Spanish Shilling

Are there enough dwellings in Spain for everyone?

2026-04-13T17:03:11

How can there not be enough homes in Spain? Well, there aren't - at least in the places where people would like to live. The properties for sale (or for rent) have increased in price over the last year by a large amount. Ara says 'Spain, the fourth EU state where housing prices increased the most: more than double the average. Real estate prices in the Spanish state grew 12.9% in the last quarter of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024'.

From a comment raised at Thoughts from Galicia here: ‘The real reason for Spain’s housing crisis is the massive increase in one-person households. In the country, where 50-60 years ago most people lived in large families crammed together under one roof, the housing market has undergone an enormous transformation in the last decades. That and, of course, speculation, immigration, foreigners buying properties all over’.

As of 2024 (says Google AI), ‘…there are over 27 million total dwellings in Spain. The total housing stock surpassed this threshold for the first time, reflecting growth despite a noted deficit in new construction in high-demand areas. While the total housing stock is high, roughly 3.8 million homes are classified as empty’. Come to think of it, with the population of Spain at 49.5m people, there are more than enough homes if everyone… doubled up! Of course, everyone wants to live in or near the city, or near their employment, or where the bright lights are. Few of us prefer the lost and empty country which in Spain is so vast. From Google AI again: ‘According to the 2021 census data released by the INE, there were approximately 3.8 million empty homes in Spain, representing roughly 14% of the country's total housing stock’. Perhaps working from home would help or converting those empty downstairs spaces under the apartment blocks or allowing the availability of land for more prefabricated homes. In the end, everybody wants to live near or in the choicest parts of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, and there is money to be made.

Another note from Google AI refers to ‘The legacy of 2008: It is estimated that following the 2008 crisis, nearly half a million housing developments were left partially completed or abandoned. Many of these structures remain visible today as concrete "skeletons" in various regions’. These buildings often belong to the ‘Sareb’ (wiki), ‘the bad bank’ (which in my limited experience has little or no interest in selling them).

From El País here: ‘A roof over one's head for speculators: how housing was perverted and inequality skyrocketed. El ladrillo (viz. ‘housing’), once the largest store of wealth on the planet, has become today the main driver of exclusion’. Or you own a house (or several, or many), or you don’t. “Forty-five percent of the population is suffering from the crisis, and more than four out of ten households cannot afford basic expenses. The economy is growing, but poverty is becoming entrenched, and housing is pushing more households into precarious situations,” says Oxfam Intermón. Recent Eurostat data and OECD-based studies place Spain among the countries with the highest rates of housing overburden; in other words, too many citizens spend more than 40% of their net income on rent…’

‘Spain’s Senate has rejected a proposal to build tens of thousands of new public homes in the islands, highlighting the political divide over how to tackle housing shortages in tourist hotspots. The Spanish Senate (under the control of the Partido Popular) has voted against a proposal to launch a large public housing programme of 74,000 affordable public homes in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands aimed at easing the housing crisis in both archipelagos…’ More at Spanish Property Insight here.

And then, from The Olive Press, there’s this: ‘Spain’s crippling housing crisis is not a market failure but a deliberate ‘political choice’ designed to protect the wealth of property owners, a leading sociologist has warned. Javier Gil, a top researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), claims the country has entered a devastating new era of ‘rentier capitalism’ that is quietly fracturing society…’

And while we are distracted by the squatters, the bank foreclosures and the tenants in arrears (and the insistent propaganda from the alarm companies), the reality is that the laws are stricter than the news-stories suggest and the Ministry of the Interior (the Home Office) reckons there are only about 15,000 homes with illegal squatters, or as LaSexta has: 'Data that debunks alarmist theories about squatting: only 0.05% of homes are occupied'.

First of all, there must be housing for everyone: not under a bridge or in a bidonville or a camper van or an abandoned shed, but in a reasonably decent home. Then we can concern ourselves with the profiteers. From Google AI here: ‘The right to housing is constitutionally recognized in Spain (Article 47) as a guiding principle, directing public authorities to ensure decent housing and combat speculation. While it is a recognized right, it is not an absolute fundamental right, meaning enforcement depends on public policies and the 2023 Housing Law’. More from Housing Rights Watch here: ‘The State of Housing Rights in Spain’.

Per Svensson has died

2026-04-11T10:18:42

News reaches me from Sweden that Per Svensson has died at the age of 92.

Per was responsible for me launching my weekly bulletin ‘Business over Tapas’ (so called because Spaniards like to seal their deals over a beer in the bar downstairs). His own weekly mailings were called ‘News from Spain’ and he passed on to me his subscription list when he retired in 2012.

Per was the leader of a Norwegian communist youth group and was charged with looking after the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on a good-will visit sometime after 1961. Per told me that the official schedule of speeches and photo opportunities was soon broken as Gagarin wanted to go drinking. He presented Per with a Soviet watch and twenty-five different ways of saying ‘Cheers’ in Russian.

We next hear of Per moving to Spain in 1966 where, he writes, ‘…I became a privileged witness to the great transition from a rotten dictatorship to a modern democracy…’. Per’s first business was in real estate, working out of Tenerife – where experience and tricks learned there set him in good knowledge for his main role, as founder of the Institute of Foreign Property Owners out of Altea in Alicante, a service started in 1982. In 1985 he published a book called ‘Your Home in Spain – before and after the purchase’ which was followed by another 15 editions in six languages. He warned against property-fraud, the time share industry, municipal corruption (we remember the scandal of thousands of homes without building licences sold to unwitting foreigners) and buying off-plan – receiving many threats from local politicians and speculators in the process.

This consumer agency would produce a regular magazine for its many thousands of subscribers with news about property in Spain – the joys and the pitfalls – and included a list of any foreign-sounding name that appeared in the Spanish provincial government bulletins (fines, alerts and so on).

Later Per and a few friends (including me) started Ciudadanos Europeos, a political agitation group pushing to get the vote for foreign residents in Spain. In 1995, we EU citizens were allowed by Felipe González to vote in European elections (whoopee!) but the Minister of the Presidencia, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, managed to stop us from the town hall vote (he thought we would vote for the PP) until 1999.

With this going on, plus meetings in Alicante and Málaga and presentations in Madrid at the Complutense, The Valencian government gave Per an office to run his program, but then de-funded it the day after the local elections of 1999 when its use was no longer important.

I next met up with him on a project to open a retirement village for Norwegians from the city of Bergen, with the idea that elderly Northerners would rather move to Spain if the municipal heath service could somehow finance a retirement home for senior citizens (it would be cheaper than one in Scandinavia – and certainly more enjoyable for the residents). The project eventually fell through.

Per spent his later years between Bulgaria (‘it’s marvellous here, and much cheaper than Spain’, he told me) and Hamburg, before finally returning north to a Swedish nursing home where he died earlier this month.

He leaves behind his wife Heidemarie, two sons and a daughter, and our fond memories.

It's a Fine Life

2026-04-07T09:13:40

Madrid, like Barcelona and Valencia, has adopted la gentrificacíon, urban renovation where the rents go up, the old joints are closed down or turned into vanity or impulse stores in a system known to Spanish economists as Premium Mediocre – that’s to say, cheaply expensive.

It sounds swell, looks good and costs a little more, whether it’s a Starbucks outlet, bubble coffee, choosing Uber over a taxi, a bottle of designer water, food that photographs better than it tastes, dragon fruit, stores with boiled pick and mix sweets sold by weight or Pistachio chocolate from Dubai… and of course voting Partido Popular (a few years back, it would have been supporting Ciudadanos, eating mangoes and putting watercress in sandwiches).

My little romantic village of Mojácar has chosen a similar route, with the beach-bars now demolished and re-built in brick, bicycle lanes along the side of the beach-road, children's playgrounds (also invariably located on the beach), and an artful number of parades, fiestas and celebrations to attract the visitors. We have transformed in a short time from bohemian to bourgeois.

I was criticised by a British woman today while attempting to find a parking spot on the playa, because my car was covered in dust. 'Lady', I said, 'I live in a gravel pit'.

If this all means that the rents have gone up, well that's the point!

The Madrid Cafés and Bars

2026-04-04T17:21:55

Down past the Castellana, on the bit called Paseo de Recoletos, opposite the Biblioteca Nacional de España, is a famous old watering hole called the Café Gijón, founded in 1888. It’s probably Madrid’s most famous joint, along with the Bar Chicote (perennially popular since 1931 for its cocktails), Viva Madrid (where the hep out-of-towners would meet), the good old Cervecería Alemana (there used to be a sign there: ‘We don’t serve hippies. They don’t like us, and we don’t like them’), and there’s the Café Central (for the best live jazz since 1982).

I used to enjoy the Café Gijón. It was olde-worlde and had mirrors everywhere, a house bootblack, free newspapers in a wooden frame, elderly waiters in white jackets, and an inevitable clutch of poets or philosophers arguing happily between each other while seated around one of the tables (it didn’t run to a bar). Spain used to do these things so well.

I had a French girlfriend back in 1980 when I was living in Madrid. Walking into the Gijón one day, I saw her sitting by herself at a table next to a window and enjoying a coffee. I ambled over and sat down – Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? I asked (those ten years of French at school stood me well with Huguette).

‘Who the hell are you’, she answered – and as it happened she had a point, since it turned out to be somebody entirely different.

Does that ever happen to you?

There’s a scene in La Colmena (a book about the penniless intellectuals in post-war Franco’s times) where a poet drops something on the floor. When he looks up from below – he finds that his marble-topped table is in fact a reversed tombstone mounted on the ornate metal legs of the slab with the inscription of some departed Spaniard inscribed thereon.

All the tables, he discovers looking around, are the same.

Do you remember those old off-white tables, before the Mahou plastic ones came along?

The years pass. Now the Museo Chicote, with its Guinness Book collection of bottles, has a disc-jockey. The Viva Madrid (1856) still sounds good – although it has turned into a cocktail bar, the Cervecería Alemana (1904) the best for ice-cold beers (rich hippies welcome), now only with table service and the Café Central (where you could see jazz greats like Pedro Iturralde and Jorge Pardo), well, the owner just put the rent up, so the jazz bar closes on April 15th to move to El Ateneo de Madrid, just a few minutes away.

As for the Café Gijón, the very best of them all (where I would meet my father when he was in town), the place was closed last year but has now reopened as a more professional operation.

Let’s see what they say: OKDiario gushes with ‘The historic Café Gijón, located on the Paseo de Recoletos, is embarking on a new chapter after its acquisition by the Majorcan Cappuccino Group, a deal that has generated considerable excitement in the city. After months of closure and renovations, the establishment is reopening with a promise to respect its legacy, but also with a necessary update to adapt to modern times…’

Here’s El Mundo: ‘Madrid's Café Gijón reopens, 'asking' for tips in the US style and targeting international luxury tourists’. It says that ‘…The lively conversations that used to fill the afternoons have given way to an offering geared towards high-spending tourists, in which traditional dishes have been replaced by an international menu’.

The bill, when you ask for it, comes with ‘a suggested gratuity’ of 10 or 15% on top.

Now, here in Spain – until yesterday at least – we don’t tip. The staff’s emolument is included in the bill. Half the time, if you do leave the change (a few coins, not more), the boss gets to keep it anyway.

Between Me and You

2026-03-31T18:40:19

The co-official languages of Spain are a mess.

Firstly – euskara is spoken by nobody outside the three Basque provinces plus neighbouring Navarra (the Basques think that Pamplona should be their capital, but are stuck with Vitoria, or Vitoria-Gasteiz to be pedantic, which is at least in the right geographical location). All Basques will (and for practical reasons must) speak Spanish. You might get a word or two in Euskara to make the point, but, if nobody understands…

Then there’s galego, a mix of Portuguese and Spanish. There’s aragonés – or fabla – as well (it’s close to extinction apparently). Over to the East, the Catalans like to speak catalán (unless they live in Valencia, where it’s called valenciano). In Valencia, normally Partido Popular territory, they prefer to speak Spanish anyway, and they would no doubt prefer it if I said ‘castellano’. Indeed, castellano is more like the King’s English; it’s best spoken in Valladolid, while worst savaged in Cádiz.

Catalán has so much baggage, what with that Independence thing, that Miriam Nogueras, the parliamentary spokesperson for Junts del Catalunya, insists on making all her presentations in that language. Since nobody else in las cortes either likes her or cares what she is saying, few deputies bother to plug a pinganillo into their ear for the translation...

Since we got on this subject, I would suggest that el inglés is probably the fourth-spoken idioma in Spain – rising to second place during the summer months.

Having trodden on more than a few toes with the foregoing, I’ll note here that my friend José Antonio Sierra (who founded the Spanish Cultural Institute in Dublin, and served as Director and Cultural Manager of the Instituto Cervantes in Dublin for many years) has been campaigning in Andalucía to get the escuelas oficiales de idiomas, who merrily teach English, French and German, to offer courses in Spain’s minority languages, so far without success.

Easter in Spain (let's have a party!)

2026-03-30T17:20:07

Easter Week is here and for once the weather is on its best behaviour. Perhaps a few showers up there in Galicia (they seem to enjoy them), but warm and sunny for the rest of Spain.

Which means tourists, visitors, families and an agreeable amount of mayhem and hullabaloo.

Those city folk who can trace the heritage of a far-off beginning in some abandoned pueblo will be back for a few days, making a fuss of the old people who stayed behind, proudly parking their car in the street which used to be more familiar with donkeys than with SUVs. The old kitchen with the fire lit and an agreeable smell of chicken and sausage (bought yesterday at El Corte Inglés) floats out the door where the menfolk are doing their best to appreciate some home-made wine, el vino casero. It’s rough but it’s honest.

But most of Spain, plus a generous number of foreign visitors (they’ve wisely cancelled their hols in Turkey or Cyprus and decided on the old standby of España once again) are now on the beach, getting their first rays since last summer.

The locals are performing their processions, La Virgen María is on the move, and the town band is tootling along behind her, providing melancholic or joyous melodies as demanded. Jesús may be carried solemnly from the church once around the square no touchies, and followed by a clutch of old girls in black, but most of us are in the bars, the restaurants and the souvenir shops (which have stayed open late, just for you).

Is Easter a religious or a pagan holiday? Who knows and, with some small but no doubt vocal exception, who cares?

The cities are another thing again. More crowds taking the week off work, milling about with their perambulators, and then there are the penitents, the nazarenos, often dressed in capirotes (those sinister outfits with the robes and pointy heads) marching down the side streets in columns, briefly posing for the cameras.

Easter is fun. There are special cakes at the bakery – including those wonderful torrijas soaked in milk, egg and sugar then fried (or with sweet wine instead of the milk): it’s a sort of jolly version of French toast, or if your generosity stretches far enough, the Spanish answer to the British hot cross bun.

It’s now the start of the season, and this year Spain is certain to hit its goal of a hundred million foreign tourists (after all, apart from France, where else can they go?). Once the Semana Santa is over, and before the bacchanalia really takes hold, I might be just about able to zip down to the supermarket (and the library) to load up on provisions for the inevitable summer onslaught.

My shopping list reads: beer, bangers and books.

For sure, it’s gonna be a hot one.

Power to the People

2026-03-25T07:13:54

There are two kinds of energy – one that is mined from the earth and the other which comes from the skies (or the lakes). The first is expensive to obtain, is (eventually) limited in supply and is a contaminant.

The other is wind, sun and water: limitless, free and easily harvested.

For a while there, the solar and wind energy were considered such a threat to the oil industry (and its taxes) that the PP government of Mariano Rajoy came up with a ‘Sun Tax’ (2015 – 2018) to disincentivise the solar industry. It was aimed at consumers who would be harvesting their own energy (principally from solar panels) and thus depriving the power company of its due. A bit like growing one’s own tomatoes but still having to pay a levy to the supermarket. Plus, of course, handing over the ones you didn’t eat.

Silly, really, with all the sun we have here. We read: Spain typically receives over 2,500 to over 3,000 hours of sun annually, while Germany averages around 1,600 to 2,000 hours, and the UK generally receives 1,300 to 1,500 hours.

Back in 2012, Germany’s "Energiewende" (energy transition) and consistent feed-in tariffs spurred massive solar installations, making it the European market leader. The country had more solar power than Spain, despite their cloudy skies. Indeed, it still does today.

Here in Spain, we have plenty of clean energy, but oddly, we are still heavily reliant on oil.

Which has gone up thanks to its scarcity – for reasons to do with faulty politics elsewhere.

Then, the Government steps in to give subsidies, to lower the tax on gasoline from 21 to 10%, and help the farmers, the fishermen and certain other sectors.

Faced with every oil crisis, says journalist Ignacio Escolar, Spain repeats the same formula: fuel discounts we don't have, paid for with public money we don't have to spare. It's a populist, ineffective, and regressive recipe. A misguided idea that has been backfiring for half a century.

Oil embargos or suddenly heightened prices (usually something to do with middle eastern aggression) are resolved in Spain with a desperate plan to avoid unpopular increases at the pump, meaning discounts which – along the way – would negatively affect Spain’s balance of payments. Consumption therefore remains unchanged, while the evidence to switch to clean fuels (such as electric vehicles) is largely ignored. Spain (normally speaking) has the second lowest taxes on petrol in Europe after Bulgaria – although it’s true that the base price for petrol and diesel varies slightly between countries.

As for electric vehicles, Spain can claim about 5.4% of its fleet to be fully electric (against Germany at 18.4%). ‘Oh, but they take so long to charge up’, you might say. However, it’s an industry that’s changing fast. The latest BYD Flash Charging stations available in China now take five minutes for a full charge.

Having one’s own solar energy panels, says some bright spark, is a call for independence (imagine if Cuba was thus prepared). Having the entire country run on redeemable energy (if and when) is even more so. Neither coal nor oil to be torn from Mother Earth and turned – in part – into smoke, fumes and toxic pollution. Furthermore, a country like Spain with no domestic oil or gas production, can only keep its imports down with clean energy alternatives.

Today, Spain produces cheaper electricity thanks to renewables, which account for almost 60% of production. “Last Saturday, the price of a megawatt-hour in Spain was 14 euros, compared to more than 100 in Italy, Germany, or France,” boasted Pedro Sánchez at his press conference last week. “Spain is better prepared than almost any other country in our region for this energy shock,” he added. This is only half true.

In renewable electricity production, we have done our homework. Spain gets very good marks. However, in transportation, the failure is absolute.

Nobody wants to take such an unpopular measure as raising gasoline or diesel prices – or allowing them to rise. Electricity in Spain—the wholesale price—is among the cheapest in Europe. There are times, almost every week, when renewable energy production exceeds total demand. And yet, here we are: subsidizing energy we don't have through taxes, instead of investing in the energy we have in surplus.

Strained Relations

2026-03-17T12:26:23

Relations between Spain and the USA appear to be having a tough moment as the ineffable Yankee president lowers the tone to bar-room talk.

Trump calls Spain a ‘loser’ and warns the United States will not be a ‘team player’.

“Spain? I think they've been very bad” US President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House on March 11.

“I’m not learning your damn language, I don’t have time”, Trump telling the Latin American presidents (an anecdote that made its way to Spain).

Then there was Spanish-speaking Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl (“an affront to the United States”).

All in all, one might be forgiven for considering the MAGAts to be dumb (in the American meaning of the word) and most Europeans tend to take that line.

The USA is not easily comparable to Europe – Spain for example, a large European country, is 35% smaller than Texas. Over there, you can go a long way in your automobile and still be in the same country, eating the same food and watching the same television.

But not all Americans are Republicans, and even less these days are Trump supporters. Perhaps Trump just needs a decent paella and to sit on the beach in Marbella for a few days. Hey, the girls there often go topless.

There are of course, many Americans who love Spain – a country that has long been a favoured destination for American intellectuals. I can think offhand of Orson Welles, James Mitchener, Ernest Hemingway, Washington Irving, Barack Obama, Ava Gardner, Richard Gere, Michael Douglas, Gino Hollander and my old friend and neighbour the late Ric Polansky – who would never knowingly miss a bullfight.

Spain/US relations have been a case of love and hate. Spain after all was long there before the USA was even a glimmer in the eye of George Washington (seen here crossing the Potomac).

Puerto Rico, Florida, California, Texas and so on were all once held by Madrid.

The Americans backed Cuba when it revolted against its overlords in 1898 leading to the Spanish–American War which soon cost Spain most of its remaining empire: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and The Philippines.

Washington supported the Nationalists during the Francoist uprising, with the later comment from Madrid: ‘without American petroleum and American trucks, and American credit, we could never have won the Civil War’.

But that was then, now we are all happily united under the Nato flag.

Donald Trump evidently has a grim view of Spain, as do (and must) his toadies. Lindsey Graham thinks that they should withdraw their two military bases in Seville and Cádiz and another, the foreign policy analyst Michael Rubin, suggests American support for Morocco to annex Melilla and Ceuta (with their combined population of 170,000).

While we are on the subject, there was even a plan, back in the 1890s, to invade and occupy the Canary Islands. Maybe somebody in the Pentagon could dust that one off.

Political pressure comes these days from the US embassy, warning its citizens to avoid Spain’s upcoming protests over ‘recent events in the Middle East’. On a happier note, the Madrid leader (and arch-conservative) Isabel Díaz Ayuso says she intends to celebrate the coming 250th anniversary of American independence on the 4th of July.

It certainly sounds fun.

Donald Trump evidently supports Spain’s far-right parties and receives homage from them in return. This may not be doing them a favour, as the Iran mission is far from popular here.

President Sánchez says: ‘¡No a la Guerra!’. Over in Hollywood, Javier Bardem echoed the sentiment at the Oscars: ‘No to War and Free Palestine’, earning ‘a huge round of applause’.

In Spain, they know a dictator when they see one. Giving in to one, whichever one, is out of the question.

Döner Kebab

2026-03-15T12:23:33

I see we have been recently blessed with an alarming number of Döner Kebab outlets. My little Shangri-La has six (!) of them and Turre, the pueblo up the road, has another three.

Garrucha Port has eight of them (who needs fish?).

Indeed, the whole of Spain appears to be stiff with them.

Is this the end of the late night pizza and the bocadillo filled with battered squid rings?

I checked with Google, which shrugged its shoulders helplessly. In Germany, there are 16,000 of them. Queues stretching around the block. In Spain, ¿quien sabe?

Another answer from Google says: 'Kebabs can be a healthy, high-protein meal, particularly when choosing grilled chicken or lean meat skewers served with vegetables and pita. However, commercial döner kebabs are often high in saturated fat and sodium, potentially exceeding daily allowances. Healthiness depends on meat quality, portion size, and sauce choices'.

The BBC is equally catty: '...Last year food scientists for Hampshire county council found that döner kebabs were the fattiest takeaways. One contained 140g of fat, twice the maximum daily allowance for women, and the calorific equivalent to a wine glass of cooking oil. And 60% of the kebabs tested were high in trans fat, which raises cholesterol levels...'

Later it says: 'Research by the UK's Food Standards Agency in 2006 found that 18.5% of döner takeaways posed a "significant" threat to public health, and 0.8% posed an "imminent" threat...'

But that was in England twenty years ago. What about Spain in 2026?

Are they worth a try?

No doubt a good one is a culinary delight, especially with that yummy yoghurt sauce and some salad - however I imagine that restauranteurs blinded by the bright lights of commerce might find it easy to, er, cut corners.

The last one I had was around 40 years ago. It was pretty tasty as I recall.

It's time I had another go. Maybe wash it down with a beer.

But which one of them all is the very best? I suspect that I am only going to risk it the one time...

Twenty Years Later, and at Least One Thing Has Changed

2026-03-08T17:29:08

One of the most prominent memories in the Spanish scrapbook, along with the picture of the caudillo under the heading ¡Españoles, Franco ha Muerto! and another of the rebel Guardia Civil Antonio Tejero firing his revolver into the ceiling of Las Cortes, the Spanish Parliament, would be the smiling and unctuous photograph of José María Aznar along with Tony Blair and George W Bush at their meeting in the Azores on the eve of the (Second) American Gulf War and invasion of Iraq twenty three years ago this month.

Aznar paid dearly (as did Spain) for getting this country involved in a foreign adventure, especially so a year later on March 11 2004 when Arab terrorists planted some bombs in the local Madrid railway system, killing 193 people and wounding some 2,000 more.

Aznar compounded his error by blaming the wrong set of assassins, the Basque ETA group rather than Al Qaeda. This cost his party the general election just two days later, allowing the PSOE leader José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to become the new president of Spain.

One of his first acts was to reverse Spain’s participation in the war against Saddam.

The question of course now arises – what policy would an actual PP/Vox government have taken following the current Israeli/American attack against Iran?

As we don’t have such a leadership, let us look instead at Pedro Sánchez.

I like a quote of his: ‘Spain opposes this catastrophe. Because we understand that governments are there to improve people’s lives, to solve problems, not to worsen them. And it is unacceptable that leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this task use the smokescreen of war to mask their incompetence and line the pockets of a select few’.

Donald Trump answered this by saying something like – ‘who needs Spain anyway?’

That remains to be seen; as much of the European Union, after a certain hesitation, now appears to agree with Sánchez. Although, you see, there’s Feijóo ‘and his Mariachis’ who of course continue to see themselves as vassals of Trump. A plan which is not playing well with much of the Spanish electorate.

Why do the conservatives here (with their allies in the Media) always try and sink the Spanish ship of state?

68% of Spaniards, says El País, say they are against Trump and Netanyahu’s war, with 23% being in favour. Even El Mundo (a conservative newspaper) can’t do much better, with 62% against the war (although we are told in the same headline that those respondents prefer China to the USA).

We see that the right-wing’s patriotism, it seems, has exceptions. It works against immigration, against separatists, against the left, against anyone who doesn't subscribe to the right's short-sighted view of Spain. But it vanishes the moment a thug with an American flag arrives and orders everyone to stand at attention.

Sánchez says – before we all cry ¡No Pasarán! – ‘The people must be aware that what may happen to their wallets has nothing to do with the decisions of the Spanish Government, but with a war in Iran that is illegal and that will bring much suffering.”

We’ve already seen the rise in petrol prices and the next electric bill won’t be far behind.

The Guardian reckons that Pedro Sánchez is ‘one of the very few European leaders to openly and emphatically reject the demands of a US president whose trademark negotiating style is an erratic mix of bullying, humiliation and self-aggrandisement’.

The war (or invasion) has had some bad press, from torpedoing an apparently unarmed Iranian frigate in international waters, to callously bombing a girls’ school with at least 165 children dead. Then there was the obscene prayer-meeting in the Oval Office (our fundamentalists are better than their fundamentalists) as ‘non-commissioned officers were elsewhere being told that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”’. Not my Jesus, Buddy.

Let’s give Sánchez the last word: ‘Es un orgullo ser español. Por defender lo que defendemos ante la barbarie y ante la guerra’. It is a source of pride to be Spanish. For defending what we defend in the face of barbarism and war.

No doubt I'll have to update this essay... (just sayin')

War (What Is It Good For?)

2026-03-04T13:19:33

From the Spanish and international media...

The big news this week is the weekend Israeli and US attack on Iran (with the apparent support of France, Germany and the UK) and the consequences thereof. Spain has two US bases, Morón de la Frontera (Seville) and Rota (Cádiz). The Iranian ambassador to Spain said on Monday that his country considered any offensive base in Europe to be a legitimate target. The Spanish Government has insisted that it won’t participate in the adventure and warned the Americans not to involve the bases in any aggression. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez openly condemned the US and Israeli strikes on Saturday, warning that they could heighten regional tensions and “contribute to a more uncertain and hostile international order.” He later noted that "One can stand both against a hateful regime and an unjustified attack." El País in English says that the USAF has now moved its tanker planes elsewhere.

Around 30,000 Spaniards are currently in the Middle East. On Tuesday, ‘Minister Albares confirmed that "the evacuation operations" of Spaniards in the Middle East are already underway’.

Infobae says that ‘Pedro Sánchez has once again emerged as the lone dissenting voice in the EU's Middle East crisis cabinet following the attack on Iran. The region is entering an escalation with "unpredictable" consequences. The Spanish leader has positioned himself as the critical voice in Europe in response to the attack by Washington and Tel Aviv’. EuroNews says on Monday that ‘Spain rejects Israel's accusation of “standing with Iran” and other tyrants’.

So, is Spain on ‘the right side of history’? The Israeli foreign minister for one thinks not.

From Business Insider here: 'The US president lashes out at the Spanish government for not allowing him to use the Rota and Morón military bases during the military operation against Iran. Donald Trump this (Tuesday) afternoon launched a scathing attack against Spain and the government of Pedro Sánchez, even ordering Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to initiate an "economic war" live on air. "We're going to cut all trade ties with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain," he told the press…’

Well then, it’s lucky that Spain is in the EU.

From RTVE here: ‘The Spanish government, responding to Trump's threat to cut off trade with Spain: "He will have to respect international law"’. The Lad Bible says: ‘Spain's PM fires back at Donald Trump over threat to 'cut all trade' for not helping US military. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has accused Donald Trump of instigating the breakdown of international law’.

Opinion from elDiario.es here: ‘Trump Returns the Spanish Flag to the Left. A leftist today can embrace a civic, pluralistic, democratic, respectful, empathetic patriotism committed to international law. This gift of the Spanish flag to the left would never have been possible without the invaluable collaboration of the PP and Vox, who have become satellites of the MAGA movement’.

The PP here and Vox here both say that Sánchez is on the side of the ayatollahs.

The Daily Telegraph ends a hostile editorial on Sánchez with ‘…For what it’s worth, my guess is that Trump has better things to do with his time than give Spain the kicking it fully deserves, and will simply content himself with publicly lambasting its useless leader’.

From 20Minutos here: ‘China defends Spain after Trump's threat: "Trade should not be used as a weapon"’ (with video).

It's early days, but this sneak attack by Trump and Netanyahu will likely not end well.

*I look forward to comments on this one.

Taking a Look at Santiago Abascal

2026-03-04T10:37:59

Each Western power (at least, the ones in Europe) has a far-right political party which will fight tooth and nail, by fair means and foul, to gain ascendency in the national politics.

Here in Spain, it’s Vox (there are a few others, but currently of no interest). The party today has 33 deputies in the Spanish parliament making it the third largest group. These include their po-faced spokesperson Pepa Millán and the nephew of the disgraced conservative politician Rodrigo Rato, the oddly inept José María Figaredo (known as Frigodedo by his detractors).

Vox began in 2013, when its leader Santiago Abascal dropped his membership in the Partido Popular to start a fresh far-right party. Santi (as he is called by his supporters) is a handsome-looking fellow, and instead of sporting a wild hair-style, like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson or Geert Wilders, he is well-groomed, has a short beard, and – when the cameras are willing – he might jump on a horse in a manly sort of way. In short, he’s more of a Putin than a clown.

All of the original founders of Vox have since squabbled with Abascal and have left politics – as Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, Macarena Olona, Rocio Monasterio, Víctor Sánchez del Real, Juan Luis Steegman… and now (hanging by his fingertips), Javier Ortega Smith – the Vox spokesperson in the Madrid City Hall, best remembered for swimming into Gibraltar in 2016 and raising – briefly – a Spanish flag on the rock there.

Ignacio Garriga is the party Secretary General, a highly religious man born in Catalonia with a Spanish/Belgian father and an Equatoguinean mother. For obvious reasons, he will have reached his zenith with his current position and is no threat to his boss.

The party is present in the European Parliament – led by a man who came from the moribund Falange Española de las JONS and a lookalike for the baddie in the first Indiana Jones film called Jorge Buxadé. Vox is aligned with the Patriots for Europe (Fidesz, Rassemblement National, Vlaams Belang and others: parties in thrall to Donald Trump).

Vox is also found in most of the regional governments and many town halls – usually either in an uneasy alliance with the Partido Popular or sniffily standing aside. Says Abascal regarding any deal to be made post-elections in the two regions of Extremadura or Aragón: ‘The PP wants to treat us like savages’, he says. If they fail to come to an arrangement – and Vox increased its number of councillors in both elections – then the regions will need to call for fresh elections. The next regional ballot, with a similar PP/Vox forecast, is Castilla-León later this month.

The party program is simple enough: old school nationalism, tradition, Catholic, anti-immigrant, unimpressed by women’s issues and global warming, and in favour of lower taxes. The party does well with young men (who are apparently concerned that women have too many rights and protections). It’s also popular in the countryside, particularly in the provinces of Murcia, Almería and Cádiz (where there are lots of foreign immigrants working the fields: people – needless to say – who don’t have the Vote). Those underprivileged folk who back the ‘ultras’ are sometimes known as ‘los fachapobres’ – that’s to say, the poor fascists.

'Make España Great Again' could be its slogan, although Santi rarely wears a vulgar baseball-cap.

Vox is in some ways merely an extension of the Partido Popular (which has recently been moving to the right in an attempt to claw back support), and notable extremists within the PP include Isabel Díaz Ayuso (president of the Madrid region) and the PP deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo.

There’s been another thorn in Abascal’s side down in Murcia, where José Ángel Antelo the alarmingly tall Vox leader there had fallen into disapproval with head office, and (like Ortega Smith above) wouldn’t leave his post. Earlier this week, the rest of the regional party councillors voted together for his summary ejection as leader and spokesperson.

As one headline says with satisfaction: ‘The far right is slowly devouring itself while selling order and discipline to its supporters’. Another is of more concern: ‘Centralized command and a personality cult: Abascal sidelines critics and completes his vision for the new Vox’.

Nevertheless, it doesn't look like this party will go the way of Ciudadanos or Podemos in the near future.

The Electric Company

2026-03-02T12:13:49

Endesa (founded in 1944) was a public company which was sold off to the private sector beginning in 1998 and finally ending up under the control of the Italian (publically owned) Enel by 2009.

...

Back in the summer of 2024, the electric company stopped sending me bills. Kind of them. I went to their local office several times, and also sent them a few emails, and was told on each occasion that the issue was 'una incidencia'.

This continued until some fellow showed up, lost, to put in a new meter, sometime about November last year. By then, I had enjoyed sixteen months without a factura.

Since then, they've been coming in fast. Sometimes quite expensive ones as they adjust for the months consumed. Some of the facturas are for two months, others for one. I've been paying them as best I can.

Yesterday, a Sunday (!), the company sent me nine emails. They were all different bills, some for dates I had already paid, some repeated and some new.

They added up to a lot of money.

I went to the local office and the lady there says that some of them were repeats indeed, but four of them were good... and besides, there were another two of them waiting for me in her computer.

You can ask to pay them in parts she said helpfully...

I never got an apology or an acknowledgement - despite six visits so far to the regional office.

I can see myself changing to another electric supplier in the days to come.

Scams, Shams and Spams

2026-02-22T11:31:14

Come Thursdays, and my email fills with unwanted spam. Last week I got a couple from Norton Security sent from two different sites reminding me it’s time to pay their annual subscription (I have never in my life used Norton). The kosher version of this company functions precisely as a spam-buster. Their messages also say I ‘can unsubscribe’ by clicking on something or other; thank you, most kind, I think not.

Microsoft also reaches out, again twice, from two different and rather odd sounding addresses, neither of which appear on their proper webpage – no doubt an oversight on their part. Again, I block them (‘submit as Spam’), but they will return (probably next Thursday – I wonder, possibly this day has an extra significance in Albania?).

Then there was a special deal on a memory-foam pillow. I’m retired. I already have a fucking pillow.

I got a too-good-to-refuse offer on my ‘auto-insurance’, an Omaha Steak gourmet sampler box (no charge), a free mystery parcel from the American post office (!), a cure for Alzheimers from Bill Gates and a message which assures me that ‘my wife says I’ve never had sex like this’.

Again, I can unsubscribe, but well, maybe I should go and get married first.

This is all designed to catch out the unwary.

What I do, what we all do, is mark it as ‘Spam’ and then wait for the next one.

Whatever happened to those exiled Nigerian princes who would kindly offer you half of five million piastres if they could just borrow your bank account for a few days?

Also on Thursday last week – what a day it was! – a message arrived that very evening from my bank to tell me that it was going to pay on my behalf to another bank which I have never dealt with the unlikely sum of 1,982.44€ within the hour and could I ring this number if I wasn’t in agreement… No, I could not.

The next day, the lady at the bank told me that it hadn’t come from them. There’s a surprise.

I got several bothersome phone calls on Thursday as well. No one rings any more – they send you a WhatsApp instead. Now these calls, and I’ve blocked loads of them, come from Madrid or Valladolid or Lichtenstein and they want to sell me something. ‘Hola’, they say, ‘buenas tardes. Mi nombre es-’, but by then I’ve already hung up the phone.

All this, and I’m on the Lista Robinson (created precisely to stop these calls) and besides, the Government has just made these call-centres illegal. Maybe the word hasn’t got through yet.

These days, one is always doing something more rewarding than waiting for a phone call. In my case it was driving (try and get the phone out of your trouser pocket while wearing a seat-belt) or having a siesta and dreaming about how I was going to surprise my future wife.

A useful site called Maldita keeps an eye out on scams. I was reading about how somebody sends you a message on WhatsApp about an earthquake and how you should link to such and such a page which, says the item, will clear out your phone in under ten seconds!

On Facebook last… yes dammit, it was also on Thursday… a series of adverts appeared with the Spanish king trying to sell me a get-rich-quick scheme. Then one from the head of the Banco de Santander, then another with both of them. I wrote to the Facebook poohbahs and said it was a scam and they thanked me for my nice letter, but that the adverts were fine and dandy. Old Mark Chuckleburg must need the money.

I remember last summer there was another Fb scam, where you and nine others received a message about a car-crash and an ‘Oh The Horror! Click here for details’.

I checked with Google AI and got: ‘Spam bypasses filters because spammers constantly evolve tactics—using new domains, rotating IP addresses, and embedding text within images to evade detection. Filters cannot be perfectly restrictive without blocking legitimate emails, and sophisticated spam often masks itself as legitimate, personalized, or "important" content to bypass automated AI-based filters’.

It was almost a relief to hear from a poor French-woman today who was caught by one of those hugger-muggers (Eastern Europeans who wisely avoid stealing from Spaniards). She lost her thief-proof Cartier watch in a tris-tras which, the husband told me, he himself couldn’t have removed from her wrist in less than a minute.

And thus we continue, one eye on our purse, as the world turns.

What’s that? Trump’s dead? Click on this link.

The Blues en Castellano

2026-02-21T09:03:51

The blurb says: 'The truth doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it walks in quietly, barefoot, and sits in front of you when denial is no longer an option.

La Verdad Llegó Descalza is a romantic Spanish soul blues song about the lies that hurt not for what they say, but for how long we believe them. A story of clarity, self-respect, and emotional awakening carried by a deep, intimate blues groove'.

This one - on YouTube here - is part of a series of blues performed in Spanish. It's absolutely stunning.

There isn't much blues in Spanish, so this series is doubly welcome.

There's a catch though - it's created by Artificial Intelligence.

Breaking Wind

2026-02-14T11:51:24

Now I’m getting a little older, I have taken to walking each day. Severe walking. This means, according to those health experts that infest the Internet, that I must haul in my stomach, straighten my back, and walk, purposely, at least six or eight or ten thousand steps a day, according to whichever adviser catches me first.

I used to take the dog with me for my peregrinations, but I’ve noticed that, unlike me, he reckons that age is an excuse to stay home and chew on a book.

To measure my steps, I have an application on my mobile phone. Six or seven thousand yesterday, including the steps I took when I stupidly left the phone on the bed.

Another health expert tells me that I must walk along my route – happily, I live between the countryside and the beach – with a sense of awe as this will refresh my brain.

If you prefer to use a kayak for your exercise, then it would of course be a sense of oar.

And thus, I walk purposefully along the beach, winking gamely at the passersby, and sigh mightily each time I notice a seagull, a flowering sandwort or a naked woman going past on a pedalo.

The day before yesterday, I had to go to the Townhall to get a paper. This means in our fragrant dorp, parking at the back then walking up to the village itself: through, up and over and down the narrow streets on the other side. And then back. Steps mostly, and no cheating. Then (fortifying myself en route with a cold glass of beer), I drove down to the urbanisation on the beach where there’s currently no parking because the city fathers are building a parking-lot (enjoy the irony) to see a lawyer, who promptly sent me back up to the village again for another bit of paper.

And that day, wonder of wonders, I scored around 9,000 steps just chasing documents.

This made me think: what kind of numbers does a waiter do, or a barman – just with his daily toing and froing between the coffee machine and the icebox? Probably a hell of a lot more than nine thousand. Come to think of it, I once did 20,000 without leaving the stables.

It’s been windy though. Wind is not kind to those who travel on their own energy. I used to particularly hate cycling into the wind. It’s worse than rain or probably (although I wouldn’t swear to it) snow. The wind makes forward motion very stressful, and the sense of awe can go and hang itself.

On this occasion – last weekend – the wind was blowing strongly. With gusts, says my phone knowledgeably, of up to 75kph. I started out on my enjoyable power-walk, tummy in and gamely taking notice of my surroundings (including a plastic wheelie-bin that suddenly overtook me on the straight) and decided, as the rain started, that I should probably turn around and head back to the car. Lean forward with little tiny faltering steps.

Then, as I passed the supermarket, I had an idea: twice round and up and down the aisles would easily put me in the black.

As for the awe, I bought a chocolate bar.

...

The picture is of a windswept Indalo, the totem for our province.

How Spain Has Become an Influencer

2026-02-09T19:38:19

Spain has had some good media reports recently – if only from abroad. It started in December with Italy’s L’Espresso naming Sánchez the person of the year. The New Statesman followed with an enthusiastic write-up, and an article late last month at the FT said that ‘Spain leads the formerly weak southern EU economies that are now outpacing France and Germany’. The Spanish economy is doing well, there are plenty of tourists and the appreciation of Spain’s culture domestically, says the Government, is on the increase.

But let’s jump to where Spain’s brand of socialism is taking the country today.

The New York Times just last week ran an article written by Sánchez himself: ‘I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This is why the West needs migrants.’ Yes, one-sided you might say, after all, he wrote it to justify his policies; but look where it shows up!

His ‘guest essay’ appeared to diss President Trump: ‘…What should we do with these people? Some leaders have chosen to hunt them down and deport them through operations that are both unlawful and cruel. My government has chosen a different way: a fast and simple path to regularize their immigration status…’. Furthermore, he writes, the plan ‘…is endorsed by more than 900 nongovernmental organizations, including the Catholic Church, and it has the support of business associations and trade unions alike. More important, it is backed by the people’. The Guardian picks up on this with: ‘Yes, migrants are key to Spain’s economic boom. But Pedro Sánchez’s decision to regularise 500,000 people should rather be applauded for its humanity’.

Spain is getting used to bucking Western political trends. ‘Last year they recognized Palestine as a state, resisted President Trump’s demand that NATO members increase their defence spending to 5% of GDP and doubled down on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. But there can be no better example of Spain going its own way than with immigration’.

Or perhaps we could argue the merits of the new proposal to ban the use of social media for the under-sixteens. ‘First’, said Sánchez at the World Governments Summit in Dubai last week, ‘We will change the law in Spain to hold platform executives legally accountable for the many infringements taking place on their sites’.

Do Spaniards support restricting social media for children?

A Spanish poll a year ago asked whether children under 14 should be banned from using social media: 82% agreed. The current plan of course is for the under-16s.

The Spectator (that bastion of British Conservative thought) says ‘Spain’s PM is on the right side of this battle’.

The X and Telegram owners don’t like the idea – with Elon Musk calling Sánchez ‘a dirty tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain’ and Pavel Durov writing in a long screed on Telegram directly to his Spanish subscribers (including the under-sixteens), that ‘the measures announced by Sánchez are not safeguards, but rather steps toward total control to censor his critics, and that they must fight for their rights’.

On the strength of this, could other apps – maybe purely commercial ones – feel encouraged to send out to subscribers their political opinions?

Sánchez answered this on X with an apparent allusion to Don Quixote: "Let the techno-oligarchs bark, Sancho, it's a sign that we're riding forwards."

It’s certainly a special moment: where a foreign businessman can circumnavigate The State and appeal with propaganda aimed directly at his Spanish followers.

Internet access is starting at increasingly younger ages, and it's not just teenagers who are hyperconnected. 42% of children admit to having browsed the internet before the age of eight, and half of 15-year-olds spend at least thirty hours a week in front of a screen, according to an OECD report.

There will be problems: What age verification systems will be used? How will concerns about the privacy risks of providing proof of age be addressed? To what extent will adult access to social media be restricted to protect minors?

Beyond showing fluffy kittens and creating social bonding, we read that the threats from social media are many, and over half of all teens have experienced some form of cyberbullying, damage in self-esteem, sexual threats, misleading content, scams, risk-taking, challenges, hate-speech and dodgy advertising and claims.

And, for that matter, with less sleep and time left for other activities.

In all, Pedro Sánchez demonstrates that the obligation of a good government is to look out for and protect its people, not someone else’s billionaires.

The Bookshelf

2026-02-01T13:30:36

I was sorting through some old books of mine found in a few boxes in the attic and came across a handful I just knew the local English Library would kill to get their hands on. Treasures like ‘Fodor’s Amsterdam 1957’, 'Maigret's Second to Last Case' and a virgin copy of ‘Teach Yourself Swahili’.

At the bottom, hidden under the ‘Collected Works of Alistair MacLean’s Greatest Poems’, I found a peculiar scientific magazine about pets, or rather: ‘Anthrozoös – A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People, Animals and Nature’.

Where on earth did that come from?

The library was closed for the day, giving me a chance to dive into the mag, thirty years old this month. All a bit beyond me, although I found an article about cockfighting – a pastime apparently still legal in Jeréz de la Frontera.

Another book, and I’ll keep this one, has seventy-five front pages of Almería newspapers courtesy of the Almería Press Association.

One of the newspapers featured was mine: ‘The Entertainer’ (if you remember it).

I found another treasure: ‘Mi Mamá me Mima’ – a book about how Spanish women were treated during the Franco years (Spoiler: not good), with useful tips about cleaning the kitchen and so on.

In reality though, once I’ve dusted off all the classics, the dictionaries and the Latin primers, and put them lovingly either in the trash or aside for the Chief Librarian to worry about, I turn with more interest to the large remainder.

See, I’m more of a thriller reader.

Spy stories are good, plus bug-eyed monster books and the better detective yarns. By now, I've read over seven thousand of them I reckon (apart from War and Peace, which took a month, I can usually get through two or three books a week).

When we first moved to Spain, before the Age of Television, my dad shipped half a ton of novels to keep us (and a number of English-speaking neighbours) amused. It was hard finding shops that catered for the English reader back then. There was one shop in Granada which had a shelf of very old paperbacks – probably printed in the fifties – and a couple of second-hand places in far off Torremolinos on one side, and Benidorm on the other. So not much to be going on with unless you brought your own with you (or fancied a merry weekend in T-Town).

I was an unwilling student in England in those tender days of the second half of the sixties and was a keen reader (there wasn’t much else to do at my school). So, with a suitcase full of books, records and teabags, I would be welcomed three times a year by my parents (or one of their friends if there was a party going on) at the Almería airport.

My bookcase, or rather, my several bookcases, are full of treasures and as I get older and more forgetful, I discover, ruefully, that I can read them all over again.

As for an electric book, a Kindle (with a thousand books stored therein), I think it would look a bit silly and self-conscious leaning against the wall all by itself on an otherwise naked bookshelf.

I still prefer books to the soulless TV, which now – for a small consideration – brings you shows in your own language (one might never know that the neighbours are Spanish).

These days, I can’t afford new books in English (where available) and don’t approve of Amazon, so the second-hand or charity shops (we have at least eight within a ten-minute drive) keep me happy enough, four for a euro.

And then, there’s the library. They say they will accept books in good condition but are probably thinking of someone bringing in just two or three. They have a fine collection, it must be said, and I’m a keen member (also – it’s nice to talk with the volunteer librarians about books).

I brought them four boxes-worth last week.

I was wondering though: the English Library still doesn’t have a computer, using instead a card-filing system; but one day, in the far future, I suppose one could just download one’s reading matter via the Internet onto one’s trusty Kindle – leaving me and many like me with no one to talk to.

Regional Elections in Spain

2026-01-26T08:53:29

There are seventeen autonomous regions in Spain (plus the two autonomous cities of Melilla and Ceuta). Some of these regions are large: Andalucía comprises eight provinces, Castilla y León has nine, and others are small – such as Madrid, La Rioja, Murcia plus another four, which are all uni-provincial.

Each region has its own government and president.

Right now, we are in election mode in some of the autonomies (every four years unless called before). Extremadura with two provinces just had theirs in December – although the problem in the capital, Mérida, arises with the third party, Vox, insisting on various functions within the minority government of María Guadiola (PP) in exchange for their support.

The final outcome remains unclear – and Extremadura could soon be called to the polls again.

Aragón is controlled by the PP and is currently in campaign mode for February 8th. It looks like Jorge Azcón will be returned, but as above, will need the support of a revitalised Vox. The Vox candidate Alejando Nolasco is a little extreme, describing the regional PP as ‘pro Islam’, according to one of the local news-sites.

Meanwhile, the candidacy of a PSOE government minister, Pilar Alegría, probably won’t be of much help for the party’s chances. The far-left once again refuses to join together (a bit like the Life of Brian’s joke of the antipathy between the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front). Thus: IU and Sumar on the one hand, la Chunta Aragonesista on the other and Podemos bringing up the rear.

Aragón is three provinces, with its capital in Zaragoza.

The next up – for March 15th – is another PP stronghold, with Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (PP) holding the keys to Castilla y León. His problem might be the disastrous summer fires throughout the region, badly mismanaged by Mañueco and his team. Nevertheless, he will likely win say the experts (with the support or otherwise of Vox). The capital of this, the largest region of Spain with nine provinces (although the three western provinces of León, Salamanca and Zamora all want to leave) is Valladolid.

Finally, we come to Andalucía – yet again held by the PP. The president is Juanma Moreno and is seen as one of the two leading candidates (along with Madrid’s Ayuso) to take over the party nationally when Feijóo throws in the towel. The PSOE candidate is the heavyweight María Jesus Montero, the current Minister for Hacienda and vice-president of Spain. The date is sometime in June.

There could be the chance of an early surprise general election on the same day as the Andalusian ballot – depending on events and Pedro Sánchez.

In all these regions – as indeed elsewhere – the key to the throne-room appears to be in the hands of Santiago Abascal’s Vox party. In an uncomfortable alliance with the PP (which must make allowances and exceptions), Spain is approaching a difficult time.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

2026-01-18T20:41:17

I’m not sure if they did table-service back then, I’ll have to ask Haro’s son Paco when I see him. ‘Let’s see, two gin and tonics, three wines, a beer and a Fanta Orange’ (the last one being for me). I'm pretty sure you had to walk up to the bar and place your order.

In those days, back in the late sixties, there wasn’t much else to do for my parents and their friends beyond gossip and drink while seated around the rickety tables of the Hotel Indalo in the square. There was no TV, no newspapers and few interruptions beyond…

‘Napia, gimme a duro’, said a dishevelled local fellow called Antonio: the price of a brandy.

My dad would hand over the five peseta coin and Antonio would totter into the bar for his reward.

Oddly, the word Napia (my family name is Napier) would raise chuckles among the local folk. Everybody had a nickname (important when there are seventeen people called Paco working in the town hall) and napia means in Spanish a beak, a hooter, a conk, a schnozz – in short, a large nose. This happened to be a feature of my father’s appearance, along with being very tall, red-headed, and covered with so many freckles that they always looked like they might one day decide to join together.

He was also known as El Langostino.

My parents had already decided to leave the UK and move to somewhere odd, when a family friend suggested Mojácar: a falling-down white village in the forgotten province of Almería with a view of the sea and just the one cheap hotel (60 pesetas a night). They arrived in the summer of 1966, just a few months after the bombs fell from the stricken USAF B-52 over the nearby village of Palomares.

I was at boarding school and didn’t make it over to Spain until the following year.

A couple of the people regularly gathered around the tables on the terrace were something to do with the Americans – one of them was rumoured to be in the CIA and another had worked ‘for Uncle Sam’ installing a desalination plant over the site of one of the fallen bombs as a sop towards an outraged Franco (it was quickly dismantled after the Americans left and sold for scrap). The engineer deciding to stay and open the village’s first beach bar.

There were a couple of London wide-boys, a few artists, some gays, an Olympic skier gone to seed, a dance instructress who had been in the French resistance, a Danish fellow with a handlebar moustache who spoke better English than Terry Thomas (who he strongly resembled), an air-vice marshal with a plummy accent, an American draft-dodger (Vietnam), two or three piednoirs (Franco didn’t allow work-permits, but French Algerians were excepted), and a revolving number of others who came and went as circumstances allowed.

If they all enjoyed a few jars, the odd libation, a nip or two, a gargle and a swally, the only sober one at these sessions would be me. I was thirteen when I first came to Mojácar, and I maybe smoked a bit – but I had no interest in booze, and the one time I tried I was sick all over my father.

Smoking though. Everybody smoked. It was so cheap back then – a packet cost between five and twelve pesetas (three to seven cents of a euro) with the only problem being that this was black tobacco, grown I think in Extremadura. Far rougher than Virginia.

Not an issue of course – everyone in those times smoked Ducados or Celtas.

Even Antonio, the moocher.

The hotelier’s son, about my age, grew up as one does and wrote a book a few years ago. It was a homage to those early foreigners who had stayed either in the hotel or slept in the foyer. He kindly called his tome: The Made Mojaqueros.

Who's Side is he on Anyway?

2026-01-13T11:58:29

No matter what is going on in Spain or around the world, it’s hard to not turn and look over one’s shoulder a couple of times each and every day at the terrifying antics of America’s leaders: Trump and his motley crew of whack-jobs.

Few of us here in Europe will identify themselves with his supporters. The left and centre certainly don’t, and Marine Le Pen, the French fascist leader, says she thinks he’s crazy. But of course, here in Spain we have Feijóo and Abascal, who appear to like anything that the Government doesn’t, and look for approval and support from wherever they can find it.

Venezuela has long been a topic for the right-wing in Spain. How not to run a country and so on – a short step for identifying the current Government here with the ghastly mess that comes from that unfortunate Latin American state, now under the firm control of the USA.

I think it started with the story – invented by the Spanish so-called ‘Patriotic Police’ – of how Podemos was financed by Caracas: a most successful smear which pretty much did for the party.

‘Right-wing Spanish politicians often bring up Venezuela to criticize the left for a mix of political strategy, symbolic comparison, and historical context. Indeed, analysts describe Venezuela as a sort of handy excuse for the Spanish right to attack any appropriate position on the left’ says Google.

Unfortunately – Trump decided, following his extraction of Nicolás Maduro – to leave the Chavista government in place rather than turning things over to the opposition (and the Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado). Who cares – he just wants the oil as he himself says. It also appears, to the dismay of Spanish conservatives, that Maduro’s membership of the fabled Cartel de los Soles was purely an American invention.

The PP and Vox, their noses rather out of joint, must now (with the rest of us) contemplate further possible Trumpian attacks on Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and Greenland. Hell, maybe Canada too: most of this malarkey, mind, devised in the last ten days as The Donald apparently goes rogue.

He’s only got until the mid-term elections next November (plus his ailing health) to lock everything into place.

All of this would mean the irreparable break-down of Nato.

Then there’s Iran – which come to think of it probably deserves a little tender American lovin’.

Back in Small Town USA, the same people who claim the woman killed in Minneapolis was a domestic terrorist are telling us that the people who stormed the Capitol are heroes. In fact, a Trumper friend writes and compares the killing to the shooting of a woman involved in the January 6th 2021 mob attack on the Capitol in Washington, following the Dear Leader’s complaint that the results of the 2020 election were rigged.

And thus we ‘live in interesting times’; and wonder guiltily how our children and grandchildren are going to manage in the next years and decades.

I think on balance, we oldies had it pretty good.

...

PS, I couldn't bring myself to capitalise the word 'he' in the title - it's bad enough that he thinks he's a king...

Rain and Shine

2026-01-06T12:43:27

It’s been raining a lot recently. I am sure that the ground could do with a good soaking, and the wild-flowers later this month and next will no doubt be spectacular. But for those of us who live under a flat roof (as most of us do in Almería) the first thing after the pitter-patter coming from sound above our heads (unless it’s the cat) is to put out a few buckets in the living room, move the bed a bit to the right and tie a knot in our handkerchief to remember to see about fixing the leaks once the sun returns.

Or, failing that, before next winter anyway.

We never think much about rain down here in the south, although flooding both on the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca can be mortal (229 people died in the Dana in October 2024 in Valencia). Sometimes houses near where I live get inundated, especially in those areas which are listed both as flood-planes and urbanisable by whoever makes these calls.

My friend Chicho would tell a story of how he was sitting under an umbrella in his lounge watching water dribble through a crack in the window one wet afternoon when the local lagoon breached and a tide of water smashed through the glass and drenched the poor guy.

In most of Spain, a river is a river, or at least a stream. It will fill up when the rains come, maybe overflow and cause damage to the roads and nearby houses; but here in the dry south we don’t have rivers – we have ramblas, which are in effect, huge drains waiting for their moment of glory.

Along comes Storm Francis: Frank to his friends. The various costas are duly flooded and the journalists are to be found, standing in their wellies and speaking into the cameras. It’s the usual television cliché, like when they show snowballers after a good arctic storm.

Right now, I’m home safe, dry and warm. I have a couple of large tins of pork in a German sauce, courtesy of Aldi and my own planning ahead, a bottle of gin and some tea. I’ll be fine. I’m also isolated, surrounded by a lake as our dry river has filled and overflowed into my grateful orchard. The thing about the river-beds is that they can suddenly fill with water as a wave comes from up-stream. It’s not here that the rain needs to be watched, so much us up there. A decent wadi can fill in no time at all.

It will be a couple of days before I can get out and go shopping.

Actually, having written that, I see that I panicked needlessly, and the road is still there.

So: lessons. First of all, build your dream home on a small hill. It’s good for your tubes.

Second, if you are going to have a flat roof (and our local ordinance insists that you must), then make sure it’s leakproof.

Thirdly, buy a couple of those German emergency K-rations – mine are good until 2028.

If Today is Saturday, This Must be Venezuela

2026-01-03T18:29:40

A remarkable story on Saturday, as Donald Trump’s soldiers attacked several Venezuelan military bases while his Special Forces (in a breathtakingly professional operation) managed to bag the president of that country and his wife Cilia to take them to some location in the USA – later revealed as a detention centre in up-state New York. The Pentagon said that Maduro will be judged for criminal offences and that the attacks on the country would cease.

Give them their due – it was a slick operation.

The whole enterprise was a bit similar to Putin’s 2022 attack on Ukraine, the buildup of forces on the frontier and so on, but evidently turned out to be rather more successful. Will China feel that it’s their turn now with Taiwan? We shall see.

My son, who lives in the Midwest, can now expect cheaper petrol at the gas-station, and will thereby appreciate that at least one of the Presidential promises has been fulfilled.

Aljazeera has ‘Maduro joins Iraq’s Saddam, Panama’s Noriega as latest leader taken by US’. Reuters posted: The Russian Foreign Ministry called the U.S. strike on Venezuela "deeply concerning and condemnable", and from Argentina’s President Milei, "Freedom moves forward, hooray for freedom Goddammit’.

Spain’s reaction to this remarkable coup understandably varied from left to right. President Sánchez calls for a de-escalation – he says: “Both International law and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations must be respected”. Pedro Sánchez, in line with the EU, avoided expressly condemning the US operation, while Sumar denounced the attacks against Venezuela as “imperialist aggression. Alberto Núñez Feijóo meanwhile was insisting on a quick transition led by Edmundo González (the doddery old fellow who lives in exile in Madrid).

Feijóo and the Partido Popular were quick to congratulate themselves on Maduro's kidnapping, assuming it signalled the beginning of Machado's return to Venezuela, as well as Edmundo González's. They must have been livid when they saw Trump constantly referring to oil as one of his priorities.

The ex-Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias didn't mince his words after the attacks in Venezuela: "They're bombing to steal their oil and impose a puppet government."

Gabriel Rufián (ERC spokesperson) says "Bombing another country is not war, it's aggression, and detaining the President of that country is not an arrest, it's a kidnapping."

We read at El Mundo that Maduro will be tried for ‘narcoterrorism and possessing destructive arms against the USA’. (We are reminded that the ex-president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández was recently pardoned by Trump after being jailed for the export of 400 tons of cocaine to America).

The American vice-president JD Vance tweeted: “The president offered multiple off-ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says."

Although Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to emphasize that the attack and extraction of Maduro and Flores were a law enforcement mission, Trump made it clear the goal was regime change in order to gain control of Venezuela’s oil. The administration acted unilaterally, without consulting Congress, and in apparent violation of international law.

Around 600,000 Venezuelans live in Spain, many in the smartest barrios in Madrid. No doubt, those wealthy expatriates having managed to get their money out of Caracas and safely invested in real-estate, they would be pleased by the events. Indeed, we see on the TV that a large Venezuelan celebration was held in Madrid on Saturday afternoon ‘supported by both the PP and Vox’. "I thought the Americans would solve this in a day at most, but if it's true that they captured Maduro in just three hours... that's a whole different ballgame", said one celebrant.

…

‘An assault not seen since World War II’ said Donald Trump in a live speech on Saturday afternoon (Spanish time) in a babbling monologue as he veered off-topic more than once to discuss things like the National Guard presence in various US cities. Perhaps you saw it.

“They took our oil infrastructure. We never had a president who did anything about it”, he said, with a nudge against the former president.

“We are going to run the country until the arrival of a proper turnover of power”, he said.

“The oil business – we’re going to have our large American companies fix the infrastructure, and we are ready for a second, much larger attack if necessary”. Mario Rubio standing beside him looked faintly embarrassed.

“National security, just like tariffs – make our country rich” said The Donald.

“A year ago, we were a dead country, no longer”, said Trump, unerringly alienating half of the American population once again.

Following his speech, we heard from his senior advisers.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio: ‘Don’t play games with this president, because it won’t turn out well’.

‘We showed Guts, grit, gallantry and glory’, said Defence Secretary Hegseth in an alliterative moment.

‘A rather extraordinary press briefing’ said the BBC journalist following the event.

The Guardian covered the Mar-a-Lago speeches here.

…

The opposition leader (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Maria Corina Machado speaking from an undisclosed site (probably in Miami): “The time of freedom has arrived, and we are ready to take power”. However, 20Minutos reports that Trump has ruled out María Corina Machado to lead Venezuela: "She doesn't have the internal support or the respect of the country", says Trump. Instead, the President has chosen a hostile (Maduro’s vice-president) Delcy Rodríguez to take over.

The pundit Chris Hedges writes: ‘The kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife solidifies America’s role as a gangster state. Violence does not generate peace. It generates violence. The immolation of international and humanitarian law, as the U.S. and Israel have done in Gaza, and as took place in Caracas, generates a world without laws, a world of failed states, warlords, rouge imperial powers and perpetual violence and chaos…’

Hedges returned to his attack on Monday: '...Trump governs by imperial decree through Executive Orders. The media, owned by corporations and oligarchs, from Jeff Bezos to Larry Ellison, is an echo chamber for the crimes of state, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, attacks on Iran, Yemen and Venezula, and the pillage by the billionaire class. Our money-saturated elections are a burlesque. The diplomatic corps, tasked with negotiating treaties and agreements, preventing war and building alliances, has been dismantled'.

From The Other 98%, we read: ‘Let’s strip away the euphemisms: this is invasion, not enforcement. There was no imminent threat to American soil that justified the use of force under international law. Venezuela sits on some of the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and its economic and geopolitical position has long made it a target of U.S. political and economic pressure’.

The surgical strike that caught Maduro on Saturday morning was - it turns out - not entirely bloodless with members of the palace guard being (as the Israelis like to say) neutralised. Around eighty died here and there, including some Cuban soldiers.

Later: A few other reactions. The Venezuelan Attorney General condemned the "cowardly imperial attack" against civilians in Venezuela. He also demanded the release of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

Brazil's president denounces the "unacceptable" US attack and the capture of Maduro. Lula da Silva warns that it paves the way for a world where "the law of the strongest" prevails.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Saturday said China is deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the U.S. blatant use of force against a sovereign state and action against its president.

The far-right French politician Marine Le Pen criticizes US attack on Venezuela.

The parody site El Mundo Today says Europe is losing patience with the United States and is seriously threatening to issue a statement. “It will be partly in capital letters,” thundered Von der Leyen.

Finally, Trump issues a stark warning to Colombia's Gustavo Petro: he asserts that Petro will be the next US target after Maduro.

New Year Revolutions

2025-12-31T10:16:07

Gracious me, I’ve been posting articles here at Eye on Spain more or less weekly since October 2020: most of which come from editorials and content for a news bulletin I send out to subscribers called Business over Tapas since January 2013. Some of them political, others useful, and then there were a few comic ones too.

Right now, it’s a fresh new year and hopefully our friends Bibi, Donnie and Vlad (and various others, needless to say) will make appropriate resolutions to reign in their evident enthusiasm for death and destruction.

Here in Spain, we see that none of our political parties are doing particularly well, with scandals emerging from the woodwork: normal I suppose when one is in the public eye for a spell.

I think Feijóo will be the first to go, but we shall see.

I was in Granada over Christmas, staying with the in-laws. On the Thursday, Christmas Day, a group of fourteen of us from three generations found ourselves enjoying a noisy lunch in a gigantic hanger of a restaurant located in the suburbs and filled with families. Me and the Spanish granddad, both of us stone deaf, smiling and winking gamely at each other over the fish as the rest of the comensales helped to contribute to the ambient cacophony.

Granada remains my favourite city, and I am glad that one of my American granddaughters will be moving there to study from this Easter. This will give me the perfect excuse to drive up the motorway now and again to visit.

New Year’s Eve in a noisy affair here on the coast, with fireworks, the regular explosion of champagne corks and an occasional screech as someone is pushed fully dressed into the pool.

The best place for me to be on these merry occasions is safely in bed with a good book.

My best wishes to all this New Year.

Antifa Antidote

2025-12-20T14:17:59

From CBS News: What is Antifa? ‘In the USA, the right-wing media blames antifa members for rioting and looting. Democrats have also condemned such violence, but many on the left say the rhetoric about antifa (i.e., anti-fascist) is greatly exaggerated, and that it's less of an organized movement than just something of "an idea."

Swiss Info says: ‘Antifa, designated by US President Donald Trump as a "domestic terrorist organization," is a diffuse "anti-fascist" movement of left-wing activists that experts say is more of a political ideology than an organized group…’ We read: ‘Antifa, from the word anti-fascism, was already in use in Germany in the early 1930s, where "anti-fa" socialist groups tried to oppose the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazis…’

For some reason, perhaps to escape the obvious point that our fathers and grandfathers fought, precisely, against fascism in the 1940s, the American right pronounces it ‘antee-fuh’ rather than ‘anti-fah’!

But much of what politicians say about antifa isn't quite true. Here's what antifa is and what it isn't.

Antifa is not a highly organized movement, nor is it merely an idea. Antifa is a loose affiliation of local activists scattered across the United States and a few other countries.

‘In general, people who identify as antifa are known not for what they support, but what they oppose: Fascism, nationalism, far-right ideologies, white supremacy, authoritarianism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia…’

Flag shaggers, antifeminists and fake-news merchants.

Some of us don’t like cockroaches either.

Here in Spain (where no one had ever heard of it until now) La Razón recently ran a piece titled ‘Antifa: the masked figures who want to stifle public debate. The United States is pushing to outlaw them, Spain to welcome them’.

Apparently, if you believe La Razón, which you most certainly shouldn’t, the country is swarming with them. The Spanish ABC posted in October: ‘Trump orders foreign anti-fascists to be designated as terrorist groups. A Trump advisor tells him to look at who belongs to these groups in Spain’.

No one - is the short answer to that, because it’s an opinion rather than an entity.

Nevertheless, because it’s worth a shot, the Trump-admirer Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, has recently called for antifa to be declared as a terrorist organisation in Spain: the proposal to be debated in the National Parliament in February.

Perhaps, on sober reflection, what we really need to do is to ban the anti-antifa program.

And so we come to 'Polarisation'.

According to Google AI, ‘Political polarization is the growing ideological gap where political groups and individuals move away from moderate views towards extreme ends of the spectrum, creating deep divisions, increased hostility, and difficulty finding common ground…’ 20Minutos says ‘The scar of polarization: five million Spanish people have broken with family or friends due to political motives’. Their recent questionnaire asks if it’s happened to you. And then along comes Campofrío (the ham people) with their Christmas advert: Let’s get together and bury our differences (video)…

(I think they could have maybe dropped Ana Rosa Quintana from the advert).

I suppose - as Vox appears to be gaining support - my main worry is this:

Is Ol’ Santi planning a Spanish version of ICE (the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) where lump-heads get to wear combat gear and a mask as they round up anyone who looks like he didn’t come over in the Mayflower; maybe make it a more Spanish version, something like Franco himself would have approved of?

He'll need the approval of whoever will be running the PP when Spain next goes to the polls.