Category: Life in Madrid
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Atocha
Spain is famous for its plazas. Often thought of as places where thin, glamorous, hot-blooded Spaniards pass the night on wicker furnished terraces with large glasses of rioja wine, tapas in shallow terracotta bowls and the light humming of flamenco guitar in the background. Yet as you arrive in Madrid via the southern gateway to […]
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Leyendas de Leganés: Don Juan de Austria, el Jon Snow de Leganés
¿Quién fue Don Juan de Austria? En Leganés hay comunidades, colegios, y una calle que se llama Juan de Austria. Y como Jon Snow de Juegos de Tronos, Juan fue un bastado del Rey y un luchador. Un héroe Cerca de 1545, el Rey Carlos I de España, también Santo Emperador Romano desde Alemania hasta […]
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Leyendas de Leganés: Avenida Salvador Allende
En Leganés, hay una calle se llama Salvador Allende después del primer presidente marxista en Chile y América Latina. Allende fue elegido en eleciones democráticas en 1970. Allende quiso mejorar las condiciones para la clase obrera en su país. Mejorar la educación, el sistema de salud y nacionalizar las industrias más grandes en Chile. Pero […]
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#4MAYO Madrid Elections: an after-thought
With a 75% participation rate, the PP and Isabel Ayuso take 65 seats in the Madrid Comunidad elections, four short of a majority. She will need an abstention from Vox to become president, and is also likely to negotiate a confidence on supply agreement with them. Ayuso has eaten Cuidudanos alive and kept Vox at […]
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Ending the State Alarm and the Return of the Tourist
With the State of Alarm ending and tourists returning to Spain, there seems to be a feeling of worry in the air for some, and for others not so much. How do you feel?
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Spanish Populism in a time of Crisis
Both Vox and Podemos continue to attack each other whilst the rest of Spain try to get on with life
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When the Posh came to Protest
The latest spectacles to replace an everlasting stream chat shows on Spanish television are protests. These protests are taking place in one of Europe’s richest neighbourhoods. The Salamanca district in the centre of Madrid. Throughout the week various numbers of Spaniards have taken to the neighbourhood’s streets during the allotted exercise time, but they have […]
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Pedro Releases The Pressure
Has the government been saved from its citizens’ anger by letting them out for walk? Will the Popular Party save the coalition government or damn the country to chaos? As someone with a dog I have been out every other day in the last 7 weeks. So I never had the overly euphoric experience of […]
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Tales From Madrid: The Dos de Mayo Uprising
Find out why madrileños celebrate this day and how it forms part of the city’s rebellious nature.
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The Case of Isa, Pablo and The Justice System.
Two Podemos deputies in the media spotlight for clashes with the law.
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Would somebody please think of the children?
Mayor of Barcelona demands “Free our children” as regional and ideological tensions in Spain rise with an extension of the coronavirus quarantine.
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Will 8M be the end of Spain’s Coalition Government?
Will 8M be the end of Spain’s Coalition Government?
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Back to work Spain (well for very (very)few)
As some Spaniards returned to work today, (a select few) construction workers, along with factory, communication and sanitary workers, many will be questioning why yesterday they weren’t allowed to walk outside alone, but today they can sit on public transport. Although, they may also be wondering where they can get the masks from… The police […]
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How Communists Helped Establish Democracy in Spain
At 10:30 pm on the 24th January 1977 eight lawyers were working late at the offices of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO), one of Spain’s trade unions which was set up by the Spanish Communist Party (PCE). At the time, Spain was in the middle of a temperamental transition from Franco’s dictatorship to democracy. Many people were tense due to the […]
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Public Health: Who are the workforce behind the management of Spain’s coronavirus crisis?- The Local
Origial post on the 6th April 2020 https://www.thelocal.es/20200406/public-health-who-are-the-workforce-behind-the-management-of-spains-coronavirus-crisis Photo: AFP As Covid-19 continues to make its way around the globe everyone on social media seems to have suddenly become a public health specialist. Admirable as this maybe, there are people who are experts in this field. Public health doctors are trained doctors that specialise in the investigation […]
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The History of Spain and Covid-19: Rinse and Repeat
If not having a functioning government in 2019 wasn’t enough drama for the Spanish population, then the introduction of Covid-19 would make up for it. Spanish society has revolved around political crisis since the turn of the 20th century. Being a late bloomer when it comes to industrialisation and the growing of a middle class, Spain […]
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Lockdown diaries: Alan, writer & former psychiatric nurse (UK) — Naked Madrid
Originally published at http://www.nakedmadrid.com on March 25, 2020. It’s ok to be stressed, and it’s normal to be losing it. Most of us are. But we are doing it together. “It’s ok to be stressed, and it’s normal to be losing it. Most of us are. But we are doing it together,” says Alan, who used to be […]
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Spanish Elections 2019: How did it come to this?
Spanish Elections 2019: How did it come to this? The campaigns finished on Friday and this will give people their traditional day of reflection, before they make their decision on the Sunday in Spain’s most divided election in years.
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Can the Feminist hype save Spain’s dying Left?
“The protest continued well into the night down the main avenues of Spain’s capital city, all the while the people eating in these restaurants were being waited on by women who probably couldn’t afford to strike.”
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Why we should all support 8M, the Women’s Strike, in Spain
Since 2017, when 40,000 women ascended on Madrid the 8th March has become a big date in the Spanish calendar. 2018 was when it really hit it off with millions of women striking in the first ever 24 hour strike. Housewives hung out their aprons, next to the Spanish flags, in solidarity with their fellow strikers. Here is why, in 2019, it is more important than ever.
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Will facism will rise again in Spain?
Fascists are gaining ground in the south of Spain. How did this happen? It was always going to happen.
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The Royals. Yay or Nay?
Royal scandal and claiming tax payers money. Isn’t Monarchy a bit dated for the 21st century?
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To the Left to the Left: or the Far right. Conflictive times in Spain
Will the new law stopping the glorification of fascism help the left wingers stay in power or will the right win over the Spanish public’s heart and convince them to put the past behind them?
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Orwell in Barcelona
George Orwell went to Barcelona in December 1936 to fight fascism. If you read Homage to Catalonia you may see the Ramblas very different.
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The boom of Labour International
Labour International is a Constituency Labour Party and it has 3,600 members. The only difference- they don’t live in the UK
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Franco’s Spain. What it was really like.
On the anniversary of the start of the Civil War, I take a look at what life under Franco was like.
Alan McGuire 