Spain news update – Govt Targets Excessive-Polluting Vehicles

Hola amigos, qué tal? Stuart here from SpainSpeaks with the Spain news update we'll have a look at some of the main stories that havecaught my attention in the Press recently and we'll also take a look at some of the commentsthat you guys have left on the channel in recent times firstly a big thanks to all of the peoplethat have supported the channel in recent times whether it's through the Super Chat option onYouTube buying me a coffee Patreon supporters or the new way to support the channel on YouTubethe YouTube membership option thank you very much for that now straight into the news and it's fullsteam ahead for the amnesty for Catalan separatist politicians that tried to separate from Spain backin 2017 and yesterday the Spanish government and its Partners came to an agreement that changedthe way that terrorism can be interpreted by the.

Spanish justice system and as we can read herethe PSOEcreates the concept of light terrorism to fit Puigdemont's need the final version of theamnesty law will have two types of terrorism and will pardon what is considered as light terrorismthis category is important to joh and ERC because it includes the only two terrorism related casesconnected to the Catalan Independence process those involving the CDR committee for the defenseof the Republic and the tsunami Democratic the PSOE and the independentist groups agreed onyesterday in a joint Amendment this amendment aims to ensure amnesty for all those accused ofterrorism the list includes 24 people 12 from the CDR who have already been formally charged withterrorism and 12 from tsunami including the former president Carles Puigdemont and the ERC leaderMara Roa so there we go changes some important.

Changes to the way that the word terrorism canbe understood by the Spanish justice system as we know Spain has had an issue with terrorismover the years now they have come up with the concept of light terrorism to protect peoplelike Carles Puigdemont so they don't end up in prison on terrorism charges when they comeback to Spain and I haven't seen a government do an about turn like the one that is currentlyhappening in Spain for a long long time the PSOE coalition government bending over backwardsto satisfy the needs of Mr Po DeMont for the justice system here in Spain Mr Puigdemont is acriminal and that's what the government wants to change basically they're taking power away fromthe courts and justice system in this country so that people like Mr Puigdemont can never beprosecuted and for many people in the legal.

Profession here the country is heading downa slippery slope and everything playing into the hands of these separatist politicians so thatthey can hold another referendum further down the track that's where we're heading now the secondpiece of news today related to driving cars and pollution in Spanish cities anyone who's beeninto a big city here would have realized that they can get a little bit polluted at times andthe government and its traffic directorate is trying to change this by getting old cars off theroad however the plan is not coming along as fast as they would like and as we can see here drivingpollution map one third of Spanish Vehicles still pollute too much it has been almost 8 yearssince the Direccion General de Trafico dgt introduced the classification of environmentalstickers in Spain a system of four stickers based.

On the impact of vehicles on the environment wasdeveloped taking into account the most efficient 50% of the vehicle Fleet almost a decade laterthe most polluting half has been reduced to only a third of the total according to the vehiclecensus to which datos RTV has had access but the Aging of vehicles especially those with a B labelis still a drag on the goal of reducing harmful emissions from road traffic so there we go almost8 years since the traffic department here in Spain introduced those environmental stickers as weknow we have type B sticker type c sticker an EC sticker and of course a zero sticker for carswith zero emissions for example electric vehicles but it's cars with a B sticker mainly diesel carsI believe that are still a drag on reducing those harmful emissions as we saw in that article thereso no doubt heavier restrictions will come into.

Force in coming years to try to get cars with Bstickers off the roads all together especially in cities keeping on the subject of cars andit's good news for car dealerships that sell Chinese cars because sales are up apparently aswe can read here Chinese car makers triple their car sales in Spain in 2023 the composition of theSpanish car market is changing with the arrival of new brands mainly from Asia until a few years agothe top sales positions were held by seat Renault and Citroen while Toyota and Kia have been thebestselling brands in Spain for two consecutive years this new order is not likely to remainunchanged for long either as Chinese brands have set their sights on the Spanish market and itis likely that in a few years we will see some of these brands in the top commercial positionsin just 3 years the firms coming out of the.

Asian giant have gone from having a testimonialposition in the Spanish Market of less than 1% to quadrupling their presence since at the end of2023 they had a 4% share in Spain well above the 1.4% recorded the previous year so Chinese carsin Spain becoming more and more popular in recent years going from around 1% of the total Fleet afew years ago to 4% of the total Fleet in 2023 I will say after observing the types of cars onSpanish highways every time I'm out and about having a drive I take a look at the cars around meand I have noticed that there are a lot more MGS and BYD build your dreams cars I think the brandis is on the roads here in Spain nowadays and if the trend continues there's going to be a lot moreincoming years and the final piece of news we'll look at today about Spanish tennis champion RafaNadal currently dividing opinion here in Spain is.

Mr Nadal and around the world too because ofa deal that he has done with Saudi Arabia to become the ambassador of Saudi Arabian tennis andthe latest piece of news about Mr Nadal is that he is investing some of that Saudi earned moneyin Madrid in the hotel Market because as we can see here Nadal and Hotel chain Melia to open ahotel on the grand via to compete with Cristiano Ronaldo the hotel alliance between tennis playerRafael Nadal and Melia will open a new hotel on Grand via just a few steps away from the hotelowned by Cristiano Ronaldo zel the brand that Mia launched last year together with the tennisplayer Rafa Nadal is preparing for new openings next year according to the CEO and president ofMelia Gabrielle Escarrer one of the openings will be in Grand via specifically the new Zel deGrand via in Madrid will be located in one of.

The hotels currently managed by the Mayan chainin this Central artery and will compete with the pestana CR7 Grand via Hotel owned by SportsmanCristiano Ronaldo so there we go RAF and Nadal teaming up with Hotel chain Melia and opening ahotel on the grand via surprisingly not far from football player Cristiano Ronaldo's Hotel who isalso raking in those Saudi dollars currently so good luck Rafa and I hope your investment in ahotel on Madrid's main artery the grand via goes well now let's take a look at some comments thathave been left on videos recently one here from Michael stew great stuff as usual regarding takingbig money deals from the Saudis I don't think you ever mentioned the worldclass Spanish golferJohn Rahm from Bara in the Basque country he recently sold his soul for upwards of $400 millionto the rebel golf Breakaway organization live golf.

After vowing never to leave the PGA it seemseveryone does have a price but just how much do people really need in my humble opinion anda similar comment from Blu-ray does he not have enough money already when is enough enough yeahMichael and Blu-ray thanks for the comments and there is a common theme in both of those commentsasking the question when is enough money enough when do you say no I don't need any more money thecase of Nadal and also the other person mentioned there John Ram who apparently said that he wouldnever go to live golf but he did for $400 million apparently as pointed out there by Michael in thatcomment obviously chasing the big bucks and making it clear for all to see that you can never haveenough the more you get the greedier you become and of course this is not limited to sports peopleit's a common business practice also because we.

Could easily throw in names like Jeff Bezos orElon Musk in there instead of Rafa Nadal and John Ram but it's the system and society that we livein and people like John RAM and Rafa Nadal will no doubt justify their decisions by saying thatif I don't take it somebody else will so better in my pocket than in somebody else's one here fromBernett hi Stewart do you know what is happening with the price of olive oil last year we paiddirect from farmer 5 lers was costing between 22 and 28 this year it's 50 to 60 and even at thesupermarket we paid €4 last year now €125 this year just wondering what your listeners thinkyeah Mary thanks for the comment and this is a topic that has popped up on the channel numeroustimes over the last year or so ever since olive oil prices began to rise as you said not longago we were paying around € 425 for a liter of.

Premium olive oil extra virgin olive oil that isand now the price for the same product is over €10 a liter and unfortunately no one seems toknow where the price limit is going to be when it comes to olive oil here in Spain Apparently oneof the reasons for the high prices is the weather conditions that have affected the olive cropsin Andalucia in recent times Farmers not able apparently to pick enough olives produce enougholive oil leading to a shortage hence the high prices and from what I've heard the situation isnot going to get better anytime soon and another interesting fact is that theft of olive oil fromsupermarkets is at an all-time high also so if you are a user of olive oil like Mary is and Iam we're just going to have to get used to high prices for the time being unfortunately one herefrom Marco fully agree with kaisha bank comment.

Most atrocious bank I was ever with unexplainedcharges centralized inefficient decision-making I had to take them to court for illegal mortgagefees no apology when they lost etc etc yeah Marco thanks for the comment and adding to the debateabout Spanish banks that we have been having on the channel in recent times somebody mentioned theword Casa bank the other day and somebody in the comment section said that they are the worst bankin Spain and Marco obviously for various reasons that he puts forward in his comment agreeing withthat person now I am a customer of that Bank Casa bank here in Spain and to be honest with you guysI've never had a problem or at least the serious problem like the ones put forward there but as Isaid yesterday in the live stream banking here in Spain can be a little bit hit and miss sometimesyou get a good bank sometimes you get a bad Bank.

Sometimes you get a good bank manager sometimesyou get a bad bank manager as I said hit and miss but let me know your thoughts on what are the goodBanks and what are the bad Banks here in Spain in the comment section below I'd love to hear themone here from Diego as we have not enough problems and challenges in Spain our government enjoyswasting time and our money in stupid issues nobody cares about last example ministerof culture trying to review Spanish history and decolonize museums some lessons to this guysurprisingly minister of culture one leave history to historians who don't fall in out of contextjudgments and don't have a political agenda two Spain did not have colonies the territories wereintegrated to Spanish provinces as Spanish is cathis cevilla ETC similar to how the Romans didwith their empire y dieo thanks for the comment.

And fairly clear that you are not happy with someof the comments made made by Spain's new culture Minister who's only been in the job for a fewmonths as we know and the other day he announced a review of Spanish mums and Spanish culturalheritage in order to reassess the cultural framing of these assets whatever that means and maybeyou're right politicians should leave history to the historians let me know what you guys thinkin the comments section below is this something that Spain should be reviewing or are there moreimportant things on the agenda let me know what you think one here from from Annabelle El Grecothe Greek was born around 1541 in cre which was then part of the Republic of Venice in his mid-20she traveled to Venice and studied under Tian who was the most renowned painter of his day aroundage 35 he moved to toos Spain where he lived and.

Worked for the rest of his life producing his bestknown paintings yabel thanks for the comment and as you mentioned there El Greco or the Greekone of the most renowned painters in Spanish history even though he wasn't born in Spainand Will some of this person's paintings come under review from the new culture Minister here inSpain most likely and I think a lot of the other works of art that are in places like the prideMuseum in Madrid will also come under scrutiny so it'll be interesting to see how the governmentgoes about re-educating people on how they view these classic works of art on that note I'll wrapthe video up questions and comments please leave them in the section below debate the video outas you normally do if you have an opinion on any of the topics that I have spoken about todaythe comment section is the place for you give.

The video a thumbs up if you liked it thumbsdown if you didn't I'll see you in the next one AO

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