Year: 2020

The new coalition government will include five members from the left-wing, anti-austerity Podemos party and three of its four deputy prime ministers will be women. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias will be the deputy prime minister in charge of social rights and sustainable development. His fellow party heavyweight, and wife, Irene Montero becomes the minister of equality. Also from Podemos, Yolanda Díaz will be minister of employment; Alberto Garzón, Health minister […]

The Spanish coastguard reported rescuing approximately 200 migrants on Christmas Day – as attempts continue apace by thousands of desperate people. These can be added to the 150 who arrived last Friday via fifteen boats in the waters of the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Murcia and Alicante. The United Nation’s International Organisation for Migration said a reported 1,246 people died in 2019, making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Three men who are currently on remand have been accused of being members of a terrorist organisation, as part of the conclusions from the National Court’s investigation into the 2017 Barcelona terrorist attacks. The defendants were not accused of murder however, as those who carried out the attacks were all killed by police in the days after the attack or in an explosion the days before.

Spanish soldiers have been withdrawn from Iraq amid mounting tensions between the US and Iran. Ten Spanish troops that were part of a NATO operation in Baghdad have now been moved to Kuwait. Spain has an additional 550 troops stationed at the Besmayah base, southeast of Baghdad.

Socialist PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez took the oath as prime minister yesterday, a day after his proposal to form a leftist coalition government narrowly won a parliamentary confidence vote with support from smaller parties. With the oath-taking before Spanish King Felipe VI, Sánchez ended months of political deadlock following a deal with the anti-austerity Podemos party. The Socialist-led coalition faces the daunting task of trying to rein in separatist tensions […]