Displaying items by tag: Spain

On 27 June, amid a Europe-wide heatwave, a forest fire in Catalonia raged out of control, despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters working through the night. It broke out on 26 June, and had destroyed over 10,000 acres by the next morning. Already thirty people have been evacuated from farmhouses, and the regional government warned that it could eventually devour 50,000 acres. It may have been caused by manure in a farm generating enough heat to explode and produce sparks. Much of Europe is gripped in a record-breaking heatwave that could send thermometers above 40 C (104 F).

The Socialists won the recent Spanish election, but far-right party Vox will enter parliament for the first time. Vox opposes multiculturalism, migration, and feminism. Italy's deputy PM from the right-wing League party congratulated ‘our friends in Vox for joining the parliament in Spain’. Its views on immigration and Islam place it in line with far-right and populist parties elsewhere in Europe. With European elections only weeks away, nationalist and far-right parties across Europe are sensing an opportunity for a rise in European nationalism. Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement has common cause with Germany's main opposition party, AfD, the Finns Party, the Danish People's Party (who seize migrants’ property to pay bills), Austria's Freedom Party, France's National Rally, Sweden’s anti-immigration party, and several others, including Nigel Farage’s Brexit party. See

In a bitter row over the sovereignty of Gibraltar, Spain has threatened to block visa-free access to the EU for Britons. Madrid refuses to back down on a controversial description of Gibraltar. Spain has made numerous attempts to use Brexit in its efforts to snatch back sovereignty of the Rock from Britain. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez faces a general election on 28 April. The British government maintains that Gibraltar is not a colony, and will continue to defend its overseas territory. During a meeting of EU ambassadors earlier this month, Sir Tim Barrow, the UK’s permanent EU representative, battled with his counterparts in protest at the move to brand the Rock a ‘colony’. ‘Gibraltar is not a colony, and it is completely inappropriate to describe it in this way. Gibraltar is a full part of the UK family’, he stated.

Last year an investigation revealed that the ruling elite of Azerbaijan operated a €2.5 billion slush fund and international money-laundering scheme, known as the Azerbaijani Laundromat. Three Spanish politicians (Pedro Agramunt, Agustín Conde Bajén and Jordi Xuclá), delegates to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), are suspected of benefiting from the Laundromat in return for watering down human rights criticism of the country’s repressive authoritarian regime - including vote-rigging in the 2015 election. Later an independent investigation found that Azerbaijan had played a role in Agramunt’s appointment as political party leader and PACE president. He had rigged votes at PACE in favour of Azerbaijan, and removed criticism of its authorities in draft reports on Azerbaijan human rights. These Spanish politicians have faced no criminal penalties, and the Council of Europe admits that not enough has been done.

Prime minister Pedro Sánchez says that Spain will reject the draft Brexit deal unless the status of Gibraltar is clarified. Spain claims the peninsula, ceded to the UK by a 1713 treaty, and wants to ensure that future EU talks with the UK do not cover it. Throughout the Brexit negotiations, Spain - along with Ireland and Cyprus - has conducted separate talks with the UK about specific border issues. On 19 November foreign minister Josep Borrell said that talks on Gibraltar had to be ‘separate negotiations’, and Mr Sánchez followed up by emphasising that any future negotiations should only be bilateral, without involvement by the EU.

Violent storms battered Italy, killing at least 11 people. Venice’s St Mark’s Square was inundated and the adjacent basilica had its baptistry totally flooded and its mosaic floors covered by 35 inches (89 cm) of water. ‘The basilica has aged twenty years in just one day, and perhaps I am being overly optimistic about that,’ said the church’s chief administrator. ‘It is becoming ever more difficult for us, and indeed could become impossible for us to repair the damage, especially in an age of climate change.’ Meanwhile, heavy snow in parts of Spain left two mountain hikers missing, and a tornado ravaged Menorca,leaving 38,000 people without power. See

The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC Spain) has fined UK’s Revelation TV 6,000 Euro. The Christian ministry has broadcast in Spain through satellite since 2012. The fine comes after an individual complained to CNMC about one of the two-hour programmes which discussed a homosexuality news item for 13 minutes. The licensing authority said the show’s comments could be considered 'threatening to the dignity of homosexual and transgender groups'. Revelation’s CEO said, ‘The programme was expressing a biblical view on the subject and homophobia had no part in it. We will take the matter through the courts if necessary. Our lawyers said that if they find us guilty they will have to find every Roman Catholic Church guilty also. Revelation TV is a Christian station, owned by a charity, dealing with issues form a Christian perspective. We look at the news, we have Bible study, worship, church services and everything you would expect of a Christian TV station.’

Spain acted on 9 May to stop pro-independence politicians in Catalonia voting in ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, now in Germany, as their regional head, with an important deadline looming. The constitutional court accepted a government appeal against a new Catalan law that would allow Puigdemont to be elected at a distance while he waits for German courts to rule on a Spanish request to extradite him. This means the law will be blocked until the court makes a final decision, which could take months. Catalan lawmakers must pick a leader to form a government by 22 May, to avert more elections and plot a path out of a seven-month standoff which has given Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, its worst dose of instability in decades.

Investigations are ongoing to identify, tackle and dismantle organised crime groups involved in movements of migrants entering Europe via the Western Mediterranean Route to the UK. Recently, Europol supported Spanish Guardia Civil in dismantling a criminal group smuggling Spanish migrants and refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria into the UK. The gang used regular ferries from the northern Spanish ports of Santander and Santurtzi to carry out their criminal activities. Their modus operandi was to smuggle the migrants through restricted areas at the ports and hide them in trailers, containers, caravans and lorries waiting to board the ferries in restricted parking bays.

Migrants have clashed with Spanish police in Madrid after the death of a Senegalese street vendor who they say had been chased by officers. Protesters set fire to a motorbike and dustbins and threw stones. At least 19 people were lightly injured in the clashes, and ten police officers were hurt. Officials say Mame Mbaye Ndiaye, said to be in his mid-30s, was found unconscious and died of a heart attack. Protesters said he had arrived in Spain by boat twelve years ago. He reportedly worked as a vendor illegally and sent money back to his family. Last year it was reported that the number of asylum-seekers arriving in Spain had tripled in a year, because it was seen as a safer route into Europe.