Why I Won't Be Voting for the IU

Not that I can vote here. But if I could, the fact that crews began setting up a stage for the IU (United Left party) campaign kickoff in the plaza outside our apartment at 4am, with much pounding and hammering, would make me think twice. And the fact that they hired what can only be described as a Spanish hair band—one whose guitars were screeching well into the night—to attract the youth vote would certainly give me pause. But then, a bit after midnight, Gaspar Llamazares and other party leaders got up on stage, held hands and swayed back an forth to their anthem, which I had hoped would be the Internationale, but sounded suspiciously like a Spanish version of "We are the World."

Doh!

Not as bad as "Let them eat cake," but right up there. When Zapatero went on tv last night to answer questions live from ordinary Spaniards (a first for Spanish prime ministers), he made only one gaff. It was just an especially bad one. Asked what a cup of coffee costs by an otherwise not-very-coherent man intent on proving that the government was at fault for rising euro prices (note the cultural difference: in the US he would have been asked the price of a quart of milk), ZP made the mistake first of answering, and then of answering wrong: 80 cents. As someone who just yesterday paid 1.30 for a tiny shot of espresso, I knew he had just got himself into a mess of trouble. And sure enough, all the headlines today are gloating over the Socialist prime minister's clear estrangement from the people.

Still, thanks to a helpful survey provided by today's edition of El Mundo, it turns out that a cup of coffee does cost 80 cents--in the Congress of Deputies cafeteria.

Well, At Least She's Consistent

You may remember that several weeks ago the president of the community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, suggested that the new anti-smoking law might be a little too strict. Yesterday, she did indeed sign into effect a ‘revision’ of the national ban that lets workers smoke on the balconies and in the cafeterias of their workplaces, and everybody else during wedding and baptism receptions.

The day before that, however, she decided to go one better than the government on bird flu. Although the ministers of Health and Agriculture have decided that there is no need yet to enclose Spain’s chickens (Spain has yet to find a case of avian flu, though many predict that will come any day now), Aguirre disagreed, and now all farm-raised fowl, including several dozen ostriches on a ranch north of the capital, have to be kept where wild birds can’t reach them.

Madrid’s farmers aren’t happy about the decision, but luckily for the PP, they number far fewer than the comunidad’s smokers. And this way, no one gets to say that Esperanza Aguirre doesn’t care about her citizens’ health.

Smoking Ban, Bird Flu,Politics