Letter from Spain #23

Off to Madrid ... plus TBC notes & research

I’m off to Madrid on Wednesday for five days, with a book event there, too (see below), and I can’t wait. Madrid has to be (I’m really sorry, Barcelona) my favourite city in the world, as readers of A Load of Bull will appreciate.

My trip there next week will also coincide with the failed investiture vote of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, barring any unexpected surprises. His investiture debate begins on Tuesday 26 September, followed by a first vote on Wednesday, when he will need to secure 176 votes in favour (which he won’t) in the 350-seat Spanish parliament. If he fails (which he will), he’ll then face a second vote on Friday when he will need a simple majority of more votes in favour than against. That’s when something unexpected might happen … but I don’t think it will.

Pedro Sánchez will then have a turn of trying to form a government, and he’ll have two months from Wednesday’s vote to do so. If he fails, Spain will face new elections, most likely held in January 2024, and then it will all go round in circles again.

In the meantime, Sánchez has started to put in place some of the measures demanded by the Catalan parties in order to win their support in a possible vote for him to continue as PM.

This week, for example, MPs in the Spanish Congress can speak in Catalan, Euskera (Basque) or Gallego (Galician), if they want to, whilst the EU Commission is still pondering whether these three languages will be accepted as official languages in Brussels, too.

The EU already has 24 official languages, and the inclusion of Catalan, Basque and Galician could lead to pushes by others to be recognised from other parts of Europe.

I actually didn’t realise this, but all legal EU documents — treaties, laws and international agreements — must already be translated into the 24 languages and there must be translation available in them at leaders’ summits and ministerial meetings.

According to the Spanish Statistical Office, 9.1 million people speak Catalan, while 2.6 million and 1.1 million speak Galician and Basque respectively.

I spoke about this on the radio this week, in my fortnightly chat with Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe about the weekly news in Spain. We talked about Luis Rubiales, too. Here’s the link if you’re interested:

The fact that Catalan, Basque and Galician can now be spoken in the Spanish Congress provoked the far-right Vox MPs to all walk out … and in my opinion, that can only be a good thing.

Sánchez still has a mountain to climb if he wants to be voted back in as PM, however, and that mountain is called Amnesty. I wrote about this in Letter from Spain #21. It already kicked off today, with around 60,000 of Feijóo’s supporters rallying in Madrid against any possible amnesty for the pro-independence Catalan politicians and activists, and Sánchez hasn’t even spoken publicly about the matter yet. This is going to become THE key issue in the Spanish political arena over the coming months, so watch this space …

The Barcelona Connection - Research

For those of you following this blog’s research and the locations behind The Barcelona Connection …

Chapter 25 deals with Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim …

Amid the morning sunbathers, council workers were cleaning weekend debris off the beach along the Passeig Marítim in the Barceloneta neighbourhood, as skateboarders and joggers in headphones whisked along the promenade, mostly drenched in sweat. Old men played dominoes in the shade near the boardwalks, while nearby groups of African immigrants laid out rows of Chanel handbags and Nike trainers for sale on blankets spread out across the pavement, easily transformed into sacks if they suddenly had to run from the local police.

I imagined them exactly in this area of the Passeig - as per the photos below (mainly courtesy of Barcelona Ajuntament) - where Elena could still have her taxi parked nearby, while Benjamin visited a pharmacy and grabbed a coffee, and then the contrasting views in all directions that he can take in …

Benjamin’s thoughts (and my notes) on Púbol, Port Lligat and Figueres in this same chapter will have to wait for another time.

Previous links to my research notes are here:

• Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).

• Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).

• Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes)

• Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia)

• Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia)

• Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).

• Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).

• Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).

• Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).

• Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).

• Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).

• Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).

• Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).

• Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).

The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events

This coming Thursday 28 September, I’m doing an event at The Secret Kingdoms bookstore in Madrid, chatting about The Barcelona Connection and A Load of Bull with Ann Louise Bateson, radio producer, former BBC contributor and presenter of the English language programme, ‘Madrid Live’.

Drinks and snacks will also be served, and although the event is free, places will be limited - so if you’re interested in coming along, then it would be wise to reserve your place by clicking on this Eventbrite link. It will be a fun evening and I hope to see you there!

Another date for the diary, this time in Barcelona. On Saturday 28 October from 2.30pm - 3.15pm, I will be participating in a roundtable discussion with two other authors and hosted by Barcelona City Council for their annual International Community Day, with the topic being ‘How to enjoy and rediscover Barcelona through literature’. The event takes place at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. It is free to attend the International Community Day, but prior registration is required via this link: https://inscripcions.barcelona.cat/barcelona_international_community_day_2023-en/

Hope to see you there!

Links to reviews & articles

Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.

Here’s a link to a review of the book published by the Spain in English online newspaper.

Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.

You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.

The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.

For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.