Spain

The rental market is so broken in Spain that more and more tenants are facing a reality: record overcrowding

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In Spain he increasingly lives more lonely people. And every time he lives more people crowded also. I know: it sounds contradictory, but that is the curious reality drawn by the studies that are in charge of ‘x-raying’ the country’s homes. As paradoxical, counterintuitive and even ironic as it may be, statistical observatories such as the INE or Eurostat confirm that while a part of Spain is forced to live in overcrowded conditions, sharing a house or even fourththe number of single-person households is growing at such a speed that in a few years they will probably be the most common in Spain. That tells us a lot about how the country, its society, the economy and (also) the residential market are changing. Overcrowded Spain. Among its many functions, Eurostat is responsible for reviewing every year how the overcrowding data from the different countries of Europe. Said like this, the concept ‘overcrowded’ may sound subjective, but its technicians have a clear guideline to distinguish what is (and what is not) a home. ‘overcrowded’. In general terms, a home is considered saturated when it does not have a room for each couple, for each adult or for each two young people of the same sex. In Spain that is a reality they deal with more and more people. Especially if we talk about people who live in rented houses. A percentage: 9.5%. The data from Spain leave two clear readings. The first, positive one, is that in our country the overcrowding rate It is much lower than that of other European nations. At a general level (if we take into account all types of housing, owned and rented, both in the free and regulated markets) Eurostat calculates that 9.5% of the population Spanish resides in ‘overcrowded’ houses. Although in practice this is equivalent to millions of people, it is far from the 16.8% average of the 27 EU countries or the ratio of states such as France (10.8%), Italy (24.3%), Portugal (12.7%) or Germany (11.7%). That’s the positive part. The negative part is how the indicator has evolved. In Spain the overcrowding rate has not stopped growing in the last five years until it is at its highest level in the last decade. For reference, in 2018 marked 4.7% and in 2016 it was at 5.4%. The EU average has advanced at a much slower pace. In fact, it has been practically stagnant for years. around 16.8%a value somewhat lower than that recorded in 2016, when it was around 18%. A tenant problem. The Eurostat data They reveal something else: although there is no market that escapes overcrowding, not everyone suffers from it equally. Its incidence is especially high when we talk about people who reside in homes rented at market prices. That is, without taking into account protected housing. In that case the overoccupation rate shoots up to reach 20.5%. What does that mean? That a fifth of Spanish tenants who have rented houses on the free market live in what Eurostat considers overcrowded conditions. Once again, the figure is below the EU average (23.8%) or the rate of nations such as Italy, but it exceeds the indicators for France (18.6%), Germany (18.3%) or the Netherlands (8.3%). And again too stands out for its evolution. Beyond the comparison with the rest of the EU, the reality is that this 20.5% is considerably above the 12.5% ​​in 2016 and represents the highest value since at least 2014. Spain General overcrowding rate Overcrowding rate among tenants in the free market 2016 5.4 12.5 2017 5.1 12.4 2018 4.7 12.8 2019 5.9 16.3 2020 7.6 18.8 2021 6.4 15.4 2022 6.6 14.9 2023 7.6 17.5 2024 9.1 20 2025 9.5 20.5 What is the reason for this increase? A sum of factors, as stated this week The Country in an analysis on the increase in overcrowding in Spain. One of those (crucial) elements is how the housing market has performed in recent years. Idealistic reveals that in general the price of rents has almost doubled in the last decade, at least if we talk about nominal values (without taking into account the effect of inflation): from €7.7/m2 in April 2016 we have gone to €15/m2. In highly stressed markets, such as the one from Palmathat increase has been even more pronounced. The increase in housing prices (extended to both the rental and purchase markets) directly influences the behavior of families. Not only does it limit the options that those looking for housing can choose from, it also complicates emancipation and assume the rent of an apartment without sharing expenses. Not to mention that the imbalance between supply and demand can lead some landlords to opt for renting single rooms and makes it difficult for families who, after growing up (due to reunification or the birth of children) aspire to a larger apartment. A more populated country. There is another key factor. The increase in the overcrowding rate coincides with the general growth of the Spanish registry. According to the INE, at the beginning of 2026 they resided in the country 49.57 million people. Not only is this 440,000 more than a year before, it also represents “the maximum value in the historical series,” in words of the INE. This growth is also supported by immigration, which broke its own record. In January, the foreign-born population exceeded the ten million of people. Why is it important? Although inflation may have led some families to rent part of their homes to make mortgage payments more bearable, it is not unreasonable to think that this increase in migration explains in some way the rate of overcrowding. The economist José García Montalvo remember in The Country that the foreign population tends to group together in support networks and part of the migrants who arrive in Spain choose, at least at first, to settle in the homes of people they already know. “So where three live, five end up living,” he illustrates. In any case, the phenomenon … Read more

Mythos has struck fear into governments around the world. That’s why Spain wants “early access” to see what happens

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Spain wants to have access to Claude Mythos Preview, the AI ​​model it is making shake the world. The vice president and Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, has made clear that the European Union needs “early access” to Mythos to be able to assess what vulnerabilities European financial systems have. For the minister, “Europe cannot be a second-class region.” Bad news: today, at least for the most powerful AI startups on the planet, it is. There is not only fear in the banking sector. Although the alarm was initially raised by the financial sector, the Spanish Government warns that Mythos’ ability to find “back doors” affects practically all economic sectors. We are talking about threats that extend to critical infrastructure and essential elements for the functioning of any modern country. Anthropic itself has already made its fears clear: they did not want to launch the model publicly to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. The AI ​​Act is a problem. The European AI Law was widely celebrated among Eurolegislators for being the world’s first major regulation about this technology. In reality, it has become clear that it has been a shot in the foot for EU countries, which have often seen how the most advanced AI models could not be used on our borders because they could violate this regulation or others. like DMA/DSA. This regulation forces companies to comply with strict requirements if they want to deploy especially advanced models, considered “high risk.” And Mythos is just that, so the AI ​​Act is precisely what would prevent it from being used in Europe. So they want to delay its application. Euroofficials have realized their mistake, and are now trying to buy time because technology moves (much) faster than bureaucracy. Their proposal is simple: delay until December 2027 the application of these obligations for “high risk” models like Mythos. In this way, this model could operate in Europe without having to go through these strict controls for another year and a half. Milestone or marketing maneuver? While the Eurogroup and the ECB analyze the risks with those responsible for financial supervision, in El Mundo quote to a group of critical voices who suggest that Anthropic’s maneuver could be a distraction strategy. The thesis is simple: the company has a clear computing capacity problem, and is not able to satisfy demand. Their solution: argue that Mythos is too powerful to avoid having to release it publicly, which would cause an avalanche of petitions. Coordination. Body added that in this case it is important that the request for “early access” is coordinated and comes from the EU as a block: “We Member States cannot each go on our own in an uncoordinated manner to try to access this software to this model. We need the umbrella of the Commission and a coordinated approach.” AI as a geopolitical weapon. What this has shown is that little by little access to advanced AI models is becoming a geopolitical weapon that is straining relations between Washington and Brussels. Anthropic is expanding access to Mythos to some institutions for example in the United Kingdoma traditional ally of the US. However, trade relations with Europe they are still complicatedespecially after the tariffs with which the Trump administration wanted to change the rules of the game. In Xataka | The bad news is that the EU loses out in the tariff pact with the US. The good thing is that Spain comes out relatively unscathed

The list of the richest in Spain has taken an unexpected turn but there is something that has not changed at all: Amancio Ortega

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The great fortunes in Spain have been booming for five years in a row. As the global economy grapples with wars, inflation and political uncertainty, the heritage of the richest in Spain It hasn’t stopped growing. The last year was especially striking because the group of the hundred largest assets in the country increased their fortune by 14.3%, reaching an unprecedented figure: 373,450 million euros. What makes the 2026 edition of the annual list especially interesting that elaborates The Worldis that the distribution of that wealth presents notable surprises: there are names whose assets have grown stratospherically, new faces who enter the billionaires’ club for the first time, and one that has been around for decades at the top without anyone being able to displace him. Record in joint assets. The sum of the hundred largest fortunes in the country reached the impressive sum of 373,450 million euros in 2026, compared to the 326,720 million attributed to them in 2025. This implies that the group of the richest people in Spain has increased their assets by 14.3% in just 12 months. The main reason for this growth is due to the behavior of the Spanish stock market: the Ibex 35 appreciated by 50% in a single year, boosting the value of the shares of those who have its listed companies. However, the stock market boom does not fully explain this phenomenon. The companies of some of the people who appear at the top of this list are not listed, such as Mercadona or Mango, but they also had record years. Few movements at the top. The list of millionaires in Spain in 2026 does not present significant changes in the names that make it up, especially in the top positions, where Amancio Ortega, Rafael del Pino and Juan Roig lead the list easily. However, there have been some changes that do not imply a loss of assets as such, but rather respond to the fact that some fortunes have had explosive growth, while in others it has been more progressive.The most relevant movements of the year have the Puig and Daurella families as protagonists. The Puig family, driven by the listing of the cosmetic group that bears their last name and the possible integration with Estée Lauderrises to fifth place, overtaking to Sol Daurellaheir to the empire of the world’s leading Coca-Cola bottler, which is relegated to sixth place. For its part, the Entrecanales family rises from tenth to eighth place, increasing its assets by 66.93% from 5,035 million to 8,405 million euros in 2026, while the brothers Francisco and Jon Riberas Mera lose one step and remain ninth with 6,845 million, despite managing the largest industrial conglomerate with Spanish capital and have increased your assets by 1,040 million euros in the last year. More millionaires and with more millions. Within this general upward trend, the list prepared by The World It highlights that 66 of the 100 fortunes grew at a double-digit rate during the last year. The result of this acceleration is that the number of billionaires in Spain It has gone from 59 to 76 families in a single year, almost double that of a decade ago. In the same way that the volume of each of the fortunes grows, the bar for entry to the list has also become more expensive, and for enter that Top 100 millionaires In Spain, the minimum assets rise to 765 million euros, compared to the 420 million that were needed ten years ago to belong to this select group. In fact, the segment that is growing the most is precisely that of fortunes between 2,000 and 5,000 million euros, followed by the range between 1,000 and 2,000 million. That is, the second and third tranches have pulled the rest upwards, while in the tranches between 750 and 1,000 million and less than 750 million, there are now fewer millionaires than in 2024. Amancio Ortega remains immovable on the throne. Having just turned 90, Amancio Ortega continues to be the undisputed number one on the list, and with a wide distance from the second largest fortune in the country. The assets of the founder of Inditex grew by 4.9% during the last year, a rate clearly lower than that of the rest of the list, which grew by an average of 20%, accumulating some 40,000 million more euros in a single year. However, this lower percentage growth does not imply that its financial movements have been wrongit has just had more financial movement than usual. The founder of Inditex has had a very active year in the real estate field and between 2025 and 2026 he has changed the entire structure of Pontegadea, placing Luxembourg as a base of operations from which it controls all its assets in Europe, the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Half or more of its real estate portfolio already passes through the Grand Duchy, where it shares a fiscal neighborhood with the Del Pino family, the Álvarez Santaló, Víctor Madera or Sol Daurella, with whom it also shares a presence on the list of the greatest fortunes in Spain. The most spectacular climbs and the newcomers. Among the most striking promotions of the year, Florentino Pérez stands out, whose fortune grew by 156% thanks to ACS’s stock market peak in recent months and the company’s awards in data center construction projects. In four years, the president of Real Madrid has multiplied his assets by four and is closer than ever to the top 10 on the list. Another meteoric rise has been that of Madrid-born David Ruiz de Andrés, whose fortune increased by 214% thanks to Grenergy, a company that is leading the construction of an 11,000 MW gigabattery. in the Atacama desert. The businessman in the energy sector went from having a net worth of 580 million euros in 2025, to adding more than 1,825 million, which represents a net worth increase of 214.66% in just 12 months. The Spain of the clans. … Read more

With the Find X9 Ultra, OPPO has an ambitious plan to conquer the heart of Spain. And its CEO has told us what it is

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From the offices of OPPO In Madrid, at the top of a building very close to Plaza de Castilla, you can see an old water tank from the Canal de Isabel II. It is a huge concrete structure inaugurated in the middle of the last century that today, no longer in use, functions as one of the visual “landmarks” of the square. It is very big, about 40 meters high, but it is very far away. I take one of the OPPO Find X9 Ultra that’s on the table, I open the camera, zoom in 10x and take a photo. The result is impressive. The camera returns an image full of details: the contours of the concrete, already worn, the advertising signage that floods its dome, the brutalist curves that the tower draws. All this from inside an office and interrupted by a large window. I look towards the back of the room, where there are some boxes of snacks and pastries ready for breakfast. There are tiny inscriptions on the side, so I repeat the process: I open the camera, zoom in 10x and take another photo. The sharpness is extraordinary. There is no pixelation or noticeable distortion or digital zoom artifacts in the drawing of the letters, nor a great chromatic distortion with respect to what my eyes see. “What we want to do with the Ultra is not just another incremental improvement, we want it to be an alternative to your professional camera,” he explains to me. Kevin ChoCEO of OPPO in Spain since last summer. “It would be like buying a camera with a built-in phone and not the other way around, right?” I ask him. “That is, camera firstmore than a phone with an interesting camera.” Looking at the wide range of tools on the table, it’s hard not to agree. The launch of the Find X9 Ultra in Spain marks a milestone for OPPO: for the first time, the company launches its top-of-the-range phone in Europe, something reserved until now for Chinese consumers. OPPO has not spared any details: the Ultra incorporates an ambitious 300 mm teleconverter equivalent in 35 mm and 13x format that is attached to the phone’s gigantic lenses to multiply the camera’s possibilities. Why has OPPO made such a determined bet for photographyWithout a doubt the most notable aspect of a Find X9 Ultra full of attractive features and specifications? “There is a very marked polarization in the market,” explains Cho. “Around 30% or 40% of buyers continue to opt for devices under 200 euros, or even second-hand, but what we are also seeing is an expansion of the premium segments. It is the same trend month after month: premium sales are growing.” (Xataka) Cho introduces a key word: “premiumization.” The market polarization of the mobile phone is neither new nor surprising for anyone who has paid attention to the dynamics of recent years. Many consumers tend to hold on to their devices for longer, as a result of the large investments they must make, which is why they demand more performance and quality from their products. This gap, also present in markets such as the car, has forced almost all brands to recalibrate their strategies. OPPO’s ambitious plan “We don’t want transactional volumes,” Cho continues, “you know, competing on price. We want to make sure we bring products that can create value for the consumer.” According to Cho, OPPO is facing its second wave of expansion in the European market: after a consolidation of the brand and sales in recent years, it is time to grow not so much through raw numbers as through loyalty in the segments. more exclusive of the market. And for that you need a product up to the task, hence the arrival of the Find X9 Ultra. A landing that, however, has required adaptations. Since his arrival in Spain, Cho has promoted a change in OPPO’s methodology, especially regarding the consumer: “We are doing studies to understand consumer preferences and to define our strategies.” Refers to focus group and surveys with more than 4,000 respondents, a very large sample that exceeds those that the brand was doing until then. Cho is clear that the only way to compete in the premium segment is by going to the user, or, in his words, “winning the heart and brain of the consumer.” (Xataka) The approach is ambitious, as are its objectives. When I ask him where he would like to see OPPO in five years in Spain, he answers without much hesitation: “As the number one brand.” The Find X9 Ultra is the first stone of a long road ahead, a way to “test the roof” of OPPO in Europe. His first steps have consisted of relearning and readapting the lessons of the chinese marketwhere OPPO is a brand with a lot of penetration and experience in the premium segments, for Spain and Europe. Before the launch on the old continent, OPPO has had to make some adjustments in terms of operating system and memory to adapt them to local needs and preferences. Given the constraints of such a competitive segment Like the premium one, OPPO has two other arguments to win over the consumer: its operating system, ColorOS, and the battery. Cho boasts leadership in the second area and widespread user satisfaction in the first: “In China, our operating system has consistently been our main selling point for the past three years.” In Spain, the Ultra works on Android, like the rest of the market, but Cho highlights the interoperability and customization of OPPO: “We have been working on inter-device and inter-ecosystem interoperability for some time, so that you can use the phone with a Windows computer or a Mac.” (Xataka) Camera, battery, operating system… The elephant in the room that needs to be addressed is AI. Is there the definitive angle for a mobile phone brand to be more attractive than its competition? Cho’s answer is not direct but clear: OPPO’s strength is … Read more

Europe and Japan step on the accelerator of nuclear fusion and place the ball in the court of a strategic country: Spain

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Europe and Japan walk hand in hand towards nuclear fusion commercial. They have been working together for several years in the JT-60SA experimental reactorthe largest magnetic confinement fusion energy machine that currently exists. However, this is not the only project in which they collaborate. They are also fine-tuning the LIPAc linear particle accelerator (Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator or IFMIF Prototype Linear Accelerator). This machine resides in Rokkasho (Japan). After having undergone a very ambitious update, it is ready to begin the final phase that will conclude with its commissioning in 2027. Its purpose is to test the limits of particle beam physics to pave the way for future fusion reactors. Europe and Japan began developing this 36-meter-long particle accelerator in 2007 with the aim of validating the design of an IFMIF-type machine (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) capable of acting as a neutron source. To achieve this, this device had to recreate the intense irradiation conditions that occur inside a fusion reactor. One of Europe’s most important contributions is a huge steel cryostat with magnetic shielding and a thermal shield that houses a powerful superconducting radio frequency system. This component serves to accelerate protons and deuterium nuclei until they reach a maximum energy of 9 MeV (megaelectronvolts), which will place them close to the high-energy neutrons that future commercial fusion reactors will produce. LIPAc is the precursor of IFMIF-DONES, which is already being built in Spain The knowledge that scientists hope to gain from LIPAc will be used in the development of IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility DEMO-Oriented NEutron Source), that is already being built in Escúzar, a town in the province of Granada. The heart of this facility is a linear particle accelerator that will cost approximately 450 million euros, although the Government of Andalusia will provide half of this money. However, this is the cost of the accelerator; The entire IFMIF-DONES project will cost around 700 million euros. Spain will contribute half of this capital. IFMIF-DONES is one of the three fundamental pillars of the nuclear fusion edifice in whose construction the European Union is involved. The other two are ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and DEMO. The experimental nuclear fusion reactor that is currently being built in the French town of Cadarache aims to demonstrate that fusion at the scale that man can handle worksand also that it is profitable from an energy point of view. However, ITER does not aim to produce electricity. That will be the task of DEMO (DEMOnstration Power Plant), a facility that will take the technological advances that have been proven to work correctly at ITER and take them one step further to establish itself as the true precursor of commercial nuclear fusion reactors. However, without IFMIF-DONES there will be no DEMO, so right now Granada is the center of attention. The IFMIF-DONES linear accelerator will produce high-energy neutrons with the intensity and irradiation volume necessary to test candidate materials To fully understand the role of the IFMIF-DONES project, it is necessary to briefly review the fundamentals of nuclear fusion. One of the greatest challenges faced by technicians involved in the development of nuclear fusion reactors using magnetic confinement, such as ITER, is to recreate the conditions necessary for them to operate inside the vacuum chamber of these sophisticated machines. deuterium and tritium nuclei fuse. However, this is by no means all. When this reaction takes place, the fusion of a deuterium nucleus and another tritium nucleus triggers the production of a helium nucleus and a neutron that is ejected with an energy of about 14 MeV. The problem is that the neutron lacks a net electrical charge, so it cannot be confined inside the magnetic field which, however, does manage to retain the deuterium and tritium nuclei, which have a positive electrical charge. This is the reason why when it originates as a result of the nuclear fusion reaction, this neutron is ejected towards the walls of the vacuum chamber with enormous energy. This particle is very important because in practice it will be closely linked to the production of electrical energy in nuclear fusion reactors, but, at the same time, it represents a very aggressive form of radiation that can significantly degrade the materials used in the reactor. The components that will be most affected by the direct impact of high-energy neutrons and the most intense heat flow are the internal wall of the vacuum chamber and the blanket. The components that will be most affected by the direct impact of high-energy neutrons and the most intense heat flow are the inner wall of the vacuum chamber and the blanketwhich is a mantle that covers it and whose purpose is to regenerate the tritium that must be used as fuel in the nuclear fusion reaction. This is why it is crucial to develop new materials that are able to withstand the neutron flux and therefore ensure that the reactor will have a long operational life. This is, neither more nor less, the purpose of IFMIF-DONES. And to carry it out it is necessary to set up facilities designed to allow the technicians involved in the project evaluate the properties of candidate materials to intervene not only in DEMO, but also in future commercial nuclear fusion reactors. The mission of this project invites us to intuit what the heart of IFMIF-DONES is: a source capable of producing high-energy neutrons with the intensity and volume of irradiation necessary to test the candidate materials. And this neutron source will be nothing more than a linear particle accelerator that will help IFMIF-DONES scientists to test, validate and qualify the materials that in the medium term should reach future electric energy production plants through fusion. Image | Fusion for Energy More information | Fusion for Energy In Xataka | ITER has faced one of the great challenges of nuclear fusion: preventing plasma at 150 million ºC from destroying the reactor

If the question is how to stop the bleeding of emptied Spain, in Cantabria they are clear: subsidizing festivals with bulls

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If you have learned anything ‘Spain emptied’ At this point there are no magic recipes against depopulation. In recent years, the administrations of that rural Spain that is gradually emptying have tried everything, often without success: from offering free employment and housing to assume the management of basic services, such as gas stations and stores. Now in Cantabria they have decided to add a new strategy against rural exodus to that list: subsidize bullfighting celebrations. At the moment the measure does not seem to have served to attract new neighbors. What it is generating is controversy. A cape for bullfighting. To understand the controversy we must go back to April 28, when the Official Gazette of Cantabria (BOC) published a call of subsidies from the Ministry of the Presidency. It basically announces a sum of 41,000 euros to “promote bullfighting in rural areas.” For this purpose, the Government offers to cover up to 90% of the expenses of the festivals that revolve around the bull, with amounts that range between 2,000 and 14,500 euros, depending on whether they are bullfights, bullfights, bullfights or other “popular celebrations.” It matters what… and it matters where. So far nothing exceptional. Spain has been immersed for years in a debate (sometimes bronco) on bullfighting and whether or not it should be supported with public funds, but the Cantabrian initiative does not stand out precisely for its budget. In 2025, without going any further, the Community of Madrid approved a game of 1.7 million of euros to support the Bull Festival. What is striking about the Cantabrian case is that its objective is not only to support the ‘national holiday’. In fact, that is not even the main argument made in the call of the BOC. Its purpose is another: to fight against depopulation. The subsidies are specifically directed at the 41 municipalities of the community at “risk of depopulation” and their objective appears clearly described in the official bulletin: “Encourage the aforementioned local entities to have resources that energize their social and economic life, such as bullfighting shows.” In short, use the bullfights, bullfights, bullfights, bullfights and other shows with bulls to revitalize the economy and establish population. “Put them on the map”. In case there were any doubts, the counselor of the Presidency, Isabel Urrutia, recalled a few days ago that last year the Cantabrian Government financed bullfighting celebrations in four small municipalities of Cantabria, which in his opinion allowed “to put them in the focus of the bullfighting world.” “We help with small aid to fight against depopulation and put these municipalities on the map, many of them with a great tradition of bullfighting. The aid is fulfilling its objective,” argues the counselor after remembering the case of Pesaguero: the town has 400 inhabitants, but in 2025 1,800 fans attended its bullfighting show. What exactly do they subsidize? Low the argument that bullfighting can become a “stimulator of social and economic life”, the Cantabrian Government offers to assume up to 90% of the expenses of organizing the festivities, as long as they do not exceed certain limits: 14,500 euros in the case of bullfights or bullfighting, 10,000 if we are talking about bullfights with picadors or bullfighting of bulls, 6,000 for bullfights without picadors, calves or festivals and 2,000 for similar shows. “To award aid, the Government will take into account the classification of the municipality as being at serious risk of depopulation or special and differentiating treatment for this reason, and also the type of show or celebration,” duck the regional executive. Although it recognizes that there are 41 municipalities that meet the depopulation requirements to qualify for aid, in 2025 only bullfighting shows were subsidized in four town halls of the region: Pesaguero, Tudanca, Rasines and Bárcena de Pie de Concha. In 2024 there was one more, Molledo. This would be the third consecutive year in which subsidies have been announced that, they insist From the regional government, they are fulfilling the objective with which they were set. Opinion division. Not everyone thinks the same. The Franz Weber Foundation has questioned that the initiative really serves to strengthen the economy of those localities or combat rural exodus, and provides data as proof: the number of residents who have won the subsidized town councils can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Literally. “Four inhabitants in three years”, resume the organization, which estimates the funds mobilized between all the calls at 132,000 euros. The tables from the INE confirm that Bárcena de Pie de Concha only gained one neighbor between 2023 and 2025 and Rasines another five. Pesaguero and Tudanca lost population. “They neither fix population nor suppose a real dynamic activity,” ditch the foundation. “The autonomous Executive has dedicated around 132,000 euros since 2024 under this excuse, but the population reality in the municipalities awarded in different calls shows an evident inability to have a positive impact.” In your opinionthe real purpose of the Cantabrian Government is another: “Support bullfighting using subterfuges such as depopulation.” Images | Alex-David Baldi (Flickr) and Arild Andersen (Flickr) In Xataka | The great debate about the future of bullfighting is not in Spain, but in an unexpected country: South Korea

That bug has been waiting for its moment in Spain for 60 years. And your time is now

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In 1964, someone decided it was a good idea to release a handful of estrildas in Portugal. Before the end of the decade, this small opportunistic bird from sub-Saharan Africa had already settled in Extremadura and Andalusia. By the 80s, it had already reached the east of the peninsula. For 60 years, estrildas had remained in a discreet background. It had taken root, but they weren’t getting traction. However, that has begun to change: in the last 15 years, Valencian estrilds have multiplied by 10 and in Catalonia the population has tripled. AND, to the surprise of the expertsthe key to the boom has been two other invasive species. What has happened? In recent days, several media have begun to publish reports announcing that the African bird “has already arrived” in Spain. However, the common estrilda has been here for decades. What is new is not that: what is new is that in recent years the proliferation of uncultivated plots (one in five are) is becoming the perfect breeding ground for two other exotic species, the common reed and the Pampa duster. And those species make the perfect habitat for estrildas. Do they eat them? No no. That’s why I say it’s curious: the researchers they have realized that it is not that birds consume these plants. The plants provide shelter, roosting sites and perfect structures for this species. The strilas have been surviving for years in a very hostile territory, now they have found some areas that suit them like a glove. The story, as you can see, is more complex. Above all, because it has an agricultural substrate. Without the profound changes of recent years in the countryside, neither the Pampa duster nor the common sugarcane would have reached where they have. In this sense, what is truly worrying is not the estrilda (a bird that, as far as we know, is not affecting the local fauna either). What has experts worried is the chain of invasions. You just have to think about it a little to understand: the feather duster is South American, the common reed is Asian, and the estrilda is African. Together, they have managed to become strong in southern Europe. Fauna and flora have logics that we are still unable to understand in depth. In the end, the key is always in the same place: that there is a moment when we are going to have to assume that the only way to get out of all the problems we are creating is to start comprehensively managing the field. Image | XRTF In Xataka | England is experiencing an unprecedented invasion. The problem is that they are octopuses, and they are devouring everything they can find.​

Unamuno and Borges in all homes in Spain for 25 pesetas

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If you have lived in Spain (or someone in your family has done so) at the end of the sixties of the last century, there is a very high chance that copies (perhaps all of them) of the Salvat RTV Library that were sold in newsstands from 1969 passed through your house. Aesthetically unmistakable (paperback covers in light tones without photos or illustrations, low quality paper, very rough binding), this collection did a lot to introduce a series vast amount of essays and fictions, many unpublished, in Spanish homes. It is probably the most shared cultural object in the country’s recent history. Government origins. At the end of the sixties, the Ministry of Information and Tourism, then directed by Manuel Fraga, called a competition among private publishers to finance and distribute a literary collection of mass reach. The project had the explicit support of Radio Televisión Española, whose initials would appear on the cover of each issue. What emerged from there was a collection of one hundred books that would end up selling more than thirty million copies. The contest. The Ministry ended up choosing the joint proposal of two companies with very different profiles: Salvat Editores, founded in Barcelona in 1869, with decades of experience as a publisher of enclopedias; and Alianza Editorial, newly born in 1966 at the initiative of José Ortega Spottorno (son of the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, future founder of ‘El País’) and with the no less legendary collection ‘The Pocket Book’ already underway. The importance of television. The ‘RTV’ label was of great importance in promoting the dissemination of the collection. National Radio of Spain and Spanish Television authorized the use of their initials as official support, which gave the collection visibility and institutional legitimacy that was very important at that time. Furthermore, the books were advertised on television just when the progressive penetration of the appliance in Spanish homes was making it one of the main leisure options for Spaniards. Photo by Alberto Haj-Saleh Spain reads. The Spain that saw the birth of books was still suffering the echo of the decades of post-war cultural isolation, and many foreign authors were still circulating in imported or clandestine editions. The Press Law of 1966promoted by Fraga himself, had partially lifted the weight of censorship, but it still continued to exist. The researcher Francisco Rojas Claros states in ‘Cultural management and editorial dissidence in Spain (1962-1973)’ that the Salvat Basic Library was for many families the first real opportunity to access notable works from different periods, with correct translations and at a price that did not leave out the working classes. What was in the collection. The committee that selected the books (here the complete list) was made up of Dámaso Alonso, the Guatemalan Nobel Prize winner Miguel Ángel Asturias and the French writer Maurice Genevoix. Each volume included a prologue signed by a figure linked in one way or another to the work, and the selection combined universal classics (Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Molière, Swift, Tolstoy, Dickens, Stevenson) with Spanish literature from the Golden Age (Quevedo, Calderón, Lope), Spanish authors of the 20th century (Unamuno, Baroja, Machado, Delibes, Cela) and a Latin American selection (Borges, Cortázar, Vargas Llosa, Onetti, Asturias himself). And yes, somehow Orwell’s ‘1984’ passed the censorship filter. The magic of 25 pesetas. The RTV seal was important for the popularization and dissemination of the collection, yes, but nothing was more important than the price of 25 pesetas (with adjusted inflation, we would be talking about a little less than five euros today). At that price, books were within the reach of an expanding middle class and working-class families with a stabilized salary after the years of developmentalism. They were not as cheap as newsstand novels were, but they were affordable if bought week by week. Mine. Let’s finish with a personal note: I only have one book from that collection where I first tasted Poe, Wilde, Hammett and Clarke. As everyone who has come to touch it knows, over time the glue of the binding became worn and the pages began to come off (note in the header image how the owner has had to re-stitch the spines of some copies). The book that I read and reread dozens of times was ‘Spanish graphic humor of the 20th century’, number 46 in the collection, an absolutely monumental anthology of cartoons, satirists and graphic humorists, to the point that I would say that it has not been surpassed. Many of those books (those mentioned in the previous paragraph, without going any further) I have subsequently read in better and more convenient editions, but this volume remains unique, has not been reissued and is among my favorite volumes in my library. Furthermore, since so many copies were distributed, it is relatively easy to buy it second-hand at a ridiculous price, so you know: let it not be said that we only recommend things with a built-in microchip here. In Xataka | The justified text has been trying to get you to pay attention to it for centuries. You do very well to hate him with all your soul

Ryanair will cut 1.2 million seats in Spain but there is one region that will suffer more than the rest: Galicia

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Ryanair will reduce seats, cancel routes and raise ticket prices. That is the strategy that the company envisions for Spain during next summer. And Eddie Wilson has confirmed a strategy that has been talked about since last October when the CEO of Ryanair already threatened to take more flights from Spain if the situation did not change with Aena’s rates. And one autonomous community is feeling it more than the rest. 1.2 million seats. That will be the cut that Ryanair has prepared for our country next summer. It is something that was already reported in October and was confirmed last Monday. Counterscheduling the distribution of Aena dividends among its partners, Eddie Wilson has taken the opportunity to point out that its activity will be reduced in Spain in just a few months. They do so because the Government takes advantage of “(Aena’s) monopoly position in Spain’s main airports, obtaining excessive margins of 60% at the expense of local economies, which depend on affordable air travel for tourism and employment.” Without a change in airport taxesRyanair confirms that it is withdrawing flights in our country and that it will replace seats in larger airports. The reason is the repeated one in the last months of this Government-Ryanair battle: They consider that Aena’s rates at regional airports are too high. Once again, regional airports. According to the company, Aena’s airport taxes in regional spaces are uncompetitive and a burden on tourism and the economy of these cities. This has caused, according to the company, its departure from the airports of Asturias, Valladolid, Jerez, Tenerife North and Vigo and its activity to be reduced by 79% in Santiago compared to the summer 2024 figures. Not only that, in addition to this cut in seats, Wilson has not hesitated to warn that if the price of jet fuel becomes scarce, the first victims will be the regional airports, prioritizing the large seats. What about Galicia? Although Ryanair claims that its departure is fatally damaging the less frequented Spanish airports, the truth is that not all of them are suffering the same fate. A good example is Zaragoza. Compared to 2024, it will have 45% fewer seats, three routes canceled and two others cut. Despite this, Aena data They say that in 2025 the number of passengers grew by 1.9% (especially on domestic routes) and that in 2026 it is growing by 2.6%. Photography is very different in Galicia. So far this year, A Coruña airport is the only one that has grown. Without Ryanair, Vigo is falling 3.4% this year but the most worrying thing is in Santiago. At this airport, Ryanair has cut its activity by almost 80% compared to the summer of two years ago. In 2025 it has already fallen by 14.3% and this year it is falling by 29.6%. The lower activity at this airport has caused flights in the region to fall by 6.9% last year and so far this year this has worsened to 15.5%. There is only one worse fact. From all regions, Galicia is the one with the worst figures. And so far this year, only Castilla y León has lost more travelers, with a drop of 18.6%. However, its volume of travelers is much lower than that of Galicia. In the first three months of 2025, 40,051 people moved by plane in the region, while this year 32,613 passengers did so. That’s a drop of less than 8,000 seats filled. In Galicia, however, so far this year 987,812 passengers have taken a plane, while in 2025 a total of 1,168,745 people had taken a plane. That is, in the first quarter of the year, 180,933 passengers have been lost in the first quarter of 2026. And more than 200,000 passengers compared to 2024 when more than 1,194,032 people moved by plane in the first three months of the year. Not only the rates. When Ryanair announces that it is leaving an airport, it usually points to airport taxes, but the reality is more complex. The truth is that the company has maintained some commercial routes with low demand because it had advertising contracts that supported its routes. Contracts that he has not hesitated to break, as in Vigowhen you have found more juicy economic incentives like those that have arrived from Morocco. It must be taken into account thatthe launch of the AVE to Galicia It has also been a hard blow for airline companies that have seen how part of their customers move to the train since it offers more affordable rates and travel times that, adding the waits at airports, are similar to those of the plane. In fact, companies like Iberia have also reduced their supply because demand did not compensate for the effort. Photo | Left Victorian and Simone Muzzi In Xataka | The new EU border system is leaving people without flights. Ryanair has a solution: close check-in early

The fuel crisis is putting airlines in check. And Ryanair already knows where to start cutting: Spain

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Your flight has been cancelled. Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran for the first time two months ago, fear of a new oil crisis has skyrocketed. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has put fuel supplies in check since then and the aviation sector has been one of the most affected. Among the consequences, we have seen a serious increase in the cost of flights but also cancellations. Ryanair is clear about where it will cut flights from if necessary. What has happened? The CEO of Ryanair has launched a new threat: “if the situation continues, the first place we have in mind are the Spanish regional airports.” The words are from Eddie Wilson and have been collected by the newspaper ABC. That “if the situation continues” refers, of course, to the oil blockades in the Strait of Hormuz. And the company has once again raised its threats against the Government of Spain. Coinciding with the day in which Aena has distributed dividends among its partners, Ryanair has taken the opportunity to confirm that it will cut 1.2 million places this summer available at Spanish airports. And asked about how they face a possible fuel shortage, Wilson has once again taken the opportunity to question the viability of their activities at Spanish regional airports. What has been confirmed? Ryanair has been warning for months that it was going to cut operations this summer at Spanish airports if the Government did not reverse the increase in Aena airport taxes in the 2027-2031 cycle. Last Monday, the airline was ratified although it did not make it clear which airports will be the most punished. They do point out that with the extension of these cuts, in 18 months they have stopped offering three million places in our country (once the summer cut is consolidated). On the contrary, Morocco and Italy will grow by 11% and 9%, respectively. Of course, it is true that Regional airports are suffering with the departure of Ryanair but the size of the cut is misleading because, at the same time, its commitment to larger airports has been maintained or even expanded. And the new threat? The new threat is the possibility of scrapping more flights if Ryanair runs out of fuel. It seems logical that when prioritizing fuel, the company opts for larger airports where the flight occupancy rate will be higher or there is a greater chance of this being the case. In the month of April we have seen many cancellations from both American companies and United either Delta even the Asian ones like Air New Zealandpassing through the entire European framework as SAS or the Lufthansa Group, Wizz Air and easyJet (among others). And the CEO of easyJet already publicly warned that the situation in Europe could become seriously complicated starting in mid-May. How much real threat and imposted threat is there in Wilson’s words? It is difficult to know because it is impossible to know how much fuel Ryanair has or to what extent the company is willing to pay for kerosene before losing money. (or not earning what they consider enough). Because? The air sector is one of the most affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The increase in fuel prices losses are skyrocketing and Lufthansa will cancel more than 20,000 flights according to Financial Times to patch the rise in prices. The result, as we see, is fewer flights, more expensive flights or airlines that take advantage of the reduction in supply to tighten the nuts more for the passengers. They are the consequences of moving with a type of fuel that very little stock is handled in warehouses. The kerosene used by airplanes is delicate to store because it can quickly lose its properties. And International Air Transport Association (IATA), already warned that rebuild damaged refining capacity in the Middle East will take months. The forecasts for summer are not good. And it is clear that, if cuts have to be made, they will be cut where the least benefit is obtained. Photo | Ryanair and Gabriele Merlino In Xataka | Airlines have found in the fuel crisis the best argument to cut your benefits as a passenger

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