Gabriel Amat, leader of the Partido Popular (PP) in Almería, used a press conference in the municipality of Fondón to complain about the vast amount of money being spent by PSOE and President-for-life Chaves on advertising, despite their calls for “austerity”.
It seems that in the 2009 budget, despite a lot of trimming and cutting out of pet projects such as the renovation of the Cable Íngles, a new hospital, new courts for Roquetas del Mar, elimination of level crossings, a cut of 12,9% for the Almeria provincial Employment Agency, etc etc, etc, etc, the advertising budget for the Junta still stands at – wait for it! – €195,000,000.
Leaving aside the fact that government subsideries for RTV-A and other media outlets are not included in that amount. That 195 million euro figure is just for advertising – mainly in the PSOE controlled press & radio, no doubt. Those lovely 5 minute adverts for “Visit Andalucía” on Andalucian TV (anybody ever thought of running those ads outside of Andalucía?) will no doubt continue to run and run.
Arrghhh. It’s very hard to write rude things about President-for-Life Chavez and his gang when you’ve just got a nice advertising contract from the Junta de Andalucía.
The Voz de Almería, for example, gets a tidy sum for its minimum of one full page daily from the Seville govt.
I would be glad to open up my website to special Junta adverts (and trim my commentary) for a small consideration. Say 1000 euros a day?
Am I being unreasonable here…?