OK, so we have 99.9% of the votes verified and the full breakdown for Madrid from yesterday’s Spanish general election. First, a quick reminder of what’s at stake.
There were 1,111 candidates competing for 350 seats in parliament’s lower chamber, called the Congress of Deputies. The winning party in the lower house forms next government for a four-year term. In the Senate, 1,220 candidates are competing for 208 seats.
There were 35.1 million people eligible to vote. The field consisted of about a ten mainstream parties considered to have a chance to win seats but the main fight is between the socialist PSOE and the conservative PP (Partido Popular).
In Madrid the PP won out, taking 49% of the total vote against the socialists 39% – however that only translated into into a 3 seat lead because of the way constituencies are divided up. The greens got a whopping total of 10,000 votes.
2008 (2004)
Party Votes % Deputees
P.P. PARTIDO POPULAR 1.723.370, 49.34, 18 (17, 45,02, 1.576.636) P.S.O.E. PARTIDO SOCIALISTA OBRERO ESPAÑOL 1.377.996, 39.45, 15 (16 44,11 1.544.676) IU-CM. IZQUIERDA UNIDA COMUNIDAD DE MADRID-ALTERNATIVA 163.633, 4.69, 1 (2 6,43 225.109) UPyD UNION PROGRESO Y DEMOCRACIA 131.242, 3.76, 1
LV-GV LOS VERDES-GRUPO VERDE 10.807, 0,31, 0
¡Hola! ¿Qué Tal? Onwards to Tirso de Molina metro station, one stop south of Sol to meet Jasmina and her friend Rosé V, for we are to have Sunday lunch at an Indian restaurant. Our meeting is set for 2.00pm but Madrid-Uno’s mobi is still on English time so he realises he doesn’t have over an hour to get there and is 10 mins late. The ladies assure him they’re not pissed off but that they are thirsty so we immediately head down the hill towards Lavapiés in search of a cafe. We choose well for the 3 canas – half pints of beer – are ice cold and served with frosted glasses. It’s 2.30 pm, we’re sat outside the bar, the sun is warming our backs and faces and Madrid-Uno’s companions both have basic English so we can converse in a mixture of Spanglish. Que rico.
After polishing off our cervezas, and being harangued by a lady trying to sell us artist sketch pads (nice patterned velvet covers but none of us draw) we move back up the hill a hundred yards or so where there are several restaurants, all in a row and all sharing the same part of the street for their terraza dining. The one major drawback of this is that it is a steepish street and all the laid out tables and chairs are set at a 5% angle, a slope somewhat disconcerting when you’re trying to eat and drink.
Each restaurant is offering a different cuisine – first one up for example is Turkish, followed up by Iranian (with kebabs the main offer), Indian, Pakistani and what maybe Lebanese, but my Arabic isn’t so hot so I could be lieing here. Madrid-Uno does not let on that, coming from England, he regards himself as somewhat of an expert on the curry front, so stays silent in the choosing period. The ladies settle on the Indian.
It’s going to be a samosa starter and we will all choose an individual dish and share. Its 1 chicken sag, 1 chicken tikka and a lamb curry + pilau rice. The samosas are good and they lay on three different pickles to complement. The place is also now suddenly full and the staff are busy adding tables around the edges of the existing customers. I’m feeling a bit corralled – I tell myself as long as they don’t start circling the wagons and start to shoot we’ll be fine. The main courses prove to be pretty average but this may be because of the Spanish distaste for most things too spicy. In Spanish cuisine sausages are allowed to be spicy hot but not much else and it would appear that the kitchen is allowing for local taste. Even the ‘vindaloo’ on the menu is accompanied by an instruction to inform the waiter if you want it ‘with extra spice’. Now, where Madrid-Uno comes from, asking for a vindaloo with extra spice is like asking for kick in the head. The tikka is good but the other two dishes are bland. And the food is served cold, but again this appears to be the local custom. The rice is proper pilau but coloured red – not the usual yellow saffrony tinge. All very odd.
While eating I find out that Rosé V has done some serious exams in wine tasting / degustacion, so I prevail upon her to ante-up some info on some top level wines from Spain since Big John is coming over to stay in a month or so and he’s a bit of an aficionado of the vino. My main line of questioning was, “tell me something other than Rioja – everyone knows Rioja – give me some labels that I can impress with.”
Here’s the official Rosé V list:
Tinto (red) – D.O. Ribeira Del Duero
Vega Sicilia
Pesquera
Mauro
Pago De Carraovejas*** – NB. lit. trans. = “The place where the sheep walk by” – nice!
Blanco – D.O. Rias Baixas
Albarino
Ribeiro
Plus, Madrid-Uno was to look out for labels from the D.O. Rueda region as well. Many of these wines are, apparently, available in El Corte Inglés so that makes things easier. Here’s a good link for more info on the best Spanish wine labels. (pdf)
2 x Coffee and another lager for Madrid-Uno. It’s getting on for 4.30pm and the first diners are starting to leave, some having to climb over the newer arrivals in the newly laid out tables. A bid for freedom! We join them after paying a cuenta of 29 Euroweenies. That’s about £20 for three people + drinks and OK it wasn’t very inspiring but it wasn’t bad either.
¡Hola! ¿Qué Tal?. The Bond film ‘Never Say Never Again’ was on the television tonight. Very amusing to hear ‘Thero Thero Siete’ Sean Connery dubbed into Spanish. I’m sure that to the Spanish the dubbed voice conveys masculine smoothness but somehow it just doesn’t conjure up that laconic, wry, Edinburgh baritone to which Madrid-Uno is accustomed to. Still, NSNA is an enjoyable romp, definitely one of the best Bond films despite Sean getting on a bit at that stage. Certainly better than the gimmick filled stuff we’ve been getting recently (though haven’t seen the new Casino Royale with Daniel Craig yet). Favourite line? Fatima Blush: “Oh, how reckless of me. I made you all wet.” James Bond: “Yes, but my martini is still dry.” LOL! Second favourite line – Q: “Good to see you Mr. Bond. Things have been awfully dull around here. I hope we’re going to see some gratuitous sex and violence.” James Bond: “I certainly hope so too.” Madrid-Uno is now curious to hear how Clint Eastwood’s voice get’s dubbed. “Go on Punk. Make my day!”
¡Hola! ¿Qué Tal? Plaza Colon is marked by a massive great Spanish national flag and is used for exhibitions and public events. It has also been adopted as home by the skateboard fraternity in Madrid. On most evenings and all day at weekends, loads of skaters and a few BMX tricksters congregate here to practise their moves. The reason? Because the area is all smooth concrete, low benches and lips and inviting ramps and rails, making up a natural playground for the urban gymnast. They play chicken with pedestrians too, Skate boarding fast towards you and only veering off when they see you hesitate. The little bastards!
Here’s a cool video of a local ‘crew’ skating at Plaza Colon and elsewhere in Madrid.
¡Hola! ¿Qué Tal?. In pursuit of a new tarjeta for Madrid-Uno’s mobile phone (so he can make local calls on local tariffs) Misterio leads us into the big El Corte Inglés department store on Goya. This national chain of stores dominates Spanish retailing, selling almost everything you can think of, either in large multi-format department stores (like the one we’re in today), in smaller specialist shops (there’s a furniture ECI just up the road from here), in out-of-town hypermarkets (Hipercor / Supercor) or online. It’s kind of like Tesco, Selfridges and Marks & Sparks rolled into one. Other offshoots of El Corte Inglés include ‘Viajes El Corte Inglés’ (a travel agency), ‘Opencor’ (upmarket convenience stores), ‘Informática El Corte Inglés’ (IT services), ‘Sfera’ (clothing), and ‘Bricor’ (DIY stores). To give you an idea of the size of this operation, in the fiscal year ended February 2006, group revenue was just under 16 billion euroweenies. Our man at the counter is clearly new and is sweating a bit when we grill him about pay-as-you-go tariffs but eventually we settle on a Telefonica Movistar card. Later that evening, at closing time, we see lots of people hanging around the staff entrance. The reason for this gathering becomes clear when the staff themselves, mostly still in the green / grey uniform of the shop, come streaming out. The groups are waiting for their ECI worker friends before going out to party. Bien, claro.
