TAX PAYERS NEW FOUND HONESTY

Just under 35% of tax payers who had previously hidden or lied about their earnings came clean when they filed their tax returns last year, bringing an extra 1.48 billion euros into the government’s coffers. A Finance Ministry spokesman said the reason for their new-found honesty was the tax fraud prevention plan which has been in place since 2004, bringing in a total of 19 billion euros that was previously undeclared.

PP´S SAN GIL HECKLED BY STUDENTS

The president of the Partido Popular in the Basque Country, María San Gil, was violently heckled by some 25 Galician nationalists when she arrived to give a talk at the Economics faculty of Santiago de Compostela University last Tuesday. During the scuffle between the students, two policemen and four bodyguards, one of the latter sustained minor injuries. The students were calling for the Partido Popular to be made illegal “because you are the terrorists” and they also called Sra San Gil a fascist. Sra San Gil gave her talk and was again insulted when she left the faculty. The police have since arrested two students and charged them with insulting and threatening her. Sra San Gil retired from politics for a few months last year while she recovered from breast cancer.

ABANDONED VILLAGE CAUSES A STIR

Hundreds of people rang up after the owner of a tiny abandoned village in Castilla y León, just off the N-122 northeast of Soria, put up the 6,000 square metres of rustic land with three houses, a church and livestock enclosures for sale on the Web, for the princely sum of 48,080 euros. The hamlet has no water or electricity, but the owner said a high tension line is just a kilometre away, and there was plenty of water for a well. No-one has lived in Conejares for more than 70 years. The posting prompted on-line discussions with ideas ranging from creating an agrarian cooperative to getting together a group of 50 people to invest in Conejares and repopulate the village. The bewildered Mayor of nearby Ólvega, on which the hamlet depends, told reporters: “It’s not even a village, it’s just a hillock where there used to be some animal enclosures, and now there’s nothing left.” Now someone else has come forward, claiming ownership of two of the ruined buildings. Ana María Calvo said she believed one belonged to her father and another to her mother. She has managed to unearth a title deed for one of the enclosures which dates back to 1933 and names the owner as a man she thinks was her great-grandfather. Sra Calvo said she knows of other local people who have always believed they owned part of Conejares.

ALICANTE FILM STUDIO INVESTIGATED

The European Commission announced last week that it is to investigate the Ciudad de la Luz film studios in Alicante to determine if funding from the Valencia regional government could have distorted competition between European studios. It follows complaints from two film companies in Europe to the effect that the investment could have violated European regulations on state aid. Brussels said the Ciudad de la Luz complex is wholly owned by a company which is itself owned by the Valencia government through the Sociedad de Proyectos Temáticos de la Comunitat Valencia. In a press statement, the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, said the studios have so far received 200 million euros of public money, and pointed out that the final amount could be higher once construction is complete. The EC said the Spanish authorities’ argument is that the public support was not state aid as a private investor would have invested on the same terms. He said the Commission “doubts that a private investor would have provided 100% funding for such a new large-scale entrant in a competitive market.” Representatives of the Ciudad de la Luz said they have presented all the accounts for the centre to the European Commission to “show that the investment was justified”. The latest Asterix movie, Asterix at the Olympic Games, was shot at the Ciudad de la Luz, and premiered in Spain earlier this month.

SPAIN LOSING ATRACTION FOR INVESTORS

According to a report on Foreign Direct Investment by the Global Policy Council, Spain is rated at the 22nd most attractive country for American investors and the 33rd most attractive one for Asian investors. However, for European investors Spain dropped to 47th place on the list. According to the report, the top ten countries were China, India, the US, the UK, Hong Kong, Brazil, Singapore, the Arab Emirates, Russia and German, in that order. The least attractive were Indonesia, Poland, Central Asia, South Korea and the Czech Republic.

GOVERNMENT WILL NOT RESCUE ´BRICK´ INDUSTRY

Addressing a conference at the Caja Vital savings bank in Vitoria last week, Economics Minister Pedro Solbes said he did not believe the government should come to the rescue of the construction industry, which is currently at a standstill. He said he would welcome any “sensible idea” about easing the crisis as long as it did mean the government substituting the construction and real estate companies “when things go badly”. He said: “I find that very difficult to accept”. When the mortgage crisis began to hit home owners last October, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero asked banks to “keep the financing tap” open to real estate companies which he said generated wealth and a high number of jobs. Last week, Sr Solbes said one way out of the crisis was for the construction companies to build so-called protected housing, equivalent to the UK’s council housing, which were in greater demand than more expensive housing.

RAUL & IKER WITH REAL MADRID FOR LIFE

Real Madrid captain, Raúl González and the club’s goalkeeper, Iker Casillas, both signed new contracts with Real by which they will stay on in administrative posts after they hang up their boots. Neither footballer has ever played for any other club. Their current contracts were due to expire in 2010 and 2011 respectively but they are now effectively linked to the club for life. The deal was made official at a press conference with the players, Real Madrid President Ramón Calderón and Honorary President Alfredo Di Stéfano last Friday. The two are expected to play at least 30 matches a season under the deal. Meanwhile Real Madrid player Guti stirred up the long running controversy about Raúl’s exclusion from the Spanish national side. He said it was shameful that manager Luis Aragonés has not included him in the list of players. Aragonés has also ignored Guti himself for the games against Latvia and Liechtenstein. Guti made the comments in an interview with Antena Tres TV.

CIVIL WAR BULLET REMOVED FROM MANS SIDE

An 88-year-old man was operated on last week to remove a bullet which has been in his left side for the past 70 years. Faustino Olivera was fighting on Franco’s side during the Civil War when he was shot in the ribs on November 11th, 1938, defending his home village of Castillazuelo in Aragon province. He was operated on in Zaragoza at the time, but it seems the doctors overlooked the bullet. He went to the doctor two years ago complaining of a pain in his left side, and was told that the bullet had finally become infected. He is said to recovering well in hospital, and his nephew is the proud owner of the bullet which he describes as an “emotive souvenir”.