The Spain Report
By Matthew Bennett
issues
A King, A Sword and a Communist Guillotine
The King of Spain travelled to a Far-off Land for a Splendid Ceremony and the ceremony was to celebrate a New President and the New President ordered the soldiers to bring out The National Sword and the soldiers obeyed their New President and the Sacred Blade…
Sánchez rebukes Spanish regions on energy rebellions but opposition wants "disastrous" law withdrawn
Spain's Energy Minister is disappointed. The regions have already started behaving badly with the energy issue. All they had to do was look good for Europe and they're already messing it all up: "It was, well, hmmm, maybe a bit...disheartening", said Teresa R…
Are the media in Spain scaring women?
At the end of July, Cadena SER reported 90% of women in Spain were terrified of going out in case they were sexually assaulted, according to one study in Málaga. This week, the media is awash with stories of a new reason for ladies to worry in Spain, "spiking…
Ordinary Spaniards ordered to switch off shop lights but major national monuments will keep shining bright
The Spanish government has ordered a 27ºC maximum temperature when using air conditioning and a 19ºC maximum when using heating, and has also ordered the closure of all doors to maintain said temperatures, and that shop-window and public building lights be tu…
No shit Spanish tanks for Ukraine
Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles yesterday admitted to reporters that Ukraine wouldn't be getting the Leopard tanks Spain had promised the embattled nation because, well, they don't work: "they are in an absolutely terrible state", she said. A fuller…
Unemployment always goes down in July in Spain. It just went up. Manufacturing PMI warns of coming recession
Unemployment is always supposed to go down in Spain in July becuase of summer tourism jobs. Not this year. The number has gone up by 3,230 people across the country. The surprising result comes after several months of strong jobs numbers for Pedro Sánchez's s…
Might Sánchez announce Spanish recognition of Kosovo?
There is a new Balkan problem, in August. NATO issued a statement on Kosovo and Serbia late on Sunday night. It said the Western military alliance is ready "to intervene if stability is jeapordised" and that KFOR would take "whatever measures are necessary to…
Spain's very offensive beach poster and a suggestion for how the Equality Minister might repair the damage
The Spanish Equality Ministry, led by Irene Montero (Podemos), has achieved a notorious result in the field of governmental stupidity this week, with thoroughly negative implications for that idea known as Brand Spain and a lack of oversight that will likely …
37 dead on Spain's border with Morocco: will there be Justice and a systemic analysis of failings?
Morocco says there were 23. NGOs say there were 37. The chances of an independent investigation to find out the real number would seem to be slim. However many there are, they are dead, their bodies somewhere on the Moroccan side of the border with Spanish No…
Casado says Vox and Abascal are populist radical destructive "bitter fruit" that make everything worse
In his speech on Tuesday evening, Popular Party leader Pablo Casado spitefully called Santiago Abascal and Vox, his political brothers on the Spanish right, who had spent the election campaign with the slogan "sow" [the seeds, fields, countryside], as destruc…
PP refuses to accept reality of having to govern with Vox
The Popular Party tried to keep moving forward on Monday with the version of events it had thought would happen before it called the regional elections: governing by itself in Castilla y León. Vox and the PSOE should abstain to allow that to happen. Both Vox …
Vox demands top job in regional government PP minority win in Castilla
The Popular Party has managed to improve its result by two seats in the regional parliament in Castilla y León but has lost 60,000 votes and o.04 percentage points of support. Instead of having Ciudadanos in its regional government, like before Christmas, wit…
Polls suggest right-wing coalition in Castilla y León
Bonus: podcast here with Rupert Cocke on Castilla y León elections and Vox vs. PPWhile the world's athletes compete in the Winter Games in China and the West looks worriedly towards Ukraine and the build up of Russian troops on the border, now with an open th…
Vox, Le Pen, Orban and Morawiecki in Madrid
Europe's far right, or alt right or very traditional conservative right is having a big meeting in Madrid this weekend, hosted by Vox. France's Marine Le Pen and Hungary's Viktor Orban have already turned up. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is coming…
Does any voter in Spain watch all the propaganda?
The official regional election campaign in Castilla y León begins tomorrow. All the parties have already been on their media campaigns for several days. They have multiplied the intensity of their social media messaging by ten. Candidates appear around every …
Should Spain and the West do more in Ukraine?
Allied efforts to try to present a united, principled front on the Ukraine crisis appeared to waver today. European and NATO messaging attempted to calm growing apprehension. US, British, Australian and Canadian goverments made warnings about the situation or…
Will global events crash the elections in Castilla y León?
Unless an unexpected black swan appears, the main news stories for the next two or three weeks in Spain are going to be the regional elections in Castilla y León, the international crisis with NATO and the EU against Russia in Ukraine, and the ongoing, seemin…
How will Spain react to the Ukraine crisis?
The Ukraine crisis catches Spain in the run up to the regional elections in Castilla y León on February 13. This weekend, Western leaders seem to be taking the Russian invasion as a given, now imminent. More weapons are arriving in Ukraine or nearby countries…
Strategy & Journalism 2022 (v, conclusions & your role)
The long termPaths and formatsReporting operationsDaily battlesConclusions and your roleSo now we have: Spain + independent journalism + independence from political power + readers who guarantee it + 21st century technologies + newsletter, podcast, video repo…
Strategy & Journalism (iv, daily battles)
We had imagined journalism over the long term, devised a strategy to deal with it and deployed some resources towards a specific news story. Now what? Part IV of the review of my journalism. Read here:https://www.thespainreport.es/articles/720-220110123948-st…