Letter from Spain #50
A new era for Catalonia?
I’m back! I’m writing this hidden away in my little writing den, with just a few hours left of my Rishi Sunak Monday fasting (yes, I’m still doing it, when I can), away from the aroma of any cooking or the sound of bottles being uncorked … so there’s no excuse not to write at least a short post.
I’d wanted to post something over the weekend but it was impossible. Far too many bottles being uncorked, as well as the aroma of two magnificent paellas being cooked by 15 of us in two ‘teams’ at a good friend’s house. It was a wonderful weekend, coming at the end of a great week spent in the UK, with more over-eating and over-drinking over there, and which is why another ‘Rishi Sunak detox’ is long overdue. (PS: Juliane asked me earlier if I was doing my ‘sushi thing’ again today. I said: ‘It’s not a sushi thing, it’s Rishi Sunak.’)
In my last post before travelling, I said that by the time I returned they would still be arguing about how to form a new government in Catalonia following the 12 May elections, and I was right - although it’s probably more clear-cut than anyone fully expected.
For the first time, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) secured a victory both in terms of votes (28%) and seats (42 in the 135-seat parliament). Collectively, the Catalan pro-independence parties also lost their majority - something they’d held since the ‘procès’ movement surged over a decade ago. Personally, I think they only have themselves to blame. I used to have sympathy for their cause (I still do, at times), but with the main two pro-indy parties (out of a total of four now) - Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) and Esquerra Republicana (ERC) - failing to ever agree on how to achieve anything, they hardly look capable of running a ‘country’ anyway. Many voters in Catalonia had clearly had enough, and the majority decided that it’s time for a change.
As I have written before in this blog, despite the fierce attacks from the right-wing and far-right opposition parties, Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has totally defused the Catalan ‘political conflict’ that had been fuelled by former PM Mariano Rajoy’s dire management of the crisis. Sánchez did so by first pardoning the imprisoned Catalan leaders and activists, and more recently with the amnesty agreement in exchange for parliamentary support to continue in government - something that polarised Spain, but clearly worked in his favour here in Catalonia.
The PSC’s Salvador Illa - who I always admired as the former health minister during the pandemic - said in his victory speech that Catalonia is ‘opening a new era’ that will be one ‘for all Catalans, whatever they think, whatever language they speak and wherever they come from’.
I hope he’s right but he’s still got his work cut out trying to form a majority of 68 required seats in the 135-member chamber. The party that won the second-highest number of MPs (35) is JxCat, led by Carles Puigdemont, who headed the failed 2017 independence attempt and later fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution.
A joint PSC-JxCat Catalan government won’t happen - at least I’m 99% sure it won’t.
Illa will certainly have the support from the Comuns/Sumar left-wing group, who have 6 seats, and who are already the PSOE socialists’ junior coalition partner in Spain’s national parliament. But then he has to secure the support of the ERC (down to 20 seats from 33) - or at least their abstention and/or their support on a policy-by-policy basis.
If everything fails (as it often does in Spanish politics), then the Catalans will face another election in October. We could do without that.
It waits to be seen whether there really will be a ‘new era’ led by the PSC socialists or not in Catalonia, but what is also evident from the election results is the political shift to the right seen elsewhere in Europe being reflected in Catalonia, too. The right-wing People’s Party (PP) had much stronger results than the previous election (up to 15 seats from the 3 they won in 2021), and the far-right Vox party also held its own (11 seats).
Perhaps more curious, a new far-right, pro-independence party called Aliança Catalana won two seats for the first time in the Catalan parliament - one of the now four pro-indy parties I mentioned earlier (including the far-left CUP). And as I can’t see those four parties ever agreeing on any common strategy for any roadmap to independence, it certainly ‘feels’ like a new era, or rather that the ‘procès’ is at least dead and buried for now.
I’ll be back again on Sunday 26 May.
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
Forthcoming Events
On Friday 20 September, I will be doing an event at the Secret Kingdoms Bookshop at C/ Moratín 7 in Madrid. More details will follow in due course.
The Barcelona Connection - Research
In my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & Reviews
A murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & Reviews
Eighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has just been re-issued, with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook, and this time worldwide, in both formats. Bookshop distribution is underway but in the meantime you can order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid
The hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish edition
A Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact Details
You can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk