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Younger, scruffier, and with a babe in arms: This is Spain’s new elite

Spain's lower house was filled with new faces at the opening session of Spain’s new parliament following last month’s inconclusive general election - and the star of the show was still in nappies.

Younger, scruffier, and with a babe in arms: This is Spain's new elite
Photo: AFP

The 350 MPs filed into Spain’s lower chamber on Wednesday morning, almost a third of them from political parties that didn’t even exist at the start of the last legislature and many of them spurned the traditional suit and tie to stroll around in jeans and open shirts or even scruffy jumpers.

While difficult negotiations are still underway to form a government after Spain’s ruling conservative party earned a drubbing at the polls, just about claiming the largest share of seats but losing its absolute majority, there was parliamentary business to be getting on with.

Proving that Spain’s diverse political parties are indeed capable of striking an agreement, the first pact of the new legislature came when lawmakers picked a Socialist and former regional president of the Basque Country as the parliamentary speaker.

Patxi López was elected with 130 votes after earning support from his Socialist Party and the centrist Ciudadanos, becoming the first speaker of the house since Spain’s transition to democracy to not come from the party with the most parliamentary seats.

His only real competition had been Carolina Bescansa, the candidate put forward by the radical leftist Podemos party. But while she failed to secure more than 71 votes, she stole the show for an entirely different reason.

Bescansa chose to turn up to her first day as a new parliamentarian with her six-month-old baby son Diego in tow, a companion that stole the show.

Earning a cuddle from Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias and providing the perfect excuse for a new round of baby-faced Twitter jokes about the youthful appearance of Podemos deputy Iñigo Errejón, the baby caused quite a stir.

Of course traditionalists were appalled at the move.

Javier Maroto, a senior official in the conservative People’s Party and a former mayor of Vitoria, wrote that “this is not feminism, conciliation or progressivism”.

But even while some celebrated that it exemplified the birth of a new political era, even feminists were among those to point out that it was nothing more than an ill-advised publicity stunt.

“Bescansa do you know there is a nursery service and a lift?”, Red Feminista tweeted: “taking the pushchair up the stairs and the child into the session is showing off. Your husband?”

Was it appropriate for Bescansa to turn up with her infant, not least when there is an on-site nursery within Congress? The controversy was compounded when Bescansa requested that media outlets pixelate the face of her son to protect his privacy.

Such was the baby's impact that one cheeky parliamentarian suggested the infant would be best placed to take the role of speaker of the house. The only null vote recorded in the process was reported down to the fact that an MP had written “Bescana’s son” on the ballot paper.

But the baby wasn’t the only first in the parliament. Following the December 20th general election, a record 39.4 percent of MPs are women – 138 MPs compared to 125 after the 2011 general election (35 percent).

The 138 women to 212 men ratio is still a way off absolute equality, but is the closest Spain has ever reached and is an important victory for gender equality.

Among them is another history-maker. Rita Bosaho, 50, a Podemos MP from Alicante took her seat as the first black parliamentarian in Spain’s history.

The youngest member of Spain’s parliament is also a woman. The Socialist MP Maria Such Palomares is just 25-years-old.

While the day marked new beginnings, what happens next is anyone's guess as the four main political parties – the PP, PSOE, Podemos and Ciudadanos – must struggle on in an attempt to form a government or risk new elections.

 

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NAMES

Readers reveal: These are the best bilingual baby names in Spain

Choosing a name for your child is always difficult but it's an extra challenge if you want it to work in more than one language.

Readers reveal: These are the best bilingual baby names in Spain
The Local's readers reveal their favourite bilingual baby names. Photo: RuthBlack/Depositphotos

Parents who decide to bring up their child bilingually in English and Spanish generally want to choose a name that works equally well in both English and Spanish. 

Some people like to choose names that are commonly used in both languages and are not only pronounced the same but have the exact same spelling, names such as Maria, Lucia, Isabel and Olivia for girls and Martin, Oscar, and Bruno for boys.

Then there are the names that are recognisable but either pronounced slightly differently or have a different spelling, such as Sofia/Sophia, Cristina/Christina, Ana/Anna or Paola/Paula for girls.

And for boys, Simon, Gabriel, David or Adrian are all names that are spelled the same but pronounced with a slightly different emphasis. Then there are names such as Hugo, which is spelled the same but sounds very different in both languages: Hewgo in English and Oogoh in Castellano.

Likewise, Isla is having a resurgence in the UK with its silent 's' but will always be pronounced as 'Izla' – the Castellano word for island – when in Spain. 

Typical Spanish names may be easy to pronounce for English-speakers despite not being traditional anglo names.

Names such as Pablo, Diego and Rafael are common enough that they won’t pose a problem, but although the name Jesus is pretty normal in Spain, it will certainly raise a few eyebrows among English speakers.


Photo: AFP

Some names though prove very challenging to Spanish speakers.

Spanish tongues struggle with Craig and Graham and don’t even think about selecting Irish names such as Deirdre or Siobhan.

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Kristin Tietz, an American who married a Spaniard, explained their process: “Our approach was to try out names orally (since hubby's a Spaniard) to try to choose names pronounced the same internationally.

“It worked like a charm until they enrolled in school (British), leading to a startling array of odd versions of the name Borja, which Americans and other nationalities seem to find easy to say. Sadly, many of his teachers could not, with “Borgo” one of our faves.”

For Mary Reid, an English teacher in Madrid and her Spanish partner Raul, it was important to have names that could be pronounced easily in both languages.

“We settled on Dani and Oscar for our two boys,” explains Mary, originally from Nottingham.

“I wanted the English grandparents to be able to say their grandsons’ names correctly,” she said.

“The spelling was also important too. Although in the UK I’m constantly having to say that it’s Dani with an “I” not “y”.  And that’s interesting seeing as British names have a big variety of spellings these days.”

Spelling was also top consideration for Tania Garcia Miñan, an English teacher who lives in Galicia with her Spanish husband.

“There are loads of Galician names that we automatically scrapped due to having an x in. Names with a J too were ruled out. I personally didn't want an equivalent, I wanted it to be as easy to pronounce and spell as possible in both languages.”

She chose Lucas for her son.

It was something her parents had also considered when choosing her and her sister’s name as they had moved from their native Galicia to London in the 1980s and brought up their two girls, Deborah and Tania.

“My name is pronounced the same in Spanish and English but I used to get annoyed in England when they spelt Tania with a ‘y’,” she said.

She also said it’s worth checking if that name has a certain stigma in one language.

“Lucas is the name they give Daffy Duck in Spain and the catch phrase is 'hasta luego, Lucas', so we hear that a lot.”

For Londoner Graham Keeley, who now lives near Barcelona with his French partner and their three boys, it was even more of a challenge.

“Most importantly was we wanted names that worked in English and French and that weren’t too weird in Spanish or Catalan,” he explains.

They picked Thomas for the firstborn and Max and Jack for their twin boys, born 18 months later.

“We nailed it with Max, which is pronounced and spelled the same in whatever language we come across,” he admitted. “But the other two are both easy in all four languages although pronounced slightly differently.”

“People pronounce it Tomas (Spanish), Toma (French), or Thomas (English) but we don’t really mind that, and Jack is either Jacques in French or Jack to everyone else,” he said.

“The most important thing was not to have a name that stood out as either being 'too French' or 'too English' or was just  plain unpronounceable in Spanish.

“Having a name like Graham – which no one can pronounce in Spanish – made us acutely aware of the importance of an easy name that wouldn’t single you out,” he said.

When it comes to girls' names, Sofia, Isabel, Lucia and Olivia are among the most popular suggestions but Spanish names such as Alma, Alba and Lola are gaining ground.

“We named my daughter Alba. In Gaelic it means Scotland (I’m Scottish) and works in English and Spanish with the same pronunciation too,” said Eilidh Shankland on The Local Spain's Facebook page.

“Biblical names with the same spelling work perfectly (and the same in Catalan too, don't forget some people need to factor that in too!). Such as David or Daniel,” added Lyn Shepherd.

“My mom was Spanish, dad Dutch and I’m South African living in Spain,” recounts Teresa Leonie Krijger Hoffmann. “My name Teresa works well and so did my brother’s name, Anthony. My sister’s, not so much – Maria de las Mercedes!”

One reader suggested trying it out for a while before registering it.

“I wanted my eldest to have my grandfather's name or a variation of it as his middle name – Donald (not a popular option I know!!),” said Natalie Abbott Tobias. “So to begin with we had just Don. The confusion it caused!! Don Lorenzo Don Tobias? People looked at us like we were simple! Luckily we hadn't registered it at that point.”

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