BoT 622

 

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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March 5 2026            Nº 622          

Editorial: 

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 little 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 over 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 add – 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 their slogan, although Santi rarely wears anything as vulgar as a 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 puts it like this: ‘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…

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Housing: 

From Sur in English here: ‘Spain’s anti-eviction ‘shield’ collapses: what the new legal landscape means for landlords. The end of general suspension on evictions sparks a debate over the balance between social protection and property rights.’ From Público here: ‘More than 60,000 families in limbo: the end of the social safety net opens the door to a "tsunami of evictions". Experts and associations warn that the rejection by the PP, Vox, and Junts parties of the eviction moratorium could leave tens of thousands of vulnerable families homeless in the midst of a housing crisis’. 

El Faro de Vigo says that ‘Tenants barricade themselves in tourist apartments after their stay ends. At least ten vacation rentals in the city have been occupied in this way’. 

Reuters brings a story about buying a house-share: ‘A Spanish startup is selling bedrooms in flats shared with strangers, a British developer offers mortgages for friends willing to buy together, while stakes in rental properties help some tenants cover their housing costs. Such unconventional arrangements highlight the lengths some young Europeans are ready to go to cope with a housing crisis that has hit them the hardest. Over the past decade, house prices in the European Union grew 10% faster than incomes, according to the European Commission research, and all metrics show that the young feel the squeeze the most. And while plans announced by the EU executive in December to make housing more affordable have yet to take shape, some businesses offer novel ways of getting a foothold in the increasingly challenging property market…’ 

From El País in English here: ‘Spain: Straining at the seams. Despite a lower population density than other Western European countries, this nation of just under 50 million is struggling with crowded cities, insufficient investment in transportation, high electricity demand and the effects of mass tourism’. Ninety percent of the Spanish population lives in 2.6% of the territory, a density unparalleled in Europe. We read: ‘…“This isn’t a two-speed Spain, but rather two different ways of occupying the territory. The population had never been so concentrated; we no longer speak so much about rural versus urban, as about coastal versus inland, and basically we are talking about just a few centres: the metropolitan areas of Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Málaga-Costa del Sol, which will soon surpass Seville, and the permanent population growth on the larger islands of the Balearic and Canary archipelagos”…’ (Thanks to Jake) 

Video on YouTube here: ‘Spain is often talked about as a country under pressure — overcrowded cities, tourism, rising prices, and overheated housing markets. But there’s another Spain moving quietly in the opposite direction. In this film, I travel through some of Spain’s most depopulated regions to understand what happens when villages are left behind — and whether abandonment is really the end of the story…’ 

El País in English carries this story: ‘A Norwegian influencer buys a failed property development in Spain to build a ‘self-sufficient’ eco-community. The Modern Eco Village plans to erect 500 homes, schools and shops in a pristine mountain spot near the protected reservoir of Beniarrés, in Alicante province. The plan builds on an earlier attempt that flopped due to the 2008 financial crisis’. 

For those searching for a cheap city adventure, ‘Spain’s rental bargain hotspots revealed: these are the ten cheapest cities to live in’ says The Olive Press here. 

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War: 

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. Following this, the Spanish Government 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 (of course). 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). 

…...

Finance:

From InSpain News here: ‘The PP middle class measures are being pitched as an emergency reset for households who feel they’re working harder and getting less back. The Partido Popular says rising prices, high taxes, and day-to-day bills have eroded purchasing power, even as employment has improved…’ 

‘How the war in Iran could affect Spain: four key points that could directly impact your daily life’. 20Minutos takes us through it: 1. Gasoline prices could rise steeply. 2. The stock exchange could plummet. 3. A collapse in logistics with the Straits of Hormuz closed to shipping and air-routes cancelled. 4. An impact in the shopping basket. 

…...

Politics: 

Following the release of the material archived following the attempted coup d’etat in 1981, Feijóo says that the old king – el rey emérito – should return to Spain to live out his last days. The Government says that he is not in exile and is not only free to return, but often does for short visits (He’s living in Abu Dabi at the present time). However, if he returns as a resident, he will be liable to pay tax in Spain (which in his case will be quite a hefty chunk). From The BBC here: ‘The Spanish opposition calls for disgraced ex-monarch to return from exile’. elDiario.es notes that ‘The Royal Palace warns Juan Carlos I that he must "regain his tax residency in Spain" if he wants to return’. 

From Ara here: ‘Santiago Abascal's defence of Benjamin Netanyahu's government is unquestionable, to the point that the Israeli Prime Minister has even received a delegation from Vox to personally thank them for their support. The Spanish far right makes a point of its Islamophobia and has not hesitated to take sides in the Palestinian conflict. But there is a group of critics within Vox who, on this as well, disagree with the leadership. These are precisely some of those who have recently been expelled from the party and others who resigned months ago. The dissident group in Madrid, led by Javier Ortega Smith, is targeting Israel and the "Zionist lobby."…’ 

As the Castilla y León elections draw close (March 15th), Vox complains of una pintada on the side of its office in Valladolid which reads: ‘He who sows hatred, reaps rage’ (Proverbs). 

Wikipedia has an article called ‘The next Spanish general election’ (to be held at the latest by August 2027). Of course, neither legalised immigrants nor any other foreign citizen can vote in national elections. 

…...

Gibraltar: 

From The Olive Press here: ‘Spanish border guards will hold the power to block British nationals from entering Gibraltar under the terms of a long-awaited post-Brexit treaty finally published by officials last Thursday. The 1,000-page draft agreement sets out the future of the Rock after a decade of uncertainty following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016…’ 

…...

Corruption: 

From El Plural here: ‘Rafael, Jairo, and Alberto, three private citizens: the windfalls of all of Ayuso's known partners. Since she became president, all three have obtained financial benefits through commissions, subsidies, or jobs in companies that had contracts with the Community of Madrid’. We read: ‘Isabel Díaz Ayuso became president of the Community of Madrid in 2019. Since then, various issues related to her romantic partners have generated headlines in the press, sparking controversy surrounding the management of public funds by this regional government and how it has directly benefited individuals who are, or have been, part of the leader's inner circle…’ 

…...

Courts: 

From RTVE here: ‘The massive trial for the coffin-swapping scheme in Valladolid begins with 23 defendants in the dock. The prosecution is seeking more than 200 years in prison for the reuse of nearly 6,000 coffins and flowers over two decades. There are 900 fraud complaints against the El Salvador Funeral Group. The trial is expected to last until June’. 

…...

Media: 

The PSOE denounces Telemadrid's "trash TV". This following from a fake news item pushed by the channel regarding the health of Pedro Sánchez (who was obliged to come out in public to say he has no heart problems, but that, thanks to the Spanish public health system, those who do can find aid and relief). Video: Sánchez here on a bicycle. 

VerTele runs with ‘Vox threatens the president of RTVE with "kicking him out". After a previous "chainsaws and flamethrowers" threat, Vox deputy Manuel Mariscal Zabala again menaced the president of RTVE, José Pablo López, with "kicking him out" during a session of the Joint Parliamentary Control Committee for Public Radio and Television’ (with video) 

…...

Ecology: 

From El Confidencial here: ‘Solar panels 'made in Spain' that generate light even when it’s raining. Conventional solar panels significantly reduce their performance on cloudy days and when it rains. This invention solves that problem’. 

…...

Various:

From La Moncloa (the official presidential webpage) here: ‘Pedro Sánchez thanks Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai for her activism for the rights of women and girls. The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has received Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai at the Moncloa Palace, where he expressed his gratitude for her years of activism for the rights of women and girls, which, he affirmed, inspires so many girls and women around the world…’ 

From The Olive Press here: ‘Reform MPs including Nigel Farage calls for immigrants in the UK to speak English – but is the sentiment shared for British immigrants in Spain?’ A question perhaps best left unanswered. 

Geográfia Infinita brings ‘The Origin of Place Names in Andalucía and its Provinces’. Place names are the result of history, invasions, cultural mixing, and transformations that have been captured in just a few syllables. In Andalucía, a land inhabited by Phoenicians, Romans, Visigoths, and Muslims, place names are a map of the past. Each city holds within its name a clue about who lived there, what they called it, and what mark they left…’ 

From Eye on Spain here: ‘The tunnels of Gibraltar, constructed over the course of nearly 200 years principally by the British Army, have made the Rock of Gibraltar "a veritable warren of tunnels that housed guns, hangars, ammunition stores, barracks and hospitals". Within a land area of only 2.6 square miles (6.7 km2), Gibraltar has around 34 miles (55 km) of tunnels, nearly twice the length of its entire road network…’ 

El Día de San Patricio, St Patrick’s Day, is coming up (March 17th). Treat yourself to a Guinness as you watch this documentary on ‘…George Campbell, one of the greatest Irish artists of the 20th century, who left his human and artistic legacy in what were his two homelands: Ireland and Andalucía…’ The documentary on YouTube comes from an initiative by BoT’s special consultant: José Antonio Sierra. 

…...

See Spain:

‘Almond blossoms: The first whisper of spring’. A nice article from Karethe Linaae here. 

…...

Finally: 

PALO! "Al Monte" • Musica Cubana Salsa Jazz Funk on YouTube here.