BoT 607

 

Business over Tapas

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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November 6 2025            Nº 607

 

Editorial:

El Senado de España, the Senate, is the Upper House – although perhaps more in the spirit than the reality: ‘…with more limited functions than elsewhere, as it is a chamber of second reading. Currently, it is composed of 208 elected senators and 58 senators appointed by the legislative assemblies of Spain's regions’, says wiki. In consequence, the senators – fine people all – are not necessarily in Spain’s front-rank of politicians.

Over at El Senado, the Partido Popular has the majority, and the president of the house, Pedro Rollán, is from that august party. Indeed, of the 266 senators, only 92 are members or supporters of the Socialist Party, the PSOE.

Thus, the scene was set on Thursday in the Senate for a parliamentary committee hearing – something that is not a parliamentary debate and the questions are not those of a critical interview. A parliamentary committee hearing is an interrogation where the questioner's objective is not so much to seek the truth but rather to showcase their own skill in the fine art of tearing apart the person being questioned. So, on Thursday 30th October, for five hours, Pedro Sánchez was obliged to simply keep his composure while being asked, cross-examined and bullied regarding the various affronts of him, his family and his party – towards the Gracious and the Good.

Questions like – ‘answer yes or no, did you…’ – straight out of a Peter Fauk TV show.

We remember last week’s delirious anticipatory remark from Feijóo: ‘if he lies, he’ll end up in court: if he tells the truth, then also’.

And yet… and yet… Pedro Sánchez came away after the ordeal, untouched. ‘This isn’t an examination, this is a circus’, said Sánchez at one point, making his opinion clear regarding the Senate's Commission of Inquiry into the Koldo case and other supposed issues.

Here's Gabrial Rufián on the interrogation: ‘The PP's handling of the Senate investigation went so well that the real news is that Sánchez has reading glasses. Yes, at 53 years old, our presi has to use spectacles (unless it was just a cunning ploy to distract us all along).

El Mundo (a leading conservative newspaper) writes: ‘Sánchez emerged unscathed from the circus; there was noise, but no wild beasts. The President's appearance before the Senate to answer questions from the Caso Koldo commission turned into an embarrassing political quagmire where the PP squandered the opportunity to shake up the PSOE’.

One question from a UPN senator was about the trips in his car with (the three villains) Koldo García, José Luis Ábalos, and Santos Cerdán. "Are you asking me how many people were riding in my Peugeot? Really? Well, Your Honour, it depended on the day", he answered to general laughter.

As somebody says – it was like an early and unwelcome Halloween for the opposition.  

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Housing: 

From something called Russpain (in English) here: ‘Expert Warns: Spanish homeowners risk losing equity due to lack of renovations. Architect Jordi Martí explains why delaying property renovation could cost you money. Spain faces concerns over its aging housing stock. Homeowners are dealing with rising maintenance costs. European subsidies may help modernize properties. Experts urge not to postpone necessary renovations’. 

In support of improved public transport. From Spanish Property Insight here, ‘Whenever politicians and housing activists in Spain talk about the housing crisis, they rarely mention transport. Their default response is to blame “speculators”, “vulture funds”, or “greedy landlords”, even though speculation has been largely absent from the Spanish market for years (sic). What they almost never say is that mobility — the ability to reach affordable housing within a reasonable commute — is central to solving the problem’. 

From El Salto Diario, Thursday last week here: ‘Housing activists deface vulture fund executives with paint. A group of activists painted the entrance of the hotel where the Rental Housing forum, which brings together major companies in the sector, was being held’. The forum included representatives from Nestar-Azora, Blackstone, Cerberus, Servihabitat and Savills España. 

From Diario As here: ‘The village of Salto de Castro (Zamora), located on the border between Spain and Portugal and abandoned since 1989, has a new owner and an ambitious tourism project. An American called Jason Lee Beckwith has acquired the village for €310,000 with the intention of rehabilitating its 44 houses, the school, the church, the bar, and a former Civil Guard barracks, transforming it into a holiday and residential complex...’ 

Idealista has ‘Vox proposes higher taxes on foreigners to fund housing aid for Spaniards’.

From Business Insider here: ‘I moved to Spain from the US after college. It was a relief to leave behind the American hustle culture’. 

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Tourism: 

From Sur in English here: ‘The international tourism fair in London opens with the aim of reinventing travel in a changing world. The Andalucía region, Málaga and the Costa del Sol have invested heavily with stands and promotional events at the World Travel Market in a bid to attract more tourists to enjoy the delights of southern Spain’. 

From Spain in English here: ‘The governments of Portugal and Spain have reached an agreement to establish the first-ever direct train connection between Lisbon and Madrid, with a high-speed service expected to launch by 2034, officials announced on Thursday’. 

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Finance: 

From Reuters here: ‘Spain remains the euro zone’s fastest growing economy, outperforming its peers yet again in the third quarter. The Iberian country’s successful policy mix offers several lessons that fly in the face of global political trends. Spain’s economy grew by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the three months through September, slightly slower than in the previous period but well above the 0.2% rate for the euro zone, continuing a positive multi-year trend’. 

This thing about taxes. ‘Corporate tax: banks and large companies barely pay a fifth of what they should be paying based on their actual profits’, says Kaos en la Red here. ‘In 2023, Hacienda collected €35,198 million euros through this tax, which translates to an average effective rate of 12.05% for all companies. However, when analysed by sector, the discrepancies are striking. Banks paid only 4.26% of their profits, and large companies—with a turnover exceeding €1,000 million—paid an average of 6.97%, barely a fifth of the theoretical 25% or 30% (depending on the sector) they should have paid based on their actual profits…’

‘October employment figures increased by 142,000 workers over September, while unemployment fell to levels not seen since the boom year of 2007’. Público reporting. 

‘Amancio Ortega, Spain's richest man for the 11th consecutive year: the staggering fortunes of the millionaires on the Forbes list. His wealth has decreased compared to last year, but he returns to the ranking of the world's richest people’. El Huff Post says he is estimated to have 109,900 million euros carefully folded under his mattress. That’s almost 110,000,000,000 euros. We ask – is it enough? For proof that the ‘trickle-down’ theory of economics works, know that Amancio’s daughter Sandra is second with 10,000 million euros hiding in her purse. 

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Politics: 

‘Sánchez called last Thursday’s Senate commission of inquiry a "circus" as he engaged in several clashes with the president and senators’. 20Minutos seems concerned that the inquiry hadn’t gone better. The PP made it easier for him as their senator chosen to cross-examine the President was Alejo Miranda who is best remembered for being the energy behind the notorious Zendal Hospital in Madrid. (He currently earns 133,000€ a year – contrast with Pedro Sánchez 104,000€.) 

Last week, the presidents of the three provinces in the Valencian Region (Alicante, Valencia and Castellón), all from the PP, announced that Carlos Mazón must be relegated in the next regional election, preferably in favour of one of the three of them. The next elections there are nominally to be held in 2027. However, things were still getting worse for Mazón, beset on all sides by the people of Valencia and the families of the 229 souls lost in the floods due, in part, to Mazón’s leisurely absence during the calamity. Following the first year memorial on October 29th for the people lost in the Dana, the Vox leader Santiago Abascal came out in support for Mazón (the longer Mazón stayed, the more PP voters were crossing to the Vox standard). But it wasn’t to be.

On Monday this week, without apologies to the families and blaming Madrid (hey, he’s a politician), Carlos Mazón resigned (keeping his place as acting president until a substitute, to be agreed by the Valencian PP together with Vox – since the PP lacks a full majority there). Right now, he is having a medical leave. Journalist Maribel Vilaplan, his dining companion at the Restaurante el Ventorro last year, has now explained to the Court that Mazón received any number of calls during the almost four-hour lunch they shared, but ignored them all.

Feijóo considers Mazón's decision "correct" and asks Vox to "rise to the occasion" and "facilitate the election of a new president as soon as possible" says El Mundo here. To belabour the point, Mazón remains as president until a new one can be chosen. He also continues as aforado, that’s to say, immune from any inquiry (and, of course, to continue with his monthly wages). The agony could continue until the end of January (Vox understandably is in no hurry) before a new president is agreed – failing which, there would be fresh elections in late March 2026. Somehow, by the way, this is all, from the Dana to the Outcome, all the fault of Pedro Sánchez.

On Wednesday, Santiago Abascal stated his price to Alberto Núñez Feijóo: no more nonsense about ‘climate change’ (forget the Dana…), and no more ‘massive immigration’. 

From Xornal Galicia here: ‘José María Aznar has issued a second, ideologically significant warning: the PP must avoid succumbing to “extremist” temptations in order to compete with Vox. This direct criticism clearly targets Feijóo's recent rhetorical and policy shift, as in recent weeks he has adopted measures and rhetoric typical of the far right to try to stem the flow of votes to Abascal's party…’ 

It’s all getting a wee bit Trumpian over at the PP, with an official party tweet on Twitter describing the Minister of Transport ‘Oscar Puente’ as looking like a chimpanzee. 

Going back to a grievance from the previous Mexican president López Obrador, Spain has apologised this week to the Mexican Native Americans for their treatment by the Conquistadores. The current Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has thanked the Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albare for his admission. Naturally, the Spanish right-wing has called for the resignation of the foreign minister. The story at elDiario.es here. Feijóo reacted with: ‘I am never going to be ashamed of my country's history, but I am ashamed of the current administration’. 

…...

Europe: 

From VoxPópuli here: ‘A government study concludes that the tunnel to Morocco is viable: it requires a decade and €8,500 million. The Ministry of Transport commissioned the report from Herrenknecht, which concludes that the technology to develop the project already exists. A first exploratory tunnel is being planned’. 

From Turkiye Today here: ‘Spain's government has approved a €3,120 million contract to acquire 45 Turkish Aerospace Industries Hurjet trainer and light attack aircraft, marking a significant modernization of the Spanish Air Force's pilot training capabilities. The Council of Ministers formally approved the Integrated Training System-Spain (ITS-C) contract at its Oct. 28 weekly meeting…’ 

From The Independent here: ‘The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has announced plans to close its UK headquarters and relocate to mainland Europe. A primary reason for the move is Brexit, with benefits including lower operational costs, EU single market access and recruitment flexibility. Manfredi Lefebvre, the WTTC chairman, confirmed Brexit as a main factor, with potential new locations including Switzerland, Italy, and Spain’. 

…...

Health: 

The quality of our health service is stumbling, with longer waiting periods and so on (although the dedication of the medical staff remains high). One particular concern is the lack of patient feedback on mammograms. From El Diario Cantabria here, ‘The Ministry of Health warns it will explore "legal action" to force the regions to provide data on screenings: "Mammograms and all data are more important than the interests of the PP"’. The hope from the conservatives is that we all take out private insurance. The president of Justice for Healthcare reveals a key to understanding the screening scandal in Andalucía: "There is no legal certainty in healthcare matters", he says, speaking to El Libre here. All of which helps explain Público’s headline: ‘660,000 people take out private health insurance in Andalucía while the public healthcare system deteriorates. Ten years ago, 14% of the Andalusian population had private health insurance; now that figure stands at 22%. The number of insured individuals has risen from 1.2 million to 1.9 million’.

It says: ‘Between 2010 and 2020, according to the Fundación Isis healthcare movement, "9,000 professionals were lost, job insecurity and temporary employment increased, and both resources and healthcare services were reduced". The Moreno Bonilla years have failed to correct the way, according to the movement: "Although some of the essential problems currently affecting Andalusian public healthcare stem from previous governments [those of the PSOE], the situation has worsened substantially since 2019, when the Andalusian government passed into the hands of right-wing parties, clear proponents of neoliberal ideology"’. 

…...

Courts:

The Álvaro García Ortiz Case: From elDiario.es here: ‘The State Attorney's Office criticizes Judge Hurtado for his "inquisitorial" investigation of the Attorney General: "It has been an unfair process". Consuelo Castro, who is defending Attorney General García Ortiz, used the preliminary hearing to harshly criticize the handling of the case and Hurtado's decision to give the Guardia Civil free rein to copy his phone’.

From Público (Tuesday) here: ‘Miguel Ángel Rodríguez admits in court that he spread the rumour that "unleashed the madness". Ayuso's chief of staff explains that he kept the email González Amador sent him and then gave it to "a group of journalists". Ayuso’s companion also had his chance in court (La Ser here): ‘I became the best-known criminal in Spain. I was dead. Sr. García Ortiz had publicly killed me. He had utterly destroyed me. Following the revelation of the Attorney General's leak, my life has been ruined. So, I must conclude – I must either leave Spain or commit suicide’.

All this is to do with whether the Attorney General ‘filtered’ a fake email sent out by Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s eminence gris known as ‘MAR’, to muddy the waters surrounding her boyfriend’s tax-fraud (which, over 18 months later, doesn’t appear to be attracting the attention of the courts). One witness on Wednesday, a journalist for elDiario.es, claims he knew of MAR’s fake email a full week earlier. The case should last two weeks as various witnesses and other journalists are called. It seems rather likely to collapse. 

From The Guardian here: ‘Judges doing politics: can the Spanish PM survive corruption cases against his family and allies? Facing allegations he insists are politically motivated, Pedro Sánchez has cast doubt on the independence of some members of the judiciary’. An interesting explanation of Spain’s judges and their loyalties (or otherwise).

‘García-Castellón maintains that talking about 'lawfare' in Spain is "a false and delusional theory". The former judge retired on September 2nd as head of the Central Court of Instruction number 6 of the National Court, bringing to an end a career marked by controversial and far-reaching decisions’. More at Público here. 

Some other court-cases moving forward – Judge Peinado of course with this continued fishing for something against Begoña Gómez, the beginning of the case into David Sánchez in Badajoz, the inquiry into the mistakes with the Valencian floods and the more-or-less abandoned inquiry into the Minister of Democratic Memory Ángel Víctor Torres. 

From Area Costa del Sol here: ‘For months he cruised the streets of Marbella behind the wheel of luxury cars, filming videos amidst mansions, swimming pools, and exclusive clubs. On his social media, he sold a life of instant success, easy money, and unfiltered masculinity. Today, Briton Harrison Sullivan, known both as “HSTikkyTokky” and “the pound-shop Andrew Tate”, faces a very different fate: prison. Behind the glare of the spotlight, the digital fame, and his speeches about the “power of the modern man,” lies a story of escapes, assaults, and delusions of grandeur that has finally exploded in the courts of Spain and the United Kingdom…’ 

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Media: 

The Atlas Network, says wiki here ‘…is a non-governmental organization based in the United States that provides training, networking, and grants for libertarian, free-market, and conservative groups around the world. It was founded in 1981 by Antony Fisher, a British entrepreneur, who wanted to connect various think tanks via a global network. Described as "a think tank that creates think tanks," the organization partners with nearly 600 organizations in over 100 countries’. The name presumably comes from an Ayn Rand novel. From ctxt here, ‘Atlas Network: Disinformation as a Neoliberal Weapon. The organization, founded in 1981, has 589 think tanks in 103 countries that fund hate and hoaxes from the far right’. The article explains Atlas’ cordial relationships in Spain with José María Aznar’s FAES, Vox and its DENAES foundation (acronym for ‘Defensa de la Nación Española’) (wiki), and the Fundación Disenso (prop. Santiago Abascal) (El País). La Gaceta de la Iberosfera (wiki), a far-right factory of fake news, is funded through Disenso. 

For some ‘racist and transphobic’ misinformation, there’s Elon Musk’s new Grokipedia. (As somebody says – the reason Musk changed the name of Twitter to X is that it’s the nearest thing he could find on the keyboard to a swastika).  

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Ecology: 

El Diario de Salamanca has: ‘The Independent Trade Union and Civil Servants' Association (CSIF) has denounced that the autonomous communities dismissed more than 4,000 forest firefighters throughout the country in October, dismantling the firefighting resources despite the serious ecological disaster experienced this summer and the maintenance of the high-risk period running until November 1 due to the high temperatures’. The regions most affected by the cuts are Andalucía, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Galicia and Madrid. 

…...

Various: 

From The Guardian here: ‘Spain grants citizenship to descendants of the civil war’s International Brigades. About 32,000 volunteered to fight the Franco dictatorship, including 2,500 men and women from Britain and Ireland’. The headline at InfoLibre says: ‘Congress pays tribute to the victims of Francoism in an event without the PP, Vox or Junts’. (My godfather fought in the civil war, although – sad to say – he fought for the other side, Maybe Feijóo will grant me nationality sometime down the line…) 

From The Times here: ‘General Franco: a mediocrity in everything except cruelty. In El Generalisimo, Giles Tremlett chronicles the life of the tinpot tyrant who ruled Spain for 40 years’. We read that ‘In times of decline, nations often turn to authoritarians. This gives opportunities to otherwise mediocre men — toxic personalities unsuited to ordinary politics. Franco, who ruled Spain from 1936 to 1975, fits that mould. It’s hard to imagine him succeeding in today’s Spain of prosperity and liberalism. He was short, rotund, had a squeaky voice, was awkward with women, had no sense of humour and was a monumental bore…’ (Amazon has the book for sale here). Making the point that details of the dictatorship are not well known in Spain, and that the period is not taught in school, Público’s headline reads: ‘"He's better known abroad than here": Spanish social media praises the Times article’.  

‘The Moncloa Palace has made it clear: (at least for now) it has no intention of following in the footsteps of neighbouring nations, such as Germany, and reinstating mandatory military service. Not even on a voluntary basis. This doesn't mean, however, that a certain type of initiative isn't gaining traction in Spain: youth camps that (partially) emulate the old conscription and promise a blend of military discipline, sports, nature, and survival lessons worthy of the preppers (wiki)…’

And that, says Xataca here, tells us a lot about Spanish society. 

‘All the events for the 50th anniversary of the monarchy (November 22)’. Most of them will be held with the absence of Juan Carlos, although some private events will include him says El Huff Post here. 

‘Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica became the world’s tallest church on Thursday after a part of its central tower was lifted into place. The masterwork of the architect Antoni Gaudí now rises to 162.91 metres above the city, the church said in a statement. That beats the spire of Ulm Minster in Germany, which tops out at 161.53 metres’. The Guardian reporting here. 

In second place behind the large number of Catholic churches in Spain, comes the evangelical houses of worship. The evangelists are mainly Latin Americans who have migrated to Spain (the US missionaries are often sent to Central and South America). In third place come the mosques and lying (no pun intended) in fourth are the churches of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In total, there are 8,140 non-Catholic ‘lugares de culto’ belonging to seventeen different denominations. The Anglicans have 68 churches. The details are here.

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See Spain: 

From The Olive Press here: ‘Spain has its own Greek Parthenon featuring 40 Corinthian columns located in a secluded village that nobody visits. It looks like something lifted straight from the hills of Athens, but this Greek-style temple stands hidden in the green valleys of northern Spain.

The Church of San Jorge has become known as ‘the Spanish Parthenon’ for its striking resemblance to the ancient temple of Athena. The little-known find is buried away in the tiny village of Las Fraguas in Cantabria’s Arenas de Iguña municipality. Built in 1890 at the request of the Dukes of Santo Mauro, the neoclassical structure was conceived as a private chapel and family mausoleum…’ 

…...

Finally: 

There was a period when NSFW flamenco and other Spanish songs were the underground rage. Here’s the best one – (Warning! a flamenco Rugby Song) called, says YouTube here: Chochete Llorón from Virtudes Crotal, which, we are told, is La Copla Flamenca más Prohibida de la Transición por Obsena. More of these obscene mid-20th century songs have been collected by Fonoteca Prohibida here.