Goals from Puyol, Messi (2) and Pedro turned the game round for Barça at La Romareda stadium, after Zaragoza had taken an early lead. The three points take Guardiola’s team to just three points behind the Spanish League leaders, Real Madrid, at least until the day after.
This advisory body dependent on the Catalan Government affirms that two aspects of the Labour Reform Law, recently approved by the Spanish Government, go against the Spanish Constitution. Furthermore, the report also highlights three elements that invade the Catalan Government’s jurisdiction. The four Left-Wing Catalan parties that requested the assessment one month ago are pushing for the reform to be brought to the Constitutional Court. CiU, who runs the Catalan Government, hopes to modify these aspects through parliamentary negotiations.
FC Barcelona celebrated their 157th goal so far this season on Tuesday, which leaves Barça just one goal short of the record for a season under Guardiola, in the 2008/09 campaign. Messi, with 58 goals is the leading scorer, averaging 1.18 goals a game.
The Spanish Minister for the Economy, Luís de Guindos, wants to speed up the process and have the entire Spanish banking system restructured before the summer. The Spanish Minister also said that he is expecting further concentration processes of other financial entities to be announced in the coming weeks. CatalunyaCaixa’s banking business had a profit of €304 million, although the €1.5 billion provisions for the real estate business caused a €1.34 billion loss in 2011.
CiU stated that it will be “absurd” that they support the current budget proposal in the Spanish Parliament although they are open to negotiate and modify it. Furthermore, CiU “does not rule out the possibility of taking the Spanish Government to court” for ignoring the current legislation. The Socialists directly considered the budget proposal “to mistreat Catalonia”. The Green Socialists ask for a “common Catalan front” against the budget. The Catalan Independence parties (ERC and SI) say the budget plunders Catalonia. The anti-Catalan nationalists stated the budget wants to please Merkel. The only party supporting the budget was the PP, which runs the Spanish Government.
The good quality of the snow, because of significant falls in the last number of weeks, has made ski resort managers believe that Easter might attract many skiers to the slopes, after a poor season. La Molina ski resort, in Cerdanya County, expects to host 10,000 skiers between Thursday April 5th and Monday April 9th.
Barça have beaten AC Milan in style to extend their legend by becoming the first team to qualify for five consecutive semi finals in the Champions League era. Messi, with two penalties, and Iniesta got the Barça goals.
It is the first time since 2007 that unemployment has dropped in the month of March. In total, at the end of last month there were 638,247 people registered as unemployed in Catalonia. The number of unemployed people decreased throughout Catalonia, especially in Girona and Tarragona provinces. However, in Spain, unemployment increased by 38,769 people, reaching a total figure of 4,750,867 jobseekers.
The Spanish Government will not respect the territorial funding scheme, approved by the Spanish Parliament and in a referendum, as it will only invest 11% of its regional spending in Catalonia. According to the current legislation, in order to compensate for an historical lack of infrastructural investment in Catalonia recognised by the Spanish Parliament and the Constitutional Court, the Spanish Government must invest at least the equivalent of Catalonia’s economic weight within Spain, which represents 18.7% in 2012. Furthermore it does not include €1 billion pending from 2008 and 2009, to which Catalonia is legally entitled.
Barça need to beat AC Milan at the Camp Nou in order to qualify for the semi finals of the Champions League for the fifth consecutive season. FC Barcelona will only make it into the semi finals if they beat AC Milan at the Camp Nou (20.45h CET). 88% of the home results this season would be enough to ensure Barça go into the last four.
The Catalan theme park PortAventura opened its doors last weekend for the new season. Despite the crisis, in 2011 the park registered 16% more visitors than in 2010, reaching 3.7 million in total. The park’s CEO, Fernando Aldecoa, has said they expect to reach 4 million visitors this season, which ends just after Halloween. This season, €25 million has been invested in a new rollercoaster called ‘Shambhala’, which will be the tallest in Europe and will reach speeds of 134 km per hour during a fall of 78 metres.
The former President of Brazil has been awarded this prestigious International prize that recognises individuals who have decisively contributed with their work to the development of cultural, scientific and human values around the world. Last year’s winner was the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Other winners are Jimmy Carter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Harold Bloom, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Karl Popper, Amartya Sen, Václav Havel, or Jacques Delors. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been honoured with the prize for “his policies at the service of fair economic growth”, significantly reducing poverty in Brazil.
Barça have beaten Athletic Bilbao in an intense, lively game in which both sides played some exquisite football. But the home side enjoyed most of the possession and also the chances, and eventually won through thanks to goals from Iniesta and Messi (penalty).
The 2012 Alimentaria Exhibition welcomed 40,000 international visitors, which represents 29% of the 142,000 attendees. It represents an 11% increase compared to the last such event in Barcelona in 2010.
'Ferran Adrià i elBulli. Risc, llibertat i creativitat' ('Ferran Adrià and elBulli. Risk, freedom and creativity') is on show in Barcelona to coincide with the Catalan chef’s 50th's anniversary and is the basis for a future museum in the Costa Brava town of Roses. The exhibition shows a huge number of texts, graphic documents and objects related to the history of the world’s most famous restaurant.