BoT 631
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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May 14 2026 Nº 631
Editorial:
Back in 1982 while travelling in Guatemala, I met a Mayan fellow who informed me over a beer one evening that one should beware of the Catholics, and stick with the Evangelicals, the Protestant movement which includes the Baptists and Methodists and various other assemblies. I’m a non-religious sort, but always happy to learn something new. It seemed that the president there, following a (no-doubt regular) coup d’état, was an Evangelical. Wiki describes the faith as ‘the act of sharing the Christian gospel, the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is typically done with the intention of converting others to Christianity. Evangelism can take several forms, such as personal conversations, preaching, media, and is especially associated with missionary work…’
Google AI tells me that (American) Evangelicalism has become strongly linked to conservative politics and the Republican Party, especially since the 1970s and 1980s, driven by issues like abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, and the rise of the Moral Majority.
Anyway, that’s there. And here in Spain?
‘Evangelical Christianity is experiencing a period of significant growth in Spain, often described as a "quiet revival" despite the country's largely secular or Roman Catholic cultural landscape. The focus of active outreach in Spain is primarily on church planting, social action, and converting a population where only about 1.6% are estimated to be evangelical Christians’. It’s growing fast here, with around one and a half million followers attending some 5,000 places of worship. The main support comes from Latin American immigrants, allied with the Gypsy community through the Iglesia Filadelfia.
Early this month, a large crowd of 35,000 celebrants joined in the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid to listen to preachers including the newly converted (and disgraced) ex-soccer star Dani Alves. The organizers claimed that the objective of the event was to consolidate Madrid as the "European capital of gospel and a meeting point for thousands of attendees from Europe, the Americas, and Africa."
From El País in English, we read of another upcoming event: ‘The evangelical boom in Madrid: Packed stadiums, public transit advertising, and political connections’. It says: ‘For days now, advertisements for the Festival of Hope featuring American preacher Franklin Graham have been appearing on Madrid’s Municipal Transportation Company (EMT) buses. The posters, which cover the sides of the vehicles, include a direct invitation: “Share the love of Jesus Christ with people from all over Madrid.” The event, expected to draw a large crowd, will be held on May 30 and 31 at the Vistalegre Palace concert venue and, according to the website, will bring together evangelical churches from all over Spain around the son of the legendary televangelist Billy Graham…’
Later in the article, we read: ‘In Spain, political connections are also becoming visible. In 2023, the Partido Popular intensified its contacts with evangelical leaders in pursuit of the Latin American vote. One of the most visible figures is the Colombian pastor Yadira Maestre…’ She says, as a preacher participating in a political rally back in 2023: “Lord, bless our mayor, bless our president (she means Ayuso), and bless Sr. Feijóo!”
Religious power can mean political power, especially if carefully handled.
On the metro, a captive audience suffers as two predicadores begin their spiel, and there’s no way off until the next station. Elsewhere, a YouTube presentation says that ‘this movement (also known as la Iglesia Pentecostal) employs "shows", the speaking in tongues and alleged miracles to attract young people and immigrants in low-income neighbourhoods. Unlike Catholicism, they seek to directly influence politics to impose their moral code, following successful models established in the United States and Brazil’.
But, as the different churches fight for our souls (and sometimes our vote), we must prepare for the impending visit of Pope Leo XIV in June. This is a Pope who defends progressive views: a popular leader heavily criticised by everyone on the right from Trump to Abascal.
The battle lines, Brothers and Sisters, are being drawn on the fields of Jericho.
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Housing:
From the Majorca Daily Bulletin here. ‘A surge in demand amongst Britons for a non-professional visa in Spain. It allows holders to live in Spain without working, provided they have sufficient funds’.
From Motorpasión here: ‘Drones vs. Camper Vans: Ibiza launches a “hunt” for workers who can’t afford housing – precisely when they need it the most. Rooms in Ibiza now exceed €1,000, and apartment rents top €2,100 on portals like Idealista. Meanwhile, regulations are tightening for camper vans on an overcrowded island that offers no alternatives for its workforce’.
From Spanish Property Insight here: ‘Spain has cracked down on tourist rentals—but the expected boom in long-term rental supply hasn’t materialised. In fact, the opposite seems to be happening … Many appear to have shifted into the short-term seasonal rental segment, which sits in a regulatory grey area. These rentals – often aimed at medium-term stays – face fewer restrictions than tourist lets and can still generate attractive returns…’
It’s no secret that some architects in Spain should have been better occupied playing with their Lego sets. Many a building here stands out from its neighbours more for the ego of its designer than any accord with its surroundings. Down on the Cabo de Gata, there are some shocking examples of the foregoing, including both this one in El Toyo, the condemned (these twenty years) Hotel El Algarrobico and so on. From Diario de Almería, we come across a hopeful story: ‘Almería protects the traditional architecture of Cabo de Gata with new aesthetic regulations. Facades must be white or terrazzo-coloured; the use of exposed brick, arches, and tiles is prohibited’.
From The Olive Press here: ‘Take a peek at the remarkable towns along the Spanish coast where British expats make up nearly half the population’. Most of them, unless you live there, you won’t have heard of.
From Gov.UK here: Living in Spain. Information about moving to, living or retiring in Spain – including visas, working, healthcare and driving.
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Tourism:
From Spain in English here: ‘Spain’s leading airlines – Iberia, Vueling and Air Europa – have said they will continue operating their usual flight schedules without changes to routes or fares, despite higher fuel costs linked to the war in Iran. The three carriers confirmed they do not expect major cancellations or disruptions during the busy summer tourist season and have committed to keeping prices stable’. We shall see how that goes. elDiario.es reports that no EU airline may call for a price-hike on tickets already bought.
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Finance:
From Cinco Días here: ‘Repsol earns €929 million in the first quarter of 2026 – up 154% – driven by rising oil prices’.
From El País here: ‘China chooses Spain as its major car manufacturing hub in Europe. Several automakers from the Asian giant are preparing to arrive in the country to produce in underutilized national plants or to build new ones’.
From Bright Spots here: ‘Spain just became one of Europe's cheapest power markets. How wind and solar quietly pushed gas off the margin, and the wholesale price followed. In the first four months of 2026, the average wholesale electricity price in Spain was €44 per megawatt-hour. In Italy, it was €127. In Germany, €96. In the UK, €103. Spain is now cheaper than France, well below the central-European bloc, and within striking distance of the Nordic hydro-and-nuclear heavyweights that have always topped the cheap-power league…’
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Politics:
From Europa Press here: ‘The PSOE announces an institutional offensive at all levels to halt the "national priority" of the PP and Vox’. We read: The PSOE says it will introduce an initiative—in the form of a motion or a legislative bill—in city councils, regional parliaments, the Spanish Parliament, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, and the European Parliament to defend the principle of citizen equality, which the PP and Vox "seek to shatter with the concept of ‘prioridad nacional’.
It says: "As the Socialist Party, we wish to warn that the pact Feijóo's party has signed in Extremadura and Aragon with the far right is inhumane and illegal."
According to the PSOE, the pact between the PP and Vox is wrong because it seeks to fracture society, dividing it into first- and second-class citizens. Furthermore, the party believes the measure is also "illegal" because it violates the principle of equality among all citizens established by Article 14 of the Constitution…’
The latest CIS opinion poll says that the PSOE continues to pull ahead nationally. Now 36.4% against the PP at 23.6% with Vox down at 14.7%.
If you were hoping to acquire a Vox wrist-bracelet with the red, yellow, red of the Spanish flag and Prioridad Nacional written on it, go to their webpage here. (Does Tommy Robinson have one, I wonder?)
20Minutos says that ‘The US identifies the Strait of Gibraltar as a possible site of "future conflict" following the threat to withdraw troops from Morón and Rota’. The General Secretary of NATO Mark Rutte asserts that Europeans "have grasped the message" from the White House, and Spain could lose some 12,000 jobs if troops are withdrawn from the allied enclaves in Andalucía. On the other hand, the government—through the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños—has asserted that it has received "no notification" from the U.S. administration regarding that potential troop withdrawal and insists that Spain "is a reliable ally" within the NATO framework’. What might happen if the Pentagon went ahead with its withdrawal plans for Germany and Spain asks Onda Cero.
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Andalucía Elections May 17. Juanma Moreno is the clear favourite; the only question is whether he can secure an absolute majority. Yet, between his party’s regional “national priority” agreement with Vox and the echoes of corruption resurfacing amidst the ongoing ‘Caso Kitchen’ trial, the political climate is less favourable for Moreno than it was a month ago. The slogan of the PSOE, which stakes everything on a single issue, is “Vote for Public Healthcare.”
‘Abascal crosses every line against Sánchez at his campaign launch as he calls the President a "pimp". The Vox leader escalating his insults days after calling Sánchez "una mierda" and the interior minister Marlaska "a rat". From El Plural here.
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Gibraltar:
Untreated sewage from nearly 40,000 people and businesses is discharged directly into the sea because the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar does not have – nor has it ever had – a wastewater treatment plant. elDiario.es reporting.
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Health:
The Hantavirus may have finally been just a storm in a teacup (as I check my tongue in the mirror this morning). From the RTVE here: ‘The EU and the UN thank the Spanish Government for its handling of the hantavirus outbreak crisis on the MV Hondius’. Ursula von der Leyen tweets: ‘Very grateful for the swift and efficient disembarkation of the Hondius ship in Tenerife. My thanks to the Spanish government and all the authorities involved on the ground’. From elDiario.es (Tuesday): ‘We say goodbye to the ship that has kept us on tenterhooks for a week. The MV Hondius set sail last night from Tenerife to the Netherlands, the country officially in charge of its disinfection and also of taking care of the thirty or so workers who remain on board, along with the accompanying medical specialists, and the body of a person who died from the virus…’ Meanwhile, The Guardian says: ‘The World Health Organisation head tells countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases’.
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Courts:
This one may be hard to swallow, but it was in El País: ‘Koldo García claims that the lawyer for the PP's private prosecution offered to help him avoid prison in exchange for implicating more people’. The line comes from the final day of the first trial against the ex-minister José Luis Ábalos, his consiglieri Koldo García and the businessman Víctor de Aldama in the Caso Mascarillas. The accused are now waiting for sentencing.
Stealing a mobile-phone and revealing the information therein to the far-right media. Nothing new perhaps, if the phone didn’t belong to a senior member of Podemos and the thief, an ex-commissioner working for the Ministry of the Interior. From Diario Red here: ‘The case was opened in 2017, and the verdict arrives in 2026. Nine years of investigation and prosecution for a case stemming from a robbery at a shopping mall in 2015’.
From elDiario.es here. ‘The UN criticizes Spain for its lack of investigation into Franco-era crimes: “It is failing to meet its obligations”. Four UN rapporteurs have issued a joint statement to the government reminding it that international law “does not permit” the application of statutes of limitations or amnesties to these types of cases’.
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Media:
Opinion from The Guardian here: ‘If Donald Trump represents the backlash against the liberal rules-based order, then we may now be seeing the backlash to the backlash. In a recent speech, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, spoke of just that. “They scream and shout not because they are winning, but because they know their time is running out,” he said, of those seeking to undermine international law and normalise the use of force. While the Trump administration and its allies seek to remake the world in their view, alternative visions of the international order are finally beginning to take shape…’ From The New York Times here: ‘Spain’s Leader Is Showing How to Stand Up to Trump, and So Much More’. El Huff Post covers the story for Spanish readers.
Readers may not be familiar with El Diario de España because it doesn’t exist; but as the RTVE says, this doesn’t stop it from appearing on social media sites with its un-nerving and false lead story of how immigrants are given 2,800€ a month until they can find work.
May Day was celebrated as usual in Spain, and the PP’s granito de arena was an advert telling workers they should strive harder, get up earlier and work longer. Social media reaction, says Público here, was appropriately brutal.
Hazte Oír (far-right nutters) creates AI-powered humiliating images of Sánchez and uses them to raise money from donors. The far-right lobby is disseminating hyper-realistic images of the President created using technology. In several of them, he appears arrested by the Guardia Civil, crying, or making angry gestures. Similar in spirit to Donald Trump’s late night postings on Truth Social.
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Ecology:
From El Periódico here: ‘Trawling in Europe causes 90 times more economic damage than benefits, according to a scientific study. The destruction of marine life, the release of CO2 from the seabed, the massive waste of food, and massive public subsidies are key factors in its “economic failure.”’.
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Various:
‘Itinerary confirmed for Pope Leo’s visit to Spain – including meeting with immigrants, a visit to Barcelona prison and an historic parliament address’. The Olive Press has the story.
From the Middle East Monitor here: ‘Pedro Sánchez awards civil merit honour to UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese for documenting crimes in Gaza’. From Europa Press here: ‘The US ambassador to the UN criticizes Spain for awarding the Order of Civil Merit to Francesca Albanese. He revives Rubio's 2025 accusations against the rapporteur regarding alleged "anti-Semitism"’.
It has become tricky, and probably illegal, to point criticism at los gitanos here in Spain, but old habits die hard. From El País here, we read of ‘Six Centuries of Resistance by the Roma People in Europe: From Romania to the Tres Mil Viviendas barrio in Seville. New generations of Roma people are asserting their identity yet remain marked by a past of persecution and stigma. However, political participation remains an unfinished task’.
Another bugaboo in Spain is los toros. The bulls have become political, with the PP and Vox showering funds on the industry, and the left hoping ineffectively for a ban. But, despite (or because of) several big-name accidents in the ring recently, we need a new generation of matadores and their equipos. From elDiario.es here: ‘The Right’s cultural battle drives the recruitment of children to save the bullfighting business. "Bullfighting Days for Children," discounts, and schools for minors seek to foster an increasingly dwindling interest in la tauromaquia; the PP and Vox compete to politically instrumentalise a spectacle to which they have assigned the status of a "manifestation of Spanish identity."’.
I make no comment, but I do have a photo somewhere of Che Guevara enjoying los toros.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, having described Mexico as un narcoestado, flew over to that country the other day to receive a prize from the opposition PAN party and to eulogise Hernán Cortes (a bit like Nigel Farage flying to Delhi to celebrate ‘Clive of India’). Ayuso returned home earlier than expected with a thick ear from Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum… and the jokes write themselves.
Citroën is planning a new version of its Dos Caballos – a car which will cost under 15,000€. An article at Autobild is full of gloomy statistics, such as the average age of a car on Spanish roads is 14.6 years of age and that the first time a Spaniard likely buys a new car is when he is somewhere between 45 and 55 years old. At Noticias de Trabajo, we read ‘Subsidies of up to €5,500 for car purchases in 2026 with the Plan Auto 2030. The final amount of the subsidy will depend on whether the vehicle is electric, energy-efficient, or manufactured in Europe’. The discount will be made at the point and moment of sale.
From The Olive Press here. ‘New cars sold in Europe must have ‘anti-distraction’ cameras that track driver eye and body movements from July’. I read in the peculiar Zero Hedge that this is ‘…not every new car manufactured, but every car registered’. I think my next vehicle will either be second-hand, or more likely a motorcycle.
From Que! here. ‘Uber to deploy up to 20 driverless robotaxis in Madrid this year. The company will operate the autonomous vehicles within its standard app, without notifying the user which type of car they will receive. Madrid thus becomes the first European capital with commercial robotaxis in service’.
From Rosalia to Bad Bunny, how Spanish pop conquered the world, says The Times here.
Who was el sustanciero? This is the post-civil-war figure who (allegedly) went from house to house, village to village, with a ham-bone which you could rent to put into your soup and grant it a smidgeon of flavour. A coin bought you a fifteen-minute session. Times were hard in those barren years. "A la olla de enero, ponle buen sustanciero".
From Medievalists.net here: ‘A secret diplomatic letter written in 1498 once carried sensitive intelligence about England and Scotland to the Spanish court. More than five centuries later, three historians have decoded its cipher and produced the most complete and accurate version of the text yet, offering a fresh look at late medieval Britain’.
From the Madrid Review’s Substack here: ‘Federico García Lorca, 90 Years On: A major new cultural cycle takes shape in Madrid. A rich new programme organised by Fundación Progreso y Cultura and UGT Madrid’s Área LGTBI+ brings together theatre, film, and monthly seminars. We were there at the launch’. (Thanks to Brett)
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See Spain:
From Eye on Spain here: ‘In Huesca, on a very big rock, the castle of Loarre has resisted the passage of time for a thousand years. It is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Aragón and, furthermore, it can boast of being one of the best-preserved Romanesque fortresses in Europe. It has been a castle, a fortress, a royal residence, a monastery and even a film set, so it could tell us stories of kings, clergymen, nobles and movie stars…’
La Razón has ‘The five most visited monuments in Spain’, with videos. The monuments chosen, as befitting La Razón, are all safely Spanish: the Burgos Cathedral, Segovia’s Alcazar, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Our Lady of Pilar Basilica (Zaragoza) and the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral.
The Guardian here: ‘Eight of the best secluded and affordable places to stay in Andalucía’.
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Letters:
A travel item from Age in Spain: If you hold valid Spanish residency documentation you are exempt from both EES and ETIAS. Simply carry your residency card (TIE, NIE certificate, or EU ID) together with your passport whenever you travel and present them confidently at the border.
One thing to be aware of: your residency rights are anchored in Spain. Short visits to other Schengen countries are fine, but extended stays may still trigger the 90-day rule for those specific countries.
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Finally:
Incredible vocal harmony from Cuba. Four voices at Sexto Sentido singing in Yoruba with Canto a Elegguá on YouTube here.
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