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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: The quietest place on earth and renewed UK friendship

In this week’s Inside Spain we look at how this noisy country is home to one of the quietest locations on the planet and how the UK’s new Prime Minister is a breath of fresh air for Spanish-British relations.

Published: 20 July 2024 11:03 CEST
Inside Spain: The quietest place on earth and renewed UK friendship
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is greeted by Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the European Political Community meeting at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, southern England, on July 18, 2024. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau / POOL / AFP)

Spain is the noisiest country on the planet together with Japan. The two countries have been switching top spots over the last 15 years, fighting over who can be the most ear-splitting for its residents.

Whether it’s the rubbish truck passing by at 1am, the neighbour screaming “Goooool” when the football is on or the clatter of coffee cups being mounted up in a bar in the morning, there’s no escaping el ruido (the noise) in Spain.

Well, there’s one place in the Spanish territory where peace and quiet truly can be found: La España Vaciada (Empty Spain).

To be precise, the area around the Montes Universales mountain range, a triangle between Albarracín, Molina de Aragón and Cuenca, in central eastern Spain.

It’s about double the size of Belgium but has the population density of Lapland or the Scottish Highlands.

Quiet Parks International, a non-profit which aims to preserve quiet for all life, has just awarded this area the official title of “Quiet Place”.

Quiet Parks founder Gordon Hempton came up with the concept when he travelled around the US with a van and a tape recorder to find places where there were periods of silence longer than 15 minutes without interruptions by human-caused noise.

In Europe, it’s become virtually impossible to find such places, and in Spain, where 80 percent of noise pollution is caused by traffic, you have to enter the empty part of the country to find that blissful silence. 

There is even a company called Montañas Vacías which offers quiet bikepacking tours through this ‘Spanish Lapland’.

In case you didn’t know, noise pollution can cause stress, sleep problems, interference with cognitive processes and can even lead to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, whereas silence has the completely opposite effect.

Something else which we can expect to generate less negative noise is the UK and Spain’s renewed relationship, after 14 years of rollercoaster Tory rule and of course the elephant in the room: Brexit.

Pedro Sánchez and the UK’s new PM Keir Starmer met on the sidelines of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Oxfordshire, the first formal meeting between the pair since Starmer replaced Rishi Sunak.

The meeting was cordial, as expected from two leaders with the same political affiliation (Sánchez congratulated Starmer upon being named PM), and the first matter on the table was Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status. 

According to sources from the Spanish Government, an agreement on Gibraltar was very close and Sánchez believed it could happen within the coming months.

For the Spanish PM, reaching an agreement on The Rock after years and years of negotiations could further deepen current relations between Spain and the UK, to the benefit of the many Spaniards in Britain and the even bigger number of Brits in Spain. 

Within a couple of days of being named the UK’s new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy had already spoken to his Spanish counterpart and to Gibraltar’s leader Fabian Picardo, raising hopes that Gibraltar’s post-Brexit uncertainty could finally come to an end.

Picardo noted this potential political alignment in a post on X: “For the first time in history, we have socialist parties in government in London, Madrid and Gibraltar… that ideological solidarity will no doubt help us in our work.”

Sánchez and Starmer did not discuss the recent controversy surrounding the “Gibraltar is Spanish” chants that Spain’s national football team sang during celebrations over winning Euro 2024.

No matter the centuries-old rivalries and the love-hate relationship which Spain and Britain often have, the two are linked in myriad ways.

Five years of friendship in these testing times will be more than welcome. 

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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: Football baby boom and stopping students from renting

In this week’s Inside Spain we look at how previous footballing glory by the national team has led to a baby boom nine months later, and why the government’s next solution to the housing crisis is getting students out of the rental market.

Published: 13 July 2024 11:52 CEST
Inside Spain: Football baby boom and stopping students from renting

After 12 years without any major footballing success, La Roja is in a major tournament final, as they prepare to square off against England on Sunday in Berlin.

Could it spell a return to the glory days of 2008 to 2012, when Spain won ‘everything’ – two Euros and one World Cup?

What’s almost certain is that if Álvaro Morata and company score enough this weekend, so will Spaniards, if you catch our drift. 

When Spain beat the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final in South Africa, nine months later in April 2011 there was reportedly a 45 percent increase in births in España.

Something similar happened in 2008 after Fernando Torres helped beat Germany in the Euros that year. 

Some demographers question the figures, but the truth is that Spain could do with any extra push available, as the country’s birth rate is in the extremely low category according to the UN, together with countries such as Italy and South Korea.

Interestingly, just like two young guys from immigrant families are giving La Selección the edge at these Euros, migrant families are also responsible for keeping Spain’s ageing population afloat. 

OPINION: Young black stars mirror migrants’ contribution to Spain

In a Sigma Dos survey carried out in early 2024, 82.9 percent of respondents of a reproductive age said they were not considering having children in the next five years.

Living costs, personal and career sacrifices, family problems and a bad outlook on life in Spain were among the reasons given for not wanting to become parents.

READ ALSO: The real reasons why Spaniards don’t want to have children

With such a dire outlook, it’s likely that there will be far more Spanish babies with Yamal or Williams as a surname than Díaz or López, and regardless of what far-right Vox and their supporters think of that, it’s going to be a reality.

Just as this week’s prophetic viral photo of a young Messi bathing baby Yamal in 2007 prove, it is simply meant to be. 

While we’re on the subject of young people having a tough time getting their life in order, university students are definitely struggling when it comes to finding accommodation in Spain. 

READ ALSO: Two million university students in Spain fight to find a room

All they need is a room, but competition is so stiff in the current rental market that it’s no longer uncommon for them to have to pay over €500 a month for a few square metres.

According to Spain’s Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez, they’re indirectly putting extra pressure on regular rents’ availability and prices, as greedy landlords have realised that they can get far more money renting out each individual room than the whole unit to one person or family.

Therefore, as part of the series of measures that Spanish authorities keep coming up with to address the proliferation of holiday and seasonal lets and their impact on residential rents, the aim now is to get Spain’s 2 million university out of long-term rental units. 

In order to do this, the Spanish government will reportedly help public universities to provide more in-house accommodation for undergrads which is specifically for them. 

How exactly they will do this has not been announced, but if the progress of social housing as a solution to Spain’s housing crisis is anything to go on, it will be slow.

Rodríguez mainly pointed the finger at private universities, of which there are more than ever in Spain (27 new ones in the last 25 years compared to no new public ones).

“Their presence has put pressure on some rental markets where they are based,” the minister argued, adding that they should also make sure to provide lodgings to their students rather than let them “occupy” the cities.

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