Editorial:
The next hand is now being played, with a non-party demo to be held in Madrid next Sunday. It’s been called by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, after his plan to persuade the smaller support parties to give way and allow him a vote of confidence against the Government failed to attract any takers between the minor groups (understandably, since Vox wants to illegalise some of them).
The protest, and I kid you not, is called ‘Mafia or Democracy’.
Feijóo, the PP leader, wants his go at being president, even though this would absolutely mean an alliance with Vox. He issued his call for the demonstration on the same day as yet another ex-party deputy, the enabler for the last Minister of the Interior, was admitted to jail.
His particular crimes were money-laundering, criminal organisation and selling on private information.
Feijóo’s call for Mafia or Democracy also happened on the day when Ayuso’s boyfriend was finally corralled and is now to be challenged by the Court over his manoeuvres to avoid paying tax (around €350,000) on the Covid masks he sold to some of those town halls that were buying in an understandable panic back in 2020.
Madrid is a bastion of the Partido Popular, and one could expect many people to turn out for the protest: José Maria Aznar says he’ll be there, along with Mariano Rajoy (whose last government collapsed because of, precisely, corruption), even Valencia’s Carlos Mazón says he won’t be passing up the chance to show his face among friends.
Madrid’s regional leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso has her hands full, as another court is attempting to interrogate three of her captains about the Protocols of Shame – the emotive name given to the decision to leave the elderly closed off in the residences without medical attention during the Covid crisis (7,291 died).
But no doubt, she will be there too.
The suggestion that the PSOE is the party described as being corrupt is collapsing by the day, with little to show for it – both Sánchez’ wife and his brother, and the Attorney General now almost completely off the hook. The latest scandal for the delight of the Opposition (and the private TV channels) is about an ex local politician from the PSOE and journalist called Leire Díez found to be (privately) investigating the ‘Patriotic Police’ (sic) regarding their subversive activities down the years. Elsewhere, we read that the Guardia Civil are carrying out their own investigation into ‘the Patriotic Police’.
‘Mafia or Democracy’. Is this going to be Feijóo’s final attempt to scold the Government (he’s called five protests so far) before his party congress in early July?
As The Weenie’s Leapy Lee says (repeatedly), ‘you really couldn’t make it up’.
Housing:
From EFE here. ‘BBVA Research forecasts that housing prices will grow by an average of 6.5% annually over the next two years, slightly more in 2025 than in 2026, a year in which it estimates that sales will exceed 800,000 units...’
Spanish Property Insight reports of a ‘Strong start to the year for Spanish home sales with notable regional differences’. We read: ‘While it’s too early to call 2025 a boom year, the Q1 data points to robust demand in much of the country, particularly in regions where lifestyle appeal and second-home demand are strong’.
Idealista warns that ‘Over the past year, the percentage of household income needed for housing rose to 23% for purchases and 36% for rentals, according to an Idealista study based on Q1 2025 data. The limited supply and rising prices have driven the effort to buy or rent far beyond expert-recommended limits, especially for rentals...’
‘More than 20,000 people have left Málaga in the past twelve months because they can't afford to buy or rent an apartment’ says La Ser here.
The Local reckons that ‘(non-EU) Foreigners could avoid Spain’s 100% tax by buying new builds’. The article features some legal opinion on how to circumnavigate the threatened surcharge.
From Eye on Spain here: ‘The Canary Islands or the Balearic Islands? Choosing the perfect island paradise for your move is a delightful dilemma, especially when considering the sun-drenched Spanish archipelagos of the Balearics and the Canaries. Both offer an alluring escape, but their distinct characteristics cater to different lifestyles and preferences...’
I asked Google’s IA how many empty homes are there in Spain: ‘Spain has a significant number of empty homes, with the most recent estimate indicating nearly 3.84 million. This number represents roughly 14% of the total housing stock’.
Tourism:
From 20Minutos here. ‘Foreign tourist arrivals grew by 10% in April thanks to the Easter holiday, and spending soared by 14% to 10,826 million euros’. There were 8.6 million foreign visitors for April says the item.
From El Economista, a broad look at tourism for 2025: ‘The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that foreign tourism will have an impact on Spain's GDP of €260,000 million in 2025 (i.e. €260.5 billion), a 4.7% increase compared to 2024. Record visitor numbers are also expected this year, with the potential to reach 100 million…’
Finance:
From elDiario.es here: ‘Spain breaks a new employment record with 21.8 million workers and unemployment falls below 2.5 million. Unemployment has not fallen below this level for seventeen years, and several historic highs have been surpassed, including 3.4 million self-employed workers and 10.3 million working women’. Many of these new jobs will no doubt be tourist-related.
From The Olive Press here: ‘Inflation in Spain dips below 2% mark with energy costs falling’. The latest figure continues the trend of inflation slowing down in Spain and is the third successive month to record a reduction.
Politics:
The leading story at the moment is Feijóo’s rally in Madrid this Sunday which he calls ‘Mafia o Democracia’. He says "Spaniards cannot express their opinion at the ballot box, but they will be able to do so in the streets. I call on all Spaniards to demonstrate their rejection of the government". The success or otherwise of this demo will no doubt impact on his Partido Popular congress to be held in early July. The conservative argument in favour of the protest is explained at The Corner here, with a photo from The Godfather film as decoration. From the Catalonian Ara (in English) here: ‘…Aware that his appeal to Junts or the PNV has no chance of success (and even more so after the PP's action to block the official status of Catalan, Galician, and Basque in the European Union), Feijóo has announced a mobilization in the streets. Just as the Partido Popular did during the Catalonian amnesty process, Feijóo has called a fresh protest demanding Sánchez's resignation, while the party is offering free bus-rides across the country to sympathisers. "This is about one thing [...], democracy or the mafia. The gravity of the known events transcends any ideology," says Feijóo, encouraging a protest that goes beyond its acronyms. However, Vox has already distanced itself and criticized the fact that this is not the time to call "party rallies" but rather to take stronger action with, for example, a vote of no confidence.
20Minutos says that ‘The PSOE claims to be the victim of a "dirty war being fought by the right". Here’s the Minister for Public Services Oscar López on Twitter: ‘I accuse Sr. Feijóo: he is directly responsible for this deafening noise. What we are witnessing right now is a dirty war against the government. This is just the latest version of Aznar’s "whoever can do something, let him do it", he writes’.
20Minutos has: ‘Feijóo calls for a "rebellion" on June 8: "We are facing a democratic regression unlike any seen in Spain for more than 45 years"’. Can he say that?
Just two days prior to the Mafia or Democracy demo called by Feijoo, there’s another gathering – this being the Conference of the Presidents (a regular meeting between the senior politicians) which will be held in Barcelona this Friday and hosted by Felipe VI. The conference is between the government and the presidents of the various regions of Spain. The likelihood is that some or all of the PP presidents won’t show up to discuss various policy decisions, even those proposals forwarded by the Partido Popular.
From the Partido Popular webpage here, ‘Feijóo presents the "decalogue of change" that he will apply immediately and vows to rebuild what Sánchez has destroyed’. These include lowering taxes, less bureaucracy, more homes, and a strict immigration policy…
Isabel Díaz Ayuso praises the "abysmal contrast" between the current situation in Madrid and that of Sánchez's Spain, and its "deterioration". She criticizes the fact that some regions are "abandoned" while Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Navarre "are moving toward independence in the eyes of all Spaniards". Europa Press reporting here.
In another example of posturing, ‘Ayuso accuses Sánchez of "sinking" the State TV, the RTVE, but the figures prove her wrong: "she's just firing blindly into the dark"’. Público explains that the RTVE has just reported its highest viewers’ month of May in seven years.
The PP has now opened a new front in its war on corruption by questioning the postal vote – ‘In the last election, PP spokesperson Borja Sémper recalled, "2.5 million" Spanish votes were processed. "We don't doubt the honour of the postmen or the civil servants. We question the system, and that's why we ask," Sémper later clarified after targeting Correos and leaving open the idea of electoral fraud’ (found at Público). In our own local elections of May 2023, a couple of PSOE candidates were found to be offering cash to those who would vote for them, but this is small-town politics. Another rather-more elaborate system would be necessary to affect national elections.
From 20Minutos here: ‘The PP comes to an agreement with Vox on the budget in the Balearic Islands, which addresses several of Vox’s complaints regarding language and immigration issues’.
La remigración (wiki), a concept meaning to send the non-white immigrants home from whence they came, popular in Trumpian circles, has now been embraced by the Vox party. Most of the links provided by Google consider this as extremist rhetoric. Here is Rebelión: ‘Vox has stepped on the accelerator of radicalization. Since its emergence on the Spanish political scene, the far-right party has constantly explored different discourses, always rooted in authoritarian and ultra-nationalist populism, but never before had it aligned itself so clearly as it does now with outright neo-Nazi positions…’ Newtral also explains the issue here.
El Huff Post says: ‘The latest poll by the 40dB institute for El País and Cadena Ser makes two trends clear: both the PSOE and Vox are gaining ground. One is closing the gap on the PP, which would remain the largest party if elections were held today, while the other is recovering after taking a hit from its support for Donald Trump and his tariffs.
The PP has accumulated its worst results since June 23rd in the last five months, standing at 32.8%, while the Socialists are up half a percentage point, to 29.8%. Vox, on the other hand, is now up half a point in vote estimates and remains the only party that would improve its results at the polls in 2023 (up 1.5%)… The poll also suggests that Abascal (Vox) is now edging ahead of Feijóo in popularity. Sánchez remains in first place in general approval.
Información publishes a poll and says: ‘The mismanagement of the Valencian DANA causes an electoral reversal, and the left would govern. The PP suffers a significant decline and would lose seven seats, while the Socialists would become the leading force and would regain the Generalitat (Valencian government) with (local far-left party) Compromís’.
El País notes that ‘The votes from abroad makes the far-right the second-largest party in Portugal, ahead of the Socialists. André Ventura, who founded Chega in 2019, will be the new leader of the opposition to the conservative government’. The election was won with a simple yet increased majority by the conservative party of Luís Montenegro.
El Confidencial says ‘The US makes its position clear: "regime change" in Europe is a central Trump objective. The US administration seeks to influence Europe by promoting governments aligned with its interests, generating tensions with European leaders who defend democracy and freedom against such interference’.
Health:
From 20Minutos here: ‘The Health Department (Ministerio de Sanidad) is to ban smoking on terraces, at outdoor parties, in universities, and in work vehicles. The Government is finalizing the anti-smoking law before sending it to the Congress of Deputies. Smoking will also no longer be permitted in public pools or in marquees’.
Corruption:
Those tiresome commercial calls from mobile phones will be illegal from Saturday says the Government, with some hefty fines for the law-brakers. While most of those directed to me seem to get through (it’s funny that one is always doing something more interesting – like having a siesta – than entertaining the prospect of receiving a commercial message on one’s phone), the phone companies claim to have blocked fourteen million spam calls in the past three months.
From El Huff Post here: ‘The PP has filed a complaint against Leire Díez, Jacobo Teijelo, and Javier Pérez Dolset with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for alleged bribery, influence peddling, obstruction of justice, and comprising a criminal group or organization behind the UCO audio recordings’. The three accused (now ex-party member, lawyer and businessman respectively) have been offering rewards to those within the Guardia Civil’s ‘fraud squad’ prepared to come clean over their past anti-democratic activities within a furtive group known as the ‘the Patriotic Police’. The PSOE deny any relationship with the accused. The media have nevertheless published some compromising recordings of police operatives. On Wednesday, Leire Díez gave a press conference and said that she had voluntarily dropped her party membership and that she was preparing a book on the secret activities of the police acting, she said, as an investigative journalist.
Sabelotodo compares the cases of corruption – both in numbers and in value – of the various political parties (apparently since the year 2000). Corruption, says the article, has cost the country €124,123,915,826, which works out for the average Spaniard €2,700.
The article has, I think, only limited value… Casos Aislados (the name is a joke on the off-used claim of an exceptional and unrepeatable event) also shows the same figures as above, while delving into far more detail.
Courts:
‘The Constitutional Court's ruling endorses the Amnesty Law’ says La Marea here. This refers to the issue of the Catalonian attempt at independence in 2017 (wiki) and the Government’s amnesty against the ringleaders (less Puigdemont).
elDiario.es says: ‘The judge sends Francisco Martínez, the former deputy head of the Interior Ministry under the Partido Popular, to prison for his part in the cyberattack network linked to the hacker Alcasec’. El Mundo is more explicit: ‘The National Court accuses the former deputy head of the Interior Ministry of "repeated and planned cyberattacks from Switzerland against public bodies over the years"’.
Media:
Opinion from La Nueva Tribuna here: ‘The Spanish right has rediscovered public ethics. Today, their spokespeople proclaim themselves guardians of transparency, frown and raise their fingers in Parliament, demanding immediate resignations, political purges, and media trials for every suspicion—real, inflated, or fabricated—that touches the coalition government or the PSOE...’
Maribel Vilaplana, the journalist who was lunching with Carlos Mazón on that fateful day apparently phoned him a few hours later: ‘“I’ve seen what’s going on, don’t stick me in it”’.
Ecology:
(Monday) Bad news say the experts: Mediterranean sea temperatures have risen 3°C in just four days. ‘The Mediterranean waters surrounding the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands are experiencing heat anomalies of up to 3°C, setting a new 50-year record in L'Estartit (Girona). Meteored looks at the details, and the dangers.
InSpain News says ‘Over half of Spain was exposed to illegal air pollution in 2024’. We read: ‘More than 30 million people in Spain were exposed to dangerously polluted air last year, well above the limits set out in new European legislation aimed at cleaning up the continent’s skies by 2030’. Last year saw around 20,000 premature deaths in Spain because of air pollution.
Various:
Mapping Spain brings us ‘Comparing Supermarkets in Spain. Which is the best?’ their answer is Mercadona (which, give it its due, always provides a large parking area).
El País in English hits us with: ‘When the Nazis wondered whether Franco was Jewish. A Bolivian diplomat who translated ‘Mein Kampf’ brought up the Spanish dictator’s origins with the Third Reich. ‘Further inquiries will be made in this direction,’ says a document’.
Cocaine use in Spain is analised at El Independiente here. A writer called David López Canales, author of ¿Una rayita? says: ‘cocaine has become normalized as an adult form of consumption. Its use is widespread and is socially tolerated in private life but at the same time is hidden in political, media, and cultural circles...’
Finally:
This one is good: Tanxugueiras (a Galician pop group) – Pedindo Perdón on YouTube here.
Si (
No(
