BoT 629
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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April 23 2026 Nº 629
*Next week’s edition, BoT 630, will be a day early as I’m going walkabout. BoT 631 will be dated May 14th.
Editorial:
Whether Ayuso’s medal plus a Golden Key to the City donated to the Venezuelan leader by the Mayor of Madrid will both end up in Donald Trump’s massive trophy cabinet along with Corina’s Nobel Peace Prize and so many others, remains to be seen.
Another story this past week was the regularization of up to half a million foreigners already living in Spain but without the proper paperwork. Mostly Latin Americans, but, yes, some Muslims and Africans too. Feijóo says he will go through them with a magnifying glass when he becomes president.
Since he can only reach that noble station with the support of Vox, one can believe that he means it.
Indeed, the share-out of the first of the regional elections – Extremadura back in December – has now been resolved following acquiescence over 74 points from Santiago Abascal’s party. Vox takes the vice presidency and two departments: social services and agriculture.
The reason to call the elections last autumn in the first place was to get rid of the Voxxers, but precisely the opposite occurred, and it’s no surprise to see that their benign support didn’t come cheap. Vox continues to deny gender violence and uses broad strokes in its denialist speeches against renewable energies or the green agenda. And then there’s the migrant issue (or ‘institutional racism’ to give it its correct title), where migrants (that includes us guiris as well), will be placed at the back of the queue for the doctor and any other public services guaranteed in the Constitution under the execrable concept of ‘National Priority’…
María Guardiola, the president of Extremadura, in 2023: “I cannot allow those who deny gender violence or who are dehumanizing immigrants to enter the government.”
That is precisely what she has just signed, after four months of increasingly frantic negotiations with Vox. As Groucho Marx said: ‘I have my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others’.
Foreigners in Extremadura are just 4.7% - far from the national average of 14%, indeed the total population of the region is shrinking, but the Voxxers are on a roll.
Short of obtaining Spanish nationality, migrants of course don’t have the vote.
So it’s no burkas in the streets (they are as rare as hen’s teeth in Extremadura, but one has a point to make). As for denying health attention to the foreigners – will that somehow stop them from sneezing on you? As the journalist Ignacio Escolar says, discriminating against the foreigners won’t make them disappear, it only makes their life harder.
Two (rather larger) regions were facing the same dilemma – whether to bow to the far-right (as Aragón finally did late Wednesday afternoon) and Castilla y León, again with a PP majority but needing Vox, and then there’s the Region of Andalucía which will be voting on May 17th (we read that the PP is apparently a little short of a full majority there, according to the pollsters).
If – let’s call it ‘the Extremadura Experiment’ – shows the PP prepared to submit to Vox on certain points which won’t cost them votes, then this will be the larger plan for when Spain goes to the polls next year. After all, there are no more frontiers against the far-right: ‘I am a democrat who respects election results’, says Feijóo.
They might be illegal, or bordering on the illegal, but a new PP/Vox government can (and will) change the laws it considers to be in error, granting ‘a national priority’ in social services to those with a DNI card.
Progressive voters must find what inspiration they can from Pedro Sánchez’ words last week at the Global Progressive Mobilization Summit of world leaders in Barcelona opposed to the policies of Donald Trump and his diminishing group of admirers: "The far right and its lackeys make a lot of noise, a lot of tweets. But these extremists aren’t shouting because they're winning, they're shouting because they know their time is running out."
We shall see.
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Housing:
From The Corner here: ‘House prices in Spain soar 14.7% year-on-year in March, 11.1 percentage points above inflation. According to the Tinsa IMIE General Index, this rise consolidates a two-year trend of “uninterrupted monthly growth”.
‘Quique, owner of 20 micro-apartments: "We're going to rent them for around 5,000 or 6,000 euros a month; after 7-8 years, it's all profit." This real estate investor is betting on homes between 25 and 40 square meters to maximize profitability’. From El Huff Post.
Ten of the eleven Spanish regions with the most extreme depopulation belong to the Leonese Country (viz, Castilla y León). The area that has experienced the most dramatic population decline in the 21st century in all of Spain is the part near the border with Portugal and the mountainous Cantabrian north of the Leonese Region bordering Asturias.
From Público here: ‘They bought low, they're selling high, and they're leaving the housing market strained: the vulture funds' 'exit operation'. Giants in the sector are preparing their departure after meeting their profitability targets. They bought properties at bargain prices on a red carpet after the bubble burst, and now they're closing the cycle. "They extract all the profit they can and they depart. They don't care how they leave the country," experts say’. We read that ‘The so-called vulture funds (Blackstone, Cerebus and others) arrived in Spain at the height of the financial crisis and absorbed hundreds of thousands of homes and hectares of land. They acquired these properties at bargain prices because banks urgently needed to offload them after an unprecedented wave of evictions. More than a decade later, and after having completely disrupted the real estate market, they are preparing to close the cycle and execute an exit strategy…’
Some positive news from the Government, via 20Minutos here: ‘The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the roadmap for making state housing funds available to the autonomous communities over the next five years. This is the State Housing Plan 2026-2030, endowed with up to €7,000 million in funding and comprised of a catalogue of aid programs that the regional governments will be responsible for implementing within their territories. The government expects the communities to begin implementation in July. The plan includes, among other measures, aid to boost the construction of public housing, requiring as a condition for accessing the funds that the projects be permanently protected to prevent their disqualification, and an "anti-fraud clause" designed to prevent potential manipulation in the allocation of social housing…’ elDiario.es says that the PP-controlled regions, concerned with the proposed permanent VPO (public housing) protection, are toying with non-compliance over the plan.
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Tourism:
From The Olive Press here. ‘Spain welcomed almost 22.4 million foreign air passengers in the first quarter of 2026. That’s up by more than 5.8% compared to the same period last year while March saw an increase of nearly 11% in UK travellers’. The twin threats could be a possible steep rise in airline tickets, plus the chance of a very hot summer (think global warming and the Super-niño effect) either of which could put a damper on Spain’s ambition to reach 100 million international visitors in 2026 (plus – ahem! – their spending).
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Seniors:
From 65 y Más here: ‘Suffocated by inflation: non-contributory pensioners survive on an average of €630 per month’ (It’s true – I’m one of them). Inflation in Spain, the IPC, thanks to Trump’s war in Iran, rose one point in March to 3.3%.
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Politics:
There were in fact two events in Barcelona over the weekend – the first bringing together a number of progressive world leaders, including Lula de Silva, Claudia Sheinbaum, Gustavo Petro, Cyril Ramaphosa, Tim Walz, Salvador Illa and Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni, along with the foreign minister from Palestine Dra. Varsen Aghabekian. The second being a meeting of some 3,000 PSOE mayors, unions and activists. ‘His vigorous criticism of Israel, championing of immigration and staunch opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran have bolstered his image as a left-wing hero’ says France 24 writing on Pedro Sánchez here.
From elDiario.es here: ‘Sánchez criticizes the PP-Vox agreement in Extremadura settled and constituted on Wednesday: “It betrays the history of the region (Badajoz and Cáceres), which is precisely a land of migrants”’. Google says that some 750,000 extremeños live outside their region of birth. The most notable agreement between Guardiola and Vox was to recognise and accept the concept of 'Prioridad Nacional'. This means that foreigners must wait their turn behind Spaniards in any interaction with social services says the new alliance in Extremadura (and now Aragón). Oddly, the PP rejected Vox's motion on "national priority" in the National Congress on Wednesday after agreeing to it in the two regions.
Murcia Today posting last Friday: ‘Hope and long queues as Spain’s migrant regularisation begins’. The Guardian has a similar story: ‘Spain champions migration’s benefits with regularisation scheme – but queues are long’.
Yolanda Díaz – the second vice-president, Minister of Labour and leader of Sumar – has said that she will withdraw from politics when the next General Election is called. She won’t, she says, be on any political list although she will continue to fight from the sidelines against Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal.
From Diario Socialista here: ‘Vox dissidents are preparing a split from Abascal's leadership. Alejo Vidal-Quadras (one of the founders of Vox) will lead a political summit of current and former officials in Madrid on June 20, ruling out a complete restructuring and accusing Vox of becoming a "group focused on economic interests."’. A new far-right party in the making? From the comic Miguel Charisteas on YouTube here: ‘Purge at Vox: Only Abascal remains. If you haven't been following what's been happening at Santi's company lately, I'll summarize it for you in less than ten minutes’.
The Ministerio de Transportes has found itself obliged to set up a webpage against the fake-news (‘bulos’) found, not on social media, but in the regular media (think the conservative press and televisions).
The Governments of Spain, Mexico and Brazil make a joint statement regarding the ‘dramatic’ American blockade against Cuba.
Miguel Ángel Rodríguez is Ayuso’s chief advisor. This Rasputin-like figure says that ‘the third of Spaniards who vote for the PSOE are rotten’. He posts on Twitter: “A third of Spain is rotten. They support Sánchez, Begoña, Ábalos, Sánchez's brother, Cerdán, whores, corruption, thugs, dead people because they're being taken away… Manipulation at RTVE, buying off media outlets, buying off activists… A third of Spain is rotten.”
The Caso Kitchen trial – where the PP allegedly destroyed the evidence of having a double accounting system – along with the naturalization of half a million foreign workers, together make for a good throw-away line at El Plural: ‘Sánchez on the Partido Popular: “they both finance themselves in B and want to pay the poorest workers in B”’.
The Government had attempted a few months back to relieve fiscal debt for the autonomies. The PP ones of course said ‘no’ and there the matter ended. Over the weekend the mayor of a small town in Almería has sent out a press-release saying his pueblo will in consequence be short 40,000€ this year, which may not be much, but it’s a lot of potholes that could be fixed, extra funding for maintenance, help for the elderly and sundry municipal services.
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Europe:
From Politico here: ‘Trump turns totally toxic for Europe’s far right. “Proximity with the United States in the current context did not go down well with Hungarian voters,” said a senior official from France’s National Rally party’. Viktor Orbán’s defeat, combined with the fallout from the war in Iran and Trump’s fight with Pope Leo XIV, has accelerated their retreat.
Trumpers’ threats from Morocco World News here: ‘Ceuta, Melilla Are Not in Spain: Top Marco Rubio ally escalates against Madrid. The Cuban-American congressman Mario Díaz-Balart lauded the US-Morocco alliance as enduring and indispensable, contrasting Rabat’s reliability with Madrid’s drift toward dictatorships and diplomatic defiance’. There are 170,000 Spaniards living in the two Spanish controlled autonomous cities.
From EuroNews here: ‘The EU rejects Spain's request to suspend the trade agreement with Israel. The proposal by Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement due to alleged war crimes in Lebanon and Palestine did not garner sufficient support among EU foreign ministers...’
The night train was always the best – to arrive in downtown Madrid at 6.30am, coffee and toast followed by appointments, lunch, shopping and back home than evening. Marvelous. I think they stopped all of that in 2015 (certainly by 2020 with the covid). Now a new European night-service called Nox is preparing to begin in 2027. From Motorpasión here: ‘The latest project is Nox (it means ‘Night’ in Latin, yes?), with a rail network that will link one hundred European cities, such as Barcelona, at a price cheaper than an airline ticket…’ To include a private cabin! Bring it on!
From El Mundo here: ‘The EU approves a €90,000 million loan for Ukraine and a new package of sanctions against Russia. Hungary finally lifts its veto on both issues, and the transport of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes’.
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Health:
The World Health Organisation emphasizes that Spain "has demonstrated that universal health coverage is not a pipe dream". "My warmest congratulations to all of you on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the General Health Law," said the director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus marking the date at a celebration held at the Ministry of Health this Monday. More at Infosalus here.
Google says ‘Threats and attacks against medical staff in clinics and hospitals have reached record levels, becoming a workplace safety and public health problem. In 2024, Spain recorded an all-time high in attacks, with an average of one attack every ten hours’. From 21Noticias here: ‘High tension in Málaga: Three female doctors receive death threats at the Capuchinos and Cruz de Humilladero city health centres’. You see signs when you visit the health centres. ‘No aggression permitted. Warning: we are connected to the police’. But… people can become excitable and violence can occur.
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Courts:
When you have a court case here in Spain, it’s legal (for historical reasons) to add a private accusation along with the public one. Take Begoña Gómez, the stitched-up wife of Pedro Sánchez. The ‘acusación popular’ (in this case, Hazte Oír, Vox, Iustitia Europa and Manos Limpias) are calling for 24 years of prison for this arch-evildoer. 20Minutos reporting here. From the same news-site, The Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Madrid said on Wednesday (once again) that the claims made against Begoña Gómez (and two others) "do not constitute a criminal offense," and called for the dismissal of the case.
Monday’s news was the ex-treasurer of the Partido Popular explaining in court how he had asked a fellow prisoner due to be freed to help destroy some audio concerning Mariano Rajoy. The story from elDiario.es reads: ‘Luís Bárcenas testifies in the Kitchen trial that he ordered the destruction of Mariano Rajoy's recordings from prison, in which he admitted to the Caja B slush fund. The former treasurer acknowledges that a note seized in prison, in which he wrote—albeit altered—is his own handwriting: “All of M.R.'s recordings must be destroyed when I give you the order. Nothing should remain.’
Bárcenas again: ‘"The recordings were with MR, Mariano Rajoy. I told him they had to be destroyed because it was a commitment" to the party. Rajoy, the man of nicknames: M. Rajoy, MR, El Barbas and El Asturiano. Rajoy, who this Monday came out more fleeced than a sheep’ (opinion from El Plural). ‘And me thinking all these years that MR stood for Meg Ryan’ says the comic El Gran Wyoming. Mariano Rajoy himself is due in court on Thursday, although only as a witness.
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Media:
From The New York Times here: ‘How a Fight with Trump threw Spain’s leader a political lifeline. To leftists abroad, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain is a hero for standing up to President Trump. At home, Mr. Trump is seen as Mr. Sánchez’s political saviour from thorny domestic challenges’.
From VozPópuli here: Elon Musk says "Dirty Sánchez is guilty of high treason" for the mass regularization of immigrants. The tycoon lashes out again on his social network X (Twitter) against the President’.
The CIS poll gives the PSOE 36.4%; the PP is 23.6% and Vox is 14.7%. Let’s see how the headline from 20Minutos reads: ‘The José Félix Tezanos CIS poll gives the PSOE its highest voting intention in recent years despite the trial of Ábalos’. While the CIS seems to be fairly accurate, as these things go, it’s probably the only pollster than favours the PSOE.
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Ecology:
The environmental and economic impact of electric vehicles in Spain: updated first quarter 2026. Thanks to electric vehicles, savings in crude oil imports already amount to 7.3 million barrels of oil says Coches-eléctricos here.
‘Spain takes the lead in the energy sector: reducing its dependence on gas and protecting its economy with the rise of renewables. The boost from solar and wind energy is lowering electricity prices, reducing external risks, and positioning the country as one of the most resilient to future energy crises’. Infobae has more here.
Diario de Avisos says that ‘Spain will require customers to return bottles and cans for a refund starting in November. Spain will implement a deposit system in November 2026 that will require customers to pay at least 10 cents extra for each bottle or can of beverage and to return it to the store to get their money back’.
From El Boletín here: ‘Repsol has been the most polluting company in Spain for five years running: Endesa is second. The Sustainability Observatory places the oil company at the top of the emissions ranking in 2024, ahead of Endesa and EDP’.
Almería, Granada, and Málaga in a critical zone: temperatures up to 4.5C higher this summer – and half the rainfall during the key months. Behind this change lies a direct mechanism: the increase in heat accelerates water evaporation and reduces the atmosphere's capacity to generate consistent rainfall in the south…’ More at Diario de Almería here.
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Various:
Encouraged, no doubt, by my recent article on the best cafés in the Spanish capital, from The Guardian comes: ‘My search for the perfect bodega in Madrid’. Madrid resident Jake, who sends me this article, says they’ve missed a few of the more popular barrio favourites.
From 20Minutos here: ‘Tabarca (the tiny island with fifty full-time residents located off the coast of Alicante) has begun the process of becoming a minor local entity. Its residents are seeking autonomy to manage transportation and services, citing what they perceive as administrative neglect by the city of Alicante’.
From El País in English here: ‘The Spanish citizen forgotten by everyone at an ICE centre: ‘I am literally abandoned, as if I don’t exist’. Miguel Barreno López has been in a detention centre in the United States for six months. He claims the consulate has not addressed his case and that he only wants to return to Spain’. The question for many people planning to visit the USA under the current regime – perhaps for the World Cup – is, do I really want to risk it?
When the Spanish Civil War broke families and friendships asunder, many Spaniards had to leave – becoming emigrants to safer societies. La Vanguardia has a story for its readers about the welcome extended from Mexico. ‘In 1939, the government of Lázaro Cárdenas welcomed between 22,000 and 25,000 Spanish exiles rejected by other countries, invoking the Montevideo Convention of 1933 with no requirements beyond their application’.
‘Franco's Internal Deportations: He expelled tens of thousands of migrants from Barcelona back to their regions or origin. Historian Miguel Díaz documents how the regime combated migration to major cities with raids and detention centres; in the Catalan capital alone, he documents some 30,000 returns’. From elDiario.es here.
The Málaga Provincial Council has launched a new edition of its Reading Promotion Plan for people over 65, distributing more than 4,000 books via its two ‘bibliobuses’ across the province's 86 municipalities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. This initiative coincides with International Book Day, celebrated on Thursday, April 23.
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See Spain:
Generally speaking, the weather in northern Spain isn’t as good as in the south; but there are other wonderful things to be found there (spectacular landscapes, great cuisine, deep-rooted traditions, etc). But let’s talk about Llanes, a town in the Autonomous Community of Asturias…’ Item from Eye on Spain (many photographs) here.
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Finally:
Appropriate for this week: Manu Chao’s Clandestino (playing for change, with participating musicians connected around the world). On YouTube here.
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