A total of 584,648 people have ended up on the Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) list of registered unemployed, representing an increase of 13,779 people, 2.41% more in relation to in July this year.
The Catalan Government is reducing public deficit and cutting public spending by 10% this year. All areas are affected, including healthcare, which is one of the departments with a smaller percentage budget reduction. Last August, 25 community health centres (CAP) reduced their opening hours, closing their emergency room during nights and weekends as they were scarcely used; as of this September, another 21 centres in a similar situation have been added to the list. Citizens have been camping in some CAPs to protest about the decision.
“It means that we are not wanted, we are excluded, we are ignored” stated Artur Mas, President of the Catalan Government and leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU). It was the first time he has spoken on the Constitutional amendment limiting the public deficit that has been agreed on only between the PSOE and the PP. The CiU has protested against reforming the Constitution solely on the basis of the agreement of only two parties. Members of the PP and the PSOE have been trying to convince the CiU to support what both parties had previously agreed, and PM Zapatero (from the PSOE) asked the CiU to show some “moderation”.
The National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) has the greatest collection of Romanesque Art of the world. Highlights from the Alt Urgell series include the altarpiece of St. Michael and St. Peter.
Toni Freixa announced that FC Barcelona’s Board would submit a budget for the coming year, based on income of €460,1 million and profits of 20,1 million. The board spokesman also reiterated FC Barcelona’s commitment to zero tolerance of violent behaviour.
The Catalan Government approves a support program that will advise the promotion and development of activities from the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat, whose headquarters are in Barcelona. It will provide advice on Euro-Mediterranean policy and projects, until the UfM has enough resources of its own.
‘Jo confesso’ (‘I confess’) is the new novel by Catalan author Jaume Cabré (Barcelona, 1947). Seven years after publishing ‘Les veus del Pamano’, which sold more than 100,000 copies in Catalan, 450,000 in German and has sold well in a further eleven languages, the writer returns with a novel about love, lack of affection, guilt and evil.
Barça is not only famous for winning the European Champions League or the Spanish Super Cup; it is also famous for the way it plays football and for producing its own stars through La Masía, FC Barcelona’s football school. The club has reorganised the entire football section, confirming the main directors and managers and fostering the talent improvement.
Country house visitors with Spanish nationality decrease by 4% while the number of foreigners visiting these rural establishments increases by nearly 8%.
The programme will be trialled at CaixaBank cash machines to analyse the effectiveness of user interface and help to develop a long term option to help the disabled overcome barriers.
Meanwhile, the Catalan Government, run by the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition ‘Convergència i Unió’ (CiU), announces its own law on budget stability. The CiU feels excluded from the reform of the Spanish Constitution to limit public deficit, especially as they had been one of the key actors when negotiating and approving the Constitution in 1978. The CiU’s Spokesperson warned that, since “the Constitutional consensus” had been broken by the PP and the PSOE, “a great clash with unforeseeable and undesired consequences will happen” if nothing changes.
Isaki Lacuesta will run in the official competition with ‘Los Pasos dobles'. Manuel Huerga will show his movie on the Second Republic and the political fight between Catalonia’s main politicians at the time, Francesc Macià and Lluís Companys.
In the current times of crisis within the real state market, money from Russian tourists is particularly noticeable. Rich Russian citizens come to Tarragona’s Costa Daurada to buy houses close to the seashore. Their search is on for "exclusive homes'' with attached land to use them as summer houses or as a base to permanently relocate to. When not using the house, they may rent them.
The new cultural facility explains how was life in Manresa, central Catalonia, during the Middle Age. The new centre aims to generate tourism for the city. It was unveiled last weekend.
The former mayor of Llívia, Josep Pous, has left politics and dedicated himself to artisan beer with his microbrewery. Lybica is the first artisan beer produced in the Cerdanya county, in the Pyrenees. It joins the boom of artisan beers in Catalonia.