Business over Tapas 615

A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily
at Foreign Property Owners:
Prepared by Lenox Napier. Consultant: José Antonio Sierra
More information on Business over Tapas
January 15 2026 Nº 615

Editorial:
No matter what is going on in Spain or around the world, it's hard to not turn and look over one's shoulder a couple of times each and every day at the terrifying antics of America's leaders: Trump and his motley crew of whack-jobs.

Few of us here in Europe will identify themselves with his supporters. The left and centre certainly don't, and Marine Le Pen, the French fascist leader, says she thinks he's crazy. But of course, here in Spain we have Feijóo and Abascal, who appear to like anything that the Government doesn't, and look for approval and support from wherever they can find it (and cue Venezuela).

This Latin American state has long been a topic for the right-wing in Spain. How not to run a country and so on -a short step for identifying the current Government here with the ghastly mess that comes from that unfortunate South American state, now under the firm control of the USA.

I think it started with the story -invented by the Spanish so-called 'Patriotic Police'- of how Podemos was financed by Caracas: a most successful smear which pretty much did for that party.

'Right-wing Spanish politicians often bring up Venezuela to criticize the left for a mix of political strategy, symbolic comparison, and historical context. Indeed, analysts describe Venezuela as a sort of handy excuse for the Spanish right to attack any appropriate position on the left' says Google.

Unfortunately -Trump decided, following his extraction of Nicolás Maduro- to leave the Chavista government in place rather than turning things over to the opposition (and the Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado). Who cares -he just wants the oil as he himself says. It also appears, to the dismay of Spanish conservatives, that Maduro's membership of the fabled Cartel de los Soles was purely an American invention.

The PP and Vox, their noses rather out of joint, must now (with the rest of us) contemplate further possible Trumpian attacks on Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, the Panama Canal and Greenland. A couple of these, maybe before the weekend. Hell, maybe Canada too. Most of this malarkey, mind, devised in the last ten days as The Donald apparently goes rogue.

He’s only got until the mid-term elections next November (plus his ailing health) to lock everything into place.


The Dream
All of this would mean the irreparable break-down of Nato.

Then there’s Iran – which come to think of it also deserves a little tender American lovin’.

Back in Small Town USA, the same people who claim the woman killed in Minneapolis was a domestic terrorist are telling us that the people who stormed the Capitol are heroes. In fact, a Trumper friend writes and compares the killing to the shooting of a woman involved in the January 6th 2021 mob attack on the Capitol in Washington, following the Dear Leader’s complaint that the results of the 2020 election were rigged.

And thus we ‘live in interesting times’; and wonder guiltily how our children and grandchildren are going to manage in the next years and decades.

I think on balance, we oldies had it pretty good.

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Housing:

The Olive Press has: ‘Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced ‘urgent and decisive’ measures to address Spain’s deepening housing shortage. Landlords who extend long-term rental contracts without increasing rents will in future be granted a full 100% tax exemption on the related rental income. Sánchez spoke on Monday at the inauguration of the public housing Campamento project on a former military site in Madrid, where 10,700 new homes are to be built.

Forgetting slum lords, multiple property owners and vulture funds, most rentals are owned by ordinary people who hold just a single extra property which, understandably, they rent out for some added income. El Huff Post considers this group, with 'The difference between being a landlord or a tenant is on average 23,600 euros a year. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Social Rights publishes its report on the wealth gap between those who rent and those who lease a home, amidst tension over solutions to the housing crisis’.

‘The Great Replacement is in the apartments. The right wing cries out against waves of foreigners invading us, but they don't say a word about the millionaires and investment funds from other countries that are driving Spaniards out of the big cities’. An essay comes from El País here.

Then there’s the issue of rent increases (which the Government is trying to stop). From Diario de Mallorca here, we find the alarming title: From 700 to 1,700 euros: first rent increases due to contract renewals in Mallorca in 2026. The Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) warns that the first renewals of the year already show increases that are forcing tenants to leave their homes’.

Seville seeks urban expansion with the construction of more than 44,000 homes in new neighbourhoods says 20Minutos here (I lived there for six months back in 1971).

An owner of 200 apartments explains why he prefers to convert them into tourist accommodations due to non-payment problems. From LaSexta here: ‘An owner of 200 homes in Galicia explained on laSexta Xplica how the "lack of profitability in long-term rentals" and "problems with non-payments" led him to transform his apartments into tourist accommodations’ (with video).

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Tourism:

‘Benarrabá (Málaga), the Spanish village of 450 inhabitants that has become a paradise for the world's digital nomads. In 2025 alone, this town welcomed a total of 52 digital nomads from 19 different countries thanks to 'Rooral', a co-living and co-working association’. The story from El Periódico here.

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Finance:

From Idealista (in English) here: ‘Spain will introduce several significant fiscal measures in 2026, including greater control over Bizum payments, a rise in diesel taxation, and incentives for electric vehicles. These changes are part of the country’s efforts to modernise tax reporting and promote ecological transition.

From Spanish Property Insight here: ‘Spain’s economy may be outpacing the eurozone, but the housing crisis is quietly undermining that success. According to the ECB’s vice-president, shortages in the rental market risk becoming a serious brake on future growth.

Speaking at an event organised by Vocento and XL Semanal, Luis de Guindos, vice-president of the European Central Bank, struck a careful but revealing tone. Spain, he noted, has been one of Europe’s strongest performers, with GDP growth in 2025 running at roughly double the eurozone average. But dig beneath the headline numbers and the picture looks less impressive. According to ECB analysis, almost half of Spain’s recent economic growth comes from population increases driven by immigration. Strip that out, and Spain’s underlying growth looks much closer to the European average. This helps explain the disconnect many Spaniards feel between upbeat macroeconomic data and their own personal experience...’

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Politics:

‘The PP brings a new battle against the central government over regional funding despite receiving 70% of the new funds. PP-led regional governments have announced they will take legal action against the new funding model, if approved, arguing that it undermines equality and favours Catalonia over the rest, even though disparities are reduced’ (in fact, the largest sum would go to Andalucía). The story comes from elDiario.es here.

‘The King of Spain warns about the risk of ‘dismantling’ the link between Europe and the US. Felipe VI says that maintaining ties requires ‘great patience and diplomatic courage,’ and calls for a ‘genuine democratic transition’ in Venezuela’ – Item from El País in English.

Following the inconclusive election results, ‘Santiago Abascal affirms that Vox will enter the Government of Extremadura with a vice-presidency and several ministerial positions. The Vox leader maintains that his party must be part of the regional government to "guarantee change" and directly control the policies it advocates, amidst ongoing negotiations with the Extremadura PP’. elDiario.es reporting here.

The Silly Story of the Week: ‘The right wing and the far right in politics and media want to put the former Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, in jail, and they want to put him in jail knowing full-well that he is an honest person’. El Plural has the story here.

In short, the ludicrous Hazte Oír's lawsuit against Zapatero follows the 'Peinado model' says Público: reporting to the Courts with some news-cuttings from the far-right media and a handful of unverified insinuations. Hazte Oir is asking the judge of the National Court to confiscate the passport of the former Socialist Prime Minister and to order the UDEF (Financial and Economic Crime Unit) to investigate his assets, claiming without any evidence that they have increased due to his ties with Venezuela’. The accusation includes ‘drug trafficking, membership in a criminal organization and money laundering’.

Zapatero has indeed been active in Venezuela and RTVE writes of ‘Zapatero's discreet work in the release of political prisoners there’. It says that ‘…The Minister of Justice has come to Zapatero's defence. Bolaños emphasized that the former president "has a well-known history of fighting for human rights and democracy"’.

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Europe:

From 20Minutos here: ‘The Pope will travel to Spain this year and plans to visit Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands’.

‘Brussels revives the idea of ​​a European army amid tensions with Trump: 100,000 troops would be needed’ says 20Minutos here. From Breitbart here: ‘Spain calls for European Union army to reduce dependence on Trump’s America’. El Nacional says ‘Nato Secretary General aligns with Trump on Greenland and avoids defending Denmark. Mark Rutte Focuses on Arctic security, praises Trump, and dodges any criticism of Washington’.

From The Guardian here: ‘Why Spain’s prime minister has broken ranks in Europe – and dared to confront Trump. Outrage at the US, close ties with Venezuela and mounting domestic challenges have prompted Pedro Sánchez to take a stand’.

Reuters has ‘The German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has strongly criticised U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump and urged the world not to let the world order disintegrate into a "den of robbers" where the unscrupulous take what they want’.

EFE (Spanish news agency) brings ‘The Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has urged Europe to raise its voice "united and strong" and assume "its own sovereignty," becoming a "global benchmark" for peace, security and multilateralism so that "the law of the jungle" does not prevail’.

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Health:

El País has ‘67.5% of Spaniards believe it is necessary to strengthen the public healthcare system. This position is held by a majority of voters of the five major national political parties, although it is much higher among left-wing voters (around 80-81% among PSOE, Sumar, and Podemos supporters) than among right-wing voters: 60.1% among PP supporters and 53.7% among Vox supporters, according to the latest poll by the 40dB institute for EL PAÍS and SER’.

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Corruption:

‘The UCO (fraud police) has gone 200 days without providing the report on Ayuso's boyfriend. The report on the businessman, which the courts requested from the Guardia Civil division, is now six and a half months overdue’. El Plural marvels that other investigations by the agency, such as against the late Attorney General, or Pedro Sánchez wife’ or Santos Cerdán, have been refreshingly swift.

Later: ‘The courts postpone the trial of Ayuso's boyfriend until after the 2027 national elections. The future of Alberto González Amador will not be decided until at least three years after the initial reports’. Item from El Plural here.

Endesa the energy provider has been hacked (I got an apologetic letter from them on Monday). From the operator himself, we read that he claims to have hacked the company and obtained a database of over one terabyte containing twenty million customer records. Initially, he tried to sell it to the highest bidder says Escudo Digital here.

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Courts:

As the inquiry into the Valencian Dana continues, ‘Feijóo admits to the judge that he lied when he said Carlos Mazón informed him “in real time”’.

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Media:

Santiago Abascal, interviewed by OKDiario (an unreliable far-right medium): "I hope it will be discovered whether Zapatero received money from the Venezuelan dictatorship". The Vox leader asserts that Zapatero "is neither intellectually nor morally honest"’.

Diario Red considers ‘All the Spanish media outlets that reproduced the lie of the Venezuelan 'Cartel de los Soles' invented by Trump: El Mundo, OKDiario, Voz Pópuli, El Debate and La Razón’.

‘Lies, blunders, tension, and dangerous alliances: the political profile of the opposition leader ceases to be a democratic guarantee’. Ten reasons why Alberto Núñez Feijóo should go, from El Plural here.

‘Those who lied to you about Iraq, the crisis, preferred shares, the bank bailout, the Prestige oil spill, the Yak-42 crash, the Valencia Metro disaster, the Galician Alvia train crash, the 7,291 people abandoned in Madrid nursing homes, the DANA storm, the wildfires, and Gaza will now lie to you about Venezuela.

The main danger to the world is Trump and his cronies.

And this government must condemn him.

It shouldn't make a fool of itself like it did with Juan Guaidó (a previous Venezuelan pretender)’. Gabriel Rufián (ERC).

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Various:

From Rare Historical Photos here: ‘The evolution of the Sagrada Família in stunning photographs, 1882’.

From Momentos del Pasado here: ‘Twenty old photographs of Spanish cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries’.

From Buy European here. ‘Find European Products, Companies and Alternatives to Non-European Counterparts’

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See Spain:

From El Confidencial here: ‘Alaejos (Valladolid): The small and uncrowded Spanish village you absolutely must visit in January: a true Mudéjar gem (and the food is fantastic). Among endless fields and towers that dominate the horizon, this Castilian corner invites you to travel without haste, discover a surprising historical legacy and sit down to a meal as it was prepared in the old days’.

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Letters:

BoT Subscriptions for 2026.

I’ve now added Bizum, thanks to my indulgent bank manager.



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Finally:

Carmen Goett - Más Mala Que el Diablo on YouTube here.

(Bonus track) Julio Iglesias - To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before on YouTube here. Julio is in the news right now for alleged improper advances on his domestic staff (video here).