Canary Island El Hierro calls for help with migrant influx
Spanish authorities on the Canary Island of El Hierro declared an emergency on Saturday after a surge in migrant boat arrivals, demanding government assistance to cope with the influx.
"We are very concerned... by this sharp increase in arrivals," Alpidio Armas, head of the governing council for El Hierro, told Spanish television.
"This is precisely what has led us to declare an emergency in order to ensure a framework of cooperation with higher-level institutions."
Several thousand migrants have reached the Atlantic archipelago in recent weeks, many of them landing on El Hierro.
Since the start of November, more than 3,300 people have arrived on the island aboard around 30 boats, according to local authorities.
Officials are seeking temporary accommodation for the new arrivals, while conditions at the island's hospital have become "undesirable", Armas said.
Weather warnings issued for Andalusia and Extremadura over Storm Bruna
Spain's State Weather Agency Aemet has issued orange and yellow weather alerts this Monday for the western half of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura, including areas around Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Badajoz and Cáceres.
Mountain ranges in Cádiz and Málaga will experience strong winds, while Huelva and Seville are under an orange alert for persistent rainfall, becoming heavy and accompanied by thunderstorms. In parts of Huelva and Extremadura, rainfall totals may exceed 40–60 mm, while in areas south of the Central System, they could reach 80–100 mm throughout the day.
Heavy rainfall is also expected this Monday across Galicia, parts of León and Toledo. According to Aemet, gusts of wind will be strong along the Galician coast and in the northern mountains. Over the rest of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, skies will be mostly cloudy or overcast, with widespread rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorms on the Atlantic coast.
Spain ranks as EU's top regulation breaker
Out of all the EU member states, Spain receives the most sanctions from the Court of Justice of the European Union, with fines of several million euros in areas such as border control, data protection and working conditions.
This is according to the European Union directive transposition register, which measures the percentage of European regulations that EU member states fail to comply with or incorporate into their national legislation. Spain has failed to transpose 5.5 percent of required EU rules into national law.
With over ninety cases, Spain ranks among the countries with the worst compliance records and the highest number of open cases, well above the European average. This is partly down to lack of budgets and political instability, as the government has failed to get approval from Congress on many new regulations.
Spain divided by general strike
The general strike called for this Wednesday November 11th has divided the nation, with 46.3 percent in favour and 48.8 percent against, according to a poll for newspaper El País.
A total of 53 percent also disapprove of the encampments in cities like Madrid, protesting the housing crisis.
The measures approved by the government to try to tackle the crisis have also generated very little support and only one in four respondents considers that they will be effective.
When asked what people feel are the most important issues during the upcoming general election, the top priorities were access to housing and pensions and public services.
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