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02.12 - Spain Today News 13 November 2025 · Spain Today - Last Spanish News

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  Welcome to Spain Today, your quick and clear summary of the
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  latest news from Spain in English.
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  If you want to stay informed without spending hours reading
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  the headlines, this is your place.
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  Before we start, make sure to hit follow so you don't miss any
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  of our upcoming episodes. Now let's dive into today's
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  news. Today, November 13th, 2025,
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  we're looking at a really fascinating convergence of
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  events. It's quite a mix.
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  We've got high stakes domestic politics, you know, the
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  government's struggle for survival playing out.
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  Then there are these critical judicial developments covering
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  both modern terror and historical memory.
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  And on top of that, an urgent nationwide public health order.
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  We have a pretty dense stack of sources today.
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  And, well, the challenge is connecting all these different
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  pressures into one clear picture for you.
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  That's exactly the mission, Yeah.
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  We're seeing this immediately political relief for the
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  Moncloa, but it's almost accidental coming purely from
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  the parliamentary calendar. And that relief is crashing
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  right into an immediate legislative risk coming from the
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  Senate. It's quite the contrast.
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  At the same time, like you said, major judicial breakthroughs,
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  the extradition of key former ETA leaders is huge.
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  And alongside that, this deep, really moving look at the, well,
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  the roots of Spain's democratic memory, efforts driven by
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  ordinary citizens way before any formal laws existed.
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  OK, let's unpack the political situation first, then.
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  So President Sanchez and the government, they're reportedly
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  getting a crucial breathing spell, much needed, I imagine,
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  from Gin's pressure, and it's basically down to the calendar.
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  How does that work? It's fascinating, really.
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  It's just institutional timing. You've got elections coming up
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  in extreme Medora than the Christmas recess, and January is
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  always historically a slow month in the Kamra Baja, the lower
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  house, so all that lines up perfectly.
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  It means only three plenaries are actually scheduled between
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  now and early 2026. 3 plenaries. Wow.
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  Yeah. So this basically buys the
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  government months of, let's say, operational calm, a real break
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  from the day-to-day legislative battles.
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  OK, but hang on. While Monclo is getting this
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  break, Gin's spokesperson Miriam Nogueras is still out there
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  saying this relationship is over.
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  She's blaming Sanchez for blocking everything.
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  If they're saying it's over, why are key laws still going to
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  pass? Is it?
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  Is it just talk puddle theatre? Maybe.
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  Well, that's the paradox, isn't it?
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  That's what our sources are really highlighting.
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  Despite all the high drama rhetoric from Nobaris, you know,
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  the repeated threats of a complete breakdown, key
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  legislation is still going to pass in these few sessions.
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  And the reason is simple. Jens had already negotiated and
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  agreed to them beforehand. OK.
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  So things already in the pipeline?
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  Exactly. We're talking about significant
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  bills too, like the law of cinema, the ELA decree that's
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  for people with ALS, and the customer service law.
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  So yes, the political theater is loud, very loud.
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  But the actual business of government, well, it's
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  continuing almost on inertia for now.
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  Right. It does make the gridlock look a
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  bit like performance art. But you mentioned a risk, an
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  immediate 1 today, Thursday the 13th, something about nuclear
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  energy. Correct.
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  Yeah. This is where things could get
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  very tricky for the government's energy policy.
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  Like right now, the PP, the main opposition, they have a majority
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  in the Senate, and they've put forward an amendment to the
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  sustainable mobility law. OK.
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  And what this amendment does is try to remove the date of
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  definitive cessation, the shutdown date for several
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  nuclear power plants, specifically Amaraz, Oscar 1st
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  and Cofrentes. And June's, Where do they stand?
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  Well, June's actually favors keeping nuclear power going, so
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  the risk is they could align with the PP in the Senate on
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  this specific amendment. If that happens, it could force
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  a pro nuclear change right into law, completely against the
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  government's plan to phase them out.
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  That alignment PP and June's that paints a very unstable
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  picture indeed. We read the general mood in
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  Congress is 1 of uncertainty, bewilderment.
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  Sound like even the government's own allies are getting fed up.
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  They really are. You hear it from other partners
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  like the PNV, the Bass nationalists and even Sumar, who
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  are part of the government coalition.
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  They're openly voicing frustration.
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  Just a lack of direction, they say.
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  And this connects to the budget too, right?
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  Absolutely. If you look at the bigger
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  picture, the financial side is precarious because of this,
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  Hacienda, the finance ministry, they've called the regions to
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  set stability goals. That's the first step for the
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  national budget process. But honestly, because of all
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  this political gridlock and lack of trust, pretty much everyone
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  expects those budgets to fail in Congress when they eventually
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  come up for a vote. So the calendar gives them time,
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  but doesn't really solve the underlying problems.
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  Precisely. It kicks the can down the road,
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  but the fundamental lack of consensus is still there.
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  OK, let's shift from that legislative maneuvering to
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  Justice 2, very different, but like you said, equally crucial
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  developments here. First, this major step regarding
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  ETA terror victims. The extradition of three former
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  leaders from France. Yes, this is enormous news, a
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  significant moment, really providing a kind of judicial
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  closure for victims and their families.
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  The three individuals are Juan Antonio Olaro Guridi, Ayenua
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  Mugikogani and crucially, Javier Garcia Gastello, who's known as
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  Texapote. The French justice system has
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  finally agreed to the year orders.
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  The European arrest warrants issued by Spain's Audiencia
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  Nacional. The.
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  Extradition of Texapote specifically?
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  That's massive news here in Spain.
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  What does this mean legally for the victims of that 2001 attack,
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  and why now? Why did it need French approval
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  at this point? It means they will finally stand
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  trial in Spain for the assassination of Lieutenant
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  Colonel Pedro Antonio Blanco that happened in Madrid, January
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  2001. They could face up to 20 years
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  just for that murder. As for why now, well, the
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  suspects were arrested and serving sentences in France for
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  other crimes. So Spain needed France's formal
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  judicial approval through this euro warrant process to bring
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  them back to face these specific charges.
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  Right, right. Makes sense?
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  And Tic Sapote, it's worth noting, also faces a separate
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  charge linked to a 1996 car bomb attack in San Sebastian.
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  That one targeted a police cook, albino Alfredo Machado.
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  So yeah, this closes a really significant chapter.
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  Definitely. Now let's turn to the other side
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  of justice, historical justice. We have this deep dive into the
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  early exhumations from the Civil War and Franco era.
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  You called them the foundation of democratic memory, efforts
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  often overlooked. That's right.
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  It's easy to focus on the professionalized movement that
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  really took off around the year 2000, but these sources
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  emphasized that the first efforts started much, much
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  earlier, back during the transition, as early as 1978 in
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  some cases. And crucially, these were driven
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  purely by families, not by institutions, not by political
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  parties. They weren't looking for laws or
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  state help initially. Their motivation was incredibly
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  simple, powerful, and importantly, non ideological.
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  Or just burying them. Well, giving their loved ones a
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  proper burial. That phrase burying them well
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  and the image described in the sources Families kissing
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  recovered skulls. It really cuts through all the
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  political noise surrounding memory loss today, doesn't it?
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  It just grounds the whole idea of democratic memory in basic
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  human dignity. It.
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  Absolutely does, and you have to remember the context.
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  Under Franco, his side's victims were honored, monuments built.
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  But the victims of the coup plotters, the sublovato's, they
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  were just left in unmarked mass graves, often known graves.
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  Family sometimes had to do clandestine digs literally in
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  the middle of the night just to recover.
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  Some remains like Interzante. But even during the transition,
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  when things supposedly opened up, these families faced, and I
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  quote the source here, impressive pressures and
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  harassment. From who?
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  From official bodies, the church, sometimes the civil
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  governor, even the Guardia Civil.
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  We read the testimony of Seldonio Gonzalez.
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  His mother, Felicia Casa Tejana recovered her brothers back in
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  1978. Despite threats, they were often
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  completely alone against the system.
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  It's incredible resilience, but it wasn't always individuals
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  acting alone, was it? It became a community effort in
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  places. We read about this Operation
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  Ritorno in Navarra and La Rioja, whole villages banding together
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  to find the badly buried places like Sarta Gouda, tragically
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  known as the Village of the Widows.
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  Yes, the sources paint a vivid picture.
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  Really raw emotional scenes, Men digging with basic tools,
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  shovels, picks. The sheer determination,
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  families carefully placing bones in makeshift coffins and the
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  funerals themselves were this complex mix.
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  You'd see the Republican flag, a symbol of the past they were
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  reclaiming, sometimes alongside the local priest.
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  It was all about that shared demand for dignity crossing old
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  divides in that moment. But this first wave, this family
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  driven wave, it apparently hit a wall after the attempted coup
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  23F in 1981. That's right, the sources say it
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  had a chilling effect. People involved in the
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  exhumations got scared. They feared political
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  retaliation, Worried her names were on lists held by the coup
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  plotters, so the movement largely stalled.
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  Wow, so when did it restart properly?
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  It really restarted professionally in the year 2000.
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  The key moment was Emilio Servos exhumation of his grandfather in
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  Preranza del Beerxo. That event was pivotal because
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  it led to the founding of the ARMH, the Association for the
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  Recovery of Historical Memory, and that marked a shift.
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  It brought in a scientific approach, forensic anthropology,
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  and also framed it with an international human rights
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  language talking about the disappeared like in Latin
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  America. A more structured approach.
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  Exactly, and since 2000 / 17,000 bodies have been recovered
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  through these professional efforts, but you know for
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  countless families still searching that original painful
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  fundamental need to just and there are those being bury them.
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  Well, that remains the absolute core driver.
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  Such important work. OK, it's clear the political and
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  historical pressures are intense.
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  But the challenges Spain faces today aren't just legislative or
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  historical. We also need to talk about this
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  massive immediate pressure point from the Ministry of
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  Agriculture, a nationwide health order concerning avian flu.
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  Yes, this is a really sweeping public health measure, quite
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  significant. The Ministry of Agriculture,
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  Fisheries and Food has ordered mandatory confinement for all
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  outdoor poultry farms. All of them.
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  And that order took effect today, Thursday, November 13th.
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  All outdoor farms? That sounds hugely disruptive.
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  Who exactly does that hit? I mean, does it affect small
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  backyard chicken Stew or just commercial farms?
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  And what are the economic implications?
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  It's incredibly broad in scope. The order explicitly mentions it
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  affects ecological farms self consumption operations.
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  So yes, your backyard flocks are included and also farms
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  producing eggs or meat for direct sale to consumers.
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  The economic impact is potentially sharp, particularly
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  for the ecological or free range sector.
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  Right, because their whole model relies on outdoor access.
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  Exactly. Their premium pricing, their
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  labeling, it all hinges on that outdoor access.
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  Mandatory confinement completely compromises that label.
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  It could force prices down, create massive logistical
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  problems for farms physically designed for outdoor access.
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  It's a big deal for them. So why the urgency?
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  Why such a blanket nationwide measure right now?
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  What triggered this? The ministry's justification
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  points to a noticeable spike in avian flu outbreaks across
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  central and northern Europe just in the last four weeks.
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  So this is basically a preemptive strike.
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  It's based on well known migratory bird patterns.
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  The birds heading South for winter.
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  Precisely huge numbers of migratory birds travel from
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  those affected European territories down towards Spain.
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  As winter approaches. They pose a clear risk of
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  carrying the virus and infecting domestic poultry, so the order
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  aims to create a physical barrier keeping wild birds away
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  from domestic flocks to try and safeguard the entire Spanish
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  poultry sector. Understood, unnecessary
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  precaution, but definitely disruptive.
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  So wrapping this all together, we've covered an extraordinary
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  range of national pressures just converging today.
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  You've got the government buying time through the calendar quirks
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  while simultaneously facing this political cliffhanger over
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  nuclear energy. Then there's the long arc of
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  justice closure for victims of modern terror, alongside this
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  deep dive into the very beginnings of Spain's historical
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  memory movement. And finally, the entire
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  agricultural sector dealing with this biological pressure
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  dictated by bird migration patterns.
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  It's a lot happening at once. It.
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  Really is. And what stands out, I think, is
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  how Spain is grappling with these intense challenges on
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  literally every scale imaginable, from the highest
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  levels of macro political stability right down to the
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  dignity software remains in a single mass grave and even, you
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  know, the bio security of a single chicken farm.
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  Each topic we've discussed today reflects a different type but
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  equally intense form of systemic pressure, political pressure,
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  historical pressure, biological pressure.
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  It's a compelling overview. So thinking about these
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  simultaneous pressures, political, historical,
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  biological. Interesting, What knowledge that
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  we've unpacked today do you, the listener, find most resonant or
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  applicable to the wider world you see around you?
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  You know, thinking about those early exhumations during the
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  transition, it really shows the incredible power of to sheer
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  citizen determination against systemic pressure, all driven by
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  that simple profound need for dignity.
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  And when you contrast that with the current political situation,
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  where stability seems to rely more on the ticking clock of the
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  parliamentary calendar rather than actual consensus, well, it
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  raises a pretty important question.
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  I think. When we face these deeply
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  entrenched problems, whether it's dealing with historical
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  trauma or navigating political gridlock, where does real change
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  actually come from? Does it come from institutional
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  maneuvering and waiting for the calendar?
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  Or does it come from that relentless, often painful
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  resolve of people on the ground demanding what they
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  fundamentally believe is right? That's a powerful question to
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  leave us with a really insightful analysis connecting
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  all these threads. Thank you for helping us
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  organize this knowledge for the listener.
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  Now go put this information to use.
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  We'll keep diving deep into the pressures facing Spain.
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  Until then, stay informed.