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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: broken bureaucracy promises and avoiding your countrymen on holiday

In this week’s Inside Spain we see why the prior appointment (cita previa) system for official matters is still in place after authorities promised to scrap it, and the places to avoid if you don’t want to bump into your countrymen while on holiday here.

Published: 17 August 2024 10:51 CEST
Inside Spain: broken bureaucracy promises and avoiding your countrymen on holiday
Palma de Mallorca is the favourite destination of Germany holidaymakers in Spain during August.(Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP)

Bureaucracy is arguably the worst thing about life in Spain: the convoluted language, the painstaking processes, the lack of accountability of civil servants and of course the dreaded cita previa. 

Last January, the government promised to get rid of this gatekeeping system used by funcionarios (civil servants) to prevent people from going to public administration buildings to carry out official processes or to ask questions without first having a mandatory ‘prior appointment’.

The cita previa system has been around for ages and applied haphazardly depending on the preferences of the specific branch, but it was during the Covid-19 pandemic that it became compulsory across all public administrations and it’s been kept in place ever since without any justification.

It’s now seven months since Spanish Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function José Luis Escrivá said he’d scrap the compulsory cita previa system, but much to the frustration of many foreigners and Spaniards, it’s still around.

Numerous law firms have called out the fact that compulsory appointments are “illegal” and authorities have admitted that they should be offering a simpler, more inclusive and friendlier public service. 

On April 26th, the government presented the proposal to axe the cita previa at Congress and since then nothing new is known, with the bill most likely lost in the usual administrative limbo.

Yes, the irony is not lost on us that legislation meant to simplify bureaucracy is being held up by bureaucracy itself.

Government sources have defended the delay by arguing that they have until 2025 for the law to be processed before its deadline, “so there’s time”.  

Now it’s August, the holiday month in Spain, so don’t expect anything important to get done “as soon as possible” as Escrivá said initially. 

Even if legislation banning mandatory appointments does eventually get passed, there is a high chance that what’s promised in theory is very different to what happens in practice, showcased by the recent failures of the spam calls law and the housing law. 

Spain’s General Law Council Association denounced in April the impossibility of obtaining appointments at Spain’s Immigration Office for residency and asylum procedures, a system that’s been taken over by bots run by criminal groups that then sell the appointments to desperate foreigners.

Extranjería is also notoriously short-staffed, so being overrun by people without an appointment every day may not be part of their plans. 

In other news, data published by Spain’s INE stats body has revealed where different nationalities like to spend their summer holidays in Spain. 

Last August, French tourists represented the biggest group of foreign holidaymakers with almost 2.3 million visitors, followed by 2.1 million Brits, 1.25 million Germans and about 700,000 Dutch and 650,000 Italians. 

If you’re a UK national looking to not hear English on your Spanish holidays, then it’s best to avoid Barcelona, Calvià on Mallorca and the south of Tenerife, as that’s where most British holidaymakers in Spain are at this time of year. 

In fact, Brits, Germans and Dutch have a big presence anywhere coastal in Spain in August, so if you want a truer Spanish experience it’s best to head inland.

The city where you’re most likely to find German tourists in August is Palma de Mallorca, but they love the island as a whole. The map in the tweet below shows the flow of Mallorca-bound flights from Germany and the UK on a summer’s morning.

As for the Dutch, there’s an even spread across Palma, Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia in August.

The French also love Barcelona, and their country’s proximity to the Costa Brava and the Basque Country means many of them end up holidaying there. However, French people are the foreign holidaymakers that are most likely to be found off the beaten track in Spain. 

Italians are avid fans of the Canaries, the Balearics and coastal areas, but surprisingly you’re also likely to find a lot of Italian tourists in inland locations such as Extremadura near Portugal, Seville, Madrid and Zaragoza. However, their number one destination is Barcelona.

There’s nothing wrong with encountering your fellow nationals while on holiday (some people might prefer it) but the truth is that if you want a quieter holiday experience overall, August is a month that’s best avoided, as Spain is packed to the brim.

Member comments

  1. Thank you for the article. The CITA information is important. As a Resident, I find the CITA a hit and miss. The problem is that the CITA system is not very well thought out. Yet, in some offices we did not need a CITA. However, the Extranjería can be complicated.

    I am happy to read that Americans do not register as a large portion of tourists.

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INSIDE SPAIN

Inside Spain: Flirting in Mercadona and the weirdest tourism protest yet

In this week’s Inside Spain we look at the new viral trend involving flirting at Mercadona supermarkets and how a village in Galicia has found a very odd way of protesting against mass tourism.

Published: 31 August 2024 10:54 CEST
Inside Spain: Flirting in Mercadona and the weirdest tourism protest yet

If you live in Spain or have been here on holiday, there’s a very big chance you’ve done grocery shopping at Mercadona.

But did you know there’s ‘a time to flirt’ at the country’s most popular supermarket?

It all started with a TikTok video that’s gone viral (although if there was someone in Mercadona’s marketing department that came up with the campaign they should definitely get a bonus). 

Everybody in Spain is talking about it. The idea is that if you turn up at a Mercadona between 7pm and 8pm, that’s la hora de ligar (the time to flirt), and there’s a secret language of love as well. 

Putting a pineapple upside down in your shopping trolley means that you’re ‘available’ and ‘interested’. 

Then you have to head to the wine aisle, and if you spot someone you like, you have to bump your trolley against theirs. 

That’s what singletons 40 and up should do if interested in amor de Hacendado (love of Hacendado, Mercadona’s home brand).

For those aged 19 to 25, the frozen goods section is the place to meet prospective lovers.

In your thirties or mid-twenties? The fresh fish section, of course. 

It all may seem a bit silly, but we wouldn’t be surprised if pineapple sales go up exponentially in Spain and Mercadona’s turnover spikes as a result.

In fact, there are already videos circulating online of packed Mercadona supermarkets when the clock strikes seven. 

In completely different news but perhaps just as surreal, locals from the Galician village of O Hío in northwest Spain decided recently that the best way to protest against the volume of summer tourists they receive was by blocking zebra crossings. 

The idea involved choosing crossings where pedestrians always have right of way (no traffic lights), so several dozen locals simply walked up and down them for 37 minutes, causing a total traffic gridlock.

“Traffic problems are already common, but this year they have tripled at least. It’s an avalanche of cars that not only pollutes but also affects everyone’s lives because they park wherever they want,” O Hío resident Mercedes Villar told local daily La Voz de Galicia.

“We have the right to live too”.

People from this small coastal village in Pontevedra province say they’re not against tourists, but that authorities have to find a way for holidaymakers and residents to “coexist”.

Locals’ driveways are being blocked, yellow lines are ignored and traffic accidents are more common.

“The protest was meant to raise awareness and sound the alarm,” another villager told La Voz.

“We want people to be civil and understanding and if they see that there is no parking space, to leave, as we all have to do in any city”. 

2024 is proving to be the year of Spain’s rebellion against mass tourism and the effect it’s having on property prices, rents and standard of living for residents. 

From Cantabria in the north to Málaga in the south, more and more places in Spain are asking for local, regional and national governments to fix a tourism model that no longer works for them.

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