Tag: elections

Spain’s Snap Election, Housing Crisis and the Expat Vote Gap

Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has now called a general election for Sunday, the 29th of November.

Spain, to be honest, has been in a state of flux since the last elections. The Prime Minister only just scraped his return to office in the last election in July 2023, after he won the backing of Catalan pro-independence parties by promising a controversial amnesty to those involved in the failed, illegal push for independence from Spain in 2017.

Sánchez’s minority coalition government with the smaller, left-wing Sumar alliance has struggled to get legislation through a fraught Congress and has not passed a budget since 2023!

Despite being behind in the polls, he has taken the opportunity presented by the housing crisis, and the fact that his decrees to try and ‘help’ the situation were vetoed in Parliament last week, to call an election.

What he fails to grasp is that it is his government, which has been in power since 2018, that has failed to build enough social housing to try and solve the problem.

He, in his wisdom, implemented a mass regularisation programme for immigrants in 2026, receiving over 1.1 million applications from undocumented migrants by the late-June deadline! 34,000 applied across the Balearic Islands, and those people will now have the same rights as me. Yes, in all intents and purposes, I am an immigrant too, but I’m an immigrant who’s been living legally for the past 35 years. Yet I’m still treated the same? Any ideas on where these people are going to live? And what about the strain this then puts on all the other services, such as schools, hospitals, etc.?

Coalitions in any country do not work. You’ve got a group of political parties who are only looking out for themselves and, therefore, nothing gets done. Take my point above that no budget has been passed since 2023 as a good example of this.

Having lived and worked in Spain since 1990, I cannot vote in this election. Yes, having paid taxes, bought a property, owned businesses and employed people, I still am not allowed to vote. How crazy is that?

Even our own country scrapped its rule on not being able to vote after living away for 15 years or more. British citizens who have moved abroad will be given ‘votes for life’, as the Government scrapped the arbitrary 15-year limit on voting rights.

New measures will also make it easier for overseas electors to remain registered to vote for longer.

Together, these changes will empower more British citizens living overseas to participate in the UK’s democracy.

Decisions made in the UK Parliament on foreign policy, defence, immigration, pensions and trade deals affect British citizens who live overseas. It is therefore right that they have a say in UK Parliamentary General Elections.

Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Lord True, said at the time:

“In an increasingly global and connected world, most British citizens living overseas retain deep ties to the United Kingdom. Many still have family here, have a history of hard work in the UK behind them, and some have even fought for our country.”

More information can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/votes-for-life-for-british-citizens-living-abroad

So why am I being denied that right in the country in which I reside?

One thing we will be able to vote on is the municipal elections in May next year. If you are a resident EU citizen, you can vote in your municipality, but remember, you have to register before the 30th of December 2026.

This can be done at your Town Hall, online through the Town Hall website and at most tourist offices. You will need your NIE and passport for identification.

Being registered at the Town Hall is also important for access to schools, local discounts, healthcare and other municipal services.

Because of Brexit, we are now non-EU citizens, meaning our voting rights are considered less important again. We are still waiting for news on how we can register in order to vote. Last time, we were only given a very short window to register, and it looks like this time it will be the same. I will keep you posted on this. I believe that if you want to have a say in what goes on where we live then you need to exercise your right to vote.

Remember, it doesn’t matter if you were registered to vote last time; you have to go through the process again.

In conclusion, I can vote in the country of my birth, where I no longer reside. I can’t vote in the country where I live, work and pay my taxes. And if I want to vote in the local elections, I, as a non-EU citizen, have to wait until the central Government tells me when I can. How does that song go? “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you!”

A Catch Up With Juan Antonio Amengual The Mayor Of Calvia

On the 16th of December 2022, I was asked by a good friend to have a coffee with a friend of his in Portals Nous. He explained that the person I was meeting was an ex-hotelier who had become a consultant in the Tourist industry, and he was the prospective leader for the PP political party in Calvia to become the Mayor. Juan Antonio Amengual was his name and he was asking me through the radio and my blog to help push the ‘foreign voters’ into registering themselves in order that they were able to vote in the upcoming local elections in May 2023. He wasn’t pushing them to vote for him at the time but at least to get registered as the cut off to be registered was in January, 5 months before the actual elections! Juan Antonio was very clever as he knew that 30% of the population in Calvia were foreign voters and if registered to vote that would give him a better opportunity to win. 

When it came to the elections in May 2023, the PP increased their vote share to win 3 more seats than they did previously, and they then entered into a coalition with Vox to gain overall control of Calvia by just one seat.  When you go back over the numbers you see that of the 52,458 population, 31,549 (60%) were registered to vote. Of that number that were registered to vote, only 17,384 (55%) actually did. When you look at the number of people registered to vote against the overall population, just a third (33%) of the population actually bothered. Which in all honesty and despite the push to vote, the overall turnout was poor. Of those figures, I don’t know how many were from the non-Spanish voters. 

Last week, I interviewed Juan Antonio to look back on his first 18 months in power. One thing I admire about him is he gets himself around. There isn’t an event in the municipality that he misses, judging by the pictures on social media. He tells me that he seriously hasn’t had a holiday in those 18 months, plus the 6 months of campaigning, and he is looking forward to a break at Christmas. But he is rightfully proud of his team and the pushing out of their manifesto pledges. He stresses his most important project is to extend the season and I noticed a quote this week from the outgoing President of the Hoteliers Association Maria Frontera, who said that “Public authorities are content with having services open for six or seven months”. Not in Calvia says Juan Antonio, he is looking to extend the season for as long as it’s possible. The message they gave at the World Travel Market was ‘one Tourist, one friend’ and that despite the tourism protests in the summer, tourists are definitely welcome in Calvia all year round. The first phase of the new promenade in Magaluf has started at a cost of €5 million and the second phase funding has just been secured for the winter of 2025/26. There is an amazing opportunity to showcase all that is happening in Calvia and especially Magaluf when the ABTA conference comes to town in October next year. The Travel Convention is attended by decision makers, influencers and opinion formers spanning the full breadth of the mainstream and specialist travel sector; from tour operators and cruise lines, to hotels, airlines and all types of travel retailer. It is also attended by travel industry specialists, from accountants and lawyers to technology providers and marketing experts. Approximately 75% of the attendees are ABTA Members or Partners.

The event attracts more leading journalists from the UK national, consumer and travel trade press than any other UK travel industry event held overseas, creating significant coverage of the event.

Delegate numbers for The Travel Convention are capped at around 600, to provide delegates with a high quality event and networking experience. So as you can see it’s a perfect opportunity for Mallorca, Calvia and Magaluf to promote themselves and that is not lost on Juan Antonio.

At the end of the interview, he encourages everyone to attend the many fiestas that are happening through the holidays. Details of which can be found on the council’s website https://www.calvia.comThe full interview with Juan Antonio can be found at https://www.facebook.com/RadioOneMallorca 

He wishes everyone a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

As this is my last column before Christmas and the New Year, I would also like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.