BoT 639
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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July 9 2026 Nº 639
Editorial:
Those of us who live in Andalucía (or, for that matter, in Extremadura, Castilla y León, or Aragón) now have a regional government made up of the PP (the majority party) in alliance with the Vox. The tail in every case, wagging the dog.
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| Juanma Moreno and Manuel Gavira |
Wiki explains: ‘National Priority or preference is the idea that a series of political, economic, or social rights should be reserved exclusively or primarily for the members of a nation. It is a popular term that encompasses the concepts of nativism and social chauvinism’.
Málaga Hoy says that the Andalusian agreement supposes: ‘National Priority for housing, a ban on the burka in public spaces, and an emergency plan to address waiting lists are among the 150 measures in the pact. For access to public housing, ten years of residency registration will be required for purchases and five years for rentals. There will be a priority pathway for cancer diagnosis and an annual audit of the cost of healthcare for foreigners’.
Furthermore (the Right has always been uneasy with the science of climate change), Andalucía will be declared "free from the burdens of the European Green Deal".
Google AI says: ‘The "national priority" (or prioridad nacional) policies proposed by conservative coalitions aim to give native-born Spaniards preference over foreigners for state aid, social housing, and public subsidies. However, experts note these moves directly conflict with national equality laws’ (and indeed, Article 13 of the Constitution: “Foreigners shall enjoy in Spain the public freedoms guaranteed by this Title under the terms established by treaties and the law"). The European Commission doesn’t approve either: ‘Brussels warns that it will ensure there is no discrimination with the National Priority’.
There is no mention in this PP/Vox deal regarding gender violence, LGTBIQ+ rights while Muslim and Arab language school studies are to be dropped, as the manly activities of bullfighting and la caza (hunting) now take centre stage.
elDiario.es has: ‘Through 150 measures, the agreement consolidates ideological concessions made by the PP to Vox, such as the outright rejection of the 2030 Agenda and the creation of a new Law of Concord (forgive and forget the past crimes under the Dictatorship). The far-right leader Manuel Gavira will become vice president with a super-ministry under his control: the Ministry of Tourism, Local Administration, and Justice’.
The whole deal was announced just half an hour before the Thursday agreement was announced by Juanma Moreno, giving little time for any revolt among the conservatives.
The reaction from the regional PSOE leader María Jesús Montero was to call it a "pact of shame. For the first time since the Franco regime, the far right will enter an Andalusian government", she said.
Will this state of affairs be a success? In Madrid, Alberto Núñez Feijóo (screaming daily for fresh elections) admits that, if the voters wanted it, then he would agree to a pact, a pax, a PPox with Vox.
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Housing:
From Spanish Property Insight here (lightly edited): ‘A new package from the Housing Ministry is expected to return to some of its earlier, unratified ideas, including rental contract extensions, restrictions on annual rent increases, regulation of seasonal and room rentals, tax incentives for landlords who reduce rents, and a requirement for rental contracts to be in writing.
It is also expected to include measures aimed at tourist rentals, including raising IVA on holiday lets to 21%, plus vague promises to boost affordable housing and speed up administration. The government will present this as a balanced package to lower rents, protect tenants, fight fraud, and increase supply. That is the theory.
The practical effect may be something else entirely: more rules, more confusion, more litigation, and fewer owners willing to put property into the long-term rental market. Spain’s housing shortage will not be solved by making ownership riskier and less predictable, though that does appear to be the chosen experiment’.
From El Economista here: ‘The verdict of more than a thousand studies on housing: rent control exacerbates the shortage and worsens the quality’. The article quotes ‘The effects of government interventions on housing market: A meta-study of empirical literature’ from Science Direct here.
Every year in Spain, €28,000 million changes hands through housing rental payments. The vast majority (88%) of this rental income goes to 2.4 million landlords who declare it to the tax authorities as a personal income. The profile of these landlords also reflects the situation: 75% own only one rental property. ‘Approximately 1.6% of Spain's GDP changes hands each year through housing rentals: a movement of money that has doubled in a decade and is marked by income inequality and the generational gap’, says elDiario.es here.
From Idealista here: ‘Smokers: landlords in Spain can legally ban tenants from smoking. Lawyer José Ramón Zurdo notes the ban must be clear – and can apply to specific rooms within a property’.
Sur in English has: Why are so many Americans moving to Spain? They’re no longer looking for beaches, sunshine and paella. American families are moving to Spain in search of a quieter, more affordable and fulfilling life… and to get away from Trump’.
The Olive Press warns us that ‘Buying off-plan and building your own home is Spain’s most profitable property move, claim leading architects – but beware cowboy builders’.
From Sur in English here: ‘A Málaga court has ordered the demolition of the Vista del Rey, the aparthotel built illegally in Benalmádena at the start of this century, which has been subject to a Supreme Court ruling since April 2021 stating that it should be pulled down. The building comprises 61 apartments, 46 parking spaces, a heated outdoor swimming pool and communal areas, and currently operates as a three-star hotel under the name Vive Costa Azul’.
From El Periódico here: ‘More young people are abandoning city life to seek peace and tranquillity in rural areas. Lucía is one such example. At just 27, she decided to turn her life around. She left Madrid to move to a Galician village of only nine inhabitants, where she is restoring a centuries-old house on her own, while experiencing a self-sufficient lifestyle. Although the change has been significant, expenses aren't that high. "My biggest monthly expense is my animals, about €150," she says. "My monthly groceries are around €50, because between the garden and the harvest, I spend very little," she adds…’ With video.
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Finance:
From El País here: ‘Hacienda, the Spanish treasury, collects over €22,700 million through crackdowns on large fortunes and the massive disclosure of undeclared rental income. This volume of recovered funds (20% up over the previous year) is not the result of chance, but rather a surgical strategy that has been refined over time and has targeted large fortunes, the underground real estate sector, and the complex corporate structures that seek to dilute the tax burden on the highest incomes’. El País has also published a full list of the greatest debtors (anyone over 600,000€) to the taxman. Between them, they owe €15,432 million.
‘Spain’s national bank has clarified its ability to take remaining funds out of accounts that fail to make transactions for two decades, legally considering it State property for being abandoned’, says The Olive Press here.
From RTVE here: ‘Spain is one of the three countries—the others being Italy and Australia—in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) where wages have fallen the most since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to this organization, although real wages have grown by 2% over the past year, they are still 2% below the level of the first quarter of 2021, and it also predicts that they will not rebound in Spain in either 2026 or 2027’.
From Público here: ‘The regularization process has made its first mark by bringing 159,097 migrant workers out of the informal economy. The process has received over one million applications, of which 609,737 people have already received provisional work permits, increasing the number of people registered with Social Security’.
And yet… ‘Spain jobless total falls below 2.3 million for first time since January 2008’ says EuroNews here.
Little has been written about those foreign workers who are leaving Spain, generally to return to their home countries. ‘Almost a third of Romanian and Bulgarian workers are leaving the country due to stagnant wages and high housing costs’, says La Cope here. ‘In 2012 Romanians made up nearly 900,000 living in Spain; and now only 609,000 remain, and that's because money goes further in their home country’.
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Politics:
The leftist group Sumar is in trouble as Yolanda Díaz said recently that she would not stand in the next general election (foreseeably in May next year). Another senior member in the party, Lara Hernández, has also pulled out as possible leader, leaving the path clear, says 20Minutos, for the Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun to be chosen at the upcoming party summit this Saturday.
The Government is keen to sign the Ley de Nietos, where grandchildren of émigrés, particularly those who escaped Spain after the Civil War, should be given Spanish nationality and, Gasp!, voting rights. While Feijóo was in favour of this a couple of years ago, he now, needless to say, isn’t. From El País in English here: ‘Beneficiaries of Spain’s ‘grandchildren law’: ‘Spanish nationality is a bond with my grandparents’. Six descendants of Spanish émigrés recount their experience as new citizens of a country that many have never been to – yet has always been a part of their identity’. Once again I say: there are seven million foreign residents living and paying taxes in Spain who have no representation.
‘Vox calls on the Central Electoral Board to deprive Spaniards residing abroad of the right to vote by mail’. An item from El País here. CERA voters (Censo Electoral de Residentes Ausentes) typically don’t bother to vote in Spanish elections, whether national, regional or local). They can be a nuisance when they do vote, as they will likely be influenced by anything and everything short of onsite experience. The largest number of expatriate voters live in Argentina. Newtral explores the system here.
José Manuel García-Margallo (wiki), the retired foreign minister for the Rajoy government, is often on the radio with his opinions. Here at El Huff Post, we read of Margallo’s frontal resistance to la Prioridad Nacional: "Of course it's illegal. Not only is it illegal, but it's also contrary to the Constitution and the agreements of the European Union. Nationality is not a distinguishing criterion when the two people vying for aid have the same ties to the community," he stated. ‘The PP and Vox exploit the fear of immigration’. With video.
El Mundo says that ‘The PP believes that Vox will "suffer more" in government than outside of it: "They can no longer attack us as before." Regional leaders and national figures are discounting any head-on collision with Santiago Abascal's party’.
What Spain needs, it goes without saying, is another fascist party. From El Español (who else?) here: ‘Iván Rico, an administrative worker, far-right extremist, and son of a former PP councillor, removes his mask to launch the Noviembre Nacional party’.
From El Periódico here: ‘Trump calls Spain "a lost cause" and orders the end of all trade ties. "They are a terrible ally, and I want nothing to do with Spain; I want trade to end immediately, without even asking them," Trump said Wednesday at the start of the NATO summit’. CNBC is more brutal: ‘“Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate. They don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits,” Trump said at a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. “Don’t even talk to them. They’re hopeless, bad people,” the president said’. El Plural says that ‘From La Moncloa (the President’s residence) they point out that, legally, the president of the United States cannot make this decision against an individual country of the European Union, and furthermore that Spain maintains "a magnificent relationship" with the United States’.
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Andalucía:
Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla (PP) and Manuel Gavira (Vox) were sworn in on Sunday. ‘Juanma and Manolo (their folksy names), seemingly out of nowhere, are already hard at work in Andalucía, governing with a program that will cut public services, further privatize healthcare and education, combat feminism, promote bullfighting as a major cultural endeavour, and protect the exploitation of immigrant labour in agriculture, all while promising xenophobia in all their public policies. That's essentially what their governing agreement says’ (Opinion from Juanlu Sánchez). From El Plural here: ‘To secure his investiture as president of the Andalusian Regional Government, Juanma Moreno signed a 60-page document tying the stability of his government to 150 measures demanded by Vox. The Partido Popular had to cede significant power to the far-right, granting them a vice-presidency and a large ministry with a budget of €1,200 million, in addition to committing to jointly approve the regional budgets between 2027 and 2030.
From Diario de Almería here: ‘The regional government will eliminate extra-curricular Arabic language classes in 38 schools and institutes in Almería. The regional government will not renew the Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture Program, implemented in 38 educational centres in the province and aimed primarily at students of Moroccan origin’. In all, over ninety schools across the region were offering these classes: mainly in Cádiz, Granada and Almería.
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Health:
From elDiario.es here: ‘The world's largest pulmonology society calls for a ban on quartz countertops and criticizes industry tactics. An official report from the American Thoracic Society concludes that preventative measures are failing to stop the global silicosis epidemic caused by engineered stone and accuses manufacturers like Cosentino of acting like the asbestos industry’.
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Crime and Punishment:
An extraordinary development as Begoña Gómez asks Judge Peinado to join her husband Pedro Sánchez in Ankara at the NATO summit and also to visit London for the graduation of her daughter. Rather than answer, Judge Peinado has gone on holiday. A substitute judge then returns her passport (temporarily) allowing Gómez to visit London, but not Ankara. The government is understandably indignant about the President’s wife being barred from the NATO trip (on a trumped-up charge), as this is humiliating for the Spanish delegation.
A warning to Feijóo: you’re going to make a martyr out of Begoña Gómez. Lefty voters will come out from under stones, says Marc Giró in a letter to the conservative leader here.
From El Plural here. ‘The UCO (Central Operative Unit of the Guardia Civil) points to Judge Antonio Viejo for continuing to obstruct the tax investigation into Alberto González Amador, Ayuso's boyfriend. The agents believe that the judge is "greatly hindering" the investigation by not allowing them to receive information from the Tax Agency’.
Do I make an unseemly fuss about ‘lawfare’? According to a poll, ‘Over six out of ten Spaniards believe that 'lawfare' exists and that judges are influenced by their political ideology. The poll commissioned for Cadena Ser and El País analyses public perception of the justice system. A majority of those surveyed believe the judiciary acts slowly, guided by economic or partisan interests, and without sufficient oversight or controls’. The results: Yes it exists: 65%. No, it doesn’t exist: 11%. (Don’t knows, 24%). EuroNews explains that ‘The term ‘lawfare’, used to describe the instrumentalization of judicial processes for political purposes, does not have a single legal definition and divides parties, jurists, and citizens’.
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Media:
Feijóo calling for elections every single day, says Miguel Charisteas on his video-blog here, just as the doctors recommend.
John Major (in an anti-Brexit interview with The Independent) talking about Nigel Farage’s Reform party: ‘the thing is, they don’t offer any inspiration or hope’. He could have equally been talking about Santiago Abascal’s Vox.
El Mundo notices a spare bunch of flowers at the reception of the NATO leaders in Ankara. Were they for the wife of Pedro Sánchez?
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Ecology:
From La Cope in Logroño here: ‘Traveling 100 kilometres in an electric car costs between 2 and 3 euros, while a gasoline vehicle costs between 10 and 15 euros for the same distance. The region surpasses the national average in sales of electrified vehicles, but the charging infrastructure and the adaptation of the vehicle fleet are progressing at a different pace’.
From Collapse 2050 here: ‘How to stay cool without Air/Con. 20 practical ideas’.
A normal electric fan, running for eight hours while you sleep, will cost you about six céntimos says a mathematician on Facebook.
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Various:
An interesting article compares the end of the Spanish empire in the 18th century with the apparent end of the American one today. From Jacobin here: ‘America’s Empire Is Ending Much Like Spain’s Did. As the US celebrates its 250th, it has begun to resemble the decadent Spanish Empire it replaced: producing nothing while collecting rents, sacrificing its interior to enrich a bloated elite, and embracing exclusionary nationalism to exploit its underclass’.
On Tuesday, a town hall plenary session in Carboneras (Almería) finally agreed to the annulment of the 2003 hotel license in the El Algarrobico area. Any demolition must still be challenged by the courts.
‘A spacecraft developed in Spain will attempt to land on an asteroid for the first time. That is the objective of Don Quijote, the CubeSat being led by the Spanish company EMXYS as part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Ramses (Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety). If successful, the mission will mark a milestone for the Spanish space industry and allow for unprecedented study of the behaviour of the asteroid named Apophis during its historic close approach to Earth in 2029’. Nova Ciencia has the details here.
Pamplona. From the Associated Press here: ‘Hemingway’s masterpiece on Spain’s bull runs, The Sun also Rises turns 100 years old with its allure intact’. I once ‘ran the bulls’ in Pamplona – a very frightening experience!
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Letters:
Deaf as a Post. I know exactly what you mean Lenox! Someone will ask me a question, and I will answer with a "yes" and if they look at me in a funny way then I change it to "no". It normally works!
Gordon
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Finally:
Jenny and The Mexicats Ft. La Roqueta - La Bruja on YouTube here.
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