Latest / Spain Today - Last Spanish News / 03.28 - Spain Today News 21 September 2026

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03.28 - Spain Today News 21 September 2026 · Spain Today - Last Spanish News

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A huge welcome to you, the listener to Spain Today News,
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and I invite you right now to follow the channel to not miss
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any chapter. You know, you hear a lot about
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like, abstract power, right? Political influence, the digital
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cloud, historical legacy. Absolutely.
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Yeah, it sounds very intangible. Right, but when you actually
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pull back the curtain, power is almost always this heavy
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physical thing. I mean it.
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It was millions of gallons of water cooling a server farm in
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Aragon. It is the literal flow of diesel
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through a narrow maritime choke. Yeah, exactly.
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Whoever controls the physical ground, the energy grid and the
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official historical record, well, they ultimately control
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the future. We really like to imagine we
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live in this borderless wireless era, you know, but every digital
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action or legal decree has this massive footprint in the real
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world. So today we're taking four major
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stories from Spain today that at first glance seem entirely
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disconnected. We're looking at aggressive new
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tech regulations, the really painful price of gas at the
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pump. Definitely painful.
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But Oh yeah, plus a high stakes legal battle over political
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amnesty and a former king publishing his memoirs from the
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Middle East. But we're looking at all of
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these through 1 central theme, the intense tug of war over
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Spain's resources and its legacy.
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And this matters because the decisions being made in
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courtrooms and like corporate boardrooms right now, they are
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directly impacting you, what you pay to heat your home, the cost
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of your groceries, and how the country's history is going to be
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documented. By the end of this deep dive,
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you'll see exactly how global geopolitics and High Court
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rulings are trickling down to affect your daily life and the
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country's future. OK, so let's unpack this.
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Let's start with the infrastructure of the future.
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We all talk about the cloud, right?
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You upload your photos of the cloud.
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You run AI prompts in the. Clock sounds weightless, like
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missed. Exactly.
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But the cloud is actually incredibly heavy.
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It's made of thousands of tons of concrete, massive underground
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power cables, and like thousands upon thousands of gallons of
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water. Right.
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It is industrial infrastructure on a staggering scale.
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And with the absolute explosion of artificial intelligence
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recently, the demand for these massive data centers is just
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it's skyrocketing. Which brings us to the
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government's response. Yes.
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So the Spanish government is preparing a royal decree to
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impose very strict environmental demands on any new data center,
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drawing over one MW of power. And one MW is the threshold
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which for modern AI data centers is essentially standard, right?
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So what is the government actually demanding from these
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tech giants if they want to set up shop here?
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The primary hurdle is energy sourcing.
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What's fascinating here is that the government wants these new
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centers to run on 80% new generation renewable energy.
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OK, 80% sounds reasonable on paper.
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Right, but the catch is the mechanism of how they prove it.
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They don't just get to like buy a green energy certificate at
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the end of the year to offset their carbon footprint.
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They have to justify that 80% renewable usage hour by hour.
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Wait hour by hour. Yes, hour by hour.
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And they also have to meet a Class A standard for both energy
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and water efficiency. But a facility like that has to
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run at maximum capacity 24/7 to process global data.
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The sun doesn't shine at 3:00 in the morning and the wind doesn't
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always blow. Exactly.
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That creates a massive logistical puzzle for the tech
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companies, because if you have to prove at 30 AM on a Tuesday
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in November that 80% of your massive energy draw is coming
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from renewable sources, you need incredibly advanced grid scale
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battery storage. Because you can't just plug into
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the regular wall socket, so to speak.
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No, you can't just pull from the general grid because the general
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grid might be burning natural gas at that hour to keep the
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lights on. If these companies fail this
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hour by hour metric, they face real financial penalties on
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their grid tolls. Or, and this is the big one,
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they could lose their grid access entirely.
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Wow. Let's break down those grid
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tolls real quick, because that affects the listener directly.
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Grid tolls are the fees basically baked into everyone's
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monthly electricity bill, right? They pay for the physical
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maintenance of the power lines. Yeah, exactly.
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If a massive data center strains the local grid, the utility
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companies have to build thicker wires, bigger substations, more
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robust infrastructure. And someone has to pay for that.
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Right. The government is terrified that
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if they let these tech giants plug into the grid unchecked,
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the cost of upgrading that physical infrastructure just be
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passed down to average citizens through higher grid tolls.
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So the Prime Minister is basically saying these new
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massive consumers shouldn't compete with existing demand.
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They need to catalyze new infrastructure, not just drain
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what's already there. Precisely.
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Pushing back on this for a second, Spain has positioned
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itself as this powerhouse of cheap renewable energy.
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I mean, we have vast planes for solar, we have incredible wind
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corridors. Shouldn't we want these tech
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investments here? Well, the tech industry group
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Spain DC certainly thinks so. They're calling this decree a de
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facto prohibition. Yeah, they are warning that this
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makes Spain the most restrictive regulatory framework in Europe.
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They're saying it puts up to €9 billion in investment at risk,
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and three international companies are already
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threatening to pack up and leave.
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I mean, you want the investment, sure, but you have to look at
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the sheer scale of what is being proposed.
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Spain has already granted grid access for over 12 gigawatts of
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data center power. To put that in perspective, in
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the region of Aragon, the approved projects would
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essentially triple the entire electricity demand of the
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region. Triple it.
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That's insane. Yeah, in Madrid it would double
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it. So the ministers for the
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ecological transition and digital transformation are
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openly using words like bubble and speculation right now.
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And on the flip side of the tech industry, you actually have
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ecologists and researchers like Enon Nieto saying this decree
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actually doesn't go far enough. They are demanding a total
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national moratorium on these mega centers.
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For the environmental groups, the huge blind spot in this
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decree is the water footprint. These servers run incredibly
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hot. To stop them from melting down,
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you need industrial cooling systems.
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Which takes a lot of water. But doesn't the tech sector say
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they just recycle it? Yeah, they defend themselves by
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saying they use closed loop water circuits, meaning the
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water cycles through and cools the machines without constantly
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draining fresh water from the municipal supply.
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OK, but ecologist point out that closed loop systems still suffer
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from massive evaporation, and the sheer volume of 12 gigawatts
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of power means an immense thermal output.
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Nito argues that the magnitude of what's being planned easily
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surpasses any surplus of renewable energy or water that
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Spain currently has. It really grounds the technology
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in reality, Generating a funny AI image physically heats up a
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warehouse in Aragon and draws water from local reserves.
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We're talking about the massive energy demands of the future
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colliding head on with finite resources.
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And that tension is everywhere right now.
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Exactly. Which brings us to the fragile
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reality of our current resources.
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Let's move from the electricity grid to the gas station.
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You probably noticed this at the pump.
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Global energy pressures are already hitting your wallet
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directly. Oh, absolutely.
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We are looking at gasoline officially surpassing €2 per
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liter in many stations across Spain.
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The averages right now are sitting at roughly 1.899 for gas
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and 1.881 for diesel. And diesel's one really raising
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alarms, right? It's climbing back to the price
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prices we saw before the government introduced discount
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measures to break down the supply chain mechanism for us
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here. How does a geopolitical conflict
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thousands of miles away instantly Jack up the price of
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diesel in Madrid? If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, it is a compounding series of supply chain
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bottlenecks. First you have the ongoing war
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involving Iran, which is creating massive insecurity in
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the Persian Gulf. Then, due to the war in Ukraine,
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there have been targeted drone attacks on Russian oil
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refineries. Because those refineries are
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damaged, Russia has drastically limited its diesel exports.
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So Europe now has to look elsewhere for diesel, primarily
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the Middle East. But that brings us to the Strait
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of Hormuz. Which is one of the most
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critical maritime choke points in the entire world.
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Exactly Roughly 20% of the world's oil passes through that
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narrow Strait. Because of the regional
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instability and the threat to commercial shipping, vessels are
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delayed or they are forced to take massively longer routes
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around the Horn of Africa. Which means freight costs
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skyrocket, the insurance premiums for the ship skyrocket,
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and the actual supply of oil is delayed.
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Spot on. And the International Energy
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Agency just released a report stating they do not expect the
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supply of crude through Hormuz to fully recover until 2027.
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Wait, really? 2027 That is years of
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constrained supply, not just a temporary blip.
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And why is diesel specifically taking the brunt of this
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compared to regular unleaded gas?
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Because diesel is the workhorse of the global physical economy,
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it represents 30% of global oil demand.
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In Spain alone, 90% of goods are transported by Rd.
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overwhelmingly by diesel trucks. So.
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When the price of diesel jumps, the cost to transport, say, a
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tomato from a farm Almiri to a grocery store in Madrid goes up,
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driving overall inflation. Exactly.
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Furthermore, as we head into winter, a huge portion of the
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world still relies on diesel and heating oil to keep warm, so
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supply is dropping precisely when seasonal demand is locking
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in. Now, the Spanish government
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currently has some aid in place, right?
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A $0.20 discount for professional diesel and $0.05
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for regular gas, but those are set to expire on September 30th.
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Yeah, the clock is ticking. So experts are debating what to
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do next. Some suggest keeping flat rate,
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others want a proportional discount, and some are arguing
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for a cut to the VAT, the value added Tax.
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Walk us through how those different financial mechanisms
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actually work for the consumer. OK, so a flat rate discount like
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$0.20 off a liter feels helpful immediately, but if the base
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price of oil keeps climbing globally due to these supply
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crunches, inflation simply eats that flat discount alive.
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Right, because if gas goes from 1.50 to 2.0, your $0.20 doesn't
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offer the same proportional relief.
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Exactly. That is why experts like Albert
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Giverno from the OBS Business School argue for a proportional
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discount, a percentage based on the base price.
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It scales with the crisis. And what about the VAT cut?
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Well, cutting the VAT lowers the final tax burden at the
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register, which is great for the driver in that exact moment, but
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it reduces government tax revenues significantly.
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And the government needs that revenue to fund social programs
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and ironically, the green energy transition we were just
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discussing. Oh wow, yeah that is a massive
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contradiction. The government is trying to
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penalize tech companies for not being green enough with one hand
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while facing immense public pressure to heavily subsidized
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burning fossil fuels with the other.
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It's a very tough balancing act, definitely.
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OK, so we've been looking at how the state manages physical
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resources like energy grids and diesel fuel.
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Let's pivot to how the justice system manages public financial
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resources. Yes, the amnesty law.
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Right. And just as a quick note for you
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listening, this is obviously one of the most polarizing topics in
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the country right now involving the Catalan amnesty law.
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We want to be incredibly clear that we are impartially
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reporting the legal mechanics from the sources.
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We are not taking any political sides here.
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We're just looking at the raw mechanics of the legal
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arguments. Because when you do that, it
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becomes a fascinating constitutional chess match.
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The architecture of the legal arguments here is incredibly
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complex, so. Set the stage for us.
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Sure, Supreme Court judge Pablo Arena, who has been leading the
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case regarding the Catalan independence push the process,
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had outright refused to apply the new amnesty law to the
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former Catalan president Carl's Pregamont.
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He is specifically holding ground on the crime of
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malversation, which translates to the misuse of public funds.
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Because of this, the arrest warrant for Pre DuMont remains
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active. Now, the Spanish Supreme Court
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originally had two main justifications for denying the
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amnesty right. First, they argued the misused
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public funds affected the financial interest of the
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European Union. And second, they argued there
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was a personal financial benefit to the politicians involved.
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But recently the European Union's Court of Justice, the
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CJEU, stepped in. They ruled that the events of
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the process did not actually affect the EU's financial
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interests. Exactly.
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The European Court essentially removed that first pillar, but
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Judge Lorena maintained his stance based on the second
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pillar, personal financial benefit.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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It feels like a corporate accounting loophole or a game of
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legal whack a mole. Nobody is accusing Puigdemont of
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embezzling public money to, like, buy a private yacht.
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No, not at. All So how is the court legally
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defining personal benefit if the money was spent on a political
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project? The legal theory hinges on a
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concept known as patrimonial savings, and a draft report
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currently circulating in the Constitutional Court written by
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conservative Magistrate Jose Maria Macias, supports the
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Supreme Court's view on this. OK, how does the logic work?
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It works like this. Imagine ACEO uses company funds
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to throw a lavish personal party.
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The CEO didn't pocket any physical cash, right?
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But they avoided spending their own money.
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See, their personal bank account remained untouched because they
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used someone else's resources. So the court's argument is that
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funding an illegal political project using public money
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constitutes a personal benefit because the individuals save
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their own patrimony. They save their own money by
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spending the state's money. That is a very, very broad
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interpretation of financial gain.
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Oh, and the defense completely rejects this interpretation.
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PWIG Dumont's lawyer, Gonzala Boye, is threatening to sue the
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span of the state. His core argument is a clash of
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jurisdictions. He's saying Spain is
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overstepping. Yes.
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He claims that by keeping the malversation charge alive
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through this patrimonial savings theory, the Spanish courts are
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effectively reinterpreting the European court's ruling just to
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find a new way to punish the same act.
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Boye argues this is a direct violation of EU law.
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He says a European ruling isn't there to be creatively
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reinterpreted by domestic courts.
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It's there to be obeyed. And meanwhile, we also have the
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Court of Auditors rejecting appeals from various figures
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involved in the process, refusing to simply cancel their
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financial liabilities. Everything is in this tense
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holding pattern because the Constitutional Court hasn't
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voted on all the individual appeals yet, right?
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Exactly. It's important to note the draft
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by Magistrate Macias is just a draft.
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If the majority of the Constitutional Court rejects his
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patrimonial savings argument, they will assign a new
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magistrate to write a completely different opinion.
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But until then. Until the Constitutional Court
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sets a definitive binding doctrine, the Supreme Court is
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maintaining its jurisdiction and those arrest warrants stay
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active, it is a high stakes battle over the legal
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definitions that will completely dictate the historical legacy of
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the last decade of Spanish politics.
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Which brings us perfectly to our final story.
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We have politicians in the courts fighting over their past
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actions to shape their current legacy.
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But we also have a former head of state actively trying to
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write his own legacy from thousands of miles away.
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Yes, King Emeritus won Carlos the 1st.
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Right. He recently traveled to a small
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town in France called La Ferte Vidame.
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He was there to receive the San Simon Prize for his upcoming
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memoirs titled Reconciliation. And this is notable because the
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organizers of the prize pointed out that he is the very first
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king to ever win this award. It's a unique prize because it
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specializes strictly in memorialist literature, the
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actual art of writing memoirs. The physical geography of this
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story is just fascinating. You have a former Spanish king
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accepting a French literary award for a book meant to secure
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his legacy in Spain, but he's doing it in a tiny French
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village, referencing an 18th century French Duke.
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While he currently resides in the Middle East, he has lived in
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Abu Dhabi for over six years following various financial
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controversies. The optics of where he is
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physically located while trying to cement his historical
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narrative are incredible. And this raises an important
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question about the role of a monarch.
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During his acceptance speech, Juan Carlos drew a direct
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historical parallel to the aristocrat the prize is named
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after, the Duke of Saint Simon. While Saint Simon famously did
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not write his memoirs at the Royal Court in Versailles, he
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wrote them in exile, Far removed from the center of power.
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Juan Carlos explicitly stated that he too needed that vast
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physical distance and tranquility away from the palace
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to look back on his own destiny and write his history.
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He called the book his last legacy to the Spanish people,
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but he described the decision to publish these memoirs with a
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very specific phrase. He said it was more reckless
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than prudent. Why would a former monarch view
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writing a memoir as reckless? Because the traditional power of
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a monarch relies heavily on mystique and, frankly, silence.
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Monarchs historically do not explain themselves to the
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public. Exactly.
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To step out of that institutional silence and become
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a memorialist is to invite debate.
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By saying it's reckless. He's acknowledging that putting
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his definitive truth on paper strips away the royal shield.
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It opens his life up to immense, unfiltered public scrutiny.
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So why do it? He is choosing to give testimony
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likely to defend his vital role in Spain's transition to
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democracy, which he feels is being overshadowed by the
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scandals of his later years. It is the ultimate human desire
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to control the narrative. He ended his speech by saying
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wherever I live, I will always belong to Spain.
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It is a really desperate attempt to bridge the physical distance
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of Abu Dhabi with the historical weight of his homeland.
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And that really brings all these disparate threads together
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perfectly. We've looked at the intense
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fight over physical resources, you know, the massive concrete
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footprint and water demands of digital data centers, the
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geopolitical chokeholds restricting the supply of diesel
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fuel. And we've looked at the fierce
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fight over historical legacy, politicians arguing the
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boundaries of European versus Spanish law to secure amnesty,
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and a former king writing from the desert to secure his place
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in the history books. Really makes you think.
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It leaves you with a provocative question.
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Whether it is a massive tech corporation, a modern politician
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or former monarch, how much does physical geography, where you
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are literally located on a map, actually dictate your power over
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Spain's future? As our economy moves further
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into the digital cloud and our laws get increasingly tied up in
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international jurisdictions, will physical borders even
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matter a decade from now? Ower might feel invisible, but
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it always has an address, and that is all the time we have for
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today's deep dive. Thanks for being with us at
18:48
Spain today, and remember to come tomorrow for more Spanish
18:51
news in English.