DESPITE being two decades at the head of the Junta de Andalucia, Manuel Chaves has left the region at the foot of the European league tables.

This is the view of thinktank Funcas as Chaves moves on to become Prime Minister Zapatero’s Minister for Autonomous Regions.

Chaves – who has been re-elected six times over 19 years – has accepted the new position, which will leave him responsible for coordinating between Spain’s autonomous regions.

The politician – formerly Spain’s Employment Minister – has been heavily criticised for his environment policy, in particular a failure to deal with the region’s coasts.

He effectively turned a blind eye as towns such as Marbella built tens of thousands of illegal houses.

His successor Jose Antonio Grinon, 61, was sworn in earlier this week.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Sounds about right for Spain – allow “illegal building” for decades, ruining the environment and coastline, pollute the waters, fish it to death, plough through inland UNESCO nature reserves, and get…. PROMOTED!

    Spain in a nutshell for anyone wanting an introduction of how Spain functions day-to-day! This man should be DEMOTED. If the Spanish allowed this man to carry on like this for two decades then it tells you a lot about the electorate, most of which who could not give a ****!

  2. Maybe we should look at alternatives of the main two parties to the way forward, starting at the EU parliament? copied this from another forum:

    A letter to:

    Sean O’Curneen Cañas MEP Candidate, (half Irish, half Spanish)
    Cabeza de lista Centro Democrático Liberal

    Dear Sean
    Sorry I do not speak Spanish very well. I am a member of an organisation linked with housing irregularities in the Almanzora Valley of Almeria. Your name was recommended as someone who might be suitable to represent us as an EU MEP, sympathising with our cause. You will no doubt are aware of the Auken reports. Of course, as this is the first election for most of us for MEP’s in Spain, it is difficult to advise our members how to vote. Especially as we are non political, but naturally do not want to lose our votes as individual members.

    Do we vote for say your party CDL, or you as an individual? As I understand it there are only 50 MEP seats for Spain, but feel sure there will be a lot more candidates chasing those seats. Any help and advice your office, or yourself would be greatly appreciated. We feel that the fraud and corruption involved over recent years, through the main two parties at local and central government level, to the cost to many ex pats, we have lost confidence in the system.

    I didn’t expect to find a link in English to your web site, why should there be? But from what I can make out with my rough translation, you have the makings of someone who could benefit, and vice versa, a lot of support from our small corner of Spain.
    Yours sincerely

    Reply,

    Dear Sir
    Thank you for your message. I very much welcome it and appreciate your interest in my blog and the campaign. I think you will be pleased to know that we are working on upgrading the blog to a proper website, which will have content in English. This has always been my intention, because while we are primarily seeking to offer Spaniards new hope in their political system and a real alternative to the socialist and conservative parties in Spain, we also very much want to reach out to the expat community in Spain. We are aiming to have the new website available very soon and so there will be information in English in a matter of days.

    I am aware of the Auken report and also about general issues concerning administrative hurdles at local, regional and national level for non-Spanish EU citizens, hurdles which do not comply with the letter or
    the spirit of EU legislation. I will most definitely be championing the free movement of citizens throughout the Union. The same goes for Spaniards living, working and studying in other EU states. While the EU
    brings down barriers, we often discover that the barriers are only slightly “lowered” or new ones are put up by national, regional and local authorities. And while it is of course understandable that at times there
    are local specificities that justify taking a second look at some EU legislation, more often than not, the free movement of citizens is hampered with little justification. And in this case, the concept of “free movement” encompasses not just tourism, but settling in another country, buying a house, etc.

    As for the corruption. Where do I begin! Perhaps I can summarise the position of everyone in the CDL party in two words: zero tolerance. Indeed, the very first article I published on my blog a few weeks ago was
    on this very subject.

    Concerning your question about voting. In Spain, as in many other EU countries, it is the list system that operates. In other words, when voters go to the polls they elect a party list and not individual people.
    Spain will have 50 representatives in the European Parliament, who will be determined according to the number of votes that the party they have stood for receives.

    I hope this helps to answer your question. Please feel free to pass on this message to anyone you think might be interested, or to publish it in any relevant blogs or online discussion forum. And of course, please don’t
    hesitate to ask any other question you may have.

    Thanks once again for your interest and do keep checking http://www.sean2009.es as new info is being publishing regularly.

    Yours faithfully
    Sean

    Sean O’Curneen Cañas
    Cabeza de lista Centro Democrático Liberal
    Elecciones europeas 2009
    ¡AHORA ES EL MOMENTO! ¡ESTA ES TU OPORTUNIDAD PARA
    AYUDAR A QUE APAREZCA EN ESPAÑA OTRA FORMA DE HACER POLÍTICA!
    Realiza donaciones y muestra tu apoyo en:
    http://www.sean2009.es

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