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Smoking ban in Spain:update
Jan 24th
SMOKING BAN IN SPAIN - DEDICATED 'OUTSIDE' AREA
Andrew Linn (Culture Spain’s Spanish food and wine expert) has been keeping an eye on the controversial (for many) smoking ban in Spain. Clearly, this law has upset a significant minority of the Spanish population as protests against it continue. In my area of Valencia I have seen little of this – but Andrew ( a very occasional smoker only) reports that:
The protests about the smoking ban in Spain are increasing rather than decreasing. Demonstrations have taken place in many Spanish cities and more were programmed for last weekend. There were also plans for bars to close for several hours as a further protest. In the Basque country plans are afoot to remove cigarette vending machines from bars, so as to eliminate a large part of the income the State receives from taxes on tobacco (bar owners by comparison get little profit from these machines: to make 150 euros they have to sell 1,000 packs.)
Meanwhile, the conference centre at Torremolinos, one of the largest in the south of Spain, has announced it will construct a part-outdoor area where events can be held and where smoking will be legal. Interestingly, theTorremelinos centre is controlled by the municipality.
The catering sector has published the results of the smoking ban in Spain so far – with estimates that bars have lost as much as 40% of their pre-ban business. In the likely event that every bar has to dismiss one employee, the resulting increase in unemployment will, needless to say, be massive.
So far there are no reports of fines having been levied for breaking the anti-smoking law in Spain, although the authorities have made many threats and there are possibly fines pending court procedures.
The bottom line for those opposed to the smoking ban in Spain is: ‘if tobacco is bad, ban it altogether. If it is not all bad, let people smoke in defined places or areas in bars and restaurants. One of the conditions of the anti-smoking law in Spain is that smoking is not permitted in private clubs which flies in the face of democratic legislation that permits such clubs to set their own rules and regulations.
Indeed, Spanish legal specialists maintain that the central government cannot ‘invade’ the officially permitted areas of the autonomous regions by trying to impose a general law that affects all the country. Evidently, this is not within central government’s competence when it comes to such matters as prohibiting smoking in private businesses such as clubs that do not admit non-members, etc. So, it appears that legal challenges to the law are already being lined up.
Certainly, every day there are reports in the newspapers of violence taking place in bars and restaurants because of the ban. In Velez-Malaga two policemen who tried to arrest three smokers in a bar (they had previously asked them to step outside to smoke) were injured in a fight when they tried to arrest one of the offenders who had refused to give his personal details. In Granada a fight erupted between some youths in a city-centre bar when they intervened to defend the lady bar owner who was being threatened by a smoker who had refused to put out his cigarette.
Needless to say, there are probably hundreds of such incidents relating to the smoking ban in Spain each day but it is almost certain that only a small proportion of them get into the press.
RELEVANT INFO: Spanish food and wine and Andrew Linn
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CULTURE SPAIN:Smoking ban demonstration Spain (Friday 14th January 2011)
Jan 13th
Andrew Linn, Culture Spain’s expert on food and wine in Spain, has just sent me notification about the forthcoming national revolt in Spain concerning the smoking ban in Spain imposed on the 2nd January 2011. This is one fierce and bitter controversy that is clearly set to continue in Spain.
However, what makes Andrew Linn’s very forceful reaction to the smoking ban in Spain important - is his point about the ‘nanny’ state and personal liberties. Andrew barely smokes and so his ‘take’ on this law is far more important than that of just a self interested addict. So, the smoking ban demonstration in Spain tomorrow (Friday the 14th January 2011) may have far reaching implications…
Andrew says:
The rebellion against the anti-smoking law is gathering momentum throughout Spain with a smoking ban demonstration in Spain occuring tomorrow.
I took a trip to the (now infamous) Marbella restaurant, Asador Guadalmina, yesterday, expecting it to be bursting with smokers but, amazingly, although it was busy it was no more so that any other bar at the hour of the aperitif, and only one person was smoking! I signed the anti-smoking ban in Spain petition and proceeded to enjoy their famous pintxos. This is a basque tapa that always consists of something on a piece of bread with a ‘banderilla’ stuck through it (the quails egg with red pepper was excellent, as was the smoked halibut with tomato). There was nothing much wrong with the house Rioja either, and the prices are the same as anywhere else.
However, with regard to the smoking ban – in Lugo, two days ago, a bar owner asked someone who complained about a customer smoking to leave the bar! This action was roundly condemned by spokesmen for the nanny state.
Meanwhile, in Gandia the town hall has rushed through a new by-law increasing the amount of pavement that can be taken up by bar tables, clearly to facilitate smoking outside. In Valladolid a bar owner has called for a demonstration against the smoking ban in Spain law – although the local caterers’ association has criticised the move as too hasty.
But the good news is…….
……. using the social networks such as Facebook, demonstrations against the smoking ban in Spain have been called for every Spanish town and village tomorrow, Friday, at 1230 in front of the town hall.
Even the Spanish authorities have admitted that the biggest problem they face with getting this undemocratic law accepted is the sheer hostility spreading like a virus on social networking sites.
So, see you tomorrow in front of your local town hall – even if you are a non-smoker. Personal liberties and human rights are not to be trifled with.
So eat your hearts out you faint-hearted smokers of Britain, Ireland and other well-on-the-way-to-becoming-total-nanny-state countries!!!
Of course, both Andrew and I would be interested to hear what you have to say. Regardless of the smoking issue, have personal liberties been infringed – and is Spain fast becoming a ‘nanny’ state like the rest of Europe? Maybe you think that this would be a good thing?
RELEVANT INFO: See Spanish Food and Wine and smoking ban too drastic by half!
Share and Enjoy:CULTURE SPAIN:Spain’s smoking ban: latest news
Jan 9th
SPAIN'S SMOKING BAN
I have just received a further missive from Andrew Linn (Culture Spain’s wine and food critic) – as a final note on the contentious subject of the smoking ban in Spain. Certainly, the smoking ban in Spain has aroused some strong feelings with many of you commenting upon this subject.
So, I felt that it was worth Posting Andrew’s comments as they relate to the continuing story of the Marbella restaurant that has deliberately flouted Spain’s smoking ban in what appears to be a kamikaze demonstration of independence – given the huge fines that the restaurant faces.
Andrew Linn says:
The fines that may be levied on the first Spanish bar-restaurant (Asador Guadalmina) to openly flout the smoking ban in Spain are quoted in the press as amounting to 610,000 euros! This is enough, surely, to close down the business and put all its employees onto the unemployed register – at a cost to the State.
However, reports are also coming in, dail,y of other hostelries up and down the country that have joined the protest. Several bars claim they have seen business drop off so drastically since the ban that they either have to allow smoking or close down. There is no doubt that Spaniards are not taking this measure lying down, unlike Ireland and the UK, to name but two.
The thrust of the opposition to the smoking ban in Spain, even from non-smokers, is if smoking is a bad thing – then sales of cigarettes should be banned altogether, along the lines of if you want to get rid of something evil you have to cut it off at the roots. This will never happen of course but it does raise many questions relating to civil liberties and democratic rights.
The oft-quoted reason for the ban in bars relating to the harm it was doing bar workers is hard to justify since they never complained about it, and prior to the ban there is no bar or restaurant on record as having banned smoking on its own account.
What no-one, but no-one, can understand is why a choice is against the law: smoking or non-smoking establishments. Who on earth suffers if, in a row of five bars along the same street, two decide they will allow smoking? Non-smokers will go to the non-smoking bars and employees of the smoking bars would know exactly where they stood and would not be obliged to put up with smoke, if they did not want to. It seems that like many other nonsensical laws brought in by Zapatero’s misguided government, it was thought that a complete smoking ban in Spain would improve Spain’s image internationally.
The number of denuncias for smoking or allowing smoking is still almost nil – so it seems that the famous Spanish tolerance is alive and well…
Do give me your views! Does all of this reflect well on the culture of Spain or does it indicate that Spain still remains behind the culture of the rest of developed Europe? Should ‘options’ be built into laws or are blanket bans the way to rid society of something damaging?
RELEVANT INFO: smoking ban in Spain.
Share and Enjoy:CULTURE SPAIN:Smoking ban in Spain for 2011
Dec 30th
SMOKING IN SPAIN
Lots of predictions will be made over the next couple of days about what will happen in Spain over 2011. Some predictions will, obviously, be right, whilst others will probably turn out to be pure lunacy. However, I think that I can make one prediction that will be accurate – namely that the smoking ban in Spain will change life in Spain.
Probably for the better!
I say ‘probably for the better’ because, like most people, I worry that the smoking ban in Spain will adversely affect the bars and cafes in Spain, which are likely to lose significant business. This is the last thing that they need when many are clinging onto life by a thread, due to the current economic crisis.
Of course, one of the great delights about life in Spain is the profusion of cafes and bars. They are everywhere. In fact, it is often hard to find areas (apart from new estates) where you cannot easily find a bar for a coffee or hard drink – virtually whatever the hour of the day.
Indeed, I think that it would be no exaggeration to say that the bars and cafes of Spain are an inherent part of the day to day living culture of Spain and a vital part of the wonderful sociability of the country.
Certainly having a coffee in a bar or cafe is cheap (in North European terms) and an unusual pleasure. Indeed, I have never known a cafe or bar where I have been hurried by the staff – even if I have ordered no more than a single drink, whilst spending an hour reading one of their free newspapers. This is in direct contrast to my experience of Northern Europe and the US, where bars and cafes are normally only in high street areas and virtually ‘industrial’ in their unrelaxing, urgent turnover of customers.
Meanwhile, it is common for the Spanish to actually take their own food into a cafe and eat it there – only buying their drinks from the bar owner. This would indicate that many cafes probably barely subsist economically and will have trouble making up their income from any loss of smoking customers through (say) selling more meals. Indeed, I fear that many bars and cafes will, sadly, be vulnerable to any turn down in business and close. If (as is likely), this happens then, to my mind, real harm will be done to the overall quality of day to day life in Spain – for both the Spanish themselves and foreigners.
Unfortunately, the downside with Spanish bars (let alone the restaurants) is that it is virtually impossible to escape smokers. As these make up a significant part of the Spanish population, most bars and restaurants are wreathed in smoke. This is far from pleasant and off-putting to anyone from the US or Northern Europe, where smoking bans have been in place for some years now.
I need hardly add that the well proven dangers of smoking justify a smoking ban in Spain and that it was only a matter of time before it occurred. As I have written before, the threat of a full-on smoking ban in Spain has been hanging over the country since the previous rather weak law passed in 2005.
In any event, as of the 2nd of January 2011 everything is set to change – with smoking to be banned in all ‘enclosed spaces of public or collective use’.
So, as a non-smoker, you will be able to breathe a sigh of relief when you come to Spain! I just hope that along with this sigh of relief there will not, as I suspect, also be a groan at the disappearance of many much loved cafes and bars…
RELEVANT INFO: Smoking ban in Spain – too drastic by half! and A really tough smoking ban in Spain or not
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