Business over Tapas Nº 583

A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners:

Prepared by Lenox Napier.  Consultant: José Antonio Sierra

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Business over Tapas - Editorial:

I suppose it comes down to this – the country is doing well with Pedro Sánchez. Employment is the highest it has ever been, Spain’s GDP is growing and most observers from abroad put Spain squarely in the forefront. ‘Spain leads Europe with strong growth and connectivity’, ‘Spain leads Europe in outlook for travel experiences’, and tellingly, ‘Why is Spain's economy booming? Thanks to migration’ they are saying approvingly. 

But the Opposition wants in. Resign, they cry at every opportunity. The subtext being – let us have a go.

There’s more than one argument against letting the Partido Popular take the helm – the first being that they’d need to partner with Vox to obtain a majority, and no, we wouldn’t like that; and secondly – the last time they were in power, their government fell when they lost a motion of confidence for corruption. Quite a few of them still remain in national politics today.

It doesn’t sound good. The Courts and much of the Media might be with them, but we still didn’t know who the mysterious ‘M. Rajoy’ was: one of the many people who accepted sundry payments in ‘black’ from the party treasurer Luis Bárcenas, although the then Interior Minister (the one who came up with the anti-Podemos conspiracies and is also remembered for awarding Nuestra Señora María Santísima del Amor, a plaster virgin located in a church in Málaga, with a gold medal) admitted in March this year that ‘M.Rajoy’ was (Oh the surprise!) Hizzhonor Mariano Rajoy no less.

But that’s all water under the bridge.

Apart from cutting taxes (and thus cutting services), what are the politics of the right? Could they make Spain more successful and wealthier than anything Pedro Sánchez can do? In Spain under the PSOE and its allies, we have seen rises in the minimum wage, rises in pensions, improved social justice and women’s rights, more jobs and better labour practices – and when the Opposition (along with Junts per Catalunya) hopefully drop their resistance – a reduction in the working week. 

The money that goes to (or is earned by) the wealthy (the supposed supporters of the Right) might end up in a savings or investment account, or perhaps offshore. Or hey, maybe another supermarket (to improve their profits). It’s rare to see the wealthy commit the faux pas of philanthropy, but of course it happens now and again, and most welcome too.

On the other hand, the money that goes to the less better-off will immediately be returned to the economy, finding its eventual way to the owners of the leading supermarkets, banks, warehouses, importers, insurance companies and so on in what might almost be known as the ‘trickle-up effect’.

We wonder – why do the conservative parties do so well with those poorer voters who will clearly reap none of their benefits?

I think a lot of it is down to marketing, lies and manipulation.

José María Aznar – often thought of as Spain’s worst modern president (remember the weapons of destruction in Irak?) – says ‘He that can do something to pull down this government, let him do it (El que pueda hacer, que haga)’.

Many are giving it their best shot. 

‘Judge Marchena joins the antagonistic movement against the government. The list of judges openly critical of the government grows as the impartiality of the courts is called into question’ says one editorial.

‘Is Sánchez's Spain a mess? This is how the right constructs the false narrative that only they know how to govern’, we read in another pro-Government paper.

A third one says, ‘The government sees a "clear campaign of siege" against Sánchez from a conservative opposition that believes power belongs to it by right’. Or maybe, divine right.

Then there’s the complicit media – which provides the news (from the top) that one expects and hopes to read. Journalist Ester Palomera writes ‘Manipulators and liars have always existed, but what is worrying today about the existence of unrestrained professional agitators and mis-informers is that they have the support of the PP’.

Furthermore, there is the far-right Manos Limpias with its fake news and press cuttings which has brought about the fruitless year-long siege by Judge Peinado against the wife of Pedro Sánchez, with the apparent aim of attempting to weaken the President’s popularity.

A useful way to check unlikely stories is to go to the fact-checkers Maldita or Newtral (they both have a reputation to maintain, so they don’t publish whoppers).

Far-right news sources include La Razón, OKDiario, El Mundo, El Español, El Debate, ABC and many others, usualy subsidised with ‘institutional advertising’. The ‘progressive’ media (El País, El Huff Post, elDiario.es and so on) also has a large number of titles. On the TV, the pro-Government news is on RTVE and, to a lesser degree, LaSexta, while all the others are conservative (Cuatro, Telecinco, TeleMadrid and Canal Sur).  Beyond these are even wilder channels like EDATV and the  Church’s Canal Trece (lots of cowboy films, prayers and far-right news). Plus any number of YouTube specials...

Congress is fighting back at some of the worst of the extreme youtubers by ‘targeting far-right media agitators accredited to Parliament. The PSOE and its investiture partners propose avoiding violence and disrespect from pseudo-media outlets in the chamber. The Partido Popular has not revealed how it intends to vote, and Vox flatly rejects the reform of the rules’. We read that ‘Incidents of hate, insults, and disrespect have become a decorative element within the Congress of Deputies’. Perhaps more encouraging is a notice that ‘The Supreme Court denounces the attempt to "criminalize the political system" with "unusual and absurd" lawsuits’.

There’s an old song from The Doors with the line ‘they’ve got the guns, but we’ve got the numbers’.

It’s getting tight though...

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Housing:

From Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight here, ‘Foreign demand for property in Spain hits new high in early 2025’. We read ‘According to the latest data from the Spanish Land Registrars, there were 21,525 home sales involving foreign buyers between January and March, the highest Q1 figure on record. That’s more than in the post-Covid boom years of 2022 and 2023, but this time there’s no lockdown overhang or other distortion—just strong, organic international appetite for Spanish homes...’ The leaders were the British, followed by the Germans, the Dutch and the French.

More modestly, ‘The war in Ukraine and rising living standards are driving home purchases by Poles in Spain: "They want to feel safe"’, says 20Minutos here.

In another piece from SPI here, we read that house-prices are soaring, particularly in resort towns. Thus, ‘The strongest annual price growth was recorded in Vélez-Málaga (+17.6%), followed closely by Marbella (+15.9%), Benidorm (+15.8%), and Vigo in Galicia (+14.1%). These are not the usual suspects from Madrid or Barcelona, but regional hotspots with solid demand from both domestic and international buyers — especially those in search of second homes or investment properties’.

What you can and cannot do as a non-resident in Spain with The Local here.

RTVE has a video on the latest housing trend – buying a single room within an apartment and thus becoming a co-owner, sharing the kitchen and the bathroom.

Maria at Eye on Spain has two articles of interest:

‘Spain Orders Airbnb to Remove 65,000 Listings’.

‘Mandatory Registration for Short-Term Rentals in Spain. Starting July 1, 2025, it will be a legal requirement to register properties used for short-term rentals, such as those listed on platforms like Airbnb, Booking, or Vrbo. The registration process must be completed through the Digital Single Window for Rentals, which is managed by the College of Registrars...’

elDiario.es shows the 400,000 tourist apartments currently operating in Spain, on a map, street by street.

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Tourism:

Cool your jets says The Guardian here: ‘Britons will not be able to use e-gates in the EU until October at the earliest. The deal will not come into effect until the autumn and will be phased in over six months’.

From Idealista here: ‘Spain welcomes over seventeen million foreign tourists in Q1 for the first time. Foreign tourist numbers in Spain rose 5.7% in Q1, with spending hitting a record €23,500 million – up 7.2%, according to the INE’.

Some of the domestic English-language newspapers, plus the usual suspects from the UK, are warning about the ‘Go Home Tourist’ campaigns being prepared for the season. Here’s one from The Daily Mail via 20Minutos: ‘"Holidays in hell": The Daily Mail says British travellers in the Canary Islands are wary of leaving their hotels due to anti-tourism protests’. The Olive Press has ‘Historic’ anti-tourism marches see hundreds of thousands protest across Spain’. The Spanish Eye has ‘The 10 top reasons why locals in Spain are protesting against overtourism’ here.

All these stories point to the Canary Islands… (where things are evidently at a pretty pass).

All in all, we foreign residents will have to wear a special hat so that Spaniards know we are on their side. Maybe a bullfighter’s montera, so we can blend in seamlessly.

The Guardian has: ‘Thinking of a trip to Barcelona this summer? Beware – here’s what you’ll find. From locals priced out of homes to visitors shopping at global chains, all of us are cheated in a city hollowed out by tourism’.

‘Almería, the disconnected paradise: trailing behind in Andalusian tourism due to lack of communications with the rest of Spain. Despite its natural wealth, the province is experiencing a historic decline in tourism, hampered by its poor rail and air transport’ says the ABC here (Thanks Charles).

…...

Finance:

From El Plural here: ‘The European Commission revised Spain's macroeconomic forecasts for 2025 upwards on Monday. Brussels continues to believe that Spain will be the largest economy to perform best this year and has raised its GDP growth forecast by three-tenths of a percentage point, to 2.6%. This estimate, which coincides with that made by the Spanish government, also establishes that growth will remain at 2% throughout 2026, which would represent six consecutive years of growth at or above two percentage points...’

El Economista enthuses here: ‘The Spanish economy is experiencing a boom. No one can guarantee that this cycle will continue much longer, nor that the extensive growth behind these brilliant figures will substantially improve the lives of Spaniards, but the truth is that the stark macro data are almost outstanding. GDP growth in 2024 and the positive forecasts for this year have led the International Monetary Fund to once again rank Spain among the world's twelve largest economies by GDP, after several years occupying fifteenth place. The sharp increase in population and the labour force, the tourism boom, European funds, and the small recovery in productivity in 2024 are behind this leap, which will materialize in 2025, a year in which growth will remain robust...’.

El Blog Salmón leads with ‘Spain is really doing well, also in its GDP per capita’. We read: ‘For years, the economic narrative surrounding Spain has been marked by figures placing it below the European average in per capita income. However, the most recent data point to a structural recovery that goes beyond aggregate GDP growth.

According to data from Eurostat, by 2024, Spain had reached 92% of the European Union's average GDP per capita, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This figure confirms the trend initiated after the pandemic – consolidating Spain’s position as one of the economies that has most narrowed the gap with core Europe over the last five years...’

…...

Politics:

From La Moncloa (the Presidential Palace), in English, here: ‘An Institutional declaration by the President of the Government of Spain on the recognition of the State of Palestine’. In related news, on Tuesday the Government voted to stop arm-sales to Israel, with the PP and Vox voting against.

The Government is now in favour with the extraordinary regularization of hundreds of thousands of immigrants says El País here.

The Partido Popular has brought forward by a year to early July its Madrid congress to ‘…have in-depth discussions, review ideas, build proposals, express our opinions, and decide what we'll do. We're going to get involved, because those who truly want to govern don't run away or hide like Sánchez, said Núñez Feijóo on Monday’. El Mundo reporting here with the headline: ‘Feijóo sets no limits on the reset of the PP's ideas while the right-wing of the party demands "more Ayuso"’. El Plural has another take: Where the plan, Núñez Feijóo? The unexpected convening of the PP congress has a mysterious aspect because no one really knows why Feijóo took such an initiative. His unfortunate declaration was "We're going to move from the Pope's conclave to the PP's conclave". Unless he’s talking about following Pope Francisco’s example of leaving this world for a better one…

The Government is pushing through legislation to remove pseudo-journalists – known to all as far-right agitators – from the press conferences held inside Congress. LaSexta has a look at these provocateurs here, which include troublemakers like Bertrand Ndongo, Vito Quiles, Josué Cárdenas and Adrián de Oliveira. An example of their activities here. ERC spokesman Gabriel Rufián eloquently speaks of this problem on YouTube here.

……

Gibraltar 

From Andalucía Today here: The landmark agreement between the UK and the EU signed earlier this week ‘…notably omits any progress on Gibraltar, which remains without a formal post-Brexit framework’.

…...

Europe:

From The Guardian here. ‘EU reset deal puts Britain back on the world stage, says Keir Starmer. UK prime minister heralds a ‘win-win’ but faces criticism for concessions on fishing rights.

Keir Starmer has vowed his EU reset deal will deliver cheaper food and energy for British people, heralding a “win-win” as he sealed the high-stakes agreement with concessions on youth visas and fishing.

“Britain is back on the world stage,” the prime minister said after shaking hands on the deal with the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen in London. “It gives us unprecedented access to the EU market, the best of any country … all while sticking to the red lines in our manifesto”’.

From elDiario.es here: ‘The European People's Party and the Far Right block the EU's agency for limiting “Revolving Doors” (that’s to say – leaving politics for a seat on the board of a company in the private sector). Eight European institutions reached an agreement a year ago to create an agency that would establish minimum ethical standards regarding gifts or trips received, awards, or meetings with lobbyists’.

…...

Health:

From Sur in English here: ‘Spanish government to introduce healthy meals in hospitals, care and nursing homes. As it has already done in schools, it will set minimum intakes of fruit, vegetables and fish and ban processed, pre-cooked and fried foods’.

…...

Corruption:

Another dreary attack against Podemos from the previous Government. From elDiario.es here: ‘The secret police fabrication against Podemos: Miguel Urbán and 40 kilos of cocaine at the Nueva Visión pub in Malasaña (Madrid). During the PP government, the State Security leadership resorted to a crazy plot that lasted for six frantic months and aimed to fabricate alleged illegal financing of Podemos to prevent the party from taking power in the 2016 elections’.

…...

Courts:

‘The stepson of the mayoress of Marbella laundered seven million euros in drugs, according to police. The Prosecutor's Office is seeking 18 years in prison and a €30 million fine for Joakim Peter Broberg, the son of Ángeles Muñoz's late husband, who allegedly assisted his son in his illicit activities’. The headline at Público here.

‘A judge ordered the removal of the giant Hazte Oír banner against Sánchez, considering it an "excessive" exercise of freedom of expression’. The banner was displayed in front of Congress of Deputies with a manipulated image of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, accompanied by the word 'Corrupt' in large letters’. More at 20Minutos here. The Madrid City Council Fire Department were tasked with the removal of the sign. The ‘ultra-Catholic and über-Conservative’ Hazte Oir (Wiki) often uses eye-catching material and they hire buses with anti-Government paint-jobs to drive around or park in prominent places to rile up the voters.

…...

Media:

‘Judge Peinado, until when will you cease abusing the judicial function?’ – Público asks in  an editorial, saying that the judge is doing his bit to wear down the Prime Minister (no doubt following the Aznarian ‘He who can do something, do something!’).

Opinion from El Periódico here: ‘You're 24 years old, and perhaps you're one of those 17.3% of young Spaniards who, according to the CIS (National Statistics Institute), would prefer an authoritarian government "in certain circumstances". You're a minority, but you're growing in number. Especially boys. Don’t worry, I can understand this. You're convinced that everything is going wrong, that all politicians are the same: thieves and inept. You've heard this discourse for as long as you can remember. Before, it was a whisper; now it reaches you in shouts. Or in memes... Or through Vox.

Authoritarianism? Authoritarian is the going thing these days, you think. All those absurd prohibitions! From the little plastic cap attached to the bottle to that feminism that scares you a little. They say you have to be careful with girls, that they can cause trouble with you over consent, that there are many false accusations out there... they say, they say, they say...’

The Sunday editorial in elDiario.es concerns the latest UK anti-immigrant efforts from Keir Starmer (no doubt to stop the electorate’s move to the Nigel Farage Reform party) and says: ‘...and will require spouses of immigrants already living in the country to demonstrate a high level of English proficiency in family reunification cases. Here of course, no one considers requiring knowledge of Spanish from the British people living in our country, because they know they don't have it and won't learn it’. Arrggh. Shot through the heart!

Almudena Ariza, RTVE's correspondent in Jerusalem, highlights the difficulties she and her colleages must face daily in their reporting. "They insult us, they try to boycott us, they've pushed and jostled us...". Spanish TV covers the destruction in Gaza daily – perhaps rather more than other country’s news services? 

…...

Ecology:

From The Guardian here: ‘Top winemaker may have to leave its Spanish vineyards due to climate crisis. Familia Torres has been making wine in Catalonia since 1870, but says it may have to move to higher altitudes in 30 years’ time’.

…...

Various:

From the fact-checker Newtral here: ‘Disinformation about Franco 50 years after his death: the social achievements attributed to the dictator’. A lot of young folk are turning to the right, inspired, erroneously, by El Caudillo and his post-war activities.

From Reuters here: ‘An abrupt loss of power generation at a substation in Granada, followed by failures seconds later in Badajoz and Seville, triggered an unprecedented blackout across Spain and Portugal on April 28, Spain's energy minister said on Wednesday. The Minister for Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen told lawmakers that the three initial incidents, whose cause has yet to be determined, led to a generation loss of 2.2 gigawatts of electricity, which triggered a series of grid disconnections…’

There was some fuss about the Saturday Eurovision show. The organisers had asked Spain to cool its criticism of Israel and so the RTVE contented itself with a black screen with the text (in both Spanish and English) which read: ‘When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine’ as an introduction to the show. The winner was Austria, and second place – entirely due to the popular vote – was Israel. Indeed, Spain’s public twelve votes went to Israel (as they did last year). It begs the question – who watches this stuff? The RTVE has kicked up a fuss about the voting system notes La Razón here and furthermore, says the paper, ‘Israel responds to Sánchez: "The Spanish public has spoken, and the slap could be heard from here". The Israeli Minister of Diaspora and the Fight against Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, responded directly and forcefully to the Spanish government’. In an dreary evening, Spain came second last.

El País posts a hostile cartoon about mixing war with pop music here. On Monday, Sánchez again called for Israel (like Russia) to be booted out of the gala. He presumably is thinking of next year… For those interested in Spain’s uncomfortable relationship with Israel, there are plenty of items to be found over at Meneame, which runs reader-chosen news stories.

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Letters:

Sometimes the news-sites resort to paywalls. To get around this, I use https://archive.ph/ which usually works the trick. With Firefox, I find that you may have to copy and paste to see the article (I sometimes resort, briefly, to Microsoft Edge as necessary). Google Search will usually provide an alternative using easy search words. I subscribe to The Guardian and elDiario.es (and Wiki).

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Finally:

El Huff Post is surprised at the number of tickets sold to see Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican pop star, during his tour of Spain (beating Taylor Swift’s tour last year, with his 600,000 sales). Here is Bad Bunny - Monaco (Official Video) Nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana on YouTube (Not my cup of tea at all).