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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October 22 2026 Nº 653
Editorial:
There is an election looming, with two very different possible outcomes. Readers will have already made up their minds, and most of us can’t vote in Spain anyway, but these are the two strains:
The conservatives want to lower taxes and lower services. They would adjust Spain’s military spending towards the 5% of GDP, as demanded by President Trump (preferably with American-made weapons). The banks, industry, the Church, the Judiciary, the Military, most of the media, the nostalgics for Franco and so on will support them.
The progressives (as they call themselves) want to tax the rich, increase social services and aid, are against war and if all went well (as per the CIS poll), they would be in the majority.
The conservatives are two parties (or two-and-a-half if you count the Catalonian secessionist Junts per Catalunya). These are the Partido Popular and Vox. The PP is led by the rather grey Alberto Núñez Feijóo (hard to pronounce, hard to remember) while Vox has the dashing Santiago Abascal, who likes to be seen on horseback or wearing military garb (although he was never in the army or indeed in any civilian job beyond briefly running a bar as a teenager). He is friendly with both Trump and Netanyahu.
The PP has been losing support towards Vox, which is an unashamedly fascist party, and is a member of the European ‘Patriots for Europe’.
The One can’t win the elections without the Other. This would include – in a conservative government – Vox’s leading claims, which include a discriminatory Spaniards First agenda (possibly illegal under European law) called National Priority.
To add to the excitement, a small and eccentric far-right party called Se Acabó la Fiesta might conceivably gain a seat (there are a total of 350 up for grabs).
The Junts would be a useful but disagreeable ally for the conservatives – more so since Vox would like to see it and other secessionist parties banned, even though Junts has taken under its wing the far-right Aliança Catalana, a Catalonian version of Vox.
Vaguely in the centre would be two other regional parties – the PNV and Coalición Canaria.
On the other side, we have Pedro Sánchez (worth five legions just by himself), his PSOE socialist workers party, and what has turned into a large number of splinter groups from the far left which one could head under the title (with a nod to Monty Python) ‘the Judean People’s Front’. The title for alliance of the left has long been taken by Izquierda Unida, a coalition which includes (or included) the Partido Comunista de España, the Partido Socialista Unificado de Cataluña, the Partido de Acción Socialista, the Partido Carlista, the Partido Humanista and the Izquierda Republicana. Over the years, the coalition evolved from a multi-party alliance into a unified political movement organized through regional federations (such as Izquierda Unida-Verdes and Esquerda Unida). With me so far?
Then there is Podemos, which came in strong in 2015 with 69 deputies and has withered ever since (as often as not due to aggressive tactics from the right-wing media and the judiciary) down to just four in the outgoing government. Other groups on the left of the PSOE include the regional ERC (with the shooting star of Gabriel Rufián who… almost… managed to bring everyone together), the Basque EH-Bildu party, an Andalusian one called Adelante Andalucía, plus the survivors of the departed Sumar party – now called Frente Amplio, a coalition of various lefty groups: the above-mentioned Izquierda Unida, plus Más Madrid, Catalunya en Comú (Comuns), Compromís Regional (Valencian Community) and the Verdes Equo. Add to this heady mix, the far-left nationalist Galician BNG.
Trying to get them all together – as everybody on the left was hoping, has turned out to be as hard as herding cats. With some of the small lefty parties presenting candidatures and others joining into an approved lefty coalition, clearly there will be votes that fall between the cracks and thus lower the chances for Pedro Sánchez to return as prime minister.
Of them all, Podemos has proved the most intransigent.
The elections are for the Congreso de los Diputados (350 seats) and el Senado (266).
Furthermore, there are the – I’d call them joke parties: Pacma (the pets’ party), Democracia21 (Miriam González, the wife of Nick Clegg: her father was a senator for the Partido Popular), and at least a dozen others…
The elections are on Sunday, November 29th. There will be two weeks of active campaigning, which means posters everywhere with ‘Vote for Me’ slathered across them, starting on Friday November 13th. Currently, we are in ‘pre-campaigning’ times.
The choices (according to Pedro Sánchez): Elegir entre derechos o derechas: choose between your rights or the right.
……
Housing:
From Diario Qué here: ‘The housing decree requires rental listings to display a reference price and indicate whether the landlord is a «large-scale property owner.» The text has been approved by the Council of Ministers, and just a day later the Ministry of Consumer Affairs opened an investigation into a major real estate portal regarding unfair commercial practices in its listings…’
We read: ‘Alquiler Seguro was fined 3.6 million euros for violating housing laws. In May, another case was opened against a major operator—a matter that is still pending. And just last week, yet another case was initiated against a ‘large real estate portal’ that operates nationwide’.
From The Corner here: ‘According to a study published this Tuesday by Oxfam Intermón, after covering monthly housing expenses, 770,000 employed people cross the poverty threshold—their income does not reach 60% of the median, indicating that they have significantly lower economic resources than average for society as a whole—joining the 2.2 million people who were already in this situation even before facing rent or mortgage payments…’
I ask Google AI, ‘what happens to people who are evicted here?’ The answer (in part): ‘When people are evicted in Spain, they face the loss of their home and the enforcement of a court-ordered vacancy, while local authorities and social services may intervene depending on their vulnerability…’ It says later, once the possible alternatives have been offered – ‘Individuals who lack family support, alternative rental options, or sufficient assistance from municipal social programs are at high risk of temporary or long-term homelessness’.
Google AI (apparently, I should call it Gemini) says ‘An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people experience homelessness or have nowhere to live in Spain, according to official data and social organizations like Hogar Sí and Cáritas’. Spain also has somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 homes with people squatting or with illegal occupation of some sort.
From elDiario.es here: ‘A tax amnesty and a multi-million-euro inheritance: a real estate firm run by two brothers, featuring 1,200 “flex living” apartments in Madrid. After taking advantage of a tax amnesty, the Escoda Huguet brothers inherited a multi-million-euro fortune and launched Twin Peaks Capital—in partnership with BlackRock—while facing ongoing tax disputes over their alleged residency in Andorra and Switzerland. Explainer: The ‘coliving’ and ‘flex living’ boom: terms used by investment funds to circumvent housing laws by renting out individual rooms.
From El País in English here: ‘Endangered heritage: Why Spanish palaces are collapsing. Neglect, rural depopulation and a lack of funds are threatening centuries-old buildings that were once the homes of nobility and royalty. The question of who should assume responsibility for their maintenance remains unanswered’.
……
Tourism:
‘Spain and Italy have agreed to end the temporary border checks that travellers between the two countries have faced since the summer. Pedro Sánchez and Giorgia Meloni agreed to lift the restrictions during talks on the sidelines of the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday’. Item from The Olive Press here.
……
Politics:
El HuffPost warns of ‘The shadow of Trump: how the US midterms could influence Spanish elections. The four weeks between November 3rd (the midterms in USA) and Spain’s November 29th. Between the lead-up, the event itself and the aftermath, there is ample opportunity for all sorts of things to flow through the interconnected channels of politics: encouragement or distress for the far-right, defined agendas, political ammunition, and competing visions of the world. It is easy to think that the shockwave from what happens there could reach us—moving, destabilizing, and shaping us…’
From La Vanguardia here: ‘PSOE spokesperson Montse Mínguez resigns following revelations about her partner’s real estate dealings’. There’s a joke that the boyfriend is rather like the fabled aloe vera plant – the more investigation made, the more properties are discovered.
Gabriel Rufián (ERC) is a popular and clever debater – and the left had hopes that he could bring all the splinter groups into one powerful voice. He failed with the always-prickly Podemos and later apologised to the nation. «I am sorry. I have failed; we have failed.» Speaking on the radio station RAC1 on Friday last week, Gabriel Rufián acknowledged that the attempt to build a unified left-wing ticket for the November 29 elections was dead. The ERC spokesperson admitted that he had believed his own popularity would be enough to convince party leaderships to reach an agreement. Evidently not. The story here.
From El HuffPost here: New party leader Ada Colau presents the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) with a single, pointed reproach for Podemos: «Everything was offered with extreme generosity, right up until the very last minute.»
Podemos has dropped its name from its election posters, simply putting ‘Irene’ (Irene Montero is the candidate) instead. How’s that for hubris?
This is how the candidacies of the alternative left have taken shape, region by region. Frente Amplio and Podemos have not reached a comprehensive agreement and will only run together in the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands. In the rest of the country, there will be more than one list to the left of the PSOE…
From Público here: ‘An outbreak of protests across the country has sparked a new spring of social mobilization. It all began with an encampment focused on housing issues at Sol (Madrid city hall and centre) on September 26th—the result of years of grassroots work. Yet, among the tents, it is clear that the demands are not limited solely to access to decent housing; they also encompass the fight for quality public education and healthcare services capable of meeting the needs of the citizenry…’
President Milei is in Spain this week to add his ha’penny’orth to the conservative cause. From Antena3 here: ‘Early this Wednesday, the PSOE hung a large ironic banner on the facade of its headquarters in Madrid to welcome Argentine President Javier Milei: «Lefties welcome you to Spain—the fastest-growing country in Europe.» The party itself states that they have put up this banner «to make it clear that being a ‘lefty’ is a source of pride.»’.
El País has: ‘The PP and Vox introduce a new ‘sun tax’ in Castilla y León that will levy charges on large-scale solar farms. The regional government has presented a bill on tax measures that expands the scope of the ‘tax on environmental impact’ to include, for the first time, photovoltaic installations, while also increasing the tax burden on wind energy’.
From El Plural here: ‘Andalucía’s Juanma Moreno Bonilla withdraws public funding for the Red Cross, la Fundación Samu and Inserta, citing Vox’s «national priority» policy. The conditions set by Abascal’s party for granting the Partido Popular the key to government in Andalucía are becoming increasingly prominent, as they include the withdrawal of funding for NGOs that provide services to immigrants’.
……
El Senado:
From elDiario.es here. ‘The PSOE and Frente Amplio reach an agreement to field joint lists for the Senate. The Socialists had spent weeks working on a unity proposal—finalized just before the deadline—that they believe could shift the balance in favour of the left’.
From elDiario here: ‘The PP makes its alliance with Vox for governing in Spain visible. Feijóo shifts from promising to govern alone to offering Abascal joint lists for the Senate’.
From Toño Fraguas: ‘During this legislative term, we have learned that the Senate serves more purposes than we had previously assumed. With its absolute majority, the PP has used the upper house as a sounding board for its strategy of wearing down the Government. Now, following an agreement between the PSOE and the Frente Amplio to field joint lists for the Senate on November 29th, the PP has responded by negotiating with Vox—not merely to secure another absolute majority, but to gain control of three-fifths of the chamber. This would allow them to shift the Constitutional Court toward the right for nearly a decade…’
The Spanish Senate (Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales (Spain’s parliament) and functions as a chamber of territorial representation. It is made up of two main groups of senators, totalling around 266 to 267 members depending on the legislative term:
1. Directly Elected Senators (208 members). These members are elected directly by citizens through universal, free, equal, direct, and secret suffrage for a four-year term:
Mainland provinces: Each of the 47 mainland provinces elects 4 senators.
Major islands: Gran Canaria, Mallorca, and Tenerife each elect 3 senators.
Minor/other islands: Ibiza, Formentera, Menorca, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote, and La Palma each elect 1 senator.
Autonomous cities: Ceuta and Melilla each elect 2 senators.
2. Appointed Senators (58 members)
These members are appointed indirectly by the legislative assemblies (parliaments) of the Autonomous Communities to represent regional interests:
Base allocation: Each Autonomous Community appoints 1 senator.
Population allocation: Each Community appoints 1 additional senator for every one million inhabitants in their respective territory.
Because population counts change, the total number of regional appointees can vary slightly per term (currently 58).
……
Europe:
From Euronews in Brussels here: ‘Spain’s prime minister defended the country’s record on tackling irregular migration amid criticism of its mass regularisation plan, while Ursula von der Leyen called for full implementation of the EU migration and asylum pact. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday rejected criticism from several European leaders over Spain’s migration policy and defended his government’s approach to tackling irregular immigration and managing migration flows…’
From Xataca here: ‘Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Vodafone want to join forces to create an alternative to Starlink in Europe’.
Europe is considering fining Google Maps for labelling Ceuta and Melilla as «disputed territories» with Morocco. Is Donald Trump’s hand in this? More at El Economista here.
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Crime and Punishment:
From Cadena Ser here: ‘The UCO (similar to fraud squad) will finally be able to investigate all of (Ayuso’s boyfriend) González Amador’s financial documentation. The Provincial Court has overturned the decision of the investigating judge, who had limited the probe into Alberto González Amador to an analysis of his bank accounts. The Court now allows the UCO to also examine his tax returns and Social Security records’.
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Media:
20Minutos here: ‘Sánchez puts the PSOE on a war footing against the PP’s “chainsaw” approach, with the Far-Left split in two. The Prime Minister rallies his party for a comeback in the Socialist stronghold of Fuenlabrada, while Podemos and the Frente Amplio kick off the pre-election period amid mutual recriminations’.
(Talking of chain-saws) ‘Milei has stated that part of his core convictions lies in fighting against those he defines as «liberticides.» He has included Sánchez in this group, saying of him: «Here is one—and I am going to confront him, because he is going to ruin your lives.» He further characterized Sánchez as a «criminal» and a «thief.» He has reiterated this point on several occasions, asserting that «socialists are corrupt—’Pedrito’ is truly corrupt.» The Foreign Ministry rejects the «attacks and insults» directed by Javier Milei at Pedro Sánchez, accuses him of interference, and labels his behaviour «unworthy.» The Ministry points out that Spain is a sovereign nation that does not tolerate interference’ El Mundo (gleefully) reporting. In fact – no one of importance wanted to receive the Argentinian president during his three-day political visit to Spain – neither Felipe VI, nor Abascal, nor Feijoo, nor (perish the thought) Pedro Sánchez. Only Ayuso in her new offices was prepared to see him.
……
Various:
El Salto Diario (Tuesday) says: ‘The region that invests the least in education and promotes the most segregation: reasons for a strike in Madrid. Teachers in Madrid have once again demonstrated their strength, flooding the streets from the Government Delegation office to the Department of Education on the fifth day of their strike—following the police charges that took place this Monday at an event attended by Ayuso’.
Interview with Vice Admiral Matt Buckley at Info Defensa here. ‘The Royal Australian Navy is the largest international client of the Spanish naval industry, having received over 110,000 tonnes of large vessels since 2014. Its chief, Vice Admiral Matt Buckley, visited Spain on the eve of the National Day on October 12…’
From Sur in English here: ‘’It’s a priority for Ireland to promote our culture and keep it alive around the world’. The new consulate general of Ireland in Málaga was officially inaugurated last month; consul Marylee Wall talks about her first few months in the city’.
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See Spain:
From El Cronista here: ‘Altea (Alicante) is the most beautiful village in Spain: a charming spot with views of the Mediterranean and a cuisine that captivates’. (Thanks to Charles)
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Finally:
Extremoduro – Si te vas… on YouTube here.
