Spain

This is how Spain plans to conquer the ocean renewable industry

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The race for clean energy dominance in Europe has a new battlefield: the sea. And Spain has just put on the table a million-dollar declaration of intentions so as not to be left behind. As announced by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE)the Government has allocated a provisional injection of 212 million euros from European NextGenEU funds to six state ports. The objective of all this is to adapt its logistical infrastructure for the imminent deployment of offshore wind. In this cast, there is a great winner who monopolizes the spotlight. The group formed by the Galician ports of A Coruña and Ferrol-San Cibrao has taken most of the pie of the PORT-EOLMAR programwith a proposed award that is close to 100 million euros (97.4 million for the joint project and an additional 2.5 million for Ferrol). A figure that supports the strategic nature of the region and that promises to transform its coast into the industrial epicenter of ocean renewables. The historical qualitative leap. Until now, Spain’s role was mainly limited to the manufacturing of different components and their storage. However, the objective of this new aid is make a historical qualitative leap: provide ports with the real capacity to build the immense platforms on which the wind turbines sit and, later, launch them into the sea as if they were frigates. Here the great geographical challenge of our coasts comes into play: unlike what happens in the North Sea – where the bottom is shallower and allows structures to be nailed (offshore fixed)—, the great depth of the Spanish and Galician coastline forces us to opt for floating technology. And floating wind requires colossal space. Carla Chawla Fidalgo, director of the Navantia Fene shipyard, sums it up perfectly in statements to The Opinion of A Coruña: “If we want to be able to assemble several units at the same time, we need enormous surfaces.” Since it is impossible to transport platforms the size of a football field by land, shipyards and ports with deep drafts become the “natural allies” and obligatory of this industry. The five titans. The rain of millions will result in an unprecedented physical transformation. At Punta Langosteira (the outer port of A Coruña), the aid will be used to condition some 100 hectares of surface in the southern area and create a new dock that may reach 450 meters in length. This joint candidacy obtained an almost perfect score, exceeding 90 points out of 100. But the bases of the IDAE They demanded an indispensable condition: Public money had to be backed by private industrial projects of comparable investment. And Galicia has responded. As it breaks down The Voice of Galiciathe port of A Coruña already has five firm projects, bank guarantees included, from true giants of the sector: Navantia: The main Galician naval engine is already a benchmark in building foundations (jackets) in Ferrol, but desperately needs land. Its landing in Langosteira is not a move, but a vital expansion to take on the assembly of large floating structures. WindWaves: The former Nervión Naval Offshore (belonging to the Amper Group) is Navantia’s strategic partner. The firm seeks to complement the facilities it already plans in Ferrol and As Somozas with this new space in the outer port. Acciona: The seventh world operator in wind energy, allied with giants such as Orsted and SSE Renewables, requested space to manufacture, assemble and maintain offshore wind installations. Esteyco: This engineering company already knows what it is like to operate in Langosteira, from where it moved 400-ton pieces for a prototype in the Canary Islands. Saitec: The Basque group promoting floating technology SATH is looking for land to manufacture and assemble its own platforms, with a view to expanding its prototypes before the end of the decade. Beyond the docks. The impact of this deployment transcends the simple civil works of a port. If we add public funds to the commitment of these five colossi, we are talking about a formidable financial muscle: the committed private investment is estimated at 180 million euros, which would raise the total impact of the Galician polo to around 280 million euros. At a professional level, the potential is undeniable. leaning in data from the metal employers’ association (Asime)the marine mill industry already generates about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in Galicia. A figure that could skyrocket with the consolidation of this macroport. This entire movement is, furthermore, a geopolitical race against time. These investments are the necessary ammunition so that A Coruña and Ferrol can compete head to head with neighboring countries that are stepping on the accelerator, such as France, Italy or Portugal. In fact, times are pressing: the Port will close the adaptation project before August, and the aid stipulates a period of execution of the works of 48 months. The green horizon of Spain. The roadmap is drawn. How the IDAE documentation concludesSpain not only has high civil engineering capabilities and a powerful naval sector, but also optimal weather conditions. The ultimate objective is to take advantage of this competitive advantage to turn the country into a “European and global reference center” in the marine energy supply chain. But this massive industrialization does not want to turn its back on the environment. As a finishing touch to this ambitious plan, all this infrastructure is framed under the umbrella of the strategy ‘A Coruña Green Port’. An initiative that seeks to convert the Punta Langosteira dock into the first to achieve energy self-sufficiency from 100% renewable sources. Definitive proof that Spain is not content with manufacturing the wind giants of the future, but rather aspires for the port where they are born to be as green as the energy they will generate. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Japan has realized that it cannot depend on gas, so it is going to set up a mega wind farm on the coast of Tokyo

The day Spain wanted to be Spielberg doing science fiction. It was such nonsense that Tarantino ended up claiming the film

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In 1982, during the filming of Fitzcarraldo In the Amazon jungle, Werner Herzog heard a completely real proposal from several local indigenous people: they offered to kill Klaus Kinski to put an end to the problems he was causing on set. The German director rejected the idea, but years later he would admit that for a few seconds he seriously considered accepting the offer. The impossible movie. In the mid-80s, Spanish cinema was still very far from Hollywood. Science fiction blockbusters seemed to be the exclusive territory of Spielberg, George Lucas or Ridley Scott, while comedies and much more modest films in terms of media predominated here. Then the director Fernando Colomo appeared and decided do exactly the opposite of what seemed sensible: raising a medieval science fiction epic with aliens, castles, special effects, international stars and the largest budget in the history of Spanish cinema up to that point. The result was so enormous, chaotic and Martian that it ended up becoming a symbol first of absolute failure…and decades later in a cult film claimed even by Quentin Tarantino himself. movie poster Spain in Hollywood style. The dragon knight was born as a completely improbable idea: mixing the myth of Sant Jordi with Encounters in the third phasemedieval fantasy, absurd humor and romantic science fiction. The story began with a spaceship mistaken for a dragon in the middle of medieval Europe and a silent alien (played by Miguel Bosé) falling in love with a princess after accidentally kidnapping her. Colomo came from triumph with the comedies of the Madrid Movida, but decided to launch into a gigantic project by Spanish standards. The budget is over exceeding 300 million of pesetas, a crazy figure for the time. Huge sets were built, models and storyboards that were unusual in Spain were designed, and some of them were experimented with. the first digital effects of national cinema. The problem is that Spanish cinema in 1985 simply did not yet have the necessary industrial infrastructure to build something like that without everything exploding into the air. Martian Bosé, Keitel sunk and Kinski unleashed. The casting seemed like an international frenzy. Harvey Keitel accepted the project at one of the lowest moments of his career after working with Scorsese. Miguel Bosé finished turned into an alien because Imanol Arias “did not have the face of an alien,” according to Colomo himself. And then there was Klaus Kinski. The German actor arrived at the filming as a ticking bomb human. He constantly insulted the team, shouted “What a shitty movie!” During the days, he demanded more money, disappeared when he wanted and turned any technical delay into an attack of fury. Apparently, he only respected Miguel Bosé (and for being Picasso’s godson) and the gypsy animal caretakers on the set. To give us an idea, Keitel even offered to pay out of pocket to settle one of Kinski’s contractual tantrums. The atmosphere was so unbearable that Colomo tried to film all the German scenes before meals so I can have a quiet lunch without him. History left the moment when Kinski finally finished his sequences and left the shoot, when the team celebrated his departure. opening bottles of champagne All wrong. The film was shot amidst constant rain, delays, cost overruns and situations almost surreal. An extra was about to drown during a sequence on a lake because the armor was too heavy and he couldn’t stay afloat. An electrician managed to rescue him at the last moment and then used that anecdote for years to demand work in new Colomo films. Not only that. The castle where they were filming was so poorly located that the crew had to upload loading material on exhausting days every morning. Miguel Bose I could barely breathe inside his spacesuit and diving suit it continually fogged up. Meanwhile, money was disappearing at breakneck speed. What had started as an ambitious fantasy ended up becoming something of a kind. suicide expedition where every day seemed to bring a new logistical disaster. The final failure. When The dragon knight It hit theaters in 1985, the reaction was brutal. Part of the criticism destroyed her describing it as a botched, absurd and inoperative fantasy. Although the film was relatively seen and became the seventh highest-grossing Spanish production of the year, that it wasn’t enough to recover such a crazy budget. To make matters worse, the American distributor broke agreements due to delays in the delivery of the material and Colomo lost a trial in Hollywood that left him without international rights. The director finished in debt with 50 million of the old pesetas and, according to would count Years later, he only kept “a Renault 5.” The experience was so traumatic that he thought he was going to have a heart attack. In fact, to survive financially he wrote almost as an emergency The joyful lifewhose subsequent success allowed him to pay off the debts accumulated by that medieval space madness. From disaster to cult movie. For decades, The Dragon Knight was remembered as one of the big hits of Spanish cinema. But over time something began to happen that has been repeated in many other celluloid productions: many people began to see it with fascination. Its impossible mix of genres, its naive tone, its disproportionate ambitions and the chaos that each scene gives off transformed it into a unique rarity. Festivals like CutreCon They claimed it as a cult work and the film ended being restored in 4K forty years after its premiere. The definitive turn came when Colomo remembered a conversation in Sitges with Quentin Tarantino. The American director, always obsessed with strange and failed films, immediately recognized Star Knight (his international title) even before Colomo himself remembered what it was called in English. It turned out that that martian medieval that almost ruined half the world ended up surviving in the most improbable way: converted into a delirious relic of a moment in which Spanish cinema believed, … Read more

Someone has gathered more than 13 million public contracts and has set up the Google of public procurement in Spain

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Every euro spent by a State Public Administration must be traceable by citizens. We don’t say it, the law says it. But theory is one thing and practice another: if you try, you will discover that sometimes it is a long, tedious and sometimes almost impossible mission. Let me explain: when someone wants to know which company a public hospital or city council has awarded contracts to, the official search path forces them to go through different platforms ranging from Public Sector Procurement Platform state to autonomous regions such as those of the Community of Madrid, the Basque Country or Galicia, because there are CCAA (quite a few) that have their own system and do not publish in PLACSP. This fragmentation makes the search difficult, as details the Public Procurement Observatory. So an engineer has set out to solve it by building a search engine for Spanish public contracts. The “Google” of public contracts in Spain. jobsearch.com solves this fragmentation problem with a single search engine. It is an independent project that aggregates, cross-references and allows you to consult in seconds the public procurement information that the State publishes dispersedly on a long list of different platforms. More specifically, it draws from 10 official sources, including the State Platform (PLACSP), the Official Journal of the EU (TED), and regional platforms of Madrid, Catalonia, Galicia, Andalusia, the Basque Country, Asturias and the Valencian Community, plus data from the Commercial Registry. The result is a search engine with around 13.4 million indexed contracts, without advertising, without tracking and with open source available on GitHub. Behind the project, Gerard Sanchezprogrammer and founder of BQuant and professor at the University of Navarra and the UPF Barcelona School of Management. Why is it important. Public procurement is not trivial: in Spain it moved more than 113 billion euros in 2024, the equivalent of 10.92% of GDP, according to the OIReScon Annual Surveillance Report 2025the official supervisory body of the Ministry of Finance. Each year a sum of money is allocated through procedures that must be public and auditable. The reality is that this audit is very difficult without tools. A CNMC report of 2019 highlights that public procurement represents between 10% and 20% of Spanish GDP and that Spain is one of the European countries with the lowest participation of companies in tenders: only one company participates in one in three state contracts. With data access tools that facilitate transparency, competition could be increased and the cost for public coffers reduced. Context. In Spain there are several laws that require public contracts to be published: there is the Law 19/2013 on transparency, access to public information and good governance with a triple objective of increasing transparency in public activity, guaranteeing access to information as a right and establishing good governance obligations for public officials, but also the Law 9/2017 on Public Sector Contractswhich is a transposition of European directives on public procurement. So the problem is not that there are no regulations, but rather their application and the dispersion of data. As explains the Public Procurement ObservatorySince March 2018, it has been mandatory for the entire public sector to publish the information on their contracts in the PLACSP, but the tool is also a headache as thousands of entities upload information manually and with free-writing text, which constitutes a continuous source of error. PreciselyBuscalicitaciones.com detects and documents these inconsistencies. How it works. Technically, the project downloads and normalizes the open data that each of those 10 official platforms publishes in structured formats such as XML, JSON, CSV. Each record is crossed with data from the Commercial Registry to enrich the information of the successful bidder. The search engine offers three main modes of use: search for contracts by winning company, contracting body, CPV sector or free text of the contract; see the complete history of awards of any company by its NIF and consult a public registry of contracts with anomalous amounts greater than 1,000 million euros. Yes, but. The first major limitation is structural: it depends on the quality of the data published by official sources and that quality can clearly be improved. If the source data is bad, the aggregator inherits that error. And we have already seen that sometimes it is and that it is certainly anything but homogeneous. On the other hand, this is the first version of the project and it shows: It has flaws and the coverage is not complete. Navarra does not appear on the list and sources such as the Valencian Community do not have an aggregate amount available, the Basque Country only has an amount in 106,000 of its 651,000 contracts and Catalonia has two separate entries with different coverage. On the other hand, the independent and altruistic nature of this public utility resource also has its B side: long-term sustainability, given its great magnitude. In Xataka | Someone has passed 12,000 laws and reforms to source code and now searching the BOE is no longer an ordeal In Xataka | The “ChatGPT for lawyers” exists, it was born in Spain and has just reached a milestone: becoming a unicorn Cover | Mockuphone and Gemini

In 1808, a Canarian engineer had to flee Spain and go into exile in Russia. And thus shaped modern St. Petersburg

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Between the winters of his native Puerto de la Cruz and those of Saint Petersburg there are a few degrees of difference; but neither that, nor the change in culture, language or landscapes turned back Agustín de Betancourt when in 1808 he decided to pack his bags and move to the Russia of the tsars. He had fallen into disgrace in the eyes of the almighty GodoyIn Spain he had nothing left but family and memories, he had been in Paris for some time and had influential friends, so… What could he lose? Nothing. And so it was. His steppe adventure would bring him significant profits; but above all to Russia itself. So much so that if you walk around Saint Petersburg you will find several statues in his memory. The country of the tsars, that of the Alexanders and Nicolaseswhich today we associate with pageantry and alambic constructions, would probably have been somewhat less brilliant if it had not been for the genius of Agustín de Betancourt, the inventor who during the early part of the 19th century gave shape to his particular “Russia made in the Canary Islands”. Especially in the capital, Saint Petersburg. From Augustine to Agustinovich The one of Agustín de Betancourt y Molina (1758-1824) is one more name in the long list of national geniuses from whom Spain—before and after him, for one reason or another—did not know how to take full advantage. It happened to Isaac Peral, Monica Sanchez, Angela Ruiz, Emilio Herrera…and Betancourt. In his case, yes, in a peculiar way. At the beginning of the 19th century, the situation of the Canarian engineer in Spain was enviable in its own way. He came from a good birth, he had made a career between Madrid, Paris and London, earning the trust of the counts of Floridablanca either Aranda and enjoyed a well-established prestige with his work on steam engines or the optical telegraph that I had designed with Claude Chappe. As, in addition to being a man of action, he was also a man of letters, Betancourt had also encouraged the creation of the School of Roads and Canals, inspired by the École des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. Despite all this prestige and status, their situation at the dawn of the 19th century was not what one would call comfortable. In 1805 a report with his seal on the Genil River had earned him the distrust of none other than Manuel Godoy himselfstrong man in the kingdom of Charles IV. That circumstance and the scenario that was emerging internationally encouraged Betancourt to liquidate his properties in Spain and move first to Paris —where Napoleon came to tempt him—and then to Russia. There, in Saint Petersburg, he knew how to gain the favor of the best godfather imaginable: Tsar Alexander Iwho probably saw in the canary a more than valid genius for the development of his country. What Spain had missed would be used in the Russian empire. If the future was not tempting for Agustín in Madrid, perhaps it would be in Madrid. 3,000 kilometers from there. So he collected his belongings, settled his pending matters in France and embarked for Saint Petersburg. There they waited with open arms for Agustín “Agustinovich” Betancour. Persuaded perhaps by his prestige or the interviews with Agustín himself, the tsar He soon showed his confidence in the canary. One of his first orders was the modernization of the Tula cannon factory, a strategic cog in the military apparatus of the Russian Empire. Betancourt was not new to the task and he knew how to take advantage of his knowledge of the double-acting steam engine and the operation of the Yndrid factory to give a twist to the ancient Russian system. Happy The result must have convinced the tsar. Only in this way can we understand that throughout the following years Augustine was in charge of tasks of capital importance for Russia and accumulated greater and greater prestige. In a matter of a few years, the formerly feuding engineer Godoy He became a lieutenant general in the Russian army and general director of Communications. In Moscow he took on the task of building a new Equestrian Exercise Room and around the same time he was in charge of what may have been his greatest contribution—and the most profound—to Russian urban planning: projecting a new commercial precinct able to take over the fair that since the 16th century It was celebrated near the Makaevsky Monastery. Its old center had burned in 1816 and the Russian Government wanted to recover it… but with greater packaging and in a better place, more accessible and capable of achieving greater projection. The responsibility of deciding where and how and coming up with the overall design fell on the canary’s shoulders. The venue opened its doors in July 1822 with a huge fair that brought together more than 200,000 merchants and helped for years development of the Volga region and the wealth of the empire. That Betancourt did not do badly in his endeavor is demonstrated by the fact that upon his death the Russian merchants installed a plaque of gratitude on his grave. Two hundred years later the footprint of the Tenerife native in Nizhny Novgorod still deep. Although the Nizhni Novgorod complex is perhaps its greatest urban heritage, the city in which it was used most thoroughly and in which it left the greatest impact is Saint Petersburg. There, in the capital of the empire, he showed his talent in at least half a dozen capital works for the metropolis: the new paper currency factory, the dredging of the port, several bridges and St. Isaac’s Cathedral. As the Orotava Foundation remindsBetancourt assumed in March 1816 the task of setting up a new money paper factory in Goznak, on the banks of the Fontanka canal, and for two years he was in charge of supervising the works. His involvement was not limited to the building: he organized its areas and machinery, … Read more

Spain counted on immigration to reverse its demographic drama. Now immigrants are also stopping having children

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I had never lived so many people in Spain. Not at least since there are official records. A few days ago the INE revealed that at the end of the first quarter of 2026 the country had around 49.7 million residents, “the maximum value in the historical series.” In reality there is little surprising about it. The INE takes time using that tagline in its statements on population, in which it also insists on another idea: if Spain is moving in record numbers it is basically thanks to the increase in people of foreign origin. The balance between births and deaths in the country is far away to be good. The problem is that this demographic salvation table shows symptoms that it will not work indefinitely. What has happened? What Funcas just published a studysigned by Héctor Cebolla and María Miyar, which basically analyzes whether Spain can rely indefinitely on migration to save it from the demographic winter. In fact, the report of think tank seek (literally) explore “the limits” of immigration for “demographic adjustment.” It is an important topic for two reasons. First, because the arrival of foreigners has become the great engine of population growth in Spain. Second, because despite the increase in the registry and the fact that the INE has been registering for some time record numbers of residentsthe truth is that the Spanish demographic engine is not exactly oiled. In 2025, the INE counted 446,982 deaths and 321,164 births, which leaves red numbers vegetative growth. And what is your conclusion? That although the migratory flow is acting as a demographic lifeline, we cannot trust that its effects will continue forever. “Immigration has made it possible to sustain population growth and cushion aging, but it has done so through a mechanism that requires continuous and increasing flows, loses effectiveness over time and does not correct the underlying trends of demographic imbalance,” comment María Miyar Busto, director of Social Studies at Funcas. It is not about denying the positive effects of immigration, but about “recognizing the limits of the model” and placing it “in its rightful place in the analysis of public policies.” Above all, thinking about the future in the medium and long term. “The short-termism that dominates the debate on the benefits of immigration has not allowed the analysis of the long-term consequences and has favored the absence of an explicit demographic strategy,” duck Onion. Why this warning? Because after analyzing data on migratory flows and tables of age ranges, birth rates and population growth, Funcas researchers have reached several worrying conclusions. For example, they have proven that although Spain manages to attract a significant number of immigrants, it is not as effective when it comes to retaining them. They have also confirmed that the population of foreign origin shows signs of a progressive aging and that over time their demographic patterns (such as birth rates) end up being similar to those of Spanish families. What does the data say? To begin with, Spain has a problem when it comes to determining the migrant population. The country is attractive enough to attract foreigners, but only a portion ends up putting down roots here, contributing to the demographics and economy. And to show you a button: although between 2002 and 2024 they entered Spain almost 15 million of people, the population only increased by seven million. That leaves our country in a peculiar situation. Spain is the main recipient of immigration in Europe in relative terms and between 2013 and 2023 it absorbed 16% of the immigration that arrived on the continent, however for years its retention rate has been one of the lowest in the region: 51%. That, remember Funcasforces Spain to maintain “high inflows to sustain a population that is constantly renewed.” Why is that a problem? Because for the model to continue supporting Spanish demographics, it requires “growing and uninterrupted” migration, something complicated every time that population arrives from countries (especially in America) who are also aging. Is it the only warning sign? No. The study de Funcas also questions whether immigration will serve to rejuvenate the registry. Researchers calculate that the foreign population that has already turned 55 years old shot up by 42% between 2021 and 2025. This is almost 20 percentage points more than the growth recorded by the immigrant population between 20 and 54 years old, which increased by 25%. What’s more, the think tank It is estimated that around a quarter (22%) of immigrants have already blown out the 55 candles. How young are the immigrants? “The population born abroad is no longer a young population, but rather less aged than the native population,” they respond from Funcas, which also warns that this “gap” between residents born in Spain and abroad will reduce as the immigrants who moved to Spain at the beginning of the century, between 2000 and 2008, before the great brick crisis, approach retirement age. To underline this idea, the research center provides a revealing calculation. “In absolute terms, the increase in the immigrant population aged 55 or over between 2021 and 2025 (42%) means that more than 615,000 people of that age were added to the Spanish population, a figure equivalent to the population of Malaga, a dynamic that anticipates greater pressure on the health and dependency systems,” slide. The phenomenon is especially clear in Spain, one of the EU countries where the most adult immigrants arrive. If you look at 2024, only 13% of new residents were under 15 years old. At the opposite pole, 18% were over 55. Do they behave differently? That is another of the keys that Funcas focuses on. If we Spaniards ourselves resist having large families or move to rural areas…Why should immigrants, people who often face a more complex economic starting point and lack a family support network, act differently? Onion and Miyar even talk about a “Spanishization” of reproductive behavior. Despite the significant increase in the number of women of childbearing age, the total number … Read more

While Ryanair cuts 1.2 million seats in Spain, the gap it is leaving has a name: Wizz Air

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Ryanair continues in its thirteenth cutting seats at regional airports Spanish. The thing is that the rest of the low-cost airlines have not sat idly by and are taking advantage to have a greater presence. One of these airlines is Wizz Air, which is already thinking about grab a larger market share in Spain after the fight between Ryanair and Aena over airport taxes. Without its own bases, but with more routes and more seats. If some leave, others come. Ryanair has been in open war for months with the Government for Aena airport taxes. The Irish company considers that the rates at regional airports are unaffordable and has gone from threats to withdraw from several Spanish airports, closing its base in Santiago de Compostela, canceling flights in Vigo and Tenerife North, and will leave those in Valladolid and Jerez inactive. The total cut amounts to 1.2 million seats for the summer. In addition, next winter the airline also plans to reduce its capacity in Asturias, Santander, Zaragoza and several Canarian airports. Wizz Air has seen that gap. What Wizz Air is doing. The Budapest-based airline has decided to move in the opposite direction: it plans to increase its capacity in Spain by 39% throughout 2026. This is confirmed by Vera Jardan, the company’s corporate communications director, in statements collected by OkDiario. According to the media, the strategy does not involve opening its own bases, but rather expanding operations in the airports where it already has a presence and adding new routes. The company already operates in 16 Spanish airports, including Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Malaga, Alicante, Bilbao, Ibiza, Santander and Fuerteventura, and offers 144 routes to 15 different countries. Its latest novelty has been a direct connection between Menorca and Budapest. What they say from within. “Spain is definitely an increasingly important emerging market for us, on which we are increasingly focusing,” counted Jardan in the middle. “We see that they are more open to adventures and impromptu trips, and we would definitely like to satisfy that demand with more interesting flights and destinations to different countries,” the manager continued. Wizz Air has been betting for years on routes to central and eastern Europe, destinations that large airlines do not usually cover so frequently. He Ryanair withdrawal. Just like we counted For some time now, Ryanair has historically maintained some low-demand routes thanks to advertising contracts with local institutions. When those contracts are no longer profitable (or more attractive incentives have appeared in other markets, like morocco), the company has not hesitated to withdraw its flights. Added to this is the impact of AVE to Galiciawhich has reduced passengers from the plane in a region that has already accumulated a drop of 15.5% so far this year. What changes the travelers. In the short term, those traveling with Ryanair from affected regional airports will have fewer options or will have to travel to another departure point. Wizz Air can cover part of that demand, but its destination network and operating model are still not comparable to that of the Irish airline. What is clear is that the Hungarian company sees at this moment a real window of opportunity to gain share in a market that, until now, Ryanair had dominated with almost no direct competition in the low-cost segment. Cover image | Paréj Richárd In Xataka | If you thought that Ryanair was living outside the Hormuz crisis, its CEO has a message. And it doesn’t look good for Spain

In its unstoppable expansion throughout Spain, mass tourism is claiming a new victim: the Albaicín of Granada

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History on all four sides. Culture. Views of the Alhambra. In theory, living in the Albaicín, a historic neighborhood in Granada, should be a privilege. In theory. The tourist overcrowding that has already devoured other cities from Spain (and other countries) is making everyday life in the most popular areas of the neighborhood resemble a gymkhana in which residents must navigate visitors in search of the best selfie. And that’s not even the worst. Part of the residents they take time warning of how tourism is affecting housing and services. They claim a “Livable Albaicín”. What has happened? That the list of Spanish cities in which the tension between mass tourism and the daily lives of residents is growing adds a new town: Granada. For some time now, the residents of the city, more specifically the Albaicín neighborhoodwarn of how the arrival of visitors to the area alters their routine and something just as or even more important: services, commerce and, above all, housing. It’s not something new. In fact, the platform that gives voice to the complaints of locals, ‘Albayzín habitable’, It was launched in 2024. However, a quick search on Google shows how their complaints have not stopped over the last two years. On the contrary. On Instagram, where they accumulate 10,200 followersshow intense activity in the streets. Their purpose, they clarify, is to act against “a tourism model that is killing the neighborhood.” They are not against the sector or visitors, but against overcrowding. What is the problem? The photo is not very different from what can be found in other points where the rope that unites residents and tourists has been tightening for some time. The group cries out against the transfer of housing that migrates from the residential market to tourist rentals (“where before there were neighbors there are now lockers“) or the risk of losing spaces for citizen use in favor of the sector, as, they warn, may occur with Saint Agnes and Saint Michael. The first is a old convent. The second was a juvenile center. Now they both could become hotelswhich has already brought out the neighbors to the street to protest. Is it that serious? On Monday The Country public a chronicle in which he points out other consequences of the tourism of the neighborhood, effects well known in other great destinations in the country, such as Barcelona, Santiago de Compostela either Palma de Mallorca. For example, crowds at the San Nicolás viewpoint to achieve the best selfie of the sunset or a change in the commercial fabric of the neighborhood, with traditional businesses that look with concern at the medium-term future and new ones that open despite not having any cultural link with the environment. “Look, now the groups of tourists surround us, before it was the neighbors who were on the street,” commented a neighbor sarcastically told the newspaper. But is it so noticeable? He is not the only one who points out this progressive mutation that, little by little, is making the neighborhood more adapted to the needs of those who are passing through and less to those of those who live there permanently. In August, Tatiana, a spokesperson for Albayzín Habitable, lamented the closure of a supermarket and a clinic, essential for residents. Businesses such as hairdressers or supermarkets give way to retail stores. take away and cold sangria. “Local shops and supermarkets continue to disappear and are replaced by trinket shops for tourists or hospitality establishments only available to the most privileged,” they insist on the neighborhood platform. @aidajr_93 The residents of Albayzin have united under the platform #albayzinhabitable to make ourselves heard and for the city council or the Andalusian board to hear us and regularize the uncontrolled tourism that we have in Albayzin, where speculation is driving out neighbors who have been in their homes all their lives to build tourist apartments, historic Carmens are converted into luxury apartments. The streets are uninhabitable for those of us who live here because they are always full of tourist groups, thefts, parties and it is impossible for the families who live here to take a bus because it is full of tourists. Elderly people do not dare to go out because they cannot go home, families with children cannot use the buses because it is impossible and if you are in a wheelchair, forget about it. We are not kicking tourism out of the neighborhood, we just ask for control and for neighbors to be more protected and to be able to be inhabitants of our streets and homes. #Grenade #UncontrolledTourism #stopspeculation #Albayzin @EL NIÑO DEL ALBAYZÍN @Sonsoles Ónega @Antena 3 @6️⃣LaSexta6️⃣ @Cuatro @RTVE @Pepe y Vizio @Junta de Andalucía @Andalucía Directo @Al Rojo Vivo ♬ original sound – Aidajr_93 Are they just impressions? There are also figures. Last year Albayzín Habitable estimated that in the area there were around 7,400 places for tourists, which would exceed, he assures, the number of registered residents, which is around 7,000. Correct or not, their data is not the first to warn of the tourist saturation that the neighborhood is experiencing. A few years ago the Granada City Council commissioned a study on the topic that concluded that Fígares and Albaicín are the areas with the highest concentration of tourist rentals in the city. By measuring the proportion of tourist apartments over available family homes in each part of the municipality, the technicians concluded that in both areas it reached 24%. In hard and fast figures, that translated into 715 homes out of 3,038. What are the consequences? The report suggests that this tourist pressure may be driving out neighbors. Although during the period analyzed (2015-2022) the whole of Granada had recorded a negative demographic dynamic, the trend seemed to be accentuated in Albaicín, with the transfer of 712 of the almost 9,300 residents initially registered. It is not the biggest ‘bleed’ in the town in net terms, but the data does stand out if analyzed in proportion. … Read more

Navarra already has its longest stretch radar operational. It covers 30 kilometers, and yet it is not the longest in Spain

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Navarra has placed a medium speed radar on the AP-68 that controls more than 30 kilometers in a row between Cortes and Tudela. The device He is already monitoring this section and sanctioning. It is one of the longest in the country, but not the one that most. And the trend indicates that there will be more. The radar in question. The device is installed on the AP-68, in a descending direction, between kilometer points 115,027 and 84,483, that is, the route from Cortes to Tudela. In total, 30,544 kilometers under continuous surveillance. In addition, Navarra has launched a second section radar on the N-121-A, in an increasing direction, between kilometers 26.76 and 40.79, covering almost 14 kilometers in the area of ​​the Belate and Almandoz tunnels. Both devices are already operational and sanctioning. Why have they settled there? The Government of Navarra and the DGT justify the decision with the accident data. According to the information published about the installation, in the section of the AP-68 76 accidents were recorded between January 2022 and June 2025, of which 19 left victims, with one deceased, one seriously injured and 25 lightly injured. On N-121-A the balance in the same period was 56 accidents. How this type of radar works. It does not measure the speed at a specific point but rather calculate the average throughout the entire journey. One camera reads the license plate at the beginning of the section and another at the end. The system determines how long the vehicle has taken to travel it and, if that time is less than the minimum that fits with the established speed limit, the report is processed automatically. What it can cost you. The sanctions range from 100 euros without loss of points in the slightest excesses to 600 euros and six license points in the most serious cases. Prompt payment, paid within 20 calendar days following notification, allows the financial fine to be reduced by half, although the points are still lost. It is not the longest in Spain. The national record It is still maintained by a radar installed on the CL-615in Palencia, which controls 33 kilometers in an increasing direction, as we counted a while ago. The Navarrese rider on the AP-68 is less than three kilometers from that mark, which places him in second position among the longest. And he is not alone in that category: according to data from the DGT, There are 16 section radars in Spain that exceed 10 kilometers. Expansion. In 2024 there were 92 section radars on the roads managed by the DGT. In 2025 the figure rose to 110 and today there are 149, according to they count from Motor.es. In addition, the DGT has planned a new wave of installations for the second half of 2026, aimed mainly at secondary roads and conventional roads, which is precisely where the majority of fatal accidents are concentrated. Navarra takes charge. The entry into service of this radar makes more sense than it seems. Navarre He assumed official ownership on January 29 of this year. of the almost 40 kilometers of the AP-68 that run through its territory. And as of July 1, the regional community will also have the power to directly process, resolve and collect traffic fines, according to Navarra.com. That is to say, the provincial government installs a large radar on a road that it has just assumed as its own and does so just before it can also manage the income it generates. Cover image | DGT In Xataka | Death to the oldest “shadow toll” in Spain: Murcia is going to say goodbye at the end of the RM-15 system

Spain has done well in the hantavirus crisis

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What do the WHO, the UN, the European Commission and the European Council have in common? May all of them They have publicly congratulated Spain for the management of the hantavirus crisis. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus He has described her as “the role model”. Tough to the “mission accomplished” of Minister Mónica Garcíait’s not all over yet. However, there are enough facts already accomplished to recognize that in this mess Spain has not only done what had to be done, but has also done it well. An epidemiological bomb. When the Dutch ship MV Hondius set sail from Usuaia on April 1, 2026, it did not know the chaos that was about to be generated in half the world. The figures speak for themselves: 147 people were on board (88 passengers and 59 crew members of 23 different nationalities) and, as the days went by, the outbreak generated three deaths, (at least) 10 confirmed cases and 125 people evacuated thanks to an international operation coordinated from the Tenerife port of Granadilla. That’s where Spain comes in. An ethical success. Does it make sense for us to talk about ‘technical success’ in a context in which everything (absolutely everything) tends towards almost instantaneous politicization? Well, there are three things that allow us to see it like this: The international contrast: we must not forget that Spain assumed leadership of the operation after Cape Verde recognized that it did not have the capacity to carry out the evacuation nor that the Radboudumc university hospital in the Netherlands has had to quarantine 12 health workers for two consecutive biosafety failures. In contrast, Spain has executed the operation perfectly and, as far as we know, everything has gone according to plans and protocols. The social climate. Despite the initial refusal of the Government of the Canary Islands, Clavijo’s unscientific vaudeville and localized (and reasonable) protests by some unions, the operation was finally imposed through International Maritime Law (obligation to provide relief) after the formal request of the WHO. The relative complexity. It is not a minor issue, because organizing 10 special medical flights, coordinating biosafety protocols with 19 different countries and articulating a landing of these characteristics in rough sea conditions is complex. Above all, because everyone was watching and any failure had the potential to become a media circus. Is it all good news? Of course not. Whether we buy the terminology or not, the Canary Islands are right to complain that the Spanish Government has approached the matter with certain ‘colonial’ touches. Although finally, faced with the unfeasible demands of the Cabildo and the Autonomous Government, it was cut short; The truth is that the country’s institutional architecture requires a more respectful approach to competencies (or, failing that, designing a clear exception protocol for public health emergencies). What’s left to do? A lot. After all, there are many days of active surveillance left. The 45 days of incubation of the virus make epidemiological tracking very complex and the positives that have occurred after the evacuation only confirm this point. And beyond all that, a deeper debate remains pending on zoonotic exposure in scientific and tourist trips in endemic areas. We have turned the world into an amusement park and we are not aware of the risks. A few days ago we were talking about how the unlikely combination of an African bird, an American plant and an Asian plant had created a new habitat on the peninsula that was putting Valencian citrus trees in trouble. These “coincidences” occur in thousands every day and are, by their very nature, unpredictable. That is the world we face. For that reason, it is good news that everything has worked reasonably well. Image | Ministry of Health In Xataka | The hantavirus was going to reach Europe sooner or later and, as always, it caught us offside

the x-ray of taxes and tolls in Spain

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Although it sounds like science fiction that the Spanish electricity market has come to pay for consuming energy, marking a historical record of -10 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) On a Sunday at three in the afternoon, the reality that reaches the mailboxes is very different. Spain today boasts of having the cheapest wholesale electricity in Europe, surpassing powers such as Germany or France, but, paradoxically, households end up assuming a bill that is above the European Union average. The great paradox that frustrates citizens is evident: how is it possible to generate almost free electricity and end up paying for it at European luxury prices? The silent revolution. To understand the miracle of the wholesale market, you have to look at the data in depth. As analyst Jan Rosenow details in his recent reportSpain has not just added solar panels and windmills on a fossil fuel base, but has replaced them. The turning point was the year 2022, when the sum of wind and solar energy generated more electricity than all fossil sources combined. The secret of this price collapse lies in how the European electricity market works, where the latest technology that enters to cover demand (normally the most expensive) is the one that sets the price for all the others. During the last decade, that role was played by gas. However, renewables have pushed gas out of the equation: in 2022, gas marked the price 55% of the hours, while in the first four months of 2026, that figure has plummeted to a mere 9%. The result is devastating: at the start of 2026, the average wholesale price in Spain was just €44/MWh. In that same period, Italy paid €127, Germany €96 and the United Kingdom €103. The big question: Why don’t we notice it more? The short answer is that the price of energy is just one ingredient in the cake. According to Rosenow,the wholesale cost of energy represents only 41% of a typical Spanish domestic bill. The rest is a sum of network tolls (23%), VAT (17%), system charges (10%), electricity taxes and commercial margins. Cheaper wholesale energy is a necessary condition for lower bills, but it is not sufficient. Added to this tax cocktail is a consumer behavior problem. According to expert Joaquín Coronado In a recent publication in LinkedInnational demand is practically “inelastic.” Analyzing a time period where electricity cost a paltry €0.51/MWh, Coronado observed that there was no additional Spanish demand willing to take advantage of that bargain. Consumers are price-takers passives. And here comes the twist: since we do not consume that excess of cheap energy, French and Portuguese agents end up buying it to export it, which paradoxically drags our market upwards through European coupling. The unequal impact. This market dynamic does not affect everyone equally, leaving a transition to the next idea much clearer: there are obvious winners and households in tension. On the one hand, the great Spanish electro-intensive industry is experiencing a sweet moment. According to data from the AEGE associationby paying for electricity at €66.50/MWh compared to almost €68/MWh for the powerful German industry, they have achieved a surprise vital competitive. For families, the Government maintains an active “fiscal shield” (with VAT reduced to 10% and the electricity tax to 0.5%) that covers up the impact of tolls. But there are regulatory clouds. The European Commission has targeted the Spanish regulated tariff (the PVPC)to which almost 30% of households are covered. Brussels demands that it be progressively dismantled to push consumers into the free market, arguing that the intervened rates discourage savings and competition. The Spanish Government, for its part, resists eliminating it, defending that it is an indispensable security cushion and the main requirement to access the social bonus that protects the most vulnerable. The mirage of summer. Experts agree that we should not trust ourselves. The current spring bargain has an expiration date. When summer arrives, high temperatures will reduce the efficiency of solar panels, air conditioners will increase demand and, in all likelihood, expensive gas will have to be turned back on to avoid blackouts, driving prices up again. Furthermore, the green revolution has a “shadow bill.” Rosenow emphasizes that, Although energy is cheaper, keeping the system stable now costs more. Spain has to pay more for balancing services, voltage support and new transmission infrastructure to take solar and wind energy from where it is generated to where it is consumed. And those costs, inevitably, end up being passed on to the consumer through system charges. The solution to this bottleneck Joaquín Coronado himself points it out: The system cries out for new loads designed to arbitrage price. We are talking about batteries, industrial thermal storage and new hydraulic pumps. That is, each megawatt that we manage to store when electricity is at zero euros will be a renewable megawatt that we will not throw away, thus stabilizing the price for everyone. Incomplete success. Spain has achieved an indisputable structural feat. We have become a European pioneer, largely decoupling our prices from international gas volatility and gaining invaluable energy independence now measured in euros per megawatt hour. However, it must be taken into account that the energy transition does not end with solar panels. As long as the structure of tolls, networks and taxes continues to weigh almost 60% on families’ final bills, the European dream of zero-cost electricity will continue to be, for the average consumer, a spectacular figure that only exists on the screens of the financial markets. We generate almost free, but the labyrinth to the plug still costs us at European prices. Image | Unsplash Xataka | While Europe panics about the price of electricity, in Spain the opposite is happening

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