This year’s the ‘Festival Grec’ pays special attention to French theatre and dance, both large productions and smaller innovative shows. It brings together both international and local productions, and includes theatre, dance, music and other stage arts. The festival begun on June 17th and will last until the end of July.
The Argentine striker has played 62 games this season for FC Barcelona and his country’s team, and still has the Copa America ahead of him, meaning he is most probably going to play even more than his personal record of 64 games in a season.
The International Monetary Fund wants the Spanish Government to “strengthen” the labour market reform, not give up on spending cuts and restructure the financial system. The same day, the Bank of Spain's Governor, Miguel Angel Fernández Ordóñez asked the Spanish Minister for Economy to be “stricter” on the Autonomous Community government’s deficit reduction. The Catalan Minister for Finance said on several occasions that Catalonia would meet the deficit objective for 2011 if the Spanish Government showed some institutional loyalty and paid the money it legally owes to Catalonia.
Catalonia is also leader in percentage of Internet users with 66% of the population connected, two percentage points above the Spanish figure, according to a report by Telefónica.
Public university undergraduate students will have to pay between 64 and 100 euros more per year. Those repeating once will pay the same amount, but those taking a course for the third time will pay 60% more. The measure would bring in 20 million euros in one year. 25% of the revenues from the fee increase will be reinvested via scholarships, the first that will be aimed at university students managed by the Catalan Government.
The president of Barça, Sandro Rosell has reiterated that the club's transfer policy this summer regarding players will have economic sustainability in mind. Rosell explains that last year FC Barcelona already made an offer for Cesc Fàbregas for 40 million euros, but “with amortizations he is worth less”.
In larger cities, the new housing stock is much smaller and in Barcelona it is almost non existent. However, in other towns and rural areas the current stock will not be completely absorbed until 2015, according to a study from CatalunyaCaixa. Prices will stabilise in larger cities and still drop by 10% where the larger stocks are concentrated. The Catalan housing market is now in better shape than in the rest of Spain. In Catalonia the new housing stock decreased by 2,000 units, while in Spain as a whole it increased by 2%.
Lmrabet was sent to jail in 2003 for writing about Morocco’s king and his supposed real estate interests. He was also banned from media. Finally he has created ‘Demain’, an online newspaper directed from Barcelona. It has the same name as the publication he had in Morocco, which was shut down by King Mohammed VI’s regime.
The company, that processes 1.2 million hams, is the first Catalan meat factory authorized to sell in the United States. As from next year, Pernils Llémena will start exporting to California and New York.
The Catalan restaurant has been considered the best restaurant in the world for five consecutive years. Chef Ferran Adrià announced he would close his restaurant definitively this July, and will be transformed into the ‘elBulli Foundation’ in 2014. However, the movie Hollywood is planning on the restaurant has obliged the Catalan chef to change his mind and open again for two months in 2012 or 2013. His idea is to show the movie team how the restaurant works.
The Autonomous Community public debt has increased 26% in the last 12 months and represents now the historic maximum of 11.4% of Spain’s GDP. Spain’s total public debt reached 63.6% of its GDP and totals 679.8 billion euros. The Catalan Government’s debt has reached 34.3 billion euros, 17.2% of Catalonia’s GDP. It raised 33% in the last 12 months, as the Catalan Government’s public deficit was 3.86% in 2010.
This Friday is the third anniversary of Josep Guardiola’s presentation as Barça’s manager. On June 17, 2008, a project began that has gone on to make history.
The Catalan capital is these days the electronic music world’s capital city. The 18th edition of the International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art Sónar kicks off in Barcelona. It the annual meeting place for electronic music fans and will take place from June 16th to 18th. This year it will have a parallel festival happening in A Coruña, Sónar Galicia. Barcelona’s Sónar Festival will also have a twin festival in Sao Paulo. Sónar Barcelona has also a programme for children called Sónar Kids and for professional called Sónar Pro.
The Catalan Parliament will also file a formal complaint regarding the violent protests that took place last Wednesday in Barcelona. Protesters tried to besiege the Parliament and impede the entrance of MPs, some of whom were insulted, threatened, pushed and sprayed. The Spanish Penal Code states that these type of actions are a felony and offenders could face between three and five years in person. Catalan Police had to protect the Parliament and the MPs, with a deployment of 600 police officers. All political parties condemned the violent acts by protesters and most of the opposition said that the deployment of security forces was too small.
The Catalan People’s Party (PPC) abstained and facilitated the rejection of the motions to substitute the budget bill presented by the Catalan Government, run by the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition CiU. The motions had been presented by four parliamentary groups for a range of reasons, but mainly because the Government’s budget proposal was cutting too much social spending while it did not make enough efforts to raise revenues.