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Monday, May 26, 2003 So. The Spanish municipal elections happened yesterday, nationwide. A hotly contested event, rhetoric flying in all directions. The results? Pretty interesting. In the actual number of votes cast, the Socialists beat out the current ruling party, el Partido Popular, the third consecutive round of municipal elections in a row in which the PP’s total has drifted slightly downward. The PP suffered some setbacks, but not as many as some thought might happen, and the party remains strong in certain places around the country, wresting control of a couple of important cities from the Socialists. They clinched the mayorship of Madrid, an important, high-profile office, with an absolute majority of council seats but lost control of the Community of Madrid by one seat, which could turn out to be an important symbolic loss. Around the country, the results were mixed, with the Socialists gaining control of one autonomous province (more or less comparable to a state in the U.S.), leaving seven in control of the PP, six for the Socialists, two to regional political parties. Essentially, what seems to have happened around the country as a whole is a levelling of the political playing field, with no one having a clear-cut overall advantage. Maybe not a bad thing. Cheerleaders from both sides of the political spectrum are making a big show of chest-pounding claims of victory, yada yada yada. After a night of not nearly enough sleep, I dragged my unhappy bod from under the covers and out into the morning air (which, thanks to the cold snap currently holding sway here, has been colder each successive morning since Friday, with genuine autumn-like bite today) to the gym. For which I deserve major cosmic brownie points in recognition of simply showing up, forget going through the pumping/stretching hooha. Stopped for a fast hit of espresso at the cafeteria across the street from gym (a strange little place where the two 50ish males behind the counter seem to be vying for the brusqueness title), made the trek back to the Metro in soft sunshine, slightly warmer air. Something I’ve come to appreciate very much here is that several major avenues, all consisting of four to six lanes of traffic, feature wide islands in the middle with abundant shade trees, expanses of grass and flowers, pedestrian walkways. One especially wide boulevard -- just east of the city center, extending north from the big traffic circle at Atocha, past el Museo Thyssen, el Prado, and out to the northern reaches of the city -- begins with one such island, then changes to two once it passes the grand, sprawling main post office building at la Plaza de Cibeles. Wandering along one of those walkways -- the ground dappled with the light/shade combo from the sunshine that filters down through the trees, traffic passing on either side, feeling nicely distant -- is a fine way to cover some ground in transit from one place to another. I generally choose a longer route back from the gym to the Metro so I can walk two or three long blocks worth of trees, benches, rose bushes. A nice segue between the pump-up and the rest of the day. Back here in Chueca, hopped off the train, headed up the stairs to the concourse, made my way toward the up escalator. As I rounded the final corner and approached the moving stairs, I encountered a woman planted near the, er, on-ramp, standing perfectly still, facing the ad that’s replaced the PP’s recently-defaced poster. {See journal entry of 22 May.} Legally blind, one hand holding a long white walking stick of the kind many blind folks here use, the other holding a small, slim, black-barrelled magnifying lens to one eye. Studying the display of subway stops for the two different directions one can go, train-wise. Intent, not moving, paying no attention to anything else. Getting off the escalator up top, I got my first glimpse of a brand new poster that greets people heading to the down escalator: ¡Bienvenidos al Barrio Más Guay de Madrid! (Welcome to Madrid’s Coolest Neighborhood!) Er, whatever. It’s a hot neighborhood, that’s for sure, attracting hordes of partying types. Come the evening hours, exiting the Metro up into the plaza dumps one directly in the middle of the intense, chaotic nighttime scene, the space overrun with lines of tables and chairs occupied by groups of folks drinking, gnoshing, blabbing. Constant swirling masses of people eddy around all that, the air filled with the concentration of sound from them all. It’s pretty wild, though the last few nights of cold weather have forced a change, the rows of tables and chairs (all shiny brushed aluminium) standing empty, the number and movement of people around the rest of the space that much more intense. After weeks of nights in which every single table is occupied from late afternoon on into the early hours, the sight of them all suddenly vacant is strange. On exiting the station, I stopped at the newsstand for a paper. The woman who runs it was there alone, bent over a bundle of papers, in the process of cutting the plastic band and setting them out. El País, the headline reading Ruiz-Gallardón será alcalde Madrid y Simancas roza el gobierno de la Comunidad (Ruiz-Gallardón will be mayor of Madrid, Simancas on verge of winning the Community’s government.). “El día después, ¿eh?”, I said. {The day after, eh?} “¡Jo!”, she responded, straightening up, shaking her head slightly, which made me laugh out loud. ¡Jo! (the J pronounced like a thick, guttural H, up against the back of the throat) is the short, more polite/acceptable form of ¡Joder!, the Spanish version of Fuck! Two little letters expressing what pretty much everyone feels: Thank god that’s over with! And now here it is, midafternoon, the start of another week, the smoke from several weeks of political wackiness starting to clear. The streets are nicely alive with people walking, things being delivered to local businesses, folks heading toward the plaza to sit at a table, soak up some sun, or off to a restaurant for some chow. Life moves on. Not a bad idea, that bit about chow. It’s lunchtime. Later. rws 8:25 AM [+]
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