problems with public transport in Brussels) of some of the finest art nouveau houses of all. There’s the Solvay House, 224 Avenue Louise, built between 1895 and 1900 to the design of Victor Horta. This is the art nouveau master’s best house. Carriages once drove through the sinuous doors into the grand lobby where a top-lit stair ushered family and guests up into a suite of highly-decorated rooms, each last square millimetre worked over by the architect. A strange and impressive interior with its vegetable-like ironwork, pale orange and green paintwork, its swirling organic forms framed with a disciplined plan, the Solvay House is at the heart of art nouveau consciousness. Nearby, you’ll find the more restrained, though equally impressive, Horta House, 23-25 rue Americaine (1898-1911), designed by the architect as his own home and studio. The dining room with its shiny white-glazed tiles (the sort we associate with Victorian public lavatories) and snaking ironwork is a very strange place to sit, more like a station waiting room than a place to eat en famille. Other Horta buildings are the Waucquez department store (1906) and the Van Eetvelde House (1895-97). Back to the station. But before boarding the Paris train, pass by the nutty Saint-Cyr House, 11 square Ambiorix (Gustave Strauven, 1900). Children like this one. It is four storeys high but just one bay wide, in other words very thin, and quite bonkers. Each floor is a visual riot of swirly-whirly ironwork and gloriously over the top detailing. Richer than a Belgian chocolate. Paris. Take the Metro to Porte Dauphine (1898-1901). This station has the best of the surviving art nouveau Metro entrances that were for many years taken for granted and have now all but disappeared. They were commissioned in 1896 from Hector Guimard, a disciple of Victor Horta. Each boasts snaky graphics, The Day the Earth Stood Still ironwork and glazed canopies that resemble butterfly wings. They are painted an if-you-go-down-to-the-woods-today green. Odd but utterly, ‘ow you say, charming. Into town now for le shopping at, well, how about La Samaritaine, rue de la Monnaie, the great department store designed originally by Frantz Jourdain in art nouveau style in 1891-1907? This delightful courtyard building remains a pleasure to shop in, and you can climb to the roof for a view of tout Paris. Lots of twiddly ironwork. Yet, if it’s importantly-earnest ironwork you seek after lunch, let me recommend you the superb offices of Le Parisien Libéré, 124 rue Reamur, (Georges Chedanne, 1903-4), a handsome pile of iron and glass with flourishes of art nouveau decadence in the upper floors. Pevsner would have said that this is a precursor of the Modern Movement. As for you, you shrug your shoulders, take a pastis and carry on unconcerned. Aux Parisiennes. If you had a spare couple of days, a serpentine TGV would speed you due east to Nancy and back. Here, there are many art nouveau villas, but these have the look of Gaudi more than Horta about them, and so are well worth the trip. Antoni Gaudi, secular patron saint of Barcelona, was one of the most original architects of all time. He was certainly no decadent and is rather a different decorative kettle of fish from the “aesthetic” art nouveau designers of France and Belgium. His influence in Nancy can be seen in the wonderful, Hansel-and-Gretel Villa Marjorelle, 1 rue Louis Marjorelle (Henri Sauvage, 1901-2). The Addams family would have loved it. The weird balconies waving from the body of the house, the witch’s hat roofs, the tall, vegetable-like chimneys. The craftsmanship is superb. If you like houses with fairytale looks, don’t fail to pass along rue des Brices. This is the Villa des Glycines (Emile Andre, 1902). Underneath the beetling brow of its deep eaves, it has eyes, a nose and a big nord-et-sud. The “glycines” or wisteria, by the way, grows up around either side of the big mouthed window like a pair of sweet-smelling moustaches. There are plenty more art nouveau houses in Nancy, and anyway it’s good to have the excuse to stroll around a city that few tourists bother with. Just before we return to Paris, remember to pass by the Hermant House, 25 rue de Malzeville (Jacques-René Hermant, 1904) and the Villa Marguerite, 3 rue du Colonel-Renard (Gutton and Hornecker, 1905). Back in Britain, there just isn’t much art nouveau to see. Architecture, I mean. There are a few oddities such as the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1899-1901), east London and the Horniman Museum (1896-1900), south-east London, both by Charles Harrison Townsend, but the interiors are muted even though what you’ll see on show at both is never a disappointment. Back to the grand corridors and galleries of the V&A. And dreams of future trips planned to perhaps Vienna (the works of Klimt, Olbrich, Hoffmann), Barcelona (Gaudi), Prague, Budapest, Moscow… The tentacles of art nouveau spread far and wide. Enough to keep those with a taste for Lalique, Daum Frères and Tiffany glass, Mucha posters, Hoffmann cutlery and chairs by the decidedly decadent Rupert Carabin deep in timetables and maps for the next few years. And should you, like so many Brits, find art nouveau a little hard on the eyes, a small tincture of the right stuff might help you to see its fronds and curls more kindly. Absinthe, after all, makes the heart grow fonder. The practicals Magic Cities (020 8728 7575) offers city breaks travelling on Eurostar. One night in Paris at the 3 star Hotel Veronese from £99 (extra night £20). One night in Brussels at the 3 star Van Belle from £115 (extra night £25).
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March 21 2011, 4:40pm | Comments »
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