Category Archives: Spain

Basque election: leftwing coalition partly descended from Eta leads in polls

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Surveys suggest EH Bildu’s focus on health, housing and employment is attracting younger voters

A leftwing coalition of Basque separatists, partly descended from the political wing of the defunct terrorist group Eta, could become the largest party in the Basque Country’s parliament after an election in the northern Spanish region on Sunday.

Latest polls suggest that EH Bildu, which is led by a convicted Eta member who later played a key role in persuading the group to end its armed campaign for an independent Basque homeland, has edged ahead of its rivals in the Basque Nationalist party (PNV).

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Barcelona bus route removed from map apps to tackle tourist overcrowding

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Residents welcome removal of number 116 route, often used to get to Park Güell

While some places will go to any lengths to attract visitors, residents of La Salut neighbourhood in Barcelona are celebrating a move to wipe themselves off the map.

For years, residents had complained that they could not get home because the number 116 bus was always crammed with tourists visiting Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell. The park is the city’s second most popular attraction after the Sagrada Familia basilica.

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Weather tracker: Gulf braced for thunderstorms

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Heavy rain forecast in Saudi Arabia and UAE as France and Spain cool down after weekend of high temperatures

Intense thunderstorms are forecast across parts of the Gulf on Monday and Tuesday, bringing very high rainfall to the region and a significant flooding risk in parts.

Low pressure over the Arabian peninsula will deepen on Monday while a flow of moist tropical air moves into the region, significantly enhancing the production of showers as a result.

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‘It’s eating what the sea provides’: Galicia’s Atlantic diet eclipses Mediterranean cousin

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In Fisterra in north-west Spain, a diet rich in seafood, fruit and vegetables survives, and has been found to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart-related conditions

Seagulls shriek, boats bob and the morning sun silvers the waters off the Coast of Death as two sailors take a break from winding up their conger eel lines to ponder the sudden interest in precisely what, and how, people here have eaten for centuries.

Like many in the small Galician fishing town of Fisterra – whose name is derived from the Latin for land’s end, because the lonely peninsula on which it sits is about as far west as you can go in mainland Spain – Sito Mendoza and Ramón Álvarez are a little puzzled by all the fuss over the Atlantic diet.

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Ireland and Spain reiterate plan to form alliance to recognise state of Palestine

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Leaders of two nations vow to muster international support for two-state solution to Gaza crisis

Ireland and Spain have reiterated their intention to forge an alliance of countries that will soon recognise Palestine as a nation state.

The Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris, and Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, vowed on Friday to muster international support for a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine.

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UK and EU ‘within kissing distance’ of post-Brexit Gibraltar border deal

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Gibraltar’s chief minister says progress made in talks about free movement across border with Spain

The UK and the EU are within “kissing distance” of a post-Brexit deal to guarantee free movement over the border between Gibraltar and Spain, Gibraltar’s chief minister has said.

After a meeting between the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, agreement was reached on issues that have dogged negotiations for the past five years.

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Irish taoiseach and Spanish PM to discuss Palestine nation state plan

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Pedro Sánchez is first foreign premier Simon Harris will meet since becoming leader

The new Irish taoiseach is to meet the Spanish prime minister to discuss their joint plan to recognise Palestine as a nation state and their attempts to force the EU to assess Israel’s human rights obligations as a condition of their trade deal with the bloc.

Pedro Sánchez, who is due to arrive in Dublin on Friday, is the first foreign premier Simon Harris will meet since his promotion to the office of the taoiseach this week.

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How Spain and Ireland became the EU’s sharpest critics of Israel

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Each time Madrid and Dublin speak out on the war in Gaza others are emboldened to join them, sources say

Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the Israeli military’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza on Monday night was “a tragic incident” did precious little to allay the fears of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Nor did his assertion that “this happens in wartime”.

Sánchez, who has been one of the most outspoken and persistent European critics of the way in which Israel has prosecuted its war in Gaza after the terrorist atrocities of 7 October, described the Israeli prime minister’s “supposed explanations” as “totally unacceptable and insufficient”. He added that Spain was waiting for a full and detailed account of the killings before deciding “what action we’ll take with regard to the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu”.

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‘I wanted to ask why’: goalkeeper in Spain banned for reacting to alleged racial abuse

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  • Cheikh Sarr of Rayo Majadahonda given two-match ban
  • Goalkeeper was sent off after going into crowd to confront fan

Spanish football’s commitment to combatting racism has come under fire after its football federation handed a two-match ban to a goalkeeper who went into the stands to confront a man who had allegedly racially abused him.

The accusations of racism – the latest to rock Spanish football in recent weeks – were launched on Saturday as Rayo Majadahonda took on Sestao River Club in a third-tier match in northern Spain. As the match ticked into its final moments, the Rayo Majadahonda goalkeeper Cheikh Sarr, who was born in Senegal, said he heard racial slurs being hurled at him.

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Outrage in Spain as video shows Madrid police ‘violence’ on unarmed black men

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Leftwing parties call for government action after footage of incident in Lavapiés spread on social media

Leftwing parties in Spain are demanding explanations after a video appeared to show a pair of police officers using violent force on two unarmed black men in a central Madrid neighbourhood.

The video, shot on Friday in Lavapiés, appears to show one of the men on the ground and immobilised by a police officer who seemingly has him in a chokehold. A second police officer appears to then strike the immobilised man twice with a baton before grabbing and punching another man standing nearby.

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Nile crocodiles and Burmese python among rare species seized in Spain

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Other endangered animals rescued in 2023 included a burrowing parrot, an African spurred tortoise and a blood-eared parakeet

Specialist wildlife police in eastern Spain have rescued an exotic list of endangered animals over the past year, including a pair of Nile crocodiles, an African spurred tortoise weighing 25kg and a 2-metre Burmese python.

The Seprona division of the Guardia Civil said in a statement on Sunday that its officers recovered “numerous examples” of species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora during 2023.

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‘A family used to live here’: The Spanish sticker rebellion battling tourist lets

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Tired of overtourism pushing up rental prices, Málaga locals have found a novel way to vent their anger

Incensed after finding out his rental home of 10 years was about to become a tourist apartment, Dani Romero took to social media. What followed swiftly snowballed into a movement, as residents in Málaga began plastering stickers – reading “A family used to live here” or “Go home” – outside tourist lets across the southern Spanish city.

“I didn’t mean to arm a revolution,” said Romero. “I’m just looking for a house to live in.”

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Easter processions cancelled in southern Spain due to rainstorms

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Spain is hit by strong winds and rain from Storm Nelson and four drown on storm-battered coasts

Easter processions in southern Spain have been cancelled after heavy rain from Storm Nelson, as the country was hit by strong winds and four people drowned on its storm-battered coasts.

All of the big processions in Seville on Holy Thursday were cancelled because of the rainstorms that were otherwise welcome in a region that has been experiencing a severe drought.

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Luis Rubiales faces possible 30-month jail sentence for Jenni Hermoso kiss

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  • Spanish prosecutors issue two charges against Rubiales
  • Three others alleged to have coerced Hermoso

Luis Rubiales could face a prison sentence of two and a half years if convicted of kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips against her will, court documents have shown. The former Spanish football federation chief has been charged with one count of sexual assault and one of coercion in the aftermath of the kiss, offences carrying jail terms of one year and 18 months respectively.

The 46-year-old grabbed ­Hermoso and kissed her on the lips on 20 August during the awards ceremony after Spain beat England in the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney, sparking global outrage and ­causing a national debate in Spain about ­sexism. ­Hermoso and her teammates said the kiss was unwanted and demeaning, but Rubiales argued it was consensual and denied any wrongdoing.

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Campaigners in Spain call for more to be done about racism in football

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Real Madrid star Vinícius Júnior’s tearful comments prompt questions over why racist fans can still act with impunity

Antiracism campaigners in Spain have called on the country’s institutions to do more to crack down on racism in football, after Real Madrid winger Vinícius Júnior laid bare the personal toll exacted by years of racist insults.

Breaking down in tears as he spoke of the systematic barrage of abuse he had faced at more than 10 Spanish grounds, the Brazilian player told reporters on Monday that the situation had “gotten worse” during his time on the pitch.

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EU nature restoration laws face collapse as member states withdraw support

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Brussels vote cancelled after it became clear law would not pass final stage with majority vote

The EU’s nature restoration laws appear on the verge of collapse after eight member states, including Hungary and Italy, withdrew support for the legislation.

The laws, which have been two years in the making and are designed to reverse decades of damage to wildlife on land and in waterways, were supposed to be rubber-stamped in a vote on Monday.

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Dani Alves leaves Spanish jail after paying €1m bail

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Ex-Barcelona footballer on provisional release from prison term while he appeals against rape conviction

The former Brazil international footballer Dani Alves has been allowed out on bail having served 14 months of a four-and-a-half-year sentence for rape.

One of the world’s most decorated footballers, Alves, 40, was found guilty last month of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the early hours of 31 December 2022.

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Weather tracker: Flood fallout claims at least 20 lives in Brazil

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Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in Iberia

Brazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in places. Cumulative totals from Friday through Sunday were close to 250mm, particularly along the coast: this is far higher than the monthly average.

Landslides and mudslides occurred across the region, and a number of houses collapsed. Rescue operations are under way to look for people who may have been stranded by the floods. Although there may still be a few showers over the following days, the worst of the rain has now passed.

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Sagrada Familia in Barcelona ‘will be completed in 2026’

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New date for Antoni Gaudí’s basilica announced but enormous, controversial stairway will take another eight years

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica has a new completion date of 2026, which will come 144 years after the first stone was laid.

The president of the organisation tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the death of the building’s architect.

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Missing migrants’ families say they were asked to pay hundreds for information on relatives

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Families say they were promised details of relatives’ whereabouts after contacting people they thought were linked to NGO in Spain

Families of people who disappeared on the perilous journey from Africa to Europe have said they were asked to pay hundreds of euros in exchange for information about what had happened to their loved ones.

In interviews with the Guardian, three families recounted how, as part of their searches for missing relatives that had gone on for years, they had made contact with people they believed to be connected to an NGO in southern Spain who said they were able to help them.

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