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DigameXtra Holiday Schedule:
– Thursday, 17 April 17 is Jueves Santo (Holy Thursday)
– Friday, 18 April is Viernes Santo (Good Friday)
Both are national public holidays. DigameXtra will be closed these days.
Items scheduled for Thursday, 17 April, will be posted one day early, on Wednesday, 16 April.
Items scheduled for Friday, 18 April will be posted in the next issue, Monday, 21 April.
Please time your submissions appropriately.
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Thursday, 10 April, 2025 is Naythan’s:
7th Anniversary As Editor Of DigameXtra
13th Anniversary on Team Digame/DigameXtra
I will celebrate on Friday, 11 April with dinner out somewhere on Torrox Costa or El Morche playa. Any recommendations?
Shout out to previous editors Sandra, Carol & Jane! Digame est. 2008.
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What’s On
Tell them you saw it on DigameXtra!
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On Sale Now- Brisa Festival of Malaga: 24-26 July
Info & tix: https://www.brisafestival.com/
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Sunday Boozie brunch with Alberto Fer: Sun, Apr 13, 1pm
Villa del Mar – Camping Nerja. Info & map: https://www.villadelmarnerja.com/event-details-registration/sunday-boozie-brunch-with-alberto-2025-04-13-11-00 & Video Link
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II Ajobacalao Route: A gastronomic event in Vélez-Málaga
April 1 to 20, 2025. A celebration of a local culinary treasure- Ajobacalao. The ajobacalao, also called ajocolorao or ajoporro among locals, is a cold soup (or thick spread) made with cod, bread, olive oil and paprika, usually served with bread. It’s very simple but delicious!
Recipe: https://www.visitcostadelsol.com/things-to-do/ajobacalao-p102018
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ARCHGROVE TRANSPORT SERVICES
Archgrove Services: A family run light haulage/transport company with bases in Archez, Spain and Cambridgeshire.
We are part of the ADH Storage and Transportation company and as such have storage available in Competa and Puente Don Manuel. Very reasonable rates.
We provide a one stop service for all your transport needs and pride ourselves on reliability, flexibility, good communication and a very much ‘can do’ approach. No job is too small and there is always a solution.
Our services include:
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If we can be of service please contact Gail. We are on Facebook and always available to chat through your needs and provide a free no obligation quote if required.
UK: 0044 7846672013
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Email: archgroveservices@gmail.com ; FB Link
Our contact info is also in the DigameXtra Sponsor’s Section everyday.
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SPW CONSTRUCTION SERVICES
SPW Construction Services: Professional high quality building service, fully qualified tradesmen to all trades.
Extensions, retaining walls, driveways, swimming pools, damp problems, roofs, blocked drains.
Replacement kitchens and bathrooms, Tiling and terraces. Plumbing, electrics and plastering, painting.
Architect service, building licence applications.
Handyman service now available for those smaller jobs.
Water Deposit Installations: Due to the ongoing drought and current water restrictions SPW Construction are currently offering the following service.
– Supply and installation of new above or below ground water deposits. 1000 litres up to 25000 litres. Delivered and installed, all relevant plumbing. All work warrantied.
– We can also advise you or help to organise water deliveries from local suppliers.
Selling Your House? SPW Construction can offer you a bespoke package to prepare your house for sale.
Through our extensive relationships with Agents, buyers and sellers we understand what is required to present your home to potential purchasers.
Interior & Exterior decoration / Replacement bathrooms and Kitchens
Pool Reforms / Garden tidy
DAFO Compliance, septic tanks, solar installations, etc.
Roof checks / Damp proofing
For free consultation and estimate contact us on 622938440
or email: scottparkwilson AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk
Scott/Arenas. Home Page and FB-Link
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News & Articles
(Click the link to read the full article)
{ Translations by www.DeepL.com/Translator }
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News Note: It’s a slow news day, mostly dubious panic articles about Trump’s tariffs and Easter articles. So I will take this opportunity to present 2 long articles regarding topics of some real significance in our lives- the Sánchez regime’s colossal failure to manage EU Recovery Funds effectively, and the dismal performance of the gov’t & public services during the Covid crisis. Remember how all those businesses that closed during the covid threat were supposed to receive support in order to recover? Not many did reopen as the Sanchez administration failed to allocate most of the private sector recovery money. Those funds that were disbursed to the private sector were often not recovery grants at all, but were loans that would require repayment to Spain’s socialist government who received the funds without repayment obligations for the most part! Just as Sanchez attempted to tie DANA recovery funds to his ill-fated budget proposal in an act of political blackmail, he continues to screw the private sector, which I suppose is to be expected from a hard core socialist globalist. -Ed.
SPAIN
Sánchez’s great EU Next Generation EU covid recovery funds scandal, some funds will be returned due to mismanagement: {Translation in full}
– The closing of the 2024 fiscal year has confirmed what many economists have been warning for some time: the management of Pedro Sánchez’s government of the 163,000 million European Next Generation funds has been a historic failure. Far from the triumphalist narrative that the Government is trying to sell, official data and independent reports show a bleak picture. With just over a year to go before the end of the program, Spain has lost its initial advantage, being caught between a disappointing budget execution and a legacy of failed reforms for the future.
– The numbers don’t lie. Or the data kills the story, as you prefer. According to official data from the General Intervention of the State Administration as of December 31, 2024, out of a total of 34,236 million euros of budgeted credits, barely 9,114 million euros of payments have been executed, which is equivalent to a paltry 26.6% of the total.
– This is the worst record since the Recovery Plan was launched four years ago. Although authorizations reached 83.90% and commitments 76.58%, recognized obligations stagnated at 63.17%, inflated by an accounting trickery that hides transfers between public bodies.
– The gap between commitments and actual payments shows a paralysis in 2024 that cannot be justified solely by Sánchez’s unilateral and bureaucratic design. Spain has squandered its initial advantage as one of the first countries to receive disbursements and, while Italy and Portugal advance with agility, our country remains stuck since it received in the fourth payment, with more than a year without receiving new funds and without clear prospects for improvement. The fifth payment will arrive almost two years late according to the initially planned schedule and with possible partial penalties for non-compliance, such as the diesel tax.
– Delays and constant changes expose serious mismanagement. The management of European funds has been marked by improvisation. The constant changes in the objectives and technical modifications of the Recovery Plan have shown a lack of planning and a crude attempt to hide non-compliance from Brussels. It is surprising the laxity with which the European Commission, far from demanding rigor and reforms that would have an impact on the competitiveness of our country, has evaluated Sánchez.
– Despite changes in milestones and validations bordering on the limit of what is permissible, the Government has been stuck for more than a year, without the capacity to pass key laws. Congress is blocked by Sánchez’s weakness and the risk of having to return funds is no longer a remote hypothesis, it is real. While execution was presumed, there were unexecuted remainders such as to finance the DANA Component, a new Housing PERTE or the reallocation of 5 billion to finance anti-tariff measures.
– Not only has budgetary execution failed, but also reformist ambition has failed. The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) has been devastating about the pension reform: far from guaranteeing the sustainability of the system, the measures adopted are insufficient and lack the necessary long-term impact. The burden is shifted to future generations without offering fundamental solutions. It is an analysis that discredits even the indicator used to measure the sustainability of the pension system.
– Labor reforms, another pillar of the plan, do not fare any better either. The European Court of Auditors has been blunt: only 19% of the measures adopted have had tangible results, while half of them have had no impact whatsoever. The lack of clear indicators, the absence of well-defined objectives and a deficient monitoring system have turned these reforms into a propaganda exercise rather than an engine for change. Far from energizing the labor market, bureaucratic rigidity and the lack of real incentives for companies have limited their effectiveness, leaving Spain with the highest unemployment rate in the EU (10.4%) and 800,000 inactive permanent employees.
– Bureaucracy and interventionism, how the private sector is marginalized and most recovery funds, specifically requested to aid the damages covid caused the private sector, mainly go to the public sector. From the outset, the plan’s interventionism has favored the public sector to the detriment of the private sector. Seventy-seven percent of the resources allocated to the 100 largest beneficiaries have gone to public entities, relegating SMEs and startups, the real engine of the economy.
– This is a double detriment: on the one hand, excessive bureaucracy and legal uncertainty have discouraged private investment; on the other, the lack of support for innovative projects has slowed down the modernization of the productive fabric. The PERTE, such as the Electric and Connected Vehicle or Decarbonization, are clear examples: the lack of clarity and inexplicable administrative slowness has led large companies to rethink their forecasts, while SMEs are unable to access funds except for a Digital Kit.
***Ministerial lack of coordination***
– The ministries that should lead the change, the ones that represented Sánchez’s main priorities, are the ones that execute the worst:
*The Ministry of Housing is shipwrecked making payments for only 14.4% (457 million euros). It leaves more than 2,700 million unexecuted. A lost year.
*Industry and Tourism, remains, one more year, among the worst ministries of Sánchez, with a level of payments of 15.91%, leaving 5,139 million in the drawers of the ministry without promoting strategic sectors in 2024.
*Oscar López, with more than 7,000 million to manage in the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Function, only released payments for 18% of its budget.
*Incapacity. The PERTE CHIP (Strategic Project for Microelectronics and Semiconductors), approved three years ago, only reaches 330 million awarded out of a total of 12,250, 2.7%.
*Neither Ecological Transition nor Oscar Puente in the Ministry of Transport can boast of anything. There is a lack of strategic vision and a surplus of window-dressing politics.
***A failure with responsible parties***
– The Government of Pedro Sánchez cannot evade its responsibility, nor can it offload it onto the Autonomous Regions on which it imposed investments and with which it never provided financing. Its interventionist arrogance, obsessed with centralized control, without dialogue or flexibility and with zero self-criticism has been a disaster.
– Spain is still anchored in an obsolete model that prioritizes propaganda over results. The consequence is clear: Spain loses competitiveness and the risk of returning funds is real. The failure of 2024 should mark a before and after. Either we change course, or the damage will be irreversible. Source, Spanish: https://www.libremercado.com/2025-04-07/santiago-sanchez-el-gran-fiasco-de-sanchez-hunde-la-ejecucion-de-los-fondos-europeos-en-2024-7239106/
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The Court of Accounts uncovers Sánchez’s chaos in the pandemic: {Translation}
– On March 14, 2020, the government of Pedro Sanchez decreed the first state of alarm in response to the outbreak of a lethal virus from Wuhan. That day began the physical and moral confinement of an entire country. COVID-19 disrupted life like no other phenomenon in this century. The collective trauma, the loss of certainties, the health and economic collapse, and the generalized anxiety marked the beginning of a nightmare that still reverberates today.
– Five years later, the Court of Auditors certifies what many denounced in real time: the Government managed the pandemic with a precarious, inefficient and uncoordinated information system, which aggravated the tragedy. The audit report approved on March 27th puts in black and white the technological incapacity of the Ministry of Health to deal with a health emergency of such magnitude. In its own words, the Ministry’s information systems “were not sufficiently prepared” either in terms of performance or interoperability with the systems of the autonomous communities. The State lacked a digital architecture that would allow the collection, sharing and analysis of epidemiological data essential for making vital decisions. At a time when every minute counted, the Ministry operated blindly.
– The audit reveals that there was no specific system for the management and coordination of health emergencies. Alerts were managed with Excel, phone calls, e-mails and videoconferences. A 21st century European country facing the biggest health crisis of the century with tools from a 1990s office. It is inconceivable. And yet, it was real.
– The epidemiological surveillance system, SIVIES, created in 1995 and never rigorously updated, collapsed from the very first days. There was no interoperability between data, no unique patient identifiers, no capacity for real-time integration. Data arrived late, were incomplete or outright erroneous.
– The consequences were dramatic. The confusion of information resulted in a lack of control in hospitals, delays in the detection of cases, opacity in the figures and erratic management of the health supply. The pandemic left 150,426 deaths in Spain up to June 2023, according to INE data, of which 135,207 were directly attributed to COVID-19. The country lost almost two years of life expectancy in 2020, the economy plummeted by 17.8% and public debt soared to 101.8% of GDP. A humanitarian, health and economic tragedy that demands responsibility.
– Far from facing up to the failures, Sánchez’s Executive built a self-satisfied narrative. “We came out stronger”, they said, while millions of Spaniards lost relatives, jobs and certainties. Mistakes were hidden, investigations were vetoed and the Public Prosecutor’s Office was used as a shield against the complaints that demanded justice. Today, the report of the Court of Auditors once again reveals that the reality was quite different.
– Technological improvisation extended to all areas. There was no interoperable state vaccination registry. The REGVACU system was created in fits and starts and, although it allowed some traceability of the doses administered against COVID-19, it was insufficient and showed serious shortcomings. As many as 2.6 million vaccines could not be linked to identifiable beneficiaries in the system. To date, the national vaccination system (SIVAIN) is still awaiting effective regulation.
– In border control, the chaos was similar. Seventy-two percent of international travelers who were required to take a PCR test did not do so on time, and Health did not follow up on the positives detected and could not determine whether the infections were imported. The Spain Travel Health (SPTH) application, although effective in its initial design, was not connected with SIVIES or with the foreign health system (SISAEX), generating a critical fragmentation of information. Some 4.7% of diagnostic tests could not be associated with the Individual Health Card. The chaos was structural.
– The report also denounces that the Ministry was, in 2019, one of the departments with the lowest investment in information technologies. No qualified personnel, no resources, no vision. Internal reorganizations during the pandemic exacerbated the problem. It was necessary to hire an external “technical office” to maintain the minimum operational level. One more example of the institutional precariousness with which the greatest emergency in decades was faced.
– The report of the Court of Auditors is not an opinion: it is an official X-ray of the collapse. It is the same one that The Lancet magazine, which placed Spain among the countries with the worst management of the emergency in the world, had already exposed.
– But not even now, with the perspective given by time and the auditing evidence, has there been a hint of self-criticism on the part of the Executive. Sánchez has not asked for forgiveness. No one has resigned. And yet, the country continues to be governed by those who turned exceptionality into routine, incompetence into a story and tragedy into a political opportunity. History will judge. But citizens deserve justice first. And also memory. Because to forget this disaster would be to prepare for the next one.
Source, Spanish: https://www.libertaddigital.com/espana/2025-04-07/el-tribunal-de-cuentas-destapa-el-caos-de-sanchez-en-la-pandemia-7238263/
VÉLEZ-MÁLAGA
The National Police solved 15 robberies with force in stores and homes in Velez-Malaga- the ‘Eskimo’ falls after his last robbery in a bar: {Translation}
– Agents of the National Police, in collaboration of the Local Police of Velez-Malaga, have solved 15 robberies in establishments and homes in the town of Malaga. Behind this accumulation of criminal acts would be the thief nicknamed ‘the Eskimo’, so named by investigators to hide much of the face with a hooded anorak.
– The 46-year-old suspect has been arrested ‘in fraganti’ after his last robbery in the early hours of the morning in a bar.
– An increase in burglaries in the municipality of Velez-Malaga had generated great social alarm among traders in the town since December until recently. Among the affected businesses were a bakery, a chicken rotisserie, a beach bar, a seafood restaurant, several bars, a gym and two homes. The investigation focused on identifying a man who acted mainly at dawn and used tools to break into the entrances of the establishments. The investigated, dressed in an Eskimo-type jacket, was captured by the video surveillance cameras of several stores, having a predilection for cash registers and the collection of gaming machines.
– With the target already identified by the investigators and pending only his arrest, a new call to the emergency services alerted the agents to another robbery, this time in a bar in Huerto Vicario street.
– It was a patrol of the Local Police who managed to catch up with the intruder when he fled after breaking the window of the store, putting up great resistance to arrest and even injuring one of the policemen. At the time of his location, the suspect was seized several tools, including several screwdrivers and chisels, a flashlight and gloves, among other effects.
– With all the evidence collected and already in police custody, the National Police attributed to the detainee 13 robberies with force in commercial establishments and two others in homes. The judicial authority has been informed of the facts. Source, Spanish: https://www.axarquiaplus.es/la-policia-nacional-esclarece-15-robos-con-fuerza-en-comercios-y-viviendas-en-velez-malaga-cae-el-esquimal-tras-su-ultimo-asalto-en-un-bar/
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Cinesur El Ingenio Films schedule: You can find the film schedule at this link. Films tagged as (VOSE) are in the original language with Spanish subtitles.
https://www.cinesur.com/es/cine/mk2-cinesur-el-ingenio
Useful Links, Info & Numbers
2025 Holiday Calendars by town, click/tap to view:
Algarrobo
Competa
Malaga
Nerja
Rincon
Torrox
Velez-Málaga
For other towns in Malaga Province, visit this website, click your town, then look for the post named “Calendario Laboral de ‘Your Town‘ 2025 “, click that to see calendar.
https://www.foro-ciudad.com/malaga.html
Petrol Prices – Updated daily: These are the fuel stations in Malaga province with the lowest prices. The price data for 95 and 98-octane petrol and diesel fuel is updated every day. See it here:
https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/updated-daily-these-20220314114157-nt.html
Weekly Markets
Monday: Torrox Costa
Tuesday: Nerja, Salobrena
Wednesday: Rincon de la Victoria, Algarrobo Costa
Thursday: Velez Malaga, Torre del Mar, Frigiliana
Friday: Almunecar, Salobrena, La Herradura- Summers only, Mercadillo de La Cala del Moral- Rincon de la Victoria.
Saturday: Competa, Mezquitilla@Algarrobo behind the Sala Ottowa
Sunday: Nerja Car Boot
Taxi
Nerja 952 524 519
Torrox: 952 531 030
Frigiliana: 952 533 231
Phone numbers for emergencies
Emergency Services.: 112
National Police: 091
Guardia Civil: 062
Ambulance: 061
Fire Station (Bomberos): 080
Emergency English Help Line: 902 102 112
Local Police
Torrox: 952 539 828
Nerja: 952 521 545
Frigiliana: 952 533 126
Torre del Mar: 952 549 238
Local/National News in English, The Sur: http://www.surinenglish.com/
Local Weather: https://www.accuweather.com/en/es/torre-del-mar/306652/weather-forecast/306652
Bus Info: https://www.alsa.com/en/web/bus/our-destinations/regional
Currency Converter: https://www.x-rates.com/calculator/?from=EUR&to=GBP&amount=1
Internet Speed Test: http://beta.speedtest.net/
Local Bank Holidays: http://www.officeholidays.com/countries/spain/index.php UK Newspaper Front Pages and Worldwide Newspapers All On One Site: https://www.thepaperboy.com/uk/front-pages.cfm
Check All Lottery Results Here: Updated daily.
https://www.20minutos.es/loterias/
Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings in Malaga Province: New, updated link (Aug, 2023). Info in English with list of English speaking meetings. https://aacostadelsol.com/
DoctorLaptop’s Homepage: https://doctorlaptop-repairs.webnode.com/
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