Spanish News

The region tops country poll for quality beaches THE Valencia region – including the Costa Blanca – again tops the Spanish charts for flying the most ‘Blue Flags’ awarded for its quality beaches and marinas. The prized annual awards have been judged and the provinces of Valencia, Alicante and Castellón boast 153 of the 713 that can be hoisted from June across Spain. The Blue Flag status is seen as […]

THE interior ministry reports almost 8,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by boat in the first four months of 2021 – over 58% more than the same period 12 months earlier. Between New Year’s Day and April 30, as many as 7,737 migrants arrived onSpanish soil carried on 390 open boats. In 2020, it was 4,894 over the same period, ferried on 251 small craft. Spain’s Canary Islands, off the […]

NEW legislation to combat the explosion in numbers of wild boar by trapping the animals in cages is being considered by the regional government in Valencia. The growing numbers of boar and the increasing number of problems they can cause has triggered a need to take action. The proposed use of ‘trap cages’ to capture the animals in the controversial bill clashes with existing laws to protect nature. The current […]

SPAIN is planning to charge drivers to use ‘high capacity’ motorways by 2024 and may later roll out tolls to national roads. The plan has been outlined to the European Commission as part of the country’s ‘national recovery plan’ and will affect both passenger cars and lorries. It would mean drivers paying to use both existing toll roads known as ‘autopistas’ and the free of charge motorways or ‘autovias’. The […]

Isabel Diaz Ayuso takes region’s crown SPAIN’S conservative Partido Popular was today celebrating victory in Madrid after one of the most bitterly fought election battles of recent times. The PP’s leadership candidate Isabel Díaz Ayuso underlined her position as a political heavyweight and a rising star of her party after securing 65 seats in the 136-member regional authority, and just four members short of an absolute majority. Combined with the […]

Fugitive arrested at holy communion celebration SPANISH police arrested a ‘most-wanted’ suspect 10 months after he went on the run at a family party to celebrate a first holy communion. Alleged to be part of a major drug trafficking gang, the “extremely slippery” man came out of hiding to attend the celebration at a restaurant in La Algaba, near Seville. First communion celebrations are an important date in the Spanish […]

MADRID went to the polls today to determine the political future of Spain’s richest region after two weeks of aggressive electioneering and drama – including death threats mailed to politicians. Polling stations opened at 9am and people can vote until 8pm in an election currently seen as a litmus paper test for the political landscape of the entire nation in an increasingly polarised country. The snap poll was called by […]

POLICE have arrested a pharmacy worker for selling fake Covid-19 test certificates so they could travel to Morocco. The 24-year-old charged Moroccan nationals €130 for the bogus papers showing they had tested negative for the disease, allowing them to fly home from Spain, dodging strict coronavirus health rules. It was also discovered that the man, who was held in El Ejido, Andalusia, also had a second job running his own […]

MADRID goes to the ballot box today in a snap election to decide the look of the regional government in a bitter battle between left and right. Not since the 1936-39 civil war has Spanish politics seemed so polarised with echoes of the past appearing in party rhetoric as opposing sides label each other ‘reds’ and ‘fascists’. The campaign has been marked with death threat letters and bullets mailed to […]