Mark Zuckerberg, the last great opportunity of Talavera de la Reina, broken by unemployment

  • The American businessman intends to install the large Meta data center in this municipality of Toledo, which would involve an investment of one billion euros

  • The unemployment rate exceeds 24% and many young people emigrate to Madrid and Toledo due to the lack of work: “Here we die of disgust”

  • The municipal government, from the PSOE, has managed to reduce unemployment by nearly 2,000 people since 2019, but trusts that Zuckerberg’s project will revitalize the region

  • Talavera currently has the cheapest homes in all of Spain: two-bedroom apartments from 38,000 euros

It is noon on a weekday and two thirtysomethings are leaning against one of the walls of what was once the only Zara in Talavera de la Reina (83,437 inhabitants), on the most commercial street in the town, Calle San Francisco. The storewhich employed about 30 people, closed shortly after the Covid pandemic began. Now its boarded up doors and windows are used to put up advertisements for “summer courses” or property managers.

Both prefer not to give their names. That later they know them, they say. His employment situation is paradoxical to the phenomenon that the municipality is experiencing, once the jewel in the crown of Toledo, capital of ceramics and with great growth potential –It is an hour and a quarter by car from Madrid on the A-5-, but which has not stopped losing population since 2010: around 5,400 inhabitants.

The black hole of depopulation is mainly generated by unemployment, which has engulfed the municipality for some time, as is the case in many large cities in the Castilian provinces that are not the capital: Talavera was the fourth city in Spain with the most unemployment, with 26.1% of the unemployed population, according to the study ‘Urban Indicators 2021’ by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), although the latest INE data for 2022 reduces the figure to 24.3%. It is still still in the top 20 for unemployment, with about one in four people unemployed.

“It is that the work that there is is shit; I work in hospitality, but in black, becauseif something is taken from the 700 euros that I earn, what remains for me? At most they pay you five euros an hour & rdquor ;, reasons one of the thirty-somethings. “Here all the jobs that exist are in very bad conditions & rdquor ;, adds the other, who works as a security guard in Toledo capital after the business where he worked in Talavera closed due to the Covid crisis.

“Let’s see if the Facebook one comes in the end; They say that this will generate a lot of work & rdquor ;, both agree. When they talk about “Facebook & rdquor; refer to Mark Zuckerberg, whose company Meta, the Facebook parent companyWhatsApp and Instagram, intends to settle in Talavera opening a mega data center in Polígono Torrehierro, located 12 kilometers west of the city.

As reported by the president of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, the investment in the construction phase will be one billion euros, of which 713 would have a direct impact on activity within the region. The figures dizzy. It is expected that a total of one thousand jobs will be created, 840 on average during the construction phase, and 250 direct jobs for “highly qualified” personnel; once the complex was built, it would be a turning point for the city.

“This great company will revolutionize completely Talavera and its region”, Page himself stressed this summer after announcing that his government had just approved the Declaration of Regional Interest for the ‘Meta Data Center Campus’ Project, which is how the space will be known, which will occupy nearly 300,000 square meters. This declaration was a condition sine qua non to facilitate the arrival of the multinational.

“It represents the largest investment that has ever been made in the town & rdquor ;, Sources from the Talavera City Council, governed by the PSOE, assure that more than 2,000 new jobs have been generated since the beginning of the legislature, in reference to employment. spurred to a great extent by the Regional Center for Digital Innovation (CRID). It is a space that was born with the vocation of being a national benchmark in the field of information and communication technologies. Companies such as Oracle, IBM, Telefónica, Palo Alto, HPE or Red Hat have already set up offices in the city.

All this to Miriam, about 50 years old, a worker at a psychotechnical certificate company, sounds very distant, almost Chinese. “What I know is that young people have to go abroad to work, especially to Madrid. And the AVE, which was promised to us a long time ago, is still not coming & rdquor ;, he assures. “Here the one who can leave & rdquor ;, appreciates Gregorio, already retired, while he has a coffee in a bar in the center of town where breakfast with coffee and tortilla pincho does not exceed the 2.40 euros. He also came and went daily to Madrid to work in his younger years. “Here in Toledo, everything good is taken by Toledo & rdquor ;, he protests.

A walk down Calle San Francisco, the epicenter of economic life, reveals how the town is languishing, always dreaming of an AVE that never arrived and that would have allowed it to be the perfect dormitory town. “It is that to go to Madrid to work, that a lot of people go, the best thing is to go by bus; the train takes a long time. At least four buses go to Madrid every day”explains José María López, who has an optician in the center of town.

“Here people think a lot about the AVE, but what would be needed is an Alvia. In the end, the young people, the professionals, end up leaving because there are no jobs here. There is no industry & rdquor ;, he says in a comment often repeated among merchants. The “For rent” signs or “For sale” they flood the shop windows here and there. “Since the depilation center that was there a year ago closed, I can’t rent it. There’s no way,” the owner of a huge premises that “is rented” in a privileged location on the commercial street answers the phone. “If it is that it gives the whole premises to the pedestrian street”, she exclaims annoyed. There are even empty buildings in the center. “But what employment is that going to bring?”, an employee of a clothing store wonders about the Meta project. “Here you have to settle for a poorly paid 20-hour contract. We are going to die of disgust & rdquor ;.

Jorge Pérez has a shoe store, Maynar, and he also sees everything black. “The shops are forsaken by the hand of God, and on top of that with the television making us scared with the winter that awaits us, Imagine…”, explains the businessman, who announces in the window that the price of each pair of shoes discounts inflation: “You have to help yourself like this”.

The situation in the municipality is also reflected in the price of housing. According to a report by Tecnitasa (Técnicos en Tasación SA), an appraisal company independent of banks and financial entities with considerable reliability in the sector, Talavera has the cheapest houses in Spain: at €370/m2, cheaper than its rivals Elche (€400/m2) and Jerez de la Frontera (€425/m²).

“Talavera and the neighboring towns are severely affected by unemployment, and there have been quite a few vacant homes & rdquor ;, explains José María Juárez, from the local Tecnocasa office. “This is the cheapest city in Spain & rdquor ;, confirms him. There are areas of the city, according to its real estate exchange, where you can buy two-bedroom apartments for 38,000 euros. And three from 44,000.

“There are many flats that the banks took and they are sold very cheaply. Many are old and do not have an elevator & rdquor ;, assures Juárez, who dives into the real estate bubble to find the root of the problem, when it was built “by helmet & rdquor; because “there was talk that the AVE was going to come” Y “many 100% mortgages were given that could not be paid later & rdquor ;. And from those powders come these slimes.

In Idealista, they get to find pisos in the El Pilar-La Estación area for 27,000 euros, mostly houses that were built with social protection and are now old. “I bought my flat, which is 70 square meters, 32 years ago and it cost me 1.4 million pesetas. Now it will be at 45,000 euros & rdquor ;, says Alfonsa, who lives in two-story brick buildings that were built “by the union & rdquor; in the late 1950s. “The flat is fine, although it has small windows. We wanted to fix the facade and make them pretty & rdquor ;.

In the midst of so much negativism, Raquel’s speech is startling, because she has a famous bakery -El Horno de Leña El Encinar- on the border of this area that has become the outlet of national housing. “I have never lacked work, I have been administrative and now I’m here so I can work in the mornings. People are very demanding & rdquor ;, assures the woman, who insists that in “Talavera there is everything & rdquor ;.

In the Torrehierro industrial estate, the Meta thing also sounds distant, you trust me for a long time. “Look, if Meta comes, they would go there, at the end of the polygon; it is already urbanized with the streets and such, but they have not started doing anything yet & rdquor ;, assures a worker while pointing to the exit of the industrial center, in which there are numerous closed ships. “We opened six years ago and we can’t complain, but it is true that there are a lot of warehouses closed & rdquor ;, says Tamara, 33, who runs the only bar-restaurant in the estate, which would be revitalized with the Zuckerberg project, the mirage (for now) of an oasis in the middle of the desert.

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Mark Zuckerberg, the last great opportunity of Talavera de la Reina, broken by unemployment