Spain’s Socialists score big election victory

MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists scored a big victory in Sunday’s national election, though they will still have to seek coalition agreements to stay in power.

With over 99 percent of the ballots counted, the Socialists won about 29 percent of the vote and 123 of the 350 seats in parliament — a huge step up from the 85 seats they now have. This puts them well ahead of the second-placed conservative Popular Party on 66 seats. The liberal Ciudadanos won 57 seats, the far-left Podemos and its allies 42 seats, and the far-right Vox 24 seats.

The lies of Catalan separatism are a threat to Europe

BARCELONA — One year after Catalonia’s illegal independence referendum, the violent demonstrations in Barcelona on Monday made it painfully obvious that the situation has worsened, not improved. Carles Puigdemont may be out of the picture, but the separatists’ new leader, Quim Torra, is pursuing the same misguided agenda as his predecessor.

It’s no surprise Catalonia was in utter chaos on Monday.

Spanish People's party shifts to right with new leader

Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP), which was cast out of government at the beginning of June after a string of corruption scandals, has shifted further to the right by choosing an outspokenly traditionalist MP as its new leader.

Pablo Casado, who served as the party’s communications vice-secretary and was also chief of staff to the former prime minister José María Aznar, was elected in a poll of PP members on Saturday.

Putin critic Bill Browder released after arrest in Spain

Bill Browder, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, has been released following his arrest in Spain on Wednesday morning under a Russian warrant.

The anti-corruption campaigner wrote on Twitter that he was freed from custody in Madrid after the Interpol general secretary in Lyon had advised them not to honour the Russian arrest warrant. He said it was the sixth time Russia had “abused” Interpol in his case.

Catalonia's Self-Defeating Independence Declaration

The Catalan parliament voted Friday overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Spain, reaffirming the result of the contested independence referendum the region held nearly four weeks ago. The vote marked a major escalation in Catalonia’s territorial dispute with Spain’s central government in Madrid. “We shall constitute the Catalan Republic as an independent, and sovereign, democratic, and social state of law,” the motion read.

But of course it won’t be that simple.

Julian Assange’s strange new obsession

As Catalonians gear up for Sunday’s independence referendum – a vote that will not be recognized by Madrid, and may yet be canceled altogether – a new, surprising figure has emerged as the primary spokesman for Catalan independence: Julian Assange.

The WikiLeaks founder, and current tenant of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has come out forcefully in favor of breaking Catalonia off from the rest of Spain. Where Assange had previously remained largely silent on the issue of Catalonian secession, he has, over just the past two weeks, unleashed approximately 100 tweets on the topic to his 400,000 followers.

Spanish court to investigate Syrian 'state terrorism' by Assad regime

A Spanish court is to investigate allegations that nine members of the Syrian regime committed “state terrorism” by kidnapping, torturing and murdering a truck driver who disappeared in Damascus four years ago.

The landmark case – the first criminal complaint accepted against President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces by a European court – has been brought on behalf of the victim’s sister, a Spanish citizen who lives in Madrid.

Spanish Industry Minister Resigns After Alleged Links To Offshore Deals Emerged In Panama Papers

Spain’s acting Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said on Friday he was resigning with immediate effect after alleged links to offshore dealings which emerged after he was named in the Panama Papers.

Soria has denied all wrongdoing, but said he was stepping down to limit any damage to the caretaker government, the People’s Party (PP), following revelations of alleged links to an offshore company in the British island of Jersey.

How Germany and the U.K. Benefited From Greece and Spain’s Brain Drain

As Greece tries to come to an “honorable agreement” with austerity-loving eurozone finance ministers, let’s not forget who stood to gain the most from the financial crises in southern Europe. Just a few years ago, The New York Times reported on how a “robust Germany ... desperate for educated workers” had “begun to look south for the solution.” Lo and behold, a few years of austerity measures and intense amounts of suffering later, countries such as Greece and Spain found they’d experienced the departure of thousands of skilled professionals. And where are these workers now?

Can Podemos Win in Spain?

If the current poll numbers hold, Spain’s next prime minister will be Pablo Iglesias, a pony-tailed 36-year-old political scientist who cut his teeth in the Communist Youth and the anti-globalization movement—but whose party, Podemos, wants “to change the rules of the political game,” Iglesias told the journalist Jacobo Rivero. Left and right, he added, are metaphors that are no longer “useful in political terms”: “the fundamental divide now [is] between oligarchy and democracy, between a social majority and a privileged minority.” Or, as Podemos likes to put it, between la gente and la casta, the people and the caste.

Spanish Parliament Calls For Recognition Of Palestinian State

MADRID, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Spanish lawmakers on Tuesday urged their government to recognize Palestine as a state, albeit only when the Palestinians and Israel negotiate a solution to their long-standing conflict.

The symbolic motion, which echoes similar votes last month in Britain and Ireland, was backed by all the political groupings in the lower house after the ruling People's Party (PP) watered down the wording hours after an attack in Jerusalem.

Spanish shepherds, sheep protest in Madrid streets

Shepherds guided a flock of 2,000 sheep through Madrid's streets on Sunday in defence of ancient grazing, droving and migration rights increasingly threatened by urban sprawl and modern agricultural practices.

Tourists and city-dwellers were surprised to see the capital's traffic cut to permit the bleating, bell-clanking parade to pass the city's most emblematic locations.

Why Spain's Poor Fear Goldman Sachs

Madrid, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Last year Madrid's city and regional governments sold almost 5,000 rent-controlled flats to private equity investors including Goldman Sachs and Blackstone. At the time, the tenants were told their rental conditions would remain the same.

But as old contracts expire, dozens of people have received demands for higher rent, been told their rents will increase dramatically, been threatened with eviction or moved out to escape the insecurity. Thousands of Spain's poor now depend for their homes on the generosity of private equity.

Jamila Bouzelmat is one of them.

Spanish Nurse First To Contract Ebola Outside West Africa

MADRID (AP) — In the first known transmission of the outbreak of Ebola outside West Africa, a Spanish nurse who treated a missionary for the disease at a Madrid hospital has tested positive for the virus, Spain's health minister said Monday.

The female nurse was part of the medical team that cared for a 69-year-old Spanish priest who died Sept. 25 in a Madrid hospital designated for treating Ebola patients after he was flown home from Sierra Leone, where he served as the medical director of a hospital there treating infected Ebola patients, Health Minister Ana Mato said.

Defense, Security and Occupation as a Business: new report on arms trade between Spain, Israel

Defense, Security and Occupation as a Business: Military, Armaments and Security Trade Relations between Spain and Israel

The Catalan Civil Society Coalition "No More Complicity with Israel" is composed of the most active civil society campaigns in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against Israeli apartheid. Our campaign is part of the international efforts to control private military and security companies 

In Spain, Anti-Austerity March Draws Tens Of Thousands Of Protesters From All Over Country

MADRID (AP) — Spanish police and protesters clashed during an anti-austerity demonstration that drew tens of thousands of people to central Madrid on Saturday. Police said in a statement that six officers were injured and 12 people were arrested.

As a final speech was being given, some protesters attempted to break through a police barrier and make their way toward the nearby headquarters of the governing conservative Popular Party. Riot police then charged the protesters, who hurled bottles and other objects, and beat them back with batons.

Firefighters Clash With Riot Police In Spain During Austerity Protest

In an odd turn of events, firefighters were the ones starting the fires at the latest austerity protest in Spain.

Spanish firefighters clashed with riot police in Barcelona Wednesday as they protested against spending cuts in Catalonia, the economically powerful northeastern region of the country.

Hundreds of public employees, sporting yellow helmets and red jackets, gathered in front of Catalonia's parliament building. Some ignited flares, threw smoke bombs and burned makeshift coffins labeled "public services."

Spain Unemployment Hits Record High On Recession Fears

MADRID, April 24 (Reuters) - More than six million Spaniards were out of work in the first quarter of this year, raising the jobless rate in the euro zone's fourth biggest economy to 27.2 percent, the highest since records began in the 1970s.

The huge sums poured into the global financial system by major central banks have eased bond market pressure on Spain, but the cuts Madrid has made in spending to regain investors' confidence have left it deep in recession.

Spain unemployment continues to soar

Spain's jobless rate has continued to rise in the first quarter but at a slower rate than in previous years, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said.

The job situation for the entire year "will not be good, but it will be less bad than in the preceding years", he added during a debate in parliament on Wednesday.

Wave of indignation returns to Spain: Hundreds of thousands protest austerity

Europe's 2013 protest season finally kicked off this week. On Saturday, three days after the umpteenth general strike paralyzed Greece, a "citizens' wave" of indignation washed over Spain with hundreds of thousands of protesters swarming onto the streets of Madrid and over 80 cities in yet another major popular outcry against the ongoing financial coup d’étât. In Madrid, clashes broke out and at least 40 were arrested after police sought to disperse protesters who had once more encircled Parliament.