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03.04 - Spain Today News 27 August 2026 · Spain Today - Last Spanish News

• 0:00
  Welcome to all the listeners to Spain Today News, and we invite
• 0:02
  you to follow the channel so you don't miss any chapter.
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  So today we're doing a deep dive into, well, kind of a crazy
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  snapshot of Spain right now. It's late August 2026 and we're
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  looking at a country operating at 2 absolute extremes.
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  On one hand you have this town that deliberately engineers an
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  entire crop of tomatoes. Just perfectly acidic inedible
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  tomatoes purely so 22,000 people can just hurl them at each
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  other. Right.
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  Highly organized. Exactly.
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  Highly managed, perfectly contained chaos.
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  But then on the other hand, you contrast that with a central
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  government that is just completely paralyzed by this
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  unannounced arrival of 70,000 people at its southern border,
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  all while there's, you know, trying to run a country on a
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  budget from three years ago. Yeah, it's it's a really
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  fascinating duality because to understand the mechanics of
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  Spain today, you really have to look at how the system
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  beautifully manages the expected chaos like the world famous
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  festivals, right? But then you see how it's
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  simultaneously just buckling under the unexpected, the
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  staggering pressures of the borders and, frankly, the deep,
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  deep fractures within its own political machinery.
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  Yeah. So let's start with the
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  controlled chaos, I think. Sure, the 79th edition of LA
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  Tomatina in the town of Buniol. This is in Valencia and we are
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  talking about 150,000 kilos of tomatoes.
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  Which is I think 30,000 more than last.
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  Year 30,000 kilos more. Yeah, just dropped from 7
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  massive trucks into this quaint European St. and you've got
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  22,000 attendees flying in from everywhere.
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  I mean, the sources mentioned the US, Japan, Italy, Romania,
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  so 3 international and they're wearing swimming caps and scuba
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  goggles and they're just submerging themselves in a
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  literal river of red. You know, it kicks off at noon
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  with a pyrotechnic shell, and then it's just madness.
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  The visual is staggering. I mean, if you've ever seen
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  footage, it is this highly orchestrated, massive release of
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  collective energy. But I I have to push back a
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  little here because whenever I see this footage, I just can't
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  get past the sheer volume of food.
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  Right, the waste argument. Yeah, dropping 150,000 kilos of
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  perfectly good produce onto the pavement.
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  It just feels, I don't know, a bit tone deaf.
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  Like a massive waste. Especially with tough economic
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  times and the cost of groceries. Right now it looks like they're
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  just throwing away a whole agricultural yield for a few
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  hours of fun. Well, so the details of the
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  supply chain actually completely changed that perspective.
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  Oh, really? Yeah.
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  This isn't food that's being diverted from a supermarket
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  shelf or, you know, a family's dinner table.
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  These specific tomatoes are grown in a town called San
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  Benito, down about a hose exclusively for this one event.
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  Wait wait, they farm an entire crop specifically to be used as
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  ammunition? They absolutely do.
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  It's an entire specialized agricultural microeconomy, and
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  the reason they use this specific crop is that these
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  tomatoes are entirely unfit for human consumption.
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  Unfit how? Like they're rotten.
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  No, the flavor profiles just way too acidic to eat.
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  They taste terrible, but agriculturally they've been
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  cultivated to have extremely soft skin.
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  Oh, I see. Yeah.
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  So they're essentially engineered for impact without
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  causing injury. That is wild.
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  That completely flips the script for me.
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  So it's less about wasting food and more about like a dedicated
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  prop industry. Exactly, it's a prop and the
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  town authorities actually enforce strict physical rules to
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  keep it safe too right? You can't just launch a hard
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  green tomato at someone's head. The official regulation states
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  the tomato must be what they call escluffato.
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  Escluffato. Right, Meaning you are legally
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  required to crush or squeeze it in your hand to break the skin
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  before you throw it. Well, yeah, nobody wants a
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  concussion at a festival. Exactly.
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  But it's just fascinating how a town decides to
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  institutionalized a giant food fight.
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  And looking at the sources, this wasn't some ancient harvest
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  ritual, right? No.
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  Not at all. It started completely by
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  accident in 1945 during a summer parade for Sam Luis Biltran.
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  Yeah, a group of kids basically tried to push their way into the
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  official procession. You know those giant Papia mache
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  heads they wear in Spanish parades?
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  Oh yeah, the big oversized heads.
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  Yeah, so someone in one of those costumes got knocked over in the
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  scuffle. And he got up completely furious
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  and just started swinging at everything in his path and he
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  happened to crash into a local vegetable stall.
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  Right. And the tension just broke.
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  The neighbors grabbed tomatoes from the crates and a
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  spontaneous fight broke out until the police had to come
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  shut it down. But the town loved it so much
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  that they literally came back the next year from home with
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  their own tomatoes. Yeah, they brought their own
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  ammo the next year. But my absolute favorite part of
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  the origin story is the 1957 protest.
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  Because the authorities decided, OK, this is a public nuisance,
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  we are banning the event. And the town's response was just
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  a master class in theatrical protest.
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  It really was. They organized a tomato funeral.
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  A tomato funeral, Yeah. They held a solemn mock funeral
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  procession through the streets. They had a marching band playing
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  funeral marches and they were carrying a giant tomato inside a
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  real coffin. It's just brilliant.
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  And the authorities realized they couldn't suppress that
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  level of civic commitment, so they officially permitted it.
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  Right. You can't beat that.
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  But here is the crucial mechanism I want to highlight
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  about La Tomatina today, which leads into our next topic.
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  As wild as it looks, Bruno figured out that disaster is
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  only avoided by establishing hard limits and controlled
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  entry. Since 2013 they have strictly
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  capped the capacity at 22,000 people and they charge a €15
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  entry fee. Because before 2013 they had
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  years where over 40,000 people were cramming into those narrow
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  streets. It was getting dangerous.
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  The city realized that for the chaos to remain manageable, they
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  needed a hard perimeter. They needed managed borders for
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  the event. Exactly managed borders.
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  Which brings us to the starkest contrast imaginable.
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  Buniol is successfully managing a 22,000 person festival with
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  entry fees and wristbands. But what happens when a border
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  has no capacity limits, no tickets, and 70,000 people
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  arrive unannounced in just 48 hours?
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  Yeah. It's a completely different
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  scale. That is exactly what the Spanish
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  enclave of Soto woke up to at the end of July.
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  Right, so we are shifting from a festival of engineered abundance
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  to a crisis of absolute terrifying resource exhaustion.
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  Yeah. For context, Sertis is located
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  on the North Coast of Africa. It borders Morocco.
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  And on July 30th and 31st of 2026, those 70,000 migrants
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  arrived at the border. Many of them were attempting to
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  swim across the breakwater. 70,000 people in two days, I
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  mean that is more than three times the total allowed capacity
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  of Lotto Matina just showing up at once it's.
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  Staggering. And the government estimates
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  that about 5000 of those migrants remain in the city
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  right now. How does a government even
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  prepare for an influx that massive?
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  Well, according to the sources, they didn't.
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  It reveals a deep, troubling intelligence failure, or at the
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  very least, a massive internal breakdown in communication
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  within the Spanish government. Right, because you have two top
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  government officials directly contradicting each other in
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  public. Yes.
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  The defense minister, Margarita Robles, claimed that the
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  National Intelligence Center, the CNI, had warned the
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  government's delegation in Sota a day prior.
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  She said they were tracking social media calls where people
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  were organizing to cross. But then the Interior minister,
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  Fernando Grande More Alaska, explicitly denied that any such
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  Intelligence Report even existed.
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  It's crazy, it's like having 2 smoke alarms in a house and one
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  is screaming about a fire while the other one is insisting the
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  battery is completely fine. That's a great analogy.
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  You can't mount a coordinated response when the leadership
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  can't even agree on whether they saw the warning signs.
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  You really can't, and the resulting scramble on the ground
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  is severe. The central government had to
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  pull a major bureaucratic lever here.
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  They officially declared a quote situation of interest for
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  national security in SOTA and that's going to remain active
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  until December 31st, 2026. Can you unpack that term for us
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  a bit? Because situation of interest
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  for national security sounds serious, but what does it
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  actually change mechanically for the people in SOTA?
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  So it fundamentally rewires how the government operates in that
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  specific zone. Normally, disaster response in
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  Spain is fractured across different local and regional
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  agencies, but this declaration centralizes the response.
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  It establishes a single command structure, what they call a
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  mando unico under Minister Angel Victor.
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  Torres, I see. So one person is calling the
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  shots. Right.
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  And it unlocks emergency funding and logistical support to
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  basically bypass normal bureaucratic delays, because
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  right now they are desperately using this to expand temporary
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  shelter capacity by 2000 spots just to get people off the
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  streets and out of the elements. And this logistical nightmare is
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  surrounded by a highly sensitive diplomatic chess match too.
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  Right in the middle of this border collapse, Morocco's
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  Justice minister publicly reaffirmed that Morocco
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  considers Sota and Maliva to be a quote historical and
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  geographical right, suggesting A dialogue for their eventual
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  return to Moroccan control. And the timing of that statement
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  is definitely not an accident. No, it is a calculated
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  diplomatic stress test while Spain is vulnerable.
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  And it forced Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Alvarez to
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  issue an immediate rebuke, right?
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  He had to firmly state through diplomatic channels that Sota
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  and Melilla are unequivocally Spanish cities and they are the
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  borders of the European Union. So the geopolitical fiction is
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  just boiling over, exactly as the local resources are running
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  dry. Exactly.
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  It's a perfect storm. And the most tragic element of
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  those exhausted resources really centers around the unaccompanied
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  children. Yes, absolutely.
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  The police have currently identified around 1500
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  unaccompanied migrant minors remaining in Serta.
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  But the administrative reality behind that number is just wild.
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  Oh, the Excel thing, yeah. Yeah, the initial count reported
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  to the public was 2168, but the police basically spent days just
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  cleaning up their computer registries and deleting
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  duplicate Excel files to bring the actual number down to 1500.
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  Deleting duplicate rows while thousands of kids are sleeping
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  in temporary shelters. It just highlights the sheer
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  absurdity of trying to process a humanitarian crisis through
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  overwhelmed administrative software.
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  It really does. And those 1500 miners cannot
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  stay in Soda. The enclave physically lacks the
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  infrastructure to house them long term, but moving them to
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  the Spanish peninsula has triggered a massive regional
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  blockade. Yeah, let's get into this,
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  because this is where domestic politics just collides with the
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  crisis. The vice presidents of Cassia E
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  Leon, Extremadura and Aragon, and all three of these leaders
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  belong to the Vox party. They are outright refusing to
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  accept the transfer of these miners.
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  Correct, and their argument, just to breakdown what they are
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  explicitly stating rests on a very specific set of pillars.
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  First, they claim their regional social services are already in a
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  state of absolute saturation. Like they physically can't take
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  more people. Exactly, And furthermore, they
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  argue that accepting these transfers creates a pole effect
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  that encourages further irregular migration, and they
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  point the finger directly at the central government's border
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  policies for that. And they're also making very
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  strict demands regarding how the law should be applied to these
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  minors, correct? Yes, they are demanding
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  immediate adherence to their interpretation of the law, which
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  means either returning the minors to Morocco or
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  prioritizing family reunification.
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  They also introduced a very specific caveat regarding
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  victims of sexual aggression. They are demanding the
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  prioritized return of these victims to guarantee their
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  safety by basically removing them from the environment of the
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  assault while identifying and expelling the aggressors.
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  OK, so that's their stance. But the central government,
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  specifically the Ministry of Youth and Infancy, which is led
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  by Sierra Rigo, they are not accepting this blockade quietly,
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  not at all. They are accusing these regional
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  leaders of racism, of violating Spanish and international child
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  protection laws, and of abandoning soda strictly for
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  electoral gain. And the central government
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  points out a pretty massive irony in this regional refusal.
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  What's that? The Ministry of Infancy has
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  allocated 25 million euros specifically to cover the cost
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  of housing, medical care and legal support for these
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  transferred minors. Oh wow.
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  So by refusing the transfers, these regions are actively
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  rejecting Free State money. OK.
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  And the ministry argues this proves the blockade is purely a
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  political strategy to prolong the crisis, rather than a
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  genuine concern over regional budgets.
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  So if the regions have jurisdiction over their own
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  social services and they are completely refusing to
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  cooperate, what is the legal work around for the central
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  government? I mean they can't just leave
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  1500 children in soda indefinitely.
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  Right. Well, the Ministry of Infancy is
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  utilizing a really fascinating legal loophole here.
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  Oh yeah, yeah, they are planning an urgent physical transfer of
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  about 500 miners to the peninsula.
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  But they are doing it quote without needing to transfer
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  guardianship to the autonomous communities.
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  I see, so they bypass the regional governments entirely.
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  The state simply holds on to the legal guardianship of the child,
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  but physically moves them into facilities on the peninsula.
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  Exactly. It acts as an emergency pressure
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  valve, right? However, it's not a permanent
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  solution, so the central government is simultaneously
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  drafting a new royal decree to make the reception of minors
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  legally binding for all regions, basically removing the option to
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  refuse. But to pass a binding decree,
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  you need parliamentary approval. You do.
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  And this leads us to the underlying machinery of the
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  Spanish state right now, because this massive border crisis and
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  this regional standoff, it's happening right at the start of
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  the final full political year before a massive 2027 election
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  cycle. Oh yeah, municipal, autonomic
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  and general elections is huge. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is
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  heading into this crucial year with almost 0 parliamentary
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  power. Let's just look at the budget.
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  The government is currently operating on a Prorogue budget
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  from 2023 and we are in late 2026.
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  Right. Think of a prorogued budget like
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  trying to run a 2026 smartphone on a 2023 operating system.
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  That's a great way to picture it.
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  The phone still turns on the basic apps function, but the
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  moment you try to run a heavy new application, like, say,
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  emergency funding for a sudden border crisis or a new National
• 14:22
  Housing initiative, the whole system just crashes.
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  Because it simply isn't coded for today's financial reality.
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  Exactly. So Sanchez has until October 1st
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  to present a new budget, the PGE 2027, But he can't even get past
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  the first hurdle. Just before the summer break,
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  the government lost the vote on the stability pathway.
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  Right, because the opposition PP, Fox and the Catalan
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  separatist party June's all voted against it.
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  And the stability pathway, for those who might not know, is the
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  fundamental blueprint. It sets the deficit and debt
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  limits. Yeah, so if Parliament rejects
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  the blueprint, you cannot even begin to pour the foundation for
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  the actual budget. Losing that vote exposed that
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  the parliamentary majority Sanchez relied on for his
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  investiture has effectively dissolved when it comes to
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  actual legislating. And the legislative gridlock is
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  one thing, but the sources detail a staggering volume of
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  judicial cases currently crashing down on the ruling PSOE
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  party and Sanchez's inner circle.
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  It's an avalanche. This isn't just bad PR.
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  This volume of legal battles physically paralyzes the
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  machinery of government. Let's look at the mechanics of
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  these cases, starting with the prime minister's wife, Pagoya
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  Gomez. Right.
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  So the courts have agreed to open an oral trial against her
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  with a popular jury for alleged influence peddling and
• 15:36
  embezzlement. Now, her passport was recently
• 15:39
  returned and her travel restrictions were lifted.
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  But the reality of the prime minister's wife facing a jury
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  trial, it just consumes massive amounts of political capital and
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  media bandwidth. It dominates the new cycle.
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  And then you have his brother David Sanchez, who was recently
• 15:56
  sentenced by a provincial court to 9 years of disqualification
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  for public office for administrative prevarication.
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  Yeah, that term gets thrown around a lot, but what is the
• 16:06
  actual mechanism of that crime? So administrative prevarication
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  is essentially when a public official makes a blatantly
• 16:13
  unlawful decision on purpose. Think of it like a referee
• 16:17
  blowing the whistle for a foul they absolutely know didn't
• 16:19
  happen just to alter the game, right?
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  In this case, it was related to his hiring at the Bada Hose
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  deputation. Now he was acquitted of
• 16:26
  influence peddling and the sentence is currently being
• 16:29
  appealed, but the political damage is already done.
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  And the damage cuts even deeper into the party structure when
• 16:35
  you look at Jose Luis Abuelos. I mean, this was one of
• 16:37
  Sanchez's most trusted inner circle ministers.
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  And the Supreme Court just sentenced him to 24 years in
• 16:43
  prison for his role in the Casa Coldo masks scandal during the
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  pandemic. Yeah, he was convicted of
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  criminal organization bribery and embezzlement. 24 years.
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  Losing a core architect of your government to A2 decade prison
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  sentence, I mean it destabilizes the entire party apparatus.
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  It has to. And you add to that the
• 17:03
  casolaire in the National Court, which is investigating former
• 17:06
  PSOE officials for obstructing justice.
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  And there's also the investigation into former Prime
• 17:12
  Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Apatero for alleged influence
• 17:15
  peddling in a €53 million bailout of an airline called
• 17:19
  Plus Ultra. When you lay it all out like
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  that, you see a government completely under siege,
• 17:25
  completely. The leader of the opposition,
• 17:27
  Alberto Nunez Fejo of the PP, is demanding immediate elections.
• 17:31
  He's branding the government as totally incompetent.
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  And Sanchez insists he will exhaust the legislature and hold
• 17:37
  elections in 2027. But he is trying to govern
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  without a budget, without a reliable parliamentary majority
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  and while fighting a multi front legal war.
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  And it really brings us back to the contrast we started with.
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  It remains the defining feature of Spain today.
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  Yeah. It's a country capable of
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  brilliant logistical triumphs on a local level, yet struggling
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  immensely at the macro level. Right.
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  We started in Bunyol looking at this beautifully organized
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  festival where authorities engineered inedible tomatoes and
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  implemented strict capacity limits just so 22,000 people
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  could safely celebrate. And we end looking at the halls
• 18:15
  of Madrid and the borders of Sota, where paralyzed government
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  is unable to pass a budget, they're fighting with their own
• 18:21
  regions over free money, and they're struggling to process a
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  sudden, unmanaged influx of thousands of desperate people.
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  Yeah, and it really leaves us with a critical question to
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  ponder as we look toward those 2027 elections.
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  Well, when a nation's political system becomes entirely consumed
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  by judicial survival and regional blockades, at what
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  point does the actual machinery of governing the day-to-day
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  crises like a sudden border collapse simply stop functioning
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  altogether? That is the definitive question
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  hanging over the coming year. Thanks for being with us at
• 18:53
  Spain today, and remember to come tomorrow for more Spanish
• 18:56
  news in English.