SPAIN: EU-Israel Agreement & more – 26th June 2025

Buenos días from Gracia! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 26th of June twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

First up this week, on Sunday the 22nd, Spain secured an exemption from NATO's new defence spending target of 5% of its GDP.

Despite growing international pressure, particularly from US President Donald Trump, President Pedro Sánchez confirmed Spain would maintain its defence budget at 2.1% of its GDP. The agreement with NATO allows Spain to avoid aligning with the significantly higher target, which Trump had urged allies to meet.

Sanchez noted that the exemption was put in place so that Spain could prioritise its domestic fiscal policy, that is, focus on spending the money elsewhere. The exemption comes amid wider debates over military expenditure within NATO, as tensions with Russia, China, Israel, and Iran escalate.

Next up, on Monday the 23rd, José Manuel Albares, Spain’s Foreign Minister, announced that he would request the EU Council to immediately suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, citing human rights violations in Gaza.

The agreement is a treaty that strengthens trade and political ties, giving Israel preferential access to EU markets.

Albares also said he plans to push for an arms embargo on Israel and sanctions on individuals obstructing an end to its war with Gaza, and a possible two-state solution.

In response, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said they strongly opposed Spain´s decision, while emphasizing that Rome supports maintaining dialogue with Israel and believes suspending the agreement would be counterproductive.

Now, an update to a story from previous shows: the Koldo case. On Monday, the 23rd, José Luis Ábalos, the Former PSOE Spanish minister, denied any involvement in the public works corruption scheme, during a Supreme Court Hearing. For context: the Koldo case involves officials illegally using public money to purchase masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case has completely undermined political trust in Spain and has jeopardized the careers of key government figures.

For his part, Ábalos said that he didn't recognize himself in any of the incriminating audio recordings, which were reportedly made by his former advisor Koldo García, and they allegedly link Ábalos and former PSOE party official Santos Cerdán to contract rigging and influence peddling.

Ábalos’ denial challenges key evidence, complicates the investigation, and could potentially weaken the prosecution’s overall case. Let´s wait to see what President Sánchez has to say when he faces the court on Monday, the 30th.

With the Socialist party in the midst of corruption allegations, it's no surprise that a recent report by news outlet Reuters has put politics as the main source for disinformation.

The Reuters Institute’s twenty twenty-five Digital News Report, released on Tuesday the 17th, revealed that just over 50% of Spaniards see national politicians as the main sources of disinformation, ten percentage points above the global average and on par with the United States.

As well as distrusting politicians, 45% of respondents said they viewed influencers as a threat to truthful information, though this concern is more common among older adults: 57% of people over sixty-five versus 30% of young adults aged between eighteen and twenty-four.

The report showed that news fatigue is also rising, with 40% globally avoiding news due to emotional stress or information overload.

Meanwhile, Spain announced it would ease visa rules to attract foreign students barred from the U.S. due to recent restrictions imposed by the Trump administration.

The Spanish Migration Ministry announced that the new policy will enable affected students to transfer to Spanish universities and grant them part-time work visas. This move follows escalating tensions between the U.S. government and its top universities, which have faced accusations of antisemitism amid student protests over the Gaza conflict. The U.S. has responded by freezing research funding for institutions like Harvard and threatening their tax-exempt status.

In contrast, Spain and other European countries have now started to boost research grants to lure displaced academic talent.

Shifting gears to energy, on Monday the 16th, the Spanish government awarded 1.22 billion euros to seven green hydrogen projects, or hydrogen valleys, across Aragon and Catalunya in the northeast, Andalusia in the south, Castile and León in the central region, and Galicia in the northwest, all via the national Hydrogen Valleys program.

The new initiative aims to encourage the integration of production, storage, distribution, and consumption within each region, pushing Spain’s capacity to produce green hydrogen to an all-time high.

On a related note, on Monday, the 23rd, the government announced it's preparing to approve a royal decree aimed at boosting the renewable energy sector while addressing vulnerabilities exposed by the recent nationwide blackout.

The draft law proposes measures to encourage energy storage, extend deadlines for solar and wind projects, simplify bureaucratic procedures, and allow better control of renewable output.

The new decree would also promote electrification by facilitating electric vehicle charging infrastructure and heat pump installations.

Nearly two months on from an electrical blackout that left Spain and Portugal in darkness, on Tuesday, the 17th, the central government presented a report placing blame on its partly state-owned grid operator, Red Eléctrica, for miscalculating power needs and failing to activate backup thermal plants.

Recall that on the 28th of April a major power blackout hit the Iberian Peninsula, disconnecting Spain from the European electricity grid for several hours. The outage disrupted transport, closed schools and businesses, and stranded people across urban and rural areas.

The delayed explanation has triggered political backlash, with opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo blaming the government’s push for renewables and its rejection of nuclear energy. However, officials maintain that the outage was unrelated to Spain’s renewable energy policies.

On Sunday, the 15th, anti-tourism protests took place across Spain, Italy, and Portugal as locals demanded limits on mass tourism, highlighting rising frustration over tourism’s impact on housing, cost of living, and local culture. In Barcelona, protestors took to using the now symbolic water pistols to target tourists.

Campaigners argue that short-term rentals like Airbnb are pushing residents out of their homes and overcrowding cities. A growing housing crisis and low wages in tourism-related jobs have intensified resentment.

Now, we’ve heard a lot in recent weeks about tourism in Spain, but are Spanish people jet-setting for their summer vacations? Well, yes!

According to the National Outbound Tourism Observatory, despite international uncertainties, travel enthusiasm remains high, especially among younger people, with just over 50% of those under thirty-five opting for foreign trips rather than domestic travel.

Popular international destinations include the Caribbean, Japan, and emerging spots like Egypt and Thailand, influenced by social media trends. Meanwhile, travel to the US is declining due to political uncertainty and strict border controls.

On Tuesday, the 24th, Spain’s government announced it would delay the full merger between BBVA and Sabadell for three years, complicating BBVA’s takeover bid.

While the takeover has gone ahead, to be fully merged, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said that both banks must follow certain conditions by operating independently over the next three years, maintaining separate assets, management, and operations. The government imposed these conditions to supposedly protect public interest, including support for small businesses.

BBVA initially launched its bid to take over Sabadell in May twenty twenty-four, receiving approval from both the European Central Bank and Spain’s competition regulator.

From banking to cybersecurity, on Tuesday, the 24th, the central government invested in Quantix edges, a private tech firm, to establish a cybersecurity and microelectronics hub located in Murcia, southern Spain. The initiative has an initial budget of forty million euros from government spending, and it aims to advance quantum technologies, secure data chips, and digital identity systems.

The project has also received close to twenty million euros from the Ministry for Digital Transformation, bringing total funding to around 60 million euros. Quantix represents a strategic effort to strengthen Spain’s cybersecurity capabilities and reduce dependence on foreign technology.

Late last week, Teresa Ribera, the EU’s climate chief, fought hard to save a law targeting corporate greenwashing, pushing back against internal opposition within the European Commission.

Greenwashing occurs when companies falsely promote products or practices as environmentally friendly to mislead consumers and boost their eco-image.

Even though Ribera’s efforts didn't go unnoticed, they came too late. Over the weekend, Italy blocked the deal, forcing EU countries to retreat from negotiations and leaving the law in limbo. Ribera expressed her frustration on social media, calling for respect for consumers through honest environmental labeling.

The law’s collapse follows mounting pressure from the center-right European People’s Party, which opposes many green regulations, saying they overburden businesses.

Speaking of greenwashing, the country is set to become the first to ban petrol and diesel advertising.

Pablo Bustinduy, Spain’s Consumer Affairs Minister, announced the proposed legislation, which will prohibit ads for fossil fuel-only products unless they include a renewable component such as biofuel.

Companies will also be required to justify vague allegations like environmentally-friendly or climate-friendly with certified data.

The initiative aligns with a global push, backed by the UN, to regulate fossil fuel advertising similar to past restrictions on tobacco marketing, putting public health ahead of corporate interests.

In entertainment news, on Monday the 16th, José Antonio Montalbán from Mallorca won the largest prize ever awarded on the Spanish TV game show Cifras y Letras, a program about questions and answers on channel La 2, taking home just over 250 thousand euros.

To win the jackpot, he had to complete one final challenge: find twelve words related to the theme Más vale maña — or 'skill is worth more than strength' — all within three minutes (try it yourself, it’s harder than it sounds!).

twenty twenty-five may not have been Spain’s year in Eurovision, but for budding contenders, twenty twenty-six is already on the cards. On Friday the 20th, RTVE, Spain’s national broadcaster, opened the song submission window for Benidorm Fest twenty twenty-six, the country’s national selection for Eurovision.

About twenty original songs will qualify for the live shows, with around six more placed on a reserve list.

The winning act from Benidorm Fest will receive 150,000 euros from RTVE but if you’re thinking of applying, know that artists and composers can only submit entries until the 24th of September!

From TV to books, Spain’s publishing sector has fully recovered from the two thousand eight financial crisis, reaching a turnover of 3 billion euros in twenty twenty-four, matching pre-crisis levels.

This marks an eleven-year period of steady growth, with a 39% increase since twenty fourteen based on information from the Federación de Gremios de Editores de España.

In twenty twenty-four, almost 195 million books were sold, an almost 6% rise from twenty twenty-three. Digital formats also grew, with e-books up just over 8% and audiobook sales skyrocketing by 40%. The sector produced over 85,000 titles, with a notable increase in children’s and young adult books.

This resurgence has been dubbed the Spanish phenomenon by publishers and the media, reflecting strong demand and expanding international markets.

And to close this edition, if you thought Benidorm Fest was big, this next story is even bigger!

Boadilla Association of Devotees of the Heart of Jesus, a Catholic association in Madrid, is planning to build the world’s largest statue of Jesus Christ by twenty thirty in the west of the city, near Boadilla del Monte. The statue, called the Sacred Heart, will stand at thirty-seven meters (or 121 feet) tall with a sixty-meter (or 190-foot) arm span, surpassing Rio’De Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer at thirty meters (or ninety-eight feet) tall, and Encantado’s Cristo Protector at thirty-six (or 118 feet), both in Brazil.

It´s estimated that the project will cost around seventeen million euros and will be funded mostly through donations. Once it´s finished, the statue will house a chapel with a mechanical heart that lowers daily for worship and glows at night.

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

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