SPAIN: Restoring Regional Language, AI-misuse Fines & more – 28th May 2026

Buenos días from Sant Gervasi! This is the Rorshok Spain Update from the 28th of May twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Spain.

First up, let’s look at the latest AI news. On Wednesday, the 27th, the central government approved draft legislation introducing some of Europe’s toughest penalties for the misuse of artificial intelligence, with fines reaching thirty-five million euros - the equivalent of 7% of a major company’s global turnover.

The legislation was proposed by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and aims to strengthen digital rights protections and requires human oversight for AI systems that could threaten fundamental rights.

The bill categorises offences as minor, grave, or very grave. The harshest penalties target AI systems considered an unacceptable risk to public safety. These include tools used to create non-consensual sexual deepfakes, child abuse material, manipulative chatbots targeting vulnerable users, discriminatory biometric systems, and social scoring technologies.

The legislation follows controversy over AI-generated explicit images of minors created using Grok, Twitter’s AI assistant.

Continuing with legislation, on Monday, the 25th, the central government also unveiled a nine billion euro Social Climate Plan aimed at ensuring the country’s energy transition benefits vulnerable households as well as wealthier citizens. President Pedro Sánchez said the energy revolution should not only help those who can already afford electric vehicles, solar panels, or home renovations.

The plan allocates around four billion euros to housing policies, supporting energy-efficient home renovations to reduce emissions, lower energy bills, and improve living standards. Another four billion euros will fund greener transport initiatives, including subsidies for cleaner vehicles and expanded low-cost public transport, particularly in rural areas.

Sánchez argued that climate action and economic growth are compatible, noting that the country's emissions have fallen 19% since two thousand and eighteen while renewable electricity generation has increased from 39% to 56%.

Now on to the weather. Over the weekend, a so-called heat dome stretched across western Europe, pushing temperatures to record highs in the UK, France, and Spain, prompting health warnings, transport disruption, and emergency measures.

The latest heatwave, caused by hot air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system, has produced unusually intense heat for May, with temperatures exceeding across much of the continent. While the UK and France have recorded monthly records, Spain is expected to see peaks of 35°C (95°F) later this week.

Scientists say fossil-fuel-induced climate change is making such extreme weather more frequent and severe. The heatwave has already been linked to fatalities, including drownings in England and heat-related medical emergencies in France, while governments face growing pressure to adapt infrastructure and public health systems to rising temperatures.

Next up, according to a Financial Times article released this week, the country is increasingly relying on immigration to address population decline, labour shortages, and the collapse of rural communities, diverging from the tougher anti-immigration stance seen elsewhere in Europe.

The central socialist government views migrants as essential to sustaining the economy and revitalising Empty Spain, the vast rural areas suffering from depopulation and ageing populations.

Immigration has transformed Spain demographically, with foreign residents now making up nearly one in five people, helping grow the population from forty million in two thousand to more than forty-nine million today.

The government is funding programmes encouraging migrants to settle in rural villages by offering language support and help with gaining employment. Some villages now depend heavily on immigrant labour to keep businesses operating.

On Tuesday, the 26th, the Gran Canaria Island Council announced plans to preserve the traditional use of ustedes instead of vosotros in administrative and public communications.

Officials say the move aims to protect the linguistic identity of the Canary Islands, where ustedes is commonly used in both formal and informal plural speech, unlike mainland Spain, where vosotros is widespread in casual contexts.

The council wants institutional language to reflect local speech patterns. The proposal forms part of a broader debate in the country about whether public administration should adapt communication to regional varieties of Spanish while still maintaining grammatical correctness and clarity.

Authorities stressed that the initiative is not intended to challenge standard Spanish rules but to ensure that official communication feels natural and culturally representative for residents of Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands.

Also on Tuesday, the 26th, the Gran Canaria Island Council announced plans to preserve the traditional use of ustedes instead of vosotros in administrative and public communications.

Officials say the move aims to protect the linguistic identity of the Canary Islands, where ustedes is commonly used in both formal and informal plural speech, unlike mainland Spain, where vosotros is widespread in casual contexts.

The council wants institutional language to reflect local speech patterns. The proposal forms part of a broader debate in the country about whether public administration should adapt communication to regional varieties of Spanish while still maintaining grammatical correctness and clarity.

Authorities stressed that the initiative is not intended to challenge standard Spanish rules but to ensure that official communication feels natural and culturally representative for residents of Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands.

Let’s head North. On Friday, the 22nd, the regional Basque government introduced adapted official Basque-language certification exams for deaf people and others with disabilities, making Euskera accreditation more accessible for employment.

The reform allows candidates to take partial exams that assess only the language skills relevant to their abilities. Deaf candidates, for example, can certify reading and writing skills without being tested on oral comprehension, while people with intellectual disabilities may focus only on spoken communication.

The initiative has already helped several candidates obtain official qualifications, including a Bilbao resident, Raúl Anta, who earned a B2 CEFR language certificate after years of study despite being exempt from Basque classes at school because of his hearing disability.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the 26th, the country blocked access to the prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi while investigating whether they violated gambling laws by operating without licences.

The Ministry of Consumer Rights said the platforms, which let users bet on future events such as elections and weather, lacked the required authorisation to operate legally. The sites will remain blocked during a disciplinary investigation expected to last three to four months.

Authorities argue that prediction markets qualify as gambling because they involve wagers on uncertain outcomes. Operators must therefore comply with regulations, including identity checks and safeguards preventing access by minors and other vulnerable people.

The country joins several European countries, including France and Belgium, in restricting these types of platforms.

Speaking of preservation, a debate resurfaced on Tuesday, the 26th, after French researcher Georges Sauvet questioned the reliability of uranium-thorium dating.

The controversy focuses on cave art in Spain and Indonesia, including pieces dated to around 65,000 years ago - often cited as evidence that Neanderthals created symbolic art before modern humans reached Europe.

Sauvet argues the method can produce artificially old results due to water distortion and urges researchers to use multiple dating techniques before making major claims about prehistoric art.

Next, last week, Spanish chef and writer Andoni Luis Aduriz wrote for news outlet El País, criticizing the country's failure to adequately protect the critically endangered European silver eel, arguing that authorities have repeatedly delayed meaningful action despite alarming scientific data.

In the article, Aduriz compares society’s treatment of environmental problems to past practices of hiding radioactive waste or exporting pollution elsewhere rather than confronting the underlying causes.

He highlights that, seventeen years after the European Union required member states to create eel recovery plans, the regional governments have failed to meet these conservation targets. EU rules aimed to ensure at least 40% of silver eels could return to the sea to reproduce without major human interference, but official figures show far lower escape rates across the north and southeast: 14% in Galicia, 3% in Cantabria, 5% in Asturias, and 4% in Murcia.

Anddddd finally, on Wednesday, the 27th, the iconic Osborne bull celebrated its 70th anniversary. Originally created in nineteen fifty-six by Cádiz artist Manolo Prieto as an advertisement for Osborne’s Veteran brandy, the giant black silhouette has evolved from a simple marketing campaign into a national cultural emblem.

The first bulls were wooden structures bearing the Osborne name, but in the nineteen sixties, they were rebuilt in metal to withstand weather conditions. Around ninety structures remain standing today, although only two in Cádiz, in the south still display the company branding.

The bulls survived attempts to remove them in the nineteen nineties after traffic authorities argued they distracted drivers. Public opposition was so strong that the Andalucian government declared them part of Spain’s cultural heritage.

Over the decades, some bulls have been vandalised or artistically altered, but the silhouette remains a powerful symbol of Spanish identity, frequently reinterpreted in art, fashion and popular culture.

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

Anything to ask or tell us, info@rorshok.com.

¡Hasta la próxima!