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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: The racism question and a drop of hope for drought-hit places

In this week's Inside Spain, we look at how racist incidents keep damaging the country's reputation but not enough to change attitudes, and how the heavy Easter rain in Spain has alleviated the drought crisis but not resolved it.

Published: 6 April 2024 12:59 CEST
Updated: 8 April 2024 07:07 CEST
Inside Spain: The racism question and a drop of hope for drought-hit places
Migrants in Spain are three times more likely to be stopped by police than Spaniards. (Photo by JOSEP LAGO / AFP)

The perennial ‘Is Spain racist?’ question reared its ugly head last week, twice. 

It started with a leaked video of two young African men in Madrid’s Lavapiés neighbourhood – who were unarmed and showed no aggression – being hit and pinned to the ground by Spanish police officers. 

Left-wing parties have demanded answers, a demonstration took place to protest against police harassment in this multicultural barrio of the capital, the Interior Ministry has since opened an investigation, and polarisation on social media is rife with allegations that the attack was either unprovoked, that they were carrying drugs or were hostile to the officers before the video was shot.  

And in another chapter of racism in Spanish football, third-division Senegalese goalkeeper Cheikh Sarr was suspended for two matches after receiving a red card for jumping into the stands and confronting a supporter who had repeatedly racially abused him. 

His teammates refused to finish the match, denouncing the “unacceptable racist insults”.

The Spanish football federation (RFEF) acknowledged Sarr was “seriously offended”, but banned him for his reaction and criticised him and his teammates for not reporting the racist chanting earlier in the game when it had first started, as well as awarding the other team a 3-0 forfeit victory.

As expected, this approach by Spain’s chief footballing body, which is currently under investigation for corruption, went down like a tonne of bricks among the international Spanish football commentators, already irked by the racist chants shouted practically every week at Real Madrid’s Vinicius and others. 

Awareness of racism in Spain and its coverage in the press have certainly increased, although much of Spanish society has not yet incorporated political correctness into their daily speech when referring to other races. 

Unfortunately, reported cases of racist and xenophobic hate crimes increased by 18 percent in 2022, according to the last Interior Ministry data. 

But a study last year by the National Research Council found that the vast majority of Spaniards consider racism in the country to be an insignificant problem compared to other issues, ranking it 54 out of 65 in importance. According to Amnesty International, many Spaniards are unaware or in denial over whether there’s racism in the country.

Keeping this in mind, it seems that racist abuse at Spanish football stadiums and leaked videos of police violence against migrants will continue to be given coverage, but it may be some time before we see an actual change in attitudes. 

A problem that worries a higher proportion of Spaniards is the drought affecting large swathes of the country, namely Catalonia and Andalusia. 

The very heavy rain over Easter may have put a damper on the processions, but it’s been a blessing for stored water reserves.   

READ MORE: Will there still be drought restrictions in Spain after all the rain that’s fallen?

Regional and local politicians have felt the pressure to promise that water restrictions in cities such as Barcelona, Málaga, Cádiz or Seville will either be lifted or not implemented during the summer.

There is a general sense of caution, though.

Environmentalists have warned that the drought is far from over and that assuming that a week of rain can solve Spain’s lack of water only reflects how the general public reacts to long-lasting environmental issues. Catalonia’s drought for example has been raging for at least four years.

The Easter downpour certainly brought some respite, but Spain’s fight against drought is a marathon, not a sprint. 

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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: Where heat kills and anti-squatter vigilantes

In this week’s Inside Spain we look at how the Spanish government is upping its game to protect its citizens from extreme heat and why the country’s ‘okupa’ problem is increasingly being solved by tough-talking bodybuilders.

Published: 18 May 2024 13:23 CEST
Inside Spain: Where heat kills and anti-squatter vigilantes

That it gets hot in Spain in summer is nothing new, but often decimal points can mark the difference between life and death.

Spain is the second European country where most people die due to heat, with a record 11,300+ casualties in the summer of 2022. 

Every year, the Spanish Health Ministry launches its prevention plan to protect the most vulnerable from the dangerous effects of exposure to extreme heat, and this year they’re aiming to provide warnings that are more specific than ever. 

On June 3rd, authorities will launch a reference map that will alert of heat episodes in 182 territories within the country’s 52 provinces.

After all, temperatures can vary greatly within the same province or region- it can be sweltering down in Málaga city but cooler in Los Alcornocales Natural Park, or horrifically hot in the concrete jungle that is Madrid but fresher in nearby Cercedilla up in the sierra.

Each of the 182 territories will have maximum risk thresholds that register differences of more than ten degrees Celsius. These limits have been set by studying the exact temperature at which heat-related deaths and hospital admissions increased in previous years in set locations.

Heat tolerance is logically higher in some places of Spain than others, so whereas in southern Córdoba the heat alarm threshold is set at 40.4C, in northern Asturias it’s 23.9C.

Although the effects of meteorological phenomenon La Niña are yet to be confirmed, most meteorologists agree that this summer will probably be another scorcher in Spain.

READ MORE: Will this summer in Spain be as hot as the previous two?

If you haven’t started making plans to protect yourself from el calor (the heat), now is probably the right time to do it. 

Preparation is also what many Spanish homeowners need when it comes to preventing their homes from being occupied by squatters. 

The okupa (squatter) movement is very controversial in Spain, not least because Spanish law often sides with the squatter over the owner unless the latter acts quickly (48 hours usually), and okupas know exactly what to do to ensure their occupation is legally protected.

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What’s emerged in recent years as a result of this powerlessness on the part of affected property owners are numerous anti-squatting companies popping up around the country. 

Staff members are usually made up of no-nonsense muscle-bound tough men who promise clients the swift exit of the okupas, for a fee of course. 

These desokupación firms often operate on the margins of the law, sometimes threatening squatters and using underhand tricks to get them out. In fact, some of these anti-squatter vigilantes have been charged with coercion, and they are often accused of having links to alt-right and fascist groups.  

“People know that Desokupa is faster than the justice system,” Daniel Esteve, head of the most famed anti-squatting firm in Spain (Desokupa), which has reportedly carried out 9,400 squatter evictions without any of his team or clients being prosecuted, told El Periódico de Ibiza. 

In fact, there is evidence that even Spanish banks now are hiring the services of these companies rather than relying on police to retrieve the properties they own, and that judges are accepting the normalisation of these anti-squatter companies rather than the issues being resolved in the courts. They even now offer customers the possibility of cleaning up and refurbishing their recovered homes, as many of them are left in a poor state when the squatters leave.

“We are professionals, lawyers, bodyguards and detectives, we are not thugs,” Esteve concludes.

“In Spain those who don’t pay are protected, we defend the owners from a great injustice.”

Thugs or not, the emergence of these companies specialising in the eviction of squatters are a prime example of people in Spain taking the law into their own hands when they feel justice isn’t being carried out.

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