Living in Empty Spain is sometimes difficult. Doing it without a bar in town is even more difficult.. This is the situation in which a small town in the province of Guadalajara called Irueste finds itself.. The city council has put out a national appeal in search of “a family or couple” who wants to run this highly prized establishment.. And with more than succulent conditions that have caught the attention of many.

On the one hand, those interested will have to pay “a symbolic price” of ten euros as rental of premises. As for the costs of supplies, they will only have to pay a small part, since “70% of the bar's electricity is paid by the City Council,” says the mayor, Pedro del Olmo.. To which he adds “that it is not nonsense, because it involves a large part of the municipal budget.”

In addition, the same town hall offers a newly renovated home for those interested.. Annexed to the town hall building, it has two bedrooms, a bathroom and a living room with an integrated kitchen, as well as a pellet stove “that the tenants must purchase.”. But the heating fee will be practically the only payment they will have to make: the rent will be free since it is also owned by the local administration.. At the end of the day, this possibility arises since “growth in the town” is sought, explains Del Olmo.

All these advantages for the future inhabitants of the town of La Alcurria are no coincidence, as they lie in the importance of the offer that the mayor does not hesitate to claim: “It is not a bar per se, but rather it is a social center and is enabled as a meeting and meeting point”. In fact, he tells EL MUNDO that “the Association of Friends of Irueste organizes some event […] in which between 100 and 120 people can gather.”

However, this is not the most common. The mayor says that on weekdays “five or eight people” can get together at the bar where while “they have a coffee or a beer in the afternoons they play cards, talk…”. And he does not forget to warn that “winters are for survival, not for making money,” while concluding that “this is Empty and Deep Spain.”

For this reason, they consider that the ideal candidate is “a family or a couple, so that one can run the bar and the other can dedicate themselves to other jobs.”. Even telematically since it is estimated that in February Irueste will have fiber optics in operation, “although without it it also works well,” says Del Olmo.

Without a waiter, but with good faith

While waiting for the perfect candidate to run the place to arrive, the City Council has had no choice but to lend its shoulder.. “We were left without a bar and the municipal corporation had to roll up our sleeves,” explains the mayor who now also “buys the drinks.”

At the moment they are opening for an hour and a half in the afternoons during the week, says Del Olmo, while he regrets that on weekends “it gets complicated because more people come.”. Faced with this situation, they have had to establish “a series of rules based on good faith” which states that “when they come in groups of more than two, one of them is responsible for serving and collecting.”

“At the moment there is no shortage of money from the drawer” boasts Del Olmo, while ensuring that his neighbors are “very grateful” for being able to continue enjoying their 'social nucleus'.

Avalanche of candidates

Del Olmo has reported that the proposal was made a week ago, however, it did not bear the expected results.. So they decided to make the appeal nationwide: “Now we are overwhelmed.”

With almost 600 emails in the mailbox of the Irueste City Council, its mayor predicts that in the month of January the bar “will be able to start flying on its own”, although first they will have to “make an assessment of the profiles to select the one that best suits “, a process that is possible to begin in “a couple of days.”

In fact, he says that “they will take it calmly” because they want when the concession is made “to be for a long time” and not make mistakes like on other occasions.. The mayor insists that they are looking for “people who really want to live in a small town like this where 80% of the houses are empty.”

And he insists on this issue, since “a lot of people have been passing by and they come very comfortably, but the second winter can't stand it anymore”. Because although it is a privileged place in summer – “at 8:30 p.m. you take out your cardigan” – “in winter you get up and it is difficult to see people,” Del Olmo laments.

Still, the bar offers an opportunity for anyone looking for tranquility, or even a new beginning, without the need for exorbitant outlays like those seen in big cities.

Brussels complicates a source of income with which the new coalition government intends to finance its investiture program. The European Commission has submitted an assessment report on the “solidarity contribution and equivalent measures enacted” in the energy sector and concludes that there are no longer the “fallen from heaven benefits” that motivated extraordinary fiscal measures.

The General Directorate of Taxation of the Commission, author of the report, reviews what has happened since October 2022 when the EU, with the support of the Spanish Government, approved a community regulation that allowed imposing “a solidarity contribution by fossil fuel companies ». It thus covered the so-called special temporary tax on energy companies with the aim of raising more than one billion euros per year.

According to the European Commission report, the panorama is no longer that of autumn a year ago. “A look at the evolution of fossil energy markets shows that the situation is very different from what existed when the Council Regulation came into force in October 2022,” they tell the governments of the European Council..

«Declining energy prices throughout 2023 and a more uncertain economic environment, as well as rising capital costs, have led companies in the oil, gas and coal sectors to record a decrease in their profits compared to the extraordinary surplus profits of 2022,” he adds.

This report can provide legal arguments to the sector to neutralize the coalition government's objective of perpetuating the so-called temporary tax. According to the Commission's report, the Government is not being able to collect what was planned anyway. He points out that in 2022 he aspired to collect 1,245 million and that it has remained at 1,089, about 156 million less. With these figures, it places Spain as the third country with the most revenue, below Italy and Poland.

REPSOL, TO COUNTRIES WITHOUT TAXES

Meanwhile, the president of Repsol, Antonio Brufau, insisted this Thursday on the group's warning not only to paralyze investments, but to take them to other countries with lower tax rates.. He raised the oil company's warning to transfer key investments for the country's energy transition due to legal uncertainty. In a speech at the University of Navarra, he extended to France the possibility of taking investments planned by Repsol in Spain. It has focused on 1,500 million planned for hydrogen projects, although this newspaper has already published that the investments under review reach 3,000 million.

According to the transcript provided by the company and this newspaper, Brufau was clear when addressing the audience: «All this investment that we have in Repsol planned in the field of hydrogen is not going to be less than 1,500 million euros, which are subject to one thing. , a thing called, and you will understand it very well, stability. Legal stability, fiscal stability». “If we have to have a tax that the French or the Portuguese do not have to produce hydrogen, then surely our decision will be to go to Portugal or France,” he said.

He therefore mentioned two neighboring countries, which, according to the aforementioned community report, have barely tightened taxation on the sector, taking advantage of the European regulation.. From France it mentions that it has barely raised an extra 67 million (not even 10% of Spain's figures) and Portugal, nothing.

For Brufau, “it is incomprehensible, for example, that in Spain they want to maintain a temporary tax based on hypothetical extraordinary profits when said tax has already disappeared in all the countries around us.. The costs to which the Government subjects its companies places them at a clear competitive disadvantage,” he protested.

Briton James Dyson has been called the Steve Jobs of the United Kingdom. Added to his dose of determination are others of non-conformity and transgressive spirit backed by the belief that we learn more from mistakes than from successes.. A bit