Former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont returned to Spain Thursday after seven years of self-imposed exile, defying a pending arrest warrant and kicking off a national manhunt to apprehend him, CNBC News reported Thursday. Puigdemont left Spain in 2017 after an unsuccessful referendum to secure independence...
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The Spanish government will introduce a series of measures aimed at curbing the spread of fake news, an initiative the conservative opposition panned as an attempt to censor critical media, especially conservative outlets, while journalists worried it would endanger press freedoms, Reuters reported. On Wednesday, Socialist...
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Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Barcelona this week to protest against mass tourism and its impact on the Catalan city, with locals blaming the rising number of visitors for the rising cost of housing and goods, CBS News reported. Over the weekend, demonstrators...
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The Spanish parliament on Thursday approved a controversial amnesty law for Catalan nationalists involved in the 2017 referendum and failed independence bid, a measure that had previously been blocked by conservatives who called it “corrupt,” the BBC reported. The law passed with a narrow majority with...
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Spain’s Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez won the most votes in Sunday’s regional elections in Catalonia, a victory that dealt a blow to the separatist and pro-independence parties that previously dominated the territory, the BBC reported. Results showed that the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC)...
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Thousands of Spaniards marched in the capital Madrid over the weekend in a show of support for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, days after the left-wing leader announced that he was considering stepping down because of an investigation into his wife for corruption, the Guardian reported. He...
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Spain approved a plan to compensate victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church, with officials saying that the church will finance the compensation, the Associated Press reported this week. On Tuesday, Minister of Presidency and Justice Félix Bolaños said the initiative seeks...
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Tens of thousands of people protested across the Canary Islands over the weekend, calling on authorities to revise the Spanish archipelago’s tourism strategy over concerns that the model has made life unaffordable for the locals and is not sustainable for the environment, the Guardian reported. Demonstrators...
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A plan to forgive Catalan separatists in Spain might have seemed like a political masterstroke when it was first conceived, but the future for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his minority government in Madrid is still far from certain. The exiled leader of the Catalan...
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Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party achieved a political masterstroke to remain in power, but also probably sowed the seeds to reap bitter enmity from his conservative rivals for the rest of his life. In July, when Spanish voters elected a new...
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Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been abused by Spain’s Catholic clergy and lay people, according to a government-initiated probe, the first to investigate the allegations of sex abuses perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church in the country, Voice of America...
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An ambitious new animal welfare law in Spain promises to crack down on animal abuse and forbids the sale of pets even as it makes exceptions for bullfights and hunts with dogs, both longtime Spanish traditions, the Associated Press reported. The new legislation is the first...
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The conservative People’s Party (PP) won the most seats in Spain’s parliamentary elections last month. Because the PP has joined forces with the far-right Vox party, King Felipe VI has invited PP leader Alberto Nuñez Feijóo to form a government. Many observers, however, think Feijóo might...
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Spain enacted a new law this month that will set up a civil registry for stillborn babies, a move that some grieving parents have welcomed but feminist groups have labeled as a “frontal attack” on a woman’s right to an abortion, Euronews reported. Under the new...
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Spain grappled with a political impasse Monday after the results of Sunday’s general elections showed no single party securing the parliamentary majority needed to form a government, CNN reported. The results showed that the center-right Partido Popular (PP) led the race with 136 seats, while the...
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“Sanchismo” might be the wedge issue in Spain’s general election on July 23. That’s because the center-right Partido Popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo and other conservative leaders are expected to defeat Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party – in part, because they...
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The European Union’s General Court rejected an appeal by Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont to maintain his immunity as a lawmaker of the European Parliament, a ruling that could pave the way for his extradition to Spain to face trial, Reuters reported Wednesday. Puigdemont and other...
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Aficionados of Spanish history will likely know that the fascists won the country’s civil war in the 1930s. Socialists took over in the 1980s and 90s, from 2004 until 2011, and again in 2018 when Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party...
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The Spanish government passed a bill this week that will ban “comic” bullfighting events featuring dwarves wearing costumes, a move that disability rights groups welcomed but a few surviving performers criticized, the Associated Press reported. Groups of people with dwarfism – self-styled as “dwarf toreros” –...
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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez apologized this week to sexual assault victims for a legal loophole in landmark legislation that aimed to combat sexual violence – but has also allowed some convicted offenders to be released early and others to receive a reduced sentence, Agence...
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