municipalities

why 14 municipalities of Guadalajara have rebelled against Europe’s “mineral sovereignty” plan

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The silence that guards the 15,000 hectares of the Sierra Norte of Guadalajara is not empty, it is an inheritance. However, that calm has been disturbed by the flash of a promise as old as it is dangerous: gold. The emergence of Oroberia SLU—subsidiary of the Australian multinational Global Mining Enterprises—has fractured the peace of the region with a request to drill into its bowels that has awakened the ghosts of exploitation. The origin of the conflict. The alarm went off in the spring of last year. Oroberia SLU is a company established only in March 2025 with a capital of only 3,000 euros, what woke up immediate suspicions about its solvency and transparency. Through three projects called “Gua”, “Dala” and “Jara”, the company aims to explore a territory that covers from La Toba to Atienza. This new “mining wave” finds its legal protection in the EU Fundamental Raw Materials Regulation (in force since April 2024), which seeks to cover 10% of the extraction of strategic supplies on European soil. What Brussels sells as “patriotic resilience” in Guadalajara translates into accelerated permits and a disturbing ease in classifying private projects as “strategic.” As Javier Cantero, mayor of La Toba, warns in The World“the companies are not state-owned… They will sell the raw materials to whoever pays the most.” The drilling plan. Thanks to “JARA” Permit Environmental Restoration Planwe know with technical precision the scope of the intervention. The company planned: Deep drilling: Rotational drilling with core recovery between 300 and 400 meters deep. Phases: An initial phase of six surveys per permit, expandable to another six if the results were favorable. Surface impact: Occupation of about 200 square meters for each drilling platform. The real danger, as experts explainis that if the mineral is less than 200 meters away, exploitation would inevitably be open pit. This would involve removing massive amounts of soil, raising dust loaded with microcrystals that can cause silicosis and other lung diseases, in addition to requiring enormous water resources and containment ponds for chemical treatments that could leak into the subsoil. The setback of the Board. Oroberia’s strategy of presenting three different projects has been described as “fragmentation” to avoid controls. However, in November, the Provincial Delegation of Sustainable Development of Guadalajara issued a historic resolution: Mandatory unification: The company must encompass “Gua”, “Dala” and “Jara” in a single project of 14,600 hectares. Ordinary Evaluation: The simplified evaluation (more agile) is denied and an ordinary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required, much more rigorous and slow. This decision is a victory for the neighbors. As Alberto Mayor points outfrom Ecologistas en Acción, this allows the “synergistic impacts” to be evaluated and forces the company to face the reality that 63% of the affected land contains habitats of community interest and protected species such as the Iberian wolf, the golden eagle and the ricotí lark (the latter in danger of extinction). A total and transversal opposition. The social response has been overwhelming. According to Ecologists in Actionnearly 800 allegations have been filed. The alliance is unprecedented because it includes mayors of all political colors (PP, PSOE, IU), hunters’ associations, environmental groups and even local parishes. The fear is not only environmental, but also economic and patrimonial. The “Jara” project would directly affect to towns such as Sigüenza and Atienza, committing their candidacy to UNESCO World Heritage status for the “Sweet and Salty Landscape”. Furthermore, mining would “a death blow” to already consolidated sustainable tourism projects, such as the Camino del Cid or the seal Starlight Destination. What will happen now? The company has two options according to local media: give up in the face of administrative obstacles and social pressure, or present a new unified environmental study that will be subjected to a new period of public exhibition. However, the scenario is complex. Currently, Spain is experiencing a mining rediscovery. While in Guadalajara the fight against gold is underway, in Galicia work has already begun to extract tungsten in the San Juan mine (Ourense), and in Jaén, the company Osmond Resources (linked to the same directors of Oroberia) has received permissions to investigate rare earths in the “Menipe” project. The ghost of 1973. One of the most critical points is that mining in Spain is governed by a Mines Act of 1973written in the last years of Franco’s regime. This law converts the mineral resource into public domain: if the administration grants permission, the owner of the land is obliged to let the company enter or face expropriation. This legal defenselessness is the fuel that fuels the rage of the fourteen Guadalajara municipalities. The value of what is not seen. The conflict in the Sierra Norte of Guadalajara is the representation of a clash of worlds. On the one hand, an extractivist vision that sees mining grids in the mountains and profits in the Australian stock market (where gold is trading upwards as a safe haven). On the other hand, some towns that, in the words of the mayor of Ríofrío del LlanoMaite Pérez, they only ask that the depopulation laws serve so that people live in their land and not to make it easier for them to be kicked out. For now, the Sierra Norte still stands, guarding a geological and biological heritage that, as your neighbors say“it has no price because it is not a commodity.” Image | freepik Xataka | The problem with Greenland is not that it does not have minerals: it is that getting them out of there is an engineering nightmare

allow free hunting in 254 municipalities

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Given its long tradition livestockGalicia has earned the title of ‘cow country’but there is an animal that is on the way to dethroning them: the wild boar. There are many in the community. very many. And that translates into damaged farmland and traffic accidents. The Xunta has decided to provide a solution by pressing a red button thought a priori as a resource “exceptional”although in recent years he has resorted to it half a dozen times: “the temporary hunting emergency”. It sounds very bureaucratic, but it’s easy to understand. In practice, the Xunta has given the green light to the free hunting and no limit of the species in more than 250 municipalities. What has happened? That Galicia wants to stand up to the thousands of wild boars that populate its fields and mountains. And it has decided to do so by bringing out the institutional ‘heavy artillery’, which translates into the declaration of the “temporary hunting emergency” in almost 40 regions spread throughout the region. Medio Rural’s announcement has published today in the Official Gazette of Galicia (DOG) and in practice it means giving carte blanche to hunters so that they can shoot wild pigs without limit until February 2026 in more than 250 municipalities. There is no maximum number of animals that can be shot or captured. What does the measurement say? Open the door to adoption “special control measures” to reduce the population of wild boars in 38 regions of Lugo, A Coruña, Pontevedra and Ourense, which covers a total 254 town councils. In all of them, hunters will be able to shoot or capture wild boars without limits or regardless of the sex of the prey, although the authorities ask that “adult and sub-adult” females be prioritized. Hunting calves and females with offspring is also allowed, although with prior authorization from the General Directorate of Natural Heritage. What hunters should pay attention to is where they are: the DOG distinguishes between “hunting” and “non-hunting” lands. In the former, wild boar may be hunted every day of the week, although adjusting to certain guidelines established in the standard (in hunting-free areas, for example, hunts must have authorization); In the latter it will be necessary to have a permit. Is it a new measure? To measurements. The declaration of “temporary hunting emergency” has just been be published today to come into force tomorrow, but it is not the first time that the Xunta uses this figure to control the populations of wild pigs in the community. The Department of the Environment has already used the same instrument in four other times: in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024. In fact, this time it will affect fewer municipalities than last year. The Spanish remember that then the measure also came into force in october and extended until February, covering nearly 85% of the region. The Xunta ruled out extending a figure that has always been presented as “exceptional”, but it did maintain a protocol in spring that contemplated preventive raids. Why do you hunt wild boars? In 2019 Jacobo Feijoo, forestry engineer at Unións Agrarias, published in Galician Field an article in which he tried to clarify how many wild pigs live in Galicia. His conclusion is that there could be at least 180,000. “In other words, taking as a reference the 26,000 square kilometers of agricultural and forestry areas of Galicia, we certainly have at least 6.90 wild boars per km2,” the expert added, adding that with that level of concentration we can now speak of “high densities.” Coexistence between this high volume of animals, crop fields and traffic is not always easy. In the advertisement In which the Xunta declares the hunting emergency, it recognizes that “the effects caused by wild boar populations have been experiencing an increase in Galicia as a whole in recent years”, a phenomenon that the regional government relates “largely to changes in the use of the environment and the ecological characteristics of the species.” “It has been confirmed that it causes multiple damages in agriculture and traffic accidents and its increasingly common presence in peri-urban areas is an additional problem,” insist the Galician Executive. “Likewise, a high population increases the risk of the spread of certain diseases, such as African swine fever, which would make their eradication difficult at any given time, if necessary.” Does it have that much impact? In March The Voice of Galicia revealed that last year alone the Xunta dedicated more than 4.1 million euros to compensate farmers who had seen how their crops (both large farms and self-consumption orchards) were damaged by wild boars. It may seem like a lot of money, but according to Environment data, in one year (from August 2023 to July 2024) these large animals caused damage to 2,800 agricultural hectares. The money invested in prevention is added to the compensation money, which brings the total bill to 4.6 million. The proliferation of wild boars is not only felt in the fields. It also affects roads, increasing the risk of accidents. Again according to The Voice of GaliciaIn 2024, more than 3,700 collisions were recorded. Images | Iván PC (Flickr) and Leopoldo de Castro (Flickr) In Xataka | The ranchers of Asturias have been complaining about the wolf for years and now they have obtained what they longed for: permission to hunt it

This is how the money is distributed in the neighborhoods and municipalities of Spain

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On the streets of Spain, the standard of living can change radically from one apple to another. The environment that a person finds when leaving home, the parked vehicles, the diversity of stores or the simple appearance of the buildings tell part of a deeper and more complex story. Behind these everyday differences, the data reflects the extent to which geographic location reflects economic level and the well-being of its inhabitants. The published statistics This week by the Tax Agency they show a growing gap that crosses cities and neighborhoods, making it clear that wealth and poverty do not usually live in the same zip code. Where wealth is concentrated. The richest neighborhoods in Spain They are recorded in residential areas on the outskirts of the large urban centers of Madrid and Barcelona. La Moraleja (Alcobendas, Madrid) stands out for another year with 196,429 euros of average gross income, followed by Ciudalcampo (San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid) with 121,838 euros and Fuente del Fresno (also in San Sebastián de los Reyes) with 108,354 euros. Outside the capital, the Vallvidrera-Tibidabo i Les Planes neighborhood, on the eastern edge of Barcelona, ​​occupies fourth place with 107,513 euros. Without leaving the city of Barcelonathe neighborhoods of Muntaner (106,734 euros) and Pedralbes-Sarriá (104,963 euros) complete the list of the richest in Spain. We have to reduce several tens of thousands of euros in rent to find a neighborhood outside the scope of these two cities, until we reach the Valencian Massarrochos-Santa Bárbara, with an average gross income of 81,807 euros. The neighborhoods with the least income. The opposite extreme is represented by Torreblanca, in Seville, which according to records According to the Tax Agency, it was ranked as the area with the lowest average gross income in all of Spain during the year 2023, reaching only 11,354 euros annually. Despite this figure, the neighborhood itself improves slightly compared to previous years. However, the gap between the highest and lowest average income centers remains abysmal, standing at over 185,000 euros difference. Other neighborhoods with low income are Nou Alacant (Alicante, 16,868 euros), Cortijos de Marín (Roquetas de Mar, Almería, 17,210 euros), Carrús-Plaza Barcelona (Elche, 17,670 euros) and Ciudad Jardín (Alicante, 19,000 euros). Given these data, it is worth highlighting the enormous gap that exists between the neighborhoods with the highest and lowest incomesreaching a difference of up to 185,000 euros on average between La Moraleja and Torreblanca. Origin of wealth in the neighborhoods. The nature of wealth also changes depending on the neighborhood in which you live. For example, only 58.55% of the income of the residents of the richest neighborhoods comes from a salary, while 17.79% corresponds to capital returns, 10.68% is earned from economic activities and 11.53% comes from of capital gains. However, in lower-income neighborhoods there is a greater dependence on labor income direct and there is very little generation of passive or patrimonial income. The salary of the residents of these humble neighborhoods represents more than 75% of the total average annual income. In the case of Torreblanca, the poorest neighborhood in Spain, the weight of salaries in the total declared income reaches 75.18%. For its part, capital income barely represents 0.22%, economic activities 1.83% and capital gains only 0.47%. Wealth and poverty in the shadow of big cities. It is enough to open the focus a little more to discover that the municipalities with the highest average income are clearly concentrated in the communities of Madrid and Catalonia. Pozuelo de Alarcón, in Madrid, repeats as the richest municipality in Spain with an average income of 88,011 euros in 2023, 3.15% more than the previous year. They are followed by Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) with 70,869 euros and Sant Just Desvern, in Barcelona, ​​with 67,265 euros. In total, five Madrid and four Catalan municipalities appear among the top ten on this list. At the other extreme, the municipalities with the lowest incomes are located mainly in Andalusia and Extremadura. Benamargosa, in Malaga, is the poorest, with an average income of only 13,831 euros. It is followed by other Andalusian municipalities such as Guadahortuna and Colomera, both in Granada, with around 14,000 euros of average income. The difference between Pozuelo de Alarcón and Benamargosa is 74,180 euros, which, as we already saw in the breakdown of the neighborhoods, also shows great economic inequality between areas of the country. In Xataka | The list of the richest people in Spain in 2025: many changes in the figures, but not in the protagonists Image | Unsplash (Yzy Pop, John Fornander)

Less routes, less stops and less municipalities

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Spain prepares for a deep change in its bus lines. The Ministry of Transport has the mission of renewing a system that has become obsolete, with dozens of expired services in its award but that continue to be provided by the impossibility of new competitions. And with the challenge of transforming and approaching the new realities of our country. What is happening? He Concessional map of Spanish buses He prepares for a deep change. The Ministry of Transport Wait for the response of the Autonomous Communities to your last proposal in a period that expires next Monday. Silence will be taken as an acceptance of the new model but it is not clear what the vote of a good part of the regions will be, mostly governed by the Popular Party. How do Spanish buses work? In Spain, two companies are not allowed to fight along the same line, as with trains. There are currently 77 runners who go out to competition. To this exam the interested companies are presented and, subsequently, the concession to whom the best offer under the designed sheets is attributed. What changes are proposed? What Transport has presented has been a deep redesign in this way of acting. They point out in Five daysthat from wanting to reduce to 22 runners of the total of 77 that is now available. These, they say, respond to the new ways of moving from the Spaniards who have been betting on the journeys between large cities or have jumped to the train. This implies, irremediably, that the new routes would put aside many municipalities (especially those that have lost population). Transport ensures that this service will have to replace the autonomous communities with their own concessions and offer 40 million euros extra help to implement the new lines. What do those involved respond? They point out in the economic environment that the opposition has not made its position clear. It has been pointed out that 40 million euros are insufficient and that the investment should be at least 110 million euros. However, the regions have until next Monday to answer and give a definitive answer. For their part, bus companies have been divided for years. Confebus is an association that represents 40% of companies that operate in our country and They firmly believe in the concessional modelsince they ensure that it allows more security for travelers when it comes to the route and also greater security for companies that have to get the concession. Anetra or Flixbus, however, carry years betting on liberalization of the sector. This last company uses a franchise system throughout Europe that analyzes customer movement data, with the aim of focusing on those most profitable routes with a higher volume of income. Something that cannot be done in Spain. A monopoly without expiration date. The main problem indicated by these companies, but also by the government, is that the terms of the awards are not being fulfilled. In Five days They put the example of the Madrid-Irún route, one of the ones that moves the most money but has been expired for six years. Without a new contest, the concessionary company continues to act in a kind of undercover monopoly. The reasons are varied but they almost always follow the same pattern. It is very difficult to take the new corridor in contest because the process is drowned in a tangle of allegations during the different phases of the process. Madrid-Valenciawhich has to go out to competition, already accumulates more than 800 allegations. Goodbye, town, goodbye. The great victims of the new process are, without a doubt, the inhabitants of hundreds of municipalities that could run out of routes. With the new transport proposition (They have been advancing since 2022)the data speak for themselves: the stops will be reduced, on average, from 12.8 per route to just six. The municipalities under the responsibility of transport go from 1,912 locations to 495. From the Ministry they try to calm the waters ensuring that the municipalities that are abandoned because the affected autonomous communities do not take care of those routes that, with the new model, fall on their roof will be served by transport. But it has not been said under what conditions or if there will be reductions in frequencies, for example. Photo | Flixbus and Ash Gerlach In Xataka | The bus has been working for centuries as we know it. Madrid wants to know its limits with a “bus on demand”

In the emptied Galicia there are municipalities taking care of gas stations and shops. THE OBJECTIVE: Don’t run out of services

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The Emptied Spain It is depopulated Spain, but also the one that is emptied from companies and services. Both, the Lack of neighbors And the absence of businesses that cover their most basic needs, are part of the same vicious circle that in the long run the peoples to abandonment. In Galicia They have decided Breaking that loop with a curious movement. To avoid running out of supermarkets or gas stations there are municipalities that are taking care of their management. The objective: that the neighbors should not move kilometers for something as simple as buying the bread. Even at the cost of the City Council itself assume private services. The ghost of depopulation. The depopulation He is one of the great ghosts of the rural of Spain. And Galicia is no exception. A few months ago his Consello de Contas He issued A report in which he warned that in the community (especially in the provinces of Lugo and Ourense) there are almost a hundred towns in ‘danger of extinction’, a status that is explained by a combination of factors: a register below the 5,000 inhabitants, a low population density (less than 20%) and more deaths than births. INE himself calculates that in 2021 there were almost 25,700 Gallegos residing in municipalities that do not pass from the thousand registered. According to his nomenclator, in the community there are also around 1,900 depopulated villagesmany of them in Lugo. Only in 2023 it is estimated that the province lost about 40. Other populations are still alive but with a handful of hundreds of neighbors and having lost much in a short time. To name a case, Murasin the Terra Cha, I had 1,151 neighbors In 2000. In 2024 were 600. A vicious circle. We commented before. The localities of emptied Spain do not remain alone without neighbors. They often do it also without businesses that cover their needs. And one and the other, that of inhabitants and services, feed a vicious circle that ends up accelerating the emptying of the peoples. Although there is experts That they conclude that at general “accessibility to services” in Spain is good, especially if we talk about health and education, they also recognize that differences arise when the provincial scale is lowered. A quick search arrives on Google to find Complaints of populations about the public transport or lack of something as simple as bars and shops. And how to solve it? A question similar to that was asked a while ago in Pol and Ribeira de Piquíntwo localities of the rural of the province of Lugo that together barely go from the 2,000 residents. The first, Pol, has 1,542 registered, 27% less than in 2000. The second, Ribeira de Piquín, had about 500 residents, 80% less than at the beginning of this century. Both municipalities share Another featurein addition to the province and a diminishing census: given the loss of basic businesses their respective municipalities have decided to step forward and guarantee the continuity of private services. A kind of municipalization which aims to prevent your neighbors from having to look for life for issues as basic as buying bread. Their cases have attracted the interest of media such as The voice of Galicia either Eldiario. A “municipal” supermarket. In the case of Pol the Consistory he found the risk that The only supermarket From the town, located in the population of Mosterio, closed. Its owner retired and in the absence of relief or other shopkeepers that would like to transfer it, the panorama was complicated for the neighbors who reside there. “No one was interested in carrying it. It was deserted,” explained in December Its mayor, Lino Rodríguez, Progress. The City Council solution: Buy the super To keep it open. It is not yet known How will it manage, through a foundation, attracting a franchise or with an autonomous, but the goal is clear: to guarantee the continuity of the service. “We acquired the entire block, which has an area of ​​about 800 m2, for a total of 150,000 euros,” Rodríguez added In December. The project went ahead with the support of the Diputación and aspires to go beyond trade: Pol wants to recover an old sausage mark and create social housing at the top. At the end of last year the town had already paid 75,000 euros for the premises, it hoped to pay a similar sum of 2025 and already thought about furniture and facilities to serve customers. “We need to acquire the material goods of the interior, such as refrigerators, freezers and cold cameras. But throughout 2025 we will try to prepare the charcería,” He reported. OBJECTIVE: Refers in the town. In Ribeira de Piquín, the City Council has also moved to preserve a key service, although in this case the focus is on a gas station. At the end of 2024 the Consistory was in process for rent an already built service area but it carries more than a decade closed The idea is reopen it in 2025 and that the neighbors do not have to move to another town to replace or look for fuel. The project is carried out through the Terreo Foundationparticipated by the City Council, and with support of the Diputación de Lugo, which provides funds through an agreement. The rent will be done through a direct award procedure, Precise Progressand once completed the idea of ​​the City Council is to adapt the station to the regulations to register it. In the budget they also reserve funds to hire full -time personnel who can take care of the suppliers and serve users. Is it an isolated case? No. The gas station will not be the only (or first) project that is promoted with the terreo lever. Before it was launched A fish farma livestock exploitation and even a kiwi plantation. “The municipalities as small as we have many difficulties for the private initiative to come and invest. Hence we have no other option … Read more

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