Barney Jopson

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de diciembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

The ex-Eta terrorist bringing down Pedro Sánchez in Spain

Pedro Sánchez’s struggling campaign to win another term as Spanish prime minister is being hurt by one person more than anything else: Arnaldo Otegi, a convicted member of the disbanded Eta terrorist group.

Otegi, who has served 14 years in prison, is the leader of EH Bildu, a leftwing Basque separatist party with a key role in national politics. Its parliamentary votes have helped Sánchez pass his signature reforms to labour law, pensions and housing.

But outside the Basque country Otegi, convicted for crimes including kidnapping and belonging to an armed group, has been vilified as a man of violence. He has never condemned Eta’s bloodshed and the taint of terror has made his party repulsive to many.…  Seguir leyendo »

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez, left, and opposition Popular party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo before their TV election debate © AFP via Getty Images

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez and his electoral rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo accused each other of failing to protect women, making pacts with disreputable allies and lying about the economy in an ill-tempered televised debate on Monday evening.

The two rivals interrupted, spoke over and aimed slights at each other in a series of testy exchanges, with the Socialist prime minister appearing more irritable on a night that was one of his final chances to rein in the poll lead of Feijóo’s conservative People’s party.

Sánchez called a snap general election after suffering an emphatic defeat in regional and local elections at the end of May.…  Seguir leyendo »

The last Brexit deal? Gibraltar fears a hard border with Spain

Antonio Sánchez Morodo flashes his identity card at the border guards as he leaves Spain to get to work, riding his bike down Winston Churchill Avenue on the only land crossing into Gibraltar, a sliver of British-Mediterranean soil that is as wealthy as it is cramped.

Space is so scarce in the UK overseas territory, where everything is squeezed by the iconic hunk of limestone looming over it, that it relies on 15,400 cross-frontier commuters from Spain to double the size of its workforce on a daily basis, before they return home to sleep in Andalusia, mainland Spain’s southernmost autonomous community.…  Seguir leyendo »

Early morning joggers pass graffiti in Plaça del Fossar de les Moreres, Barcelona © Eva Parey/FT

Pau Guardans’ grandfather gazes down from the wall, his portrait separating the shelves of a wood-panelled library inside Barcelona’s Grand Hotel Central. The luxury establishment was opened in 2005 by Único Hotels, a group founded by Guardans, which added a rooftop infinity pool to a building whose stone entrance still bears the ruts of horse-drawn carts. Francesc Cambó, a Catalan politician and Guardans’ forebear, built it as his home in 1922.

So selling the hotel was a wrench. When Único cut it loose in 2021, it was not only offloading a €93mn asset but severing a family bond. Guardans decided, however, it was time to move on.…  Seguir leyendo »