Election 2026·Lead·National News·National News·Politics

Political round-up: General strike shifts momentum as parties fight for votes before Spain election

Barry Tabrizi explains in his weekly political round-up how Spain election campaign is being shaped by strike protests and anger over police actions ahead of the November 29 race.

‘You saved our daughters’ lives’: Scottish couple’s miracle twins born at just six months in Costa Blanca health centre turn ten years old

Valentina and Isabella weighed just 700g each when their mother suddenly gave birth at a Javea health centre in 2016.

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem on a red carpet, after the couple made a Barcelona home in Pedralbes

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem return to Barcelona to purchase luxury home in exclusive Pedralbes barrio

SPAIN’S Oscar-winning couple Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have bought a home in the Pedralbes neighbourhood of Barcelona – one of the city’s most exclusive neighbourhoods. The pair

Isak Andic plunged to his death down a rocky ravine in Montserrat near Barcelona in December 2024 while out hiking with his eldest son Jonathan – the only witness to the fall.

Blow to Mango murder case as police admit they cannot prove ‘other people’ were involved in billionaire Isak Andic’s fatal mountain fall

The officers stood by their original report, which stated: “We cannot determine the cause of the fall, nor the participation of other people in the events that caused

Protesters at a housing protest camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol, as Spain approves an eviction ban extension

Spain passes housing decree extending leases and ban on evicting vulnerable families but rules out indefinite contracts

SPAIN has approved an eviction ban extension that protects vulnerable families until 2030, and given tenants with expiring contracts up to two extra years in their homes. The

Latest

A busy Calle Larios, Malaga's main shopping street, as the Spain population nears 50 million

One in five people living in Spain is now born abroad as the population expects to break 50 million imminently

FROM THE ARCHIVES: How Spain’s far-right extremists are emerging from under the rocks – and growing bolder every day

IN PICS: Gibraltar’s new 2,000-home residential estate to be built on reclaimed land in the harbour

Chain snatchers on a scooter terrorising elderly women in Costa del Sol hotspot are finally arrested

Vox promises immigration crackdown ahead of elections

Vox election manifesto: Classroom quotas for ‘foreign children’ and undocumented migrants excluded from healthcare

‘The Russian’ manhunt latest: Feared criminal who blew up policeman in northern Spain is ‘a plumber from Oviedo with no military experience whatsoever’

Search abandoned for British pensioner who fell overboard from Marella cruise ship – days after sailing from Malaga

Books book store library reading preview

Spain marks National Bookshop Day as rising rents force much-loved neighbourhood meeting places to close

German Turkish mafia boss wanted for seven kidnappings ‘hiding in plain sight’ with fake Swedish passport in Costa del Sol expat hub

Election 2026

PP election manifesto: Mandatory Spanish tests to renew residency and 48-hour squatter evictions

PP and Vox on course for majority in latest opinion polls as left-wing vote collapses in Andalucia

IN PICS: Burning tyres, baton charges and blocked motorways as millions brave Storm Charles for Spain’s first general strike in 14 years

Vox leader Santiago Abascal on La Revuelta

VOX leader Santiago Abascal pulls out of all further media appearances ahead of Spanish elections unless he has ‘editorial control’

EXPLAINER: Why far-right Vox leader Santiago Abascal’s appearance on Spain’s most popular chat show has caused uproar ahead of election

Travel

This tiny mountain village north of Madrid has been named Europe’s top destination for trail running – here’s what you need to know

Manzanares del Real, north of the Spanish capital, has topped a ranking of 90 destinations across 21 European countries.

The medieval town with one of Spain’s best-preserved Jewish quarters named among National Geographic’s top places to visit in November

Five country homes in Spain that offer the perfect cosy escape this autumn

Ryanair reminds passengers of new 60-minute luggage drop-off rule to help stop them ‘missing their flights’

Hundreds of 19,000-year-old prehistoric engravings discovered in Catalunya cave hiding in plain sight

Property

Housing shortage now so severe in Valencia that estate agents are paying people to tip them off about homes to sell

A man in a white shirt gives a press conference to several tv stations

Andalucian left-wing party wants rents capped by law at a fifth of local family income

Affordable housing takes centre stage at Malaga’s property fair with over 4,300 homes up for sale

Malaga house prices soar 66% in five years as foreign buyers pile into increasingly ‘unsustainable’ property market

An abandoned house in a village in Andalucia

Andalucia is suffocating from poverty: Three million people struggle to make their ends meet, new report shows

HEALTH

Spain approves national ID system for microchipping all dogs and dogs cats before two-months-old - and also ferrets

Spain approves national ID system for microchipping all dogs and cats before two-months-old – and also ferrets

Spanish judge ‘asks UAE to arrest couple’ suspected of ordering execution of Marbella’s infamous BBL surgeon Dr ‘Buttman’

EXCLUSIVE: Forged signatures, unwanted procedures and trainee surgeons: Unravelling the medical practices of ‘Dr Frankenstein’ – aka ‘the Buttman’ – Marbella’s world renowned plastic surgeon

Women who suffer gender-based violence face a higher risk of heart disease, Spanish doctors warn

FOOD & DRINK

El Corte Ingles unveils six floors of premium brands in Fuengirola ahead of Christmas shopping

Spanish families budget around €300 for Christmas dinner – but turn to supermarket own brands to keep it affordable

An Olive farm in Spain with a road leading up a hill to a farmhouse

Spain makes shock intervention in olive oil market to stop price from crashing after bumper harvest

Spain comes top again as rural Basque restaurant is voted Best in the World by prestigious culinary list

Business & Finance

La Linea welcomes a new shopping centre on Gibraltar’s doorstep as Rock retailers brace for competition

British pensioners in Spain gain spending power as pound holds close to €1.20

Should british expats use uk based financial adviser c

Could your UK finances be costing you more tax in Spain? Here is why British expats should review

Spain shakes off NATO ‘problem child’ tag to boost defence spending by 50% in just one year

ANDALUCIA

13 Nov, 2026 @ 12:35

Andalucia’s population reaches historic high of 8.8 million residents driven by foreign arrivals as number of Spaniards plummets

13 Nov, 2026 @ 11:42

Brit who lost two friends in deadly Almeria wildfires launches golf tournament to fund victims’ memorial

13 Nov, 2026 @ 10:12

Cordoba church evacuated as wave of bomb scares sparks panic and controlled explosions across Spain

12 Nov, 2026 @ 19:04

Tragedy as ‘British’ boy, 4, dies after falling into water tank while on holiday with his family in Granada

12 Nov, 2026 @ 16:30

Malaga lorry driver arrested after truck overturns and crushes taxi in tunnel crash, leaving cabbie injured

12 Nov, 2026 @ 14:00

Inside the colourful world of Estepona’s embattled mayor – from Hitler’s translator and a swinger’s castle on the Costa del Sol to ‘wife-swapping trips to Germany’

COSTA BLANCA

12 Nov, 2026 @ 16:00

Busy Costa Blanca road will be closed for weeks with local travellers set for long detours to and from Alicante airport

12 Nov, 2026 @ 13:00

Albanian shot dead at Costa Blanca padel club was target in ‘family feud’ and was jailed in Italy for drug trafficking

11 Nov, 2026 @ 10:11

Albanian man shot dead at a Costa Blanca padel club ‘had deep ties to Italian ‘Ndrangheta and Chinese Triads’

10 Nov, 2026 @ 16:15

Albanian man, 39, is shot dead at a Costa Blanca padel club before hitman flees on an electric scooter

10 Nov, 2026 @ 13:39

Supermarkets and Bauhaus move in as Costa Blanca’s biggest new urbanisation takes shape in Torrevieja

10 Nov, 2026 @ 10:10

Luxury catamaran goes up in flames and sinks in Costa Blanca marina after witnesses hear ‘explosion’

OLIVE PRESS TV

Red alert issued during peak Barcelona rush hour as another powerful storm traps commuters in their cars and floods coastal and inland areas

IN VIDS: Barcelona hit by sudden flash flood chaos as homes are breached and firefighters rescue woman and baby

WATCH: The secret gem just one hour from Madrid in the Spanish heartlands that you should visit because it’s ‘untouched by tourism’

WATCH: War zone in Sevilla as knife fight breaks out in broad daylight

BARCELONA

11 Nov, 2026 @ 15:35

WATCH: Keffiyeh-clad protestor gets in kiosk worker’s face on Barcelona’s famous Rambla to force him to close in ‘solidarity with national strike’

10 Nov, 2026 @ 10:39

Warning for travellers heading to airports across Spain as train drivers’ strike causes chaos in Malaga, Madrid and Barcelona

6 Nov, 2026 @ 15:33

Mob boss executed in hospital bed is latest episode of Turkish mafia violence exploding on Spain’s coast, from Barcelona to the Costa del Sol

3 Nov, 2026 @ 15:38

Heading to Barcelona or Madrid? Get 10GB of mobile data for under €5 with this Spain eSIM

1 Nov, 2026 @ 08:01

No-show for Blocus: Barcelona avoids repeat of riots as 700 police identify more than 1,400 young people

30 Oct, 2026 @ 15:15

Barcelona’s Joan Miro museum is loaned 37 works from master Catalan artist from private Japanese collector

MADRID

Museo nacional thyssen bornemisza 2 salvador dal composici n con tres figuras academi

12 Nov, 2026 @ 18:01

How the Godfather of Psychoanalysis helped the Dali turn dreams and fears into unforgettable art

10 Nov, 2026 @ 16:52

Simply the Best (outing this Christmas) as Tina Turner stage show rocks up in Spain

7 Nov, 2026 @ 07:54

EU investigates Spanish rail safety bodies for ‘safety fund fraud’ after Toledo train crash

a RENFE AVE on a viaduct on the Madrid Sevilla line

4 Nov, 2026 @ 12:15

Andalucia to Madrid high-speed line set to reopen with fewer trains after Toledo disaster

The Toledo train disaster and Ryanair and Wizz Air planes

2 Nov, 2026 @ 07:30

Airlines join forces to lay on extra flights between Madrid and Andalucia after Toledo train disaster shuts high-speed line

1 Nov, 2026 @ 12:00

Must-visit: These 5 ‘low-cost’ escapes all within an hour from Madrid – according to a leading Spanish newspaper

OTHER NEWS

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has accused the PP of attempting to block the Gibraltar agreement.

Spain’s foreign minister accuses PP of trying to ‘sabotage’ Gibraltar treaty and ‘wellbeing of 300,000 Spaniards’

Gibraltar·Lead·Politics

12 Nov, 2026 @ 17:00

Jose Manuel Albares accuses Spain's PP of trying to block the Gibraltar Treaty, warning of the potential impact on 15,000 cross-border workers and 300,000

The anarchist’s bullet and ETA’s tunnel bomb – how Spain lost two prime ministers to assassins

Lead·On This Day in Spain·Politics

12 Nov, 2026 @ 08:30

In its history, Spain has lost two prime ministers to assassinations - Jose Canalejas y Mendez and Luis Carrero Blanco.

Sea life nursery blooms at new artificial reefs in Marbella port that have attracted cuttlefish among new 27 marine species

Environment·Lead·Marbella

11 Nov, 2026 @ 16:15

Six small reef structures have drawn more than twice as many species as the rest of the port, and most of the fish found

Huge cocaine stash of 2.6 tonnes hidden in crates of coconuts is seized by Spanish police in Valencia port

WATCH: Huge cocaine stash of 2.6 tonnes hidden in crates of coconuts from Ghana is uncovered in Valencia port

Almeria·Crime & Law·Lead·Valencia

11 Nov, 2026 @ 14:00

The Guardia Civil detained the duo after two containers were taken in refrigerated lorries to a warehouse in Almeria.

Manuel Ferrero Alvarez is accused of planting a bomb that killed police officer Juan Jose Rodriguez and his German shepherd sniffer dog.

Who is ‘The Russian’? Hundreds of police hunt elite ex-legionnaire who shot girl, 17, and killed officer and his dog with backpack bomb in northern Spain

Crime & Law·Lead·Northern Spain

11 Nov, 2026 @ 12:43

The suspect is believed to be armed with a pistol and a rifle, and police fear he may have more explosives.

Mayor of tiny Costa del Sol village to enter Spain’s Big Brother house in bid to ‘raise awareness’ of depopulation in her town

Costa del Sol·Lead·Politics

11 Nov, 2026 @ 10:42

Katrin Ortega Marquez, who has led Parauta since 2019, has confirmed she will become a contestant on the ninth series of Gran Hermano VIP.

Manhunt launched for suspect known as ‘The Russian’ after backpack ‘bomb’ kills police officer and sniffer dog in northern Spain

Animals·Crime & Law·Lead

10 Nov, 2026 @ 19:12

Manuel Ferrero Alvarez, known as ‘The Russian’, remains at large after an explosive device left inside a backpack detonated in Oviedo, Asturias on Tuesday