The combined list Partido Popular (PP) & Asociación de Vecinos (AV), PP AV, restores absolute majority in the biggest tourist city of the Canary Islands: San Bartolomé de Tirajana, to which resorts such as Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés, San Agustín and Meloneras belong to.

14 of the 25 council seats are for the PP AV (centrum right), NC (Nueva Canarias) gets 6, and the PSOE (social democrats) lose 2 seats and end up with 3. A new party, the "Compromiso por San Bartolomé de Tirajana" will enter the council with two seats.

Mogán

In Mogán things don't change much. The PP has again won the elections and will keep 11 seats. The PSOE gets 2 and both the NC-CCN and the CC-PNC will get one seat.

Other results

If you'd like to see the results of the elections for other municipalities, you can easily do it at these special election pages of Canarias7. And from this page you have access to all the results, municipalities, but as well Island Governments and the Canarian Government.

Though it was officially forbidden, young people throughout Spain kept protesting against the high unemployment rate in the country. Yesterday, saturday 21 may, was officially the day of reflection, the day before election day when nobody is allowed to campaign anymore.

The protesters ask the people of Spain not to vote for one of the two major parties, the PP and the PSOE.

However, it seems the police did not interfere in order not to aggravate the situation.

Monday, March 28, 2011 was the last day before the elections of May 22, 2011, that administrators at federal, provincial and municipal levels could attend openings of public-funded buildings, museums, and such infrastructure.

The result was that in Spain last weekend, on Sunday 27 and Monday, March 28, 2011 an extreme amount of cases, such as the last stretch of road, the refurbishment of a park, a new health center, a new metro stop, or a new museum were opened officially.

In the Canary Islands, such openings ranged from the opening of the Guiniguada theater to the "official" opening of the Maípes-necropolis in Agaete and everything in between.

Also on Monday, March 28, 2011 all projects financed by regional or local authorities had to be completed, as the flow of money had to stop until at least May 22 and will remain closed until the new administration takes seat.

The directions of three luxury hotel chains, Sheraton, Seaside and Lopesan have offered the town hall of San Bartolomé de Tirajana to invest into a 'luxury part' on the beach of Maspalomas. 

They did this, as the quality of the sun beds on all the beaches of San Bartolomé de Tirajana is appalling. Guests to their hotels love the standard of the hotels, but get back from the beach disgusted by the offered services on them. 

However, María del Pino Torres, mayor of San Bartolomé de Tirajana has declined the offer, saying no private companies will be able to manage their own parts of the beach. She invites them to compete next year for the permission to exploit the sun beds on all the beaches of the area. 

Spain declared an unprecedented "state of alarm" Saturday to try to end an air traffic controllers strike that has largely closed the country's air space and stranded hundreds of thousands of travelers, threatening jail terms for controllers who refuse to go back to work.

Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said most Spanish airports were not up and running and apologized to irate travelers who spent Friday night sleeping at airports on what was supposed to be the start of a long holiday weekend. Monday and Wednesday of next week are holidays in Spain, with many people planning to take Tuesday off as well. It is usually one of the busiest travel weekends of the year in Spain.

Laayoune is today a city in flames. The Sahara conflict, latent for years, has exploded. The people of the Saharawi, who have spent decades fighting for greater rights in their area, peacefully since the 1991 ceasefire, have raised up against the Moroccan army after the violent eviction of the protest camp 'Gdeim Izik'. The area is, technically, a Spanish colony, but to all intents and purposes forms part of Morocco.

The battle has left several dead on the road and many injured, although the figures vary according to the sources of information. The Ambassador of the Sahrawi Arabian Democratic Republic in Algeria, Brahim Ghali, has assured told the Spanish government that he can only confirm one death in the Western Sahara, despite earlier reports that up to 13 Sahrawi died during the camp clearence. The dead man is a young Saharawi of 26 years, Babi Mahmud el Gargar, who died in the taking over of the camp, according to a report from the Polisario Front, the independence group fighting for Sahrawi rights, who also released the photo that accompanies this story, of Mr el Gargar's body.

On Friday, May 14, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, known around the world for attempting to bring dictators to justice, was told he will now face trial for attempting to do the same in his own country. If found guilty, the 54-year-old examining magistrate could be removed from his job for up to 20 years.

The blow has been expected ever since early April, when Spain's Supreme Court accused Garzón of 'knowingly exceeding his powers' during his 2008 attempt to investigate alleged crimes against humanity carried out during the country's 40-year dictatorship under General Francisco Franco. The case is causing consternation both in Spain and abroad, mainly because it was brought by three ultra right-wing organizations. Among these were the Falange Española, the Fascist party once presided over by Franco himself -- whose military coup of 1936 sparked the bloody, three-year Spanish Civil War, and culminated in a long dictatorship that ended only with his death in 1975. Historians estimate that Franco's postwar reprisals cost the lives of 100,000 people.

Garzón's many supporters have responded to the case with dismay, moved by its outrageous symmetry: a highly respected judge brought to trial, for attempting to try crimes, on an accusation by the disciples of the regime that perpetrated those crimes in the first place.

Spain's prime minister is announcing a new plan to tackle his country's budget crisis, amid concerns that problems afflicting Greece may spread.

Speaking in parliament, PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is outlining cuts aimed at bringing down Spain's borrowing levels.

The salaries of officials will be cut by 5% and frozen for 2011, and pensions will not be raised. Also less new public servants will be given a job in 2010 and 2011. The officials who earn more, will be cut more, up to the government level where salaries will be cut by 15%.