It’s the bombshell announcement that’s left Spain bewildered and raised eyebrows across Europe. Citing exasperation with right-wing attacks on his family, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he is taking time off to decide whether he wants to keep running the country. “Should I continue to lead this government or renounce this highest of honors?” Sánchez wrote in a four-page letter posted on his X account. “I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?” Sánchez’s announcement cam ..read more

Spain has less racism than “any other country,” its football league boss said, despite the ongoing abuse by rival fans of Real Madrid’s Black superstar Vinícius Júnior. Javier Tebas, the powerful president of La Liga, Spain’s top men’s professional football division where Real Madrid plays, said “if we compare ourselves with other countries’ behavior, I think we have a lot less racism than in any other country,” during an exclusive interview this week with POLITICO. Vinícius, a Brazilian forward, has become a lightning rod for criticism and racist attacks around Spanish football stadiums since ..read more

MADRID — The lower chamber of the Spanish parliament approved the government’s Catalan amnesty bill, meaning the contentious legislation has overcome a major hurdle on the way to implementation. The bill received 178 votes in favor and 172 votes against, and it will now go to the Senate. The amnesty initiative seeks to lift pending legal action against Catalan nationalists for separatist activity, particularly for their role in a failed 2017 bid for independence. More than 300 nationalists are estimated to benefit if the law is implemented, including former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont ..read more

The Venice Commission, a legal advisory body to the Council of Europe, is set to endorse a Spanish amnesty law, according to a draft opinion seen by Spanish media. The legal adviser found that “national unity and social and political reconciliation are legitimate objectives,” and backed in principle the amnesty bill that would guarantee immunity to people prosecuted for their involvement with the pro-Catalan independence movement since 2012. However, the Venice Commission warned against rushing the legislative process and encouraged Spanish authorities and civil society to take the n ..read more

RIPOLL, Spain — In Catalonia, the issue of independence from Spain has hogged the political limelight for years. Now the focus is shifting to immigration. The emergence of a new far-right, pro-independence and anti-migrant party, plus the fallout from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s deal with the pro-independence Junts per Catalunya party in order to stay in power, have resulted in a hardening of language of migration which mirrors that seen elsewhere across the bloc. In January, Junts announced that it had won concessions from the Spanish government that would give the region control of its “m ..read more

BRUSSELS — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says France’s tomatoes just can’t ketchup to his country’s produce. During the past week French politicians, under pressure from striking farmers, have expressed solidarity with protesters who claim their Spanish counterparts enjoy an unfair advantage because they are subject to less demanding environmental standards and can therefore produce fruit and vegetables at a lower cost.  On Sunday, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal appeared to support this argument during a visit to a farm in Indre-et-Loire, telling a farmer that it was ..read more

BRUSSELS — The president of Spain’s Catalonia region, Pere Aragonès, describes himself as an optimist. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t seem overly troubled by the Spanish parliament’s failure to pass a landmark bill Tuesday granting a blanket amnesty to everyone involved in the Catalan independence movement — though he did gently scold the separatist lawmakers who pumped the brakes on the controversial legislation. The amnesty bill was blocked by members of the pro-independence Junts party, whose votes are crucial for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s socialist-led government to pass legislation in ..read more

Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party, is under investigation following incendiary remarks he made about Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. During an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarín on December 10, Abascal suggested a time might come when people would want to “hang [Sánchez] by the feet.”  The Spanish prosecutor’s office, as reported Friday by Spanish outlet El País and confirmed by elDiario.es, will determine whether Abascal’s statements constitute crimes of slander, libel, hate and discrimination, or serious threats to the government. Social ..read more

MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez narrowly avoided a humiliating parliamentary defeat on Wednesday, although the refusal of one of his Catalan nationalist allies to support him cast doubt on the stability of the country’s new government. Sánchez, whose Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) formed a governing coalition with the leftist Sumar in November, was seeking to push through Congress a number of measures contained in three separate laws that had already been introduced via decree in December.  The legislation, which required parliamentary approval to remain in effect, included ..read more

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) has filed a complaint after an effigy of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was battered during a New Year’s Eve demonstration in Madrid. The Socialists asked the prosecutor’s office to identify the perpetrators, saying the doll’s “lynching” could constitute “incitement to hatred” against Sánchez, Spanish media reported Friday. Sánchez has faced months of outrage after he secured a new term in the top job by offering an amnesty deal to Catalan separatists in exchange for their political support for his government. The right-wing opposition, many i ..read more