👋 Catalan Separatists Pull the Plug on Sánchez

Plus: The Valencia DANA, one year later; Dani Alves finds god (?), and killer wasps kill 3.

and

Oct 30, 2025

Madrid | Issue #123

🇪🇸 The Bubble is Spain's #1 English-language, best-selling newsletter. We offer paid subscriptions, and we’d be thrilled to have your support!

🚨 Customize your subscription! You can personalize your Bubble experience so you only get the emails you want—and never the ones you don’t. Click here to learn how.

📺 Sponsorship opportunities. Want to get your brand in front of our engaged and influential audience of professionals, creatives, and government workers? We’re now offering a variety of ways to do so. Click here to find out how and book a spot.

Become a paid or free subscriber

It’s not me, it’s you

💔 Junts breaks up with the PSOE, and Spain’s fragile government enters survival mode

Spain’s political marriage drama has reached its separating-the-assets moment. Almost two years after Carles Puigdemont’s Junts per Catalunya struck a controversial deal to keep Pedro Sánchez in power — in exchange for an amnesty law for Catalan separatists who ran the unconstitutional 2017 independence referendum — Catalonia’s fugitive ex-president says it’s over.

Speaking from Perpignan, France (because, you know, he can’t set foot in Spain without being arrested), Puigdemont declared Junts was moving to the opposition.
“We will not continue helping a government that does not help Catalonia. Goodbye,” he said, sounding less like a jilted partner than a judge delivering a sentence.
The Junts executive backed him unanimously on Monday. A membership vote this week is largely a formality; in Junts-land, what Puigdemont says tends to become law.

Why so mad, bro? Puigdemont accuses Sánchez and the PSOE of breaking promises. Specifically: failing to close the gap between the taxes Catalonia sends to the central government and the resources it receives; failing to transfer immigration oversight powers to the region; and failing to get Catalan recognized as an official EU language.

He called Sánchez’s approach “trilerismo” — a street-corner shell game in which the Socialist PM plays for time while taking Junts’s votes for granted.
To be fair. This was a marriage of convenience at best. The PSOE is a national, center-left party that believes in a “plurinational Spain”, while Junts is a regional, center-right party that wants a separate Catalonia. Sparks were guaranteed.

There’s pressure at home, too. Junts is losing ground to Aliança Catalana, a far-right, anti-immigrant independence party (fun!) that’s been eating into its base. So Puigdemont needs to look tough on Madrid, and nothing says “I’m still relevant” like a dramatic breakup.

So what changes? Despite the dramatic chest-beating, not much. Puigdemont insists the split will cause political “blockage”. That is, Sánchez will stay in La Moncloa but “can’t govern.”

But that’s… already the case. Junts has been voting against the government’s bills for months.
The proof. Carles is also not pulling the nuclear option: a no-confidence vote with the conservative PP and far-right Vox that would remove Sánchez from office.
“When Junts had to choose between the PP and the PSOE, we chose the PSOE,” he said, stressing that this isn’t a right-wing alliance, just a calculated divorce. Puigdemont’s not dumb; he knows that in power, the PP and Vox would go against him, his party, and any concession to Catalonia giving the region more autonomy.

The PSOE’s “we’re fine” face. From Madrid, the Socialists are doing their best at keeping calm and carrying on. Officially, they responded with “absolute respect” for Junts’s decision and insisted the government has kept its commitments “as far as the law allows.”

Party spokesperson Montse Mínguez emphasized that “dialogue remains open,” while Deputy PM María Jesús Montero tried to frame the crisis as business as usual: “We’ve passed 45 laws in two years; we’ll keep governing.”

What comes next? Junts will now ask its members a simple question: “Do you agree with ending the investiture agreement with the PSOE due to repeated breaches of commitments?”

Voting runs through Thursday, but no one expects a surprise. Once confirmed, the breakup also ends the “clandestine” monthly talks in Switzerland, where representatives from both parties met under the eye of a Salvadoran mediator. According to Puigdemont, the forum met 19 times before Junts finally lost patience with the Socialists’ “inaction.”

Sánchez has more lives than a cat. For now, the government survives (barely). Without Junts’s seven seats, Sánchez has no majority to pass laws, and the 2026 budget already looks doomed. But Junts has little incentive to trigger early elections, so the likeliest outcome is legislative paralysis — which, as we said, we already had.

The PSOE’s gamble is that Puigdemont’s grandstanding won’t go beyond words. Madrid officials privately note this isn’t Junts’s first “we’re leaving” moment. Each time, they threaten rupture… then quietly renegotiate (which is true).

Still, this one feels more final. The amnesty deal that once looked like a masterstroke of political pragmatism (or cynicism) has now come full circle. The PM survives another day, but governing on borrowed time is starting to look like the whole plan.

More news below. 👇👇

🔔 But first, check out our Instagram account

thebubblecom

A post shared by @thebubblecom

If you’re not following us on Instagram yet, you’re missing out. We’re posting exclusive content with our collaborators across Spain, breaking news updates, and pop culture coverage. Click on the post above to find out more.

💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties

1. 😢 Valencia’s tragic DANA floods — one year on and the wounds have not healed

Spain suffered one of the deadliest storms in its recent history a year ago this week. On Oct. 29, 2024, 229 people lost their lives as Valencia drowned under a freak torrential downpour — a DANA — that turned highways into rivers and villages into lakes. And the floods didn’t just destroy homes; they shook Spanish politics to its core.

Long way back. The physical reconstruction has advanced — many towns now look almost normal again (El País has amazing before-and-after photos) — but the emotional scars remain. Much of the anger still points to Valencia’s president Carlos Mazón (PP), whose government didn’t send a mass flood alert until 8:11 p.m., long after most victims had drowned — and while residents were famously clinging to trees to save themselves. Even worse, Mazón himself vanished for critical hours that afternoon and still hasn’t given a straight account of where he was.

Timeline. Instead of re-creating the entire disaster, let’s get into the cause of the anger. Here’s the shifting story of Carlos Mazón, version by version.

Version 1: “He was at the Palau since 5 p.m.” First official line: Mazón was in his office following the emergency meeting starting at 5:00 p.m. Reality: He was actually still at lunch — a nearly four-hour meal that didn’t end until about 6:30 p.m. Five minutes after that, at 6:35 p.m., a national government rep reportedly asked Valencia’s 112 chief to send out the Es-Alert flood warning — which wouldn’t go out for another 90 minutes.

Version 2: “It was just a private lunch.” Pressed for details, Mazón’s team said it was a “private” meal, no need to inform the public. Then he said it was a work lunch. But he didn’t say who it was with— until El Pais revealed it was journalist Maribel Vilaplana.

Version 3: “It was a PP lunch, so no receipt.” It later emerged he’d offered Vilaplana the top job at À Punt, the regional TV channel — making it official business. When asked for the bill, the government said there wasn’t one because he attended “as president of the PP,” not of the Generalitat. Handy, that.

Version 4: “He reached the crisis center around 7:30.” Mazón claimed he left for the Cecopi emergency center at 7:00 p.m. But video showed him entering at 8:28 p.m. — 17 minutes after the flood alert finally went out.

Version 5: “He walked her to her car.” This week, Mazón’s team confirmed another missing piece: after lunch, he accompanied Vilaplana to a car park around 6:45 p.m. That still leaves nearly an hour — 6:45 to 7:45 p.m. — unaccounted for, during which 80 people died. He also made no calls for 37 minutes while his region was drowning. The local opposition suspects he went home for a shower.

You see why locals are angry? A year later, the “where-was-Mazón” mystery remains unsolved—and there were anti-Mazón protests to mark the anniversary. He says it’s all cansino — tedious — to keep explaining himself. But Valencianos aren’t buying it: 75% believe he should resign, according to a poll from the normally PP-friendly ABC. We know others deserve blame—the national government failed to build necessary infrastructure to avoid such tragedies—but still, this guy… Even PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo now says Mazón must “answer all questions” from the three committees investigating the tragedy.

For flood survivors still waiting for answers, that’s exactly the point. The truth didn’t come out when the tide receded, and it needs to.

2. 😇 Who said there are no second acts?

@chacon2178 la fe que transforma, Dani Alves! de futbolista a predicador de la palabra la gloria solo es para Dios

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

Remember Dani Alves? He’s the former Barça football star who looked really, super guilty when he was convicted and sentenced to 4½ years for sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman in Barcelona’s Sutton nightclub in December 2022 (we’ve written about it lots).

Then looked kind of a lot less guilty when a panel of judges overturned his conviction, and he and his wife Joana Sanz — who briefly separated from him after his arrest — announced that, at 32, after two IVFs, three miscarriages, a fallopian tube operation, and endometriosis, she was pregnant with their first child?

Well, Dani’s back. And you won’t guess where he popped up: Iglesia Elim Girona, an evangelical church in Catalonia. And not just as a visitor — as a kind of lay preacher.

“You have to have faith, I am proof of that,” he said in a TikTok sermon (above), pacing the stage. “I made a pact with God: ‘My Lord, I make a pact with you.’ I said, ‘I will serve you, but you take care of my house, take care of the hearts of those people who will not abandon me.’ Because—pay attention—love is loving when one does not deserve it, which is what Christ did for me and for you.”

Dani Alves, born-again motivational speaker. Lots of people find god in troubled times. But he doesn’t appear to be dabbling. His Insta, where he declares himself a “DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST”, these days is a series of biblical verses opposite handsome photos of himself. And he seems more than sincere as he sings along with other church members.

And what about the church? Iglesia Elim Girona is led by pastor Jimmy Martin, and claims to be the Spanish representative of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.
Yes, that Jimmy Swaggart. The one-time huge Louisiana televangelist pastor, cousin of Jimmy Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley, who built a global empire on fiery sermons before being brought down by a pair of sex-worker scandals in the late ’80s and early ’90s. (He repented, cried on TV, and did it again. He died in July.)

A fallen footballer preaching repentance at a Spanish offshoot of a fallen American preacher’s church. The symmetry is divine.

3. 🧵 Why the Mango founder death probe is back in the headlines

What looked like a tragic hiking accident is now something else. Ten months after Isak Andic — the billionaire founder of the Mango fashion empire — fell from a cliffside trail in Montserrat (Catalonia), the case is back. His eldest son Jonathan has reportedly shifted from witness to investigado (person of interest), and while the judge has kept the case sealed, a steady drip of leaks has reignited every Succession-style theory in Spain.

What’s changed? Armchair Agatha Christies never fully bought the accident narrative where Jonathan was the only witness. Add to that the fact that Jonathan served as a kind of co-CEO for a few years starting in 2014 before he was removed by his father after a series of losses, and you have the perfect subject for amateur detectives. Now it seems the real detectives have suspicions too.

There’s never been any actual evidence of foul play. But a series of inaccuracies and vague statements from Jonathan — he denied taking photos on the hike before admitting it, misremembered the parking lot where he’d parked, and claimed that he conveniently hadn’t seen the fall — apparently piqued police interest.
Then there was the location. A longtime trail warden told El Español that 100,000 people passed annually and no one had fallen in 60 years.
And another eyebrow-raiser 👀. After the fall, Jonathan called his father’s partner, Estefanía Knuth, before 112, and (per leaks) tried his father’s mobile first. When the police recently asked him for his phone, he reportedly gave them two—but not the one he used on that fatal day.

Follow the money (family edition). Parallel to the probe, the family is locked in a civil fight. Andic’s will split most of Isak’s assets equally among Jonathan, Judith, and Sarah, with smaller bequests to others, including Knuth, who apparently received €5m.

Estefanía’s side has pushed for a substantially larger share (reportedly €70m), arguing she was effectively Isak’s wife. The executors publicly insist the will is being followed “scrupulously.” Relations between the siblings and Knuth are now, um, lawyer-to-lawyer.

The man behind the brand. Born to a Sephardic Jewish family in Istanbul in 1953, Isak and his family emigrated to Barcelona in 1969, and it was there that he and his brother Nahman started selling hand-embroidered “made-in-Turkey” T-shirts.

Mango time. In 1984, they joined with Enric Cusí and renamed their stores Mango, after the sweetness, exotic appeal, and simplicity of the fruit he first tasted on a trip to the Philippines. Let’s just say Mango was a success—it grew to over 2,000 stores—and when he died, Isak, the sole shareholder, was worth €4.5bn, making him the 5th richest person in Spain.

Where the case stands. Andic family statements stress cooperation and presumption of innocence, and Catalan court spokesman notes the probe isn’t “directed” at any specific person. Meanwhile, the business tries to project normality under CEO-chair Toni Ruiz. And Jonathan? The planned wedding ceremony for his marriage to fashion influencer Paula Nata (the pair have an infant son) has been postponed.

4. 📈 Spain’s stock market hits a record high — 18 years later

We get it. You don’t really care (much) about Spain’s stock market. It’s small, boring, and probably requires you to wear a fachaleco (look it up). But every once in a while, the charts tell a story — and this one says something big about Spain.

After 18 long years, the Ibex 35 — Spain’s main stock index — just set a record high, closing over 16,000 points for the first time since November 2007.
Back then, Spain was still basking in the glow of the housing boom (and is…doing so again?), Google had just launched Android, and nobody had thought a Lehman Brother could explode. Then the global financial crisis hit, and Spain’s bubble burst so hard that the country nearly needed a bailout.

It’s taken until now for the Ibex to claw its way back. And the timing is… odd. The world is once again in turmoil — Trump is threatening new tariffs on Spain (and even our place in NATO 😬), the eurozone is wobbling, and yet Spanish stocks are having a monster year.

The index is up over 39% in 2025, its best performance since 1997, driven by banks (some up as much as 90%), Inditex (because lots of people buy lots of clothes), and even Metrovacesa (because we’re really back to talking about real estate again).

Back then vs. now. When the Ibex last hit its peak, Telefónica was worth over €100 billion (it’s now around €26 billion 🥹) and Banco Popular still existed. But other names — Inditex, BBVA, Iberdrola, Ferrovial — have multiplied their worth. The index itself has changed too: gone are old-school industrials and cigarette makers; in are Puig, Merlin, Aena, and Cellnex.

If you’d invested at the 2007 top, you’d just now be breaking even on price — but with dividends included, you’d be up a healthy 128%. Not bad, considering Greece’s index is still down 62%.

So yes, Spain’s stock market finally climbed back to where it was when El Internado was still new on TV. The difference? No housing bubble this time (we hope…fingers crossed 🤞), no wild credit binge (because the banks won’t let us), and fewer people bragging about flipping condos (because no one can afford them). Which is…good?

5. 🐝 Killer Wasps: Yikes! This is a scary one.

Three people have died in Galicia in less than two weeks after being attacked by Vespa velutina, the Asian hornet — a fast-spreading invasive species that’s turned parts of northern Spain into a danger zone.

The victims — men aged 55, 76, and 79 — died in three different provinces: Pontevedra, A Coruña, and Lugo. Two were clearing brush on rural plots when they disturbed underground nests; the third, a hunter in Cospeito, likely stepped on one while out in the fields. All were swarmed before they could escape.
Autumn is usually quiet for these insects, but this year’s unseasonably warm weather has extended their breeding cycle. The Galician government admits “extraordinary” hornet activity and is urging residents, especially those with allergies, to take extra precautions.

Experts warn the three deaths may be just “the tip of the iceberg.” Many mild stings go unreported, meaning the true number of stings is likely higher.

Why now? The Vespa velutina nigrithorax first arrived in Spain around 2010, probably hidden in an Asian cargo shipment, and reached Galicia two years later.

Since then, its spread has been relentless. A single queen can found two nests per season — a small one in spring, a giant in summer — sometimes a meter wide and housing up to 3,000 hornets. Each can then spawn dozens of new queens that hibernate and restart the cycle. 😱

Their venom is potent, a mix of neurotoxins and enzymes that cause searing pain, swelling, and, in severe cases, anaphylaxis. For those with allergies, one sting can trigger breathing difficulties and cardiac arrest within minutes.

Beyond the human risk, the hornets are devastating local ecosystems. They’re ruthless predators of honeybees, and beekeepers say they’ve seen entire colonies wiped out in days.

The regional government insists progress is being made, claiming to have trapped 230,000 queens this year (double last year’s number) and placed 18,500 traps across municipalities. Officials also say hornet-sighting calls are down 30%.

Experts on the ground disagree. “There are thousands of nests they never remove,” says veterinarian and hornet specialist Xesús Feás. The teams are overwhelmed, he says, and many nests are underground — invisible until it’s too late.

In response, Galicia has launched a new “shock plan,” combining traditional traps with AI detection systems like VeluStop and a rapid-response protocol to destroy nests, especially in urban or high-risk areas.

Still, after three deaths in 15 days and sightings spreading to Asturias, Cantabria, and Castilla y León, locals fear the velutina is here to stay — an imported killer thriving in a warming climate.

If you’re heading north, maybe pack repellent. Just in case.

🙏 Once again, please remember to share this newsletter with your friends on social media. The more we grow, the more information we’ll be able to offer each week.

We’ll be back next week with more.