spanish

The Catalan Government will adjust its budget by €4.295 billion in 2012, through spend cuts of €2.680 billion and increasing revenue by €1.615 billion. With this plan, the Catalan Government will meet the 1.5% deficit target. The Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy (CPFF), which brings together the Spanish Government and the 17 Autonomies, has approved Catalonia’s budget adjustment plan for 2012-2014. The Spanish Government would pay part of the money owed, but not all of it. The Catalan Government has included a plan B in case the Spanish Government does not honour its fiscal obligations towards Catalonia.

The 15-M Movement, also known as ‘The Indignados’, ‘The Outraged’, or ‘the Spanish Revolution’, which occupied squares throughout Spain in May and June 2011, celebrates its first anniversary. Last summer protesters abandoned the squares and the movement was kept alive in neighbourhood assemblies. One year after the first square occupation, the movement has taken to the streets and squares once again. After a massive demonstration on Saturday May 12th, protesters set up a camp in Catalunya Square in Barcelona, which they will leave on Tuesday. Also in other Catalan squares. They will organise assemblies and debates to gather further support for their programme that aims to change the current system.

Leo Messi’s 50 league goals this season have made him the highest ever ‘Pichichi’ (top scorer) in the Spanish League and catapulted him to the head of the ranking of ‘Golden Boots’ of all time.

An injury time equaliser from Keita saved a point for Barça, who had gone ahead in the first half through Sergio Busquets, before losing Alves to a second yellow just after the break. With this match, FC Barcelona end the Spanish League season in the second place, on 91 points and having scored 114 goals. Valdes is the League’s best keeper and Messi, the best scorer. Next step: the Spanish Cup Final with Bilbao’s Athletic Club.

Considering the “exceptional” crisis Spain’s banking system is going through, the Cercle d’Economia, a Catalan economic forum open to businesspeople and academics, recommends “drastic” measures in order to face a “systemic” problem at European level. The Chairman of Cercle d’Economia, former Spanish Minister Josep Piqué, stated that Spain “will not succeed on its own”.

This weekend, Catalonia’s Formula 1 track, located in Montmeló, in Greater Barcelona, will once again organise the Spanish Grand Prix. As from next season however, the race will combine its venue between Catalonia and Valencia. In 2013 the race will be held in Montmeló, but in 2014 Catalonia will leave its place to Valencia. The decision to alternate venues was taken by racing mogul Bernie Ecclestone some weeks ago as a solution to both circuits’ financial problems. CNA investigates whether the local economy could suffer losses due to this decision.

The Catalan Government has rejected the Spanish Executive’s initiative to limit public healthcare to foreign nationals without a legalised residence status. The Spanish Government proposed that irregular immigrants would only have access to emergency rooms and obstetrics services, but not to regular treatments and consultations. The Catalan Health Minister, Boi Ruiz, confirmed on Friday that in Catalonia, all foreign residents, independent of their legal status, would have free access to the public health system for “solidarity” principles but also “for public health reasons”. Besides the ethical issue, experts had warned about infectious diseases that could have increased because of having groups of people excluded from the health system.

FC Barcelona captain is full of optimism and courage ahead of his knee operation. Carles Puyol regrets missing the Spanish Cup Final and most probably the European Championships, but is just focussed on getting back to 100% fitness.

The Catalan Government has announced a plan against the Spanish Government’s “recentralisation offensive”. One of its actions is taking the education and healthcare reforms adopted by Madrid to the Catalan Council for Constitutional Guarantees, as a first step to bring them to Spain’s Constitutional Court. The Catalan Government believes that some of the measures invade its jurisdiction, as it directly manages education and healthcare. Another measure is issuing a report pointing out the Spanish Government’s duplicities, such as maintaining ministries such as education, healthcare and culture. These policies are managed by the Autonomies. Left-Wing opposition parties have urged the Catalan Government to take further measures, while the PP has accused the Catalan Executive of “lying”.

It was a triumphal send off for Pep Guardiola as Barça Manager, since FC Barcelona won their last game at the Camp Nou under his charge, beating Espanyol 4-0 thanks to four Messi goals.

Despite initial fears of violent incidents the European Central Bank’s Governing Council meeting has been held peacefully. 8,000 police officers guarded the event by literally occupying the city. Besides, the ‘indignados’ movement demobilized their forces, and no anti-system protests took place.

The current FC Barcelona Manager, Pep Guardiola, will be sitting on the Camp Nou bench for the very last time on Saturday, but believes the derby with Espanyol is far more important than his farewell.

The President of the European Central Bank, whose Governing Council met in Barcelona on May 3rd, praised the Spanish Government’s “significant effort” made in a “very short period of time” to approve structural reforms. However, Mario Draghi, asked Spain “to persevere” in the strategy based on austerity and accomplish further reforms. The ECB’s President emphasised Europe’s need to adopt measures strengthening economic growth but without abandoning the principles of austerity. Draghi recommended continuing to reduce public spending in order to control the deficit. As expected, the ECB is maintaining the interest rate at 1%.

A goal from Puyol and a hat trick from Leo Messi, which served to take him past Gerd Muller’s previous record strikes in a European season, gave Guardiola, cheered all night by the crowd, another win at the Camp Nou. Two hours later, Real Madrid was winning the Spanish League title in San Mamés.

In the press conference before FC Barcelona vs Malaga, Barça’s Manager, Pep Guardiola, praised the way the Catalan club is handling the transition of managers. He also said that Tito Vilanova is “very enthusiastic about the upcoming challenge”. The current manager explained that Barça’s last three Spanish League matches will serve as preparation for the Spanish Cup final against Athletic Club from Bilbao.