Spain PM defends feminist commitment amid sex scandals
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended his ruling Socialists' "absolute" commitment to feminism on Monday as sexual harassment scandals shake a government that has prided itself on promoting gender equality.
A slew of affairs have emerged in recent weeks affecting local Socialist officials, months after a close aide to Sánchez, Francisco Salazar, was removed from his post at the premier's office over "inappropriate sexual behaviour".
Several women who filed complaints against Salazar have come forward alleging that the party failed to respond for months after they reported incidents.
"The commitment to feminism of the government and the Socialist party is absolute," Sánchez said during an annual end-of-year news conference.
He acknowledged "mistakes" but insisted that "all progress in matters of equality between men and women has always been achieved under progressive governments".
The conservative and far-right opposition has attacked the leftist coalition government for hypocrisy, but Sanchez retorted that he would take "no lessons" from them.
Spain congratulates far-right Chile president-elect
Spain's leftist government congratulated Chile's far-right president-elect Jose Antonio Kast on Monday, saying it wanted to work in "close collaboration" with him.
Spain, which maintains close ties with its former Latin American colonies, will seek to "continue strengthening the friendship between our peoples and the strategic relationship between our two countries", the foreign ministry said in a statement, a day after Kast won a resounding victory.
Heavy rain in Tarragona, red alert
An SMS ES-Alert message was sent out to all mobile phones in the Priorat, Baix Camp, and Ribera d'Ebre regions in the province of Tarragona in Catalonia on Monday afternoon, warning of heavy rains.
This comes after, the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat) recorded an accumulation of 200 litres of rain per square metre in the Priorat region on Monday.
Civil Protection activated its Inuncat flood plan and issued a message urging extreme caution in the Terres de l'Ebre and Camp de Tarragona regions.
Spain's State Meteorological Agency Aemet also raised its alert level from orange to red in the same areas, due to more than 180 mm of rain falling in 12 hours in the Priorat region.
President of the region, Salvador Illa, urged people to "exercise extreme caution" in the face of the episode of heavy rainfall expected in this part of Catalonia and that the population follow "the recommendations and advice" of the emergency services.
By Tuesday morning, Catalonia's Civil Protection deactivated the alert for heavy rain and flooding in Tarragona.
Doctors reach deal to not go on strike in January
The Ministry of Health has reached an agreement on Monday, December 15th, with the unions negotiating the reform of the Framework Statute for doctors and other medical staff, so they will call off the indefinite strike that they had planned for the end of January.
This was reported by the Ministry and union sources after the meeting they held this morning with the Health Minister, Mónica García.
Doctors are demanding "decent and adequate" work schedule of 35-hours, which allow for a balance of work and family life, and a voluntary early and partial retirement.
They already carried out a nationwide four day walkout from December 9th-12th and had more strikes planned for early next year.
With additional reporting by AFP.
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