SPAIN: Child Poverty Rates & more – 13th Nov 2025

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 13th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

First off this week, on Sunday the 9th, a powerful tidal surge linked to an Atlantic storm system struck the Canary Islands, leaving three people dead and fifteen injured.

According to local authorities, the surge, intensified by strong winds and high waves, caused widespread coastal flooding and damage to seafront areas on several islands, including Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

Emergency services responded to numerous rescue calls as people were swept away or injured by debris. Officials had issued warnings ahead of the storm, urging residents and tourists to avoid coastal areas and refrain from taking photos or videos near the rough seas.

Next, a recent study by Funcas, the economic and social research foundation, has revealed that Spain has one of the highest child poverty rates in the EU, at just over 29%, well above the EU average of 19%. The countries with the lowest rates are Denmark, at a little over 10% and Finland, just above 11%.

Despite Spain’s relatively high average income, a growing gap is emerging between generations. The study found that this is driven by several factors, including limited social benefits available to all children and a shortage of affordable housing compared to many other European countries. The study warns that child poverty often carries into adulthood, perpetuating the cycle, so it is important to deal with these issues as soon as possible.

Funcas is now using this evidence to request better solutions from the central government that combine access to education, support for working parents, expanded child benefits, and improved housing.

On Wednesday the 12th, far-right party Vox brought a bill to Congress proposing a ban on the burka and niqab in public spaces.

The burka and niqab are body, hair, and face coverings that women who follow the Islamic religion wear. Pepa Millán, Vox’s party spokesperson, argued the measure aims to protect women coerced into wearing these garments and to defend Spain’s Western identity, which she says is incompatible with Islam.

The proposal includes prison sentences of up to three years for anyone forcing their use and fines of up to 600 euros for wearing them in public.

Initially, Vox did not oppose Islamic veils, supporting parental rights in religious education. However, its alignment with European far-right movements like Marine Le Pen’s and competition with the anti-Islam Catalan party Aliança Catalana has led Vox to adopt this stance.

In other news, on Monday, the 10th, the Vatican launched an investigation into Bishop Rafael Zornoza of Cádiz and Ceuta in the south over allegations of sexual abuse of a minor when he was a priest during the nineties.

The complaint, submitted this year to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, says Zornoza abused the victim for seven years, using his position of authority to manipulate and silence him. This is the first publicly known case in Spain of a bishop being investigated for child sexual abuse.

Zornoza has continued his public duties while the inquiry proceeds. Spain’s broader clerical abuse database has recorded over 1,500 accused clergy-people and nearly 3,000 victims, highlighting systemic issues of cover-ups and inadequate reporting in the church.

As many will know and some will remember, Franco died fifty years ago this year on the 20th of November. A new initiative called Archivo20n is requesting and posting younger people interviewing people who were around then about their memories of the day and thoughts since. Anybody interested can check their website Archivo20n.com. The link’s also in the show notes.

In some royal news, on Tuesday, the 11th, King Felipe VI began his visit to China, the first state visit by a Spanish monarch in eighteen years.

The four-day trip aims to strengthen bilateral trade and political ties and coincides with the 20th anniversary of high-level Spain-China relations.

The visit follows several trips by President Pedro Sánchez aimed at rebalancing trade, which currently favors China heavily. King Felipe will meet President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, and other senior officials, attend business forums, and visit Spanish companies operating in China.

Stronger ties have already helped Spanish exports, especially pork, while Chinese investment in Spain is growing in sectors such as electric vehicle batteries, automotive, energy, and mining.

To the roads! On Wednesday, the 12th, the government launched a new 3,000 euro subsidy to encourage people to obtain class C and D lorry driving licences, aiming to address the country’s severe shortage of professional drivers.

With an ageing workforce and poor working conditions discouraging new entrants, Spain currently lacks thousands of long-haul lorry and bus drivers. The grant will cover training, exam fees, and psychotechnical tests, and is compatible with other grants the government has to offer.

From down below to up above. On Sunday, the 9th, a fresh batch of over 120 British red kite chicks was sent to Extremadura in Southern Spain to revive the local population, which has dwindled to fewer than fifty mating pairs in recent years because of predators and human threats.

The initiative builds on decades of success in the UK, where red kites were once extinct in England and Scotland but now number over 6,000 breeding pairs. Chicks are collected in Northern England, flown to Madrid, and transported to a wildlife hospital for tagging, GPS fitting, and acclimatization before release.

Now to film and culture. On Monday, the 3rd, news outlet El País released an article about Baños Films in Vigo, Galicia, in the northwest, the last regional distributor preserving 35mm film reels, a format now obsolete due to digital cinema.

The company, which was founded in nineteen fifty-three by Emilio Baños and later inherited by brothers Milo and Pablo, maintains a warehouse full of feature films, trailers, and newsreels, along with old promotional posters and artwork to this day.

Baños Films captures a vanishing era of analog cinema, highlighting three generations who brought films to remote Galician towns, where reels were transported slowly and repeatedly repaired after showings.

Speaking of vanishing eras, Madrid’s famous kiosk newsstands could potentially see their end within a few years.

Of the roughly 300 still operating, more than 200 municipal press licenses will expire by September twenty twenty-nine, which leaves their futures pretty uncertain. Generations of families have run these kiosks, but sales have collapsed as the internet, the two thousand eight financial crisis, the pandemic, and remote work have reduced foot traffic over time.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Despite shrinking profits, these newsstands remain vital community hubs, providing personalized service, local knowledge, and social connection. While younger generations hesitate to take over, owners hope the city council will offer clarity on license renewals and explore regulatory flexibility.

For now, the sector is holding on, but only time will tell how long it lasts.

12.

Another major story this week involved Lamine Yamal, Barcelona Football Club’s young prodigy, and the Spanish Football Federation’s decision to prevent him from playing for the men's national team.

On Tuesday, the 10th, Yamal underwent a radiofrequency operation to treat a groin issue. The same morning, Spain’s national team training camp began. The eighteen-year-old had already missed five LaLiga matches due to the injury.

The federation was surprised by Yamal’s operation, stating they had not been informed of the procedure beforehand. The decision to cut Yamal sparked widespread debate online, with some defending Yamal but others posting race-based hate on social media.

Luis de la Fuente, Spain’s national team manager, has criticized the timing of the surgery, highlighting the conflict it created with team preparations.

13.

And finally, on Friday the 7th, Rosalía’s fourth album, Lux, broke records as the most-streamed debut in twenty-four hours by a female Spanish-language artist on Spotify, amassing over forty-two million streams, surpassing Colombian singer Karol G’s previous record.

Lux incorporates opera and classical influences, and features vocals by the Catalan singer in fourteen languages, Italian, Latin, Ukrainian and Arabic.

Rosalía collaborated with artists such as Björk, Yves Tumor, Carminho, and Yahritza, while Daníel Bjarnason, conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, helped executive produce the album. Rolling Stone praised the album with a five-star review, calling it a unique record unlike anything in contemporary music.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

And now....listen carefully listeners....we mentioned this last week...Rorshok needs to pull in some revenue and if you are hearing this you like what we are doing. So....just in time for the holidays....we are selling t-shirts. Very cool ones. However, there's a problem. The normal way to sell t-shirts is digital ads, which is code for handing money to oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg. The Rorshok you know and love will not do that. So we will sell via personal collections, where real people like you who like the t-shirts, can set up personal collections.....and.....whoever sells the most, will get a free trip to Lisbon in early April. So help us out, be cool, and check the show notes.

¡Hasta la próxima!