Spanish Humour saving the President of Madrid
by Ben Curtis
There was lots of furore last week over the autobiography of the Presidenta de Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre (you know, my mate Espe, who wants to let everyone start smoking in Madrid again). Despite being from a very rich family, marrying a very rich husband, and earning 100 grand a year, the poor thing has trouble making ends meet. She writes:
“The worst thing is the electricity bill. I’ve got very high ceilings and the heating is electric, what a nightmare! … It’s not as if I’m counting my pennies at the end of every month; sometimes I’ve completely run out of money by then.”
Apparently she has even been forced to buy her clothes at Zara, like, well, her normal middle-class subjects. Anyway, all is well, as the internet is once again to the rescue. 1 Euro para Espe is (nearly) ready to take your donations.
Posted: November 28th, 2006 under Spanish Culture and News.
Comments: 10
Comments
Comment from Tali
Time: November 28, 2006, 4:22 pm
indeed, the silver spoon has been positively ripped from her mouth. Poor thing, she must really feel the cold with those high ceilings. Count me in for a fi….oh no, dammit, its end of the month.
Comment from Graeme
Time: November 28, 2006, 4:40 pm
Don’t worry Tali, the fund is going to be open until April next year, so you’ve got time. When I checked Periodismo Incendiario this morning it said they had the bank account set up, and payment by SMS message had also been enabled.
Comment from Tali
Time: November 28, 2006, 5:59 pm
Wonderful! I’ll make it a Christmas donation…goodwill to all men and all that. Am sure I’ll get that nice gooey feeling for having donated to a worthy cause 
Anyone fancy betting on how much gets raised?
Comment from Ben
Time: November 28, 2006, 7:43 pm
Thanks Graeme for originally putting me onto this last week. Here is the peice on Periodismo Incendiario, very funny:
http://periodismoincendiario.blogspot.com/2006/11/ya-puedes-ayudar-espe-enva-un-sms-o.html
Her press department must be going up the wall.
Comment from Tali
Time: November 28, 2006, 10:17 pm
Just visited http://www.globalrichlist.com to check my facts, and Espe is the 29,273,979th richest person in the world. That puts her in the TOP 0.48% richest people in the world.
That people in a position of power and wealth have the audacity to write this kind of stuff AND earn royalties off the back of the book it is written in, makes me truly ill.
But on a more tongue in cheek note, you can visit the www.1europaraespe.com site soon and click on to Comunidad and those of us who also don’t reach end of the month can make her some suggestions on how to “make do”.
Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: November 29, 2006, 1:45 am
I wonder if she’s done any sinpas
Comment from HF
Time: November 29, 2006, 2:37 pm
El Pais mentions the website today
Comment from Ben
Time: November 29, 2006, 2:55 pm
… and she apologises here:
http://tinyurl.com/y29gtf
Comment from Eline
Time: November 29, 2006, 3:09 pm
I don`t really understand why you all get so work up about this, sorry. What she writes is funny, endeed. But what does it have to do with globalisation and people of her position should not say things like that? If she has ideas like that, one should think that it is better that peolpe know it, because of the position she has, and might get in the future.
I bet she is right though, the more money you have, the more you spend.
Comment from Ben
Time: November 29, 2006, 6:47 pm
There is no doubt that the more you have the more you spend, but it is always going to gall people with very little money to see someone with so much complain I suppose…
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