🇪🇺 Eurovision takes over Spanish politics
Plus: Spain vs. Airbnb and the killing of a Ukrainian former politician in Madrid.
Madrid | Issue #103
🇪🇸 The Bubble is Spain's #1 English-language newsletter. We offer paid subscriptions and we’d be thrilled to have your support!
This is why we can’t have nice things
🎤 Eurovision Aftershock: Spain’s Political Drama Goes Pop
Some people like to say that the Eurovision Song Contest is purely about singing and has nothing to do with politics. We like to say that those people are wrong.
The Eurovision 2025 Grand Final in Basel last Saturday night delivered both spectacle and scandal, and has dominated the national headlines all week after Spain’s entry, “Esa diva” by Melody, failed to make much of a splash (it landed in a disappointing 24th place).
Unexpected. This result came as a surprise to many. The song had been climbing in betting odds ahead of the final and had received a wave of support online for its unapologetically flamboyant and nostalgic pop style. Not many expected it to be in the bottom five.
Unhappy. The underwhelming outcome has since sparked a political firestorm in Spain, with politicians across the spectrum weighing in and turning a campy, fun event into yet another arena for national outrage. To understand why, we need to talk about Israel.
Frenemies. Diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel have been growing increasingly bitter for years.
The Spanish government has taken one of the most critical stances in Europe against Israel’s war in Gaza, with center-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez repeatedly questioning whether Israel is complying with international humanitarian law, calling for sanctions, and last week even referring to it as a “genocidal state”.
The tension then spilled over into pop culture, as a few weeks before the Eurovision final, RTVE (Spain’s national broadcaster) sent a letter to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) asking for a debate on Israel’s participation in the contest (the precedent, RTVE said, was that Russia was expelled in 2022 after invading Ukraine). The EBU didn’t comply.
Eurovision week. Things escalated last Thursday, when RTVE presenters referenced the Gaza death toll during Israel’s semi-final performance and the EBU threatened the broadcaster with fines for further “politicization” of the show.
RTVE doubled down. Just seconds before the final began (so technically not during the show), the broadcaster aired a silent, black screen with a white-lettered message: “In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine.”
Sánchez’s ministers praised it while conservative leaders condemned it (Madrid’s center-right regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso said the stunt was an “embarrassing politization” of RTVE).
In the end, Austria claimed victory at Eurovision 2025 with Wasted Love, performed by JJ, earning a total of 436 points. But Israel, represented by Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, stunned Europe by finishing second with 357 points (standing out in the public televote).
Not only that, since competing countries can’t vote for themselves, people in Spain gave the highest score of 12 points to… *drumroll*… Israel.
Wait, what? Shocking, we know. Since the beginning of the current conflict in Gaza, polls have suggested that Spaniards highly disapprove of Israel’s actions.
Some left-leaning media outlets, like eldiario.es, have questioned the result (especially after last year’s change in methodology that lets each person vote up to 20 times for their favorite song) and theorized that Israel had orchestrated a worldwide campaign on social media to make Raphael the winner.
RTVE has formally requested a “complete review” of Eurovision’s voting system, arguing that recent events show potential for “interference organized by participating countries.”
On Monday, things continued to escalate in Spain’s political arena, with Sánchez once again insisting that Israel should have been excluded from the competition.
He said “no one was shocked when Russia was kicked out of international events, including Eurovision. So why should it be different now?” and criticized a “double standard.”
In response, the event’s director Martin Green told El Periódico that the EBU is “an association of public broadcasters, not of governments.” (In other words: no).
In the meantime, leaders leaning right are furious.
PP boss Alberto Núñez Feijóo accused the PM of turning Eurovision into another divisive issue, “like he does with (dead dictator) Franco”.
Madrid mayor José Luis Almeida said it was “truly lamentable” to label Israel as “genocidal” and said both RTVE and the left are “bothered” by Israel’s result because it shows that “Spaniards don’t think like them”. Santiago Abascal, from far-right Vox, called Sánchez “miserable”.
Even Israel’s embassy in Spain called the backlash over the result a “collective tantrum” filled with conspiracy theories and disguised antisemitism.
It’s unlikely the organizers of Eurovision will revise the voting system. But the debate in Spain is sure to continue for weeks.
More news below. 👇👇
🔔 But first… Want to enter a draw for two Iberia tickets? Take the survey below!
💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week
1. 🛖 Spain tells Airbnb to close 65,000 apartment listings
Spain’s government really doesn’t like Airbnb—so now it’s going Eliot Ness on them. The Ministry of Consumer Rights has ordered the platform to remove exactly 65,935 listings, and this week Madrid’s top court upheld the first of its three orders: 5,800 listings must go. Immediately.
The crime? Just like Capone went down for tax evasion - not, like, for killing people - Airbnb is being hit not for turning buildings into tourist hellholes (too obvious) but for paperwork. The offending listings either: a) lacked a required permit number, b) used the wrong one, or c) didn’t say if the owner was a person or a business.
The first 5,800 on the chopping block are in Andalucía, Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearics, and the Basque Country.
There was much rejoicing… Sumar, the junior partner in Spain’s coalition government, was thrilled. Especially Pablo Bustinduy, its man at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
Cue the soaring rhetoric. “This is a clear victory for those fighting to protect the right to housing,” said Bustinduy. “Enough with protecting those who try to profit from the right to housing in our country.”
Go further. For Spain’s Renters Union, this is just a start, like that Philadelphia joke about 1,000 lawyers chained to the ocean floor. “Tourist apartments must disappear,” they said. “Removing their ads isn’t enough. These 66,000 apartments, from which residents were evicted, could house 66,000 families.”
…and gnashing of teeth. Airbnb, shockingly, did not agree.
Details, details. Airbnb said the ministry is lumping together listings that do and don’t need permits, and is ignoring a Supreme Court ruling that not all listings require a registration number. Also: it’s just a platform, man. It’s not responsible for what users post.
So… is this good? Consider: 1) Spain has a housing shortage. 2) Some 400,000 tourist flats are listed nationwide. 3) Living next to one sucks: vomiting hen parties, bad techno, click-click-click of roller bags. So yeah, get rid of them all? Barcelona’s trying. It plans to ban them by 2028.
Well, but… Airbnb’s arguments are often weak, but not always. In Madrid and Barcelona, short-stay rentals make up just 1% of the housing stock. Jaime Rodríguez, Airbnb’s Spain and Portugal GM, says they’re a “convenient scapegoat” and that "The housing crisis will not be solved by eliminating tourist apartments." He’s probably right. The real fix? Build more housing. (Though Madrid’s plan to ban mixing tourist and long-term rentals might help with local sanity.)
Finally. For those interested in data science (sorry, we’re nerds), Inside Airbnb offers amazing info on exactly how many and where the listings are. And the maps!
2. 🇺🇦 Ukrainian ex-politician murdered in broad daylight in Madrid
Spain is generally a safe country (more on that below), but when it comes to the Ukraine-Russia war, it’s starting to feel like just another front in the conflict.
Daylight murder. A high-profile political assassination took place yesterday morning in the quiet (but rich) suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcón, in Madrid.
The victim was 52-year-old Andrii Portnov, a former Ukrainian power player with Kremlin ties and a murky past. He was gunned down outside the entrance to the American School of Madrid (one of Spain’s most expensive, btw) after dropping off his daughters around 9 a.m.
Witnesses say two or three people approached him and fired five times, with at least three bullets hitting him (one in the neck). They fled the scene into a nearby wooded area, and as of now, no arrests have been made.
Who was Portnov? We’re still getting details, but we know he was a controversial aide to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was pro-Russian. (Remember him? He was removed from office in 2014 after massive protests, leading to Russia's occupation of Crimea).
Flight. He fled to Russia in 2014 after the protests (known as the Maidan Revolution).
Naughty list. He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2021 for corruption and abuse of power, and was previously on the EU’s blacklist.
In Ukraine, he faced charges ranging from treason to embezzlement (though many were dropped or dismissed).
He later ran a pro-Russian TV channel and was accused of attempting to discredit Ukraine’s pro-EU reform movements through online propaganda.
So… who’s behind the killing? Well, don’t know much yet. In fact, we don’t even know how long Portnov had been living in Madrid (although the school has confirmed his daughters were enrolled).
Investigation. After the shooting, police cordoned off the area and tried to lock in the suspects in the Casa de Campo park. Investigators were examining Portnov’s high-end Mercedes and the surrounding street. Surveillance, drones, and helicopters were deployed, but so far, the killers remain unidentified.
Two theories. El Mundo says local authorities are following two lines of investigation: a settling of scores linked to organized crime (illicit networks Portnov may have been involved with?) or an act of a political nature (these two may go hand in hand, by the way).
El País reports some Ukrainian journalists are also suggesting that the hit may have been a false flag operation by Russia, intended to look like a revenge killing by Ukraine (so far, there’s no evidence of this).
Not the first. In recent years, Spain has become the unlikely backdrop for a string of high-profile crimes involving Russia and Ukraine.
In February 2024, a Russian pilot who had defected to Ukraine (famously flying his military helicopter across the border) was found shot dead in the parking garage of his building near Alicante. We covered it, remember?
In 2022, a wave of letter bombs was sent to PM Sánchez, the Ukraine and U.S. embassies, and key government buildings. (The culprit turned out to be a retired Spanish civil servant who supported Putin).
And this isn’t even the first school-zone murder in Pozuelo: in 2018, a former member of Los Miami, a Colombian criminal organization, was gunned down in front of the British Council School, minutes after dropping off his child.
3. 🥴 70,000 Brits hit Bilbao—and the city’s still recovering
Bilbao was honored with hosting rights for this year’s UEFA Europa League final (that’s football, or soccer, for the Americans) at the Estadio de San Mamés, home of Athletic Club. All very nice—until two English teams made the final, and all hell broke loose.
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur kicked off at 9 p.m. in a match that was more than just a match. Both giants had garbage seasons and needed the win to claw into next year’s Champions League—a tier up, with a possible $100M purse. (Oh, and the winner? Tottenham won 1-0 in a truly awful game.)
Fans with other plans. Some of the 70,000
unwashed hordesfans came to watch the game. Others came to drink, brawl, and tear the city down—no ticket necessary.
Lead up. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 fans flooded Bilbao, though only 30,000 had tickets (15,000 per fanbase).
And the rest? They came to party… and fight. Hooligans brawled not just in Bilbao but in nearby San Sebastián and Santander, chucking trash cans (fine, “rubbish bins”) and tearing down traffic lights. (Seriously. Check out Insta.)
Planned for this. To prove it could handle big events, Bilbao basically went into semi-lockdown.
How? They ringed the stadium with a three-meter fence, deployed 3,000 cops, and set up three security zones only locals or ticket holders could enter. They also built separate fan zones—2.5km apart—to keep fans from scrapping. Each came with giant screens and 60,000 liters of beer. (🍻 fixes everything, right?)
Limited space. Bilbao has just 13,000 tourist beds. So yeah, some fans stayed - and rioted - miles away.
So proud. “We want (English fans) to see what we are like, the passion we feel, the good values of football and our culture," Bilbao mayor Juan Mari Aburto told reporters. Left unsaid: please don’t trash the place.
And the locals? Not thrilled. “We’re in a cage,” one resident told EFE-TV. Nearby restaurants said the security rings kept all their customers out.
Lots of sammies. "All the restaurateurs are outside, staring out at the street because no one's coming," said a restaurateur named Elena, who had made more than 200 sandwiches to serve the hordes of customers she expected. "What do we do now, do we eat them ourselves?"
We’ll always have Sevilla. Still, Bilbao’s Europa final chaos doesn’t hold a candle to Sevilla 2022, when 150,000 Scottish and German fans came for Rangers vs. Eintracht Frankfurt. No major incidents. Imagine that.
Gotta love soccer football.
4. 🔪 Is the safest country you’ve ever lived in less safe than you think?
We read this story and we were alarmed. Very, very alarmed. The title? “Interior Ministry alert: In 2025, there was one homicide a day in Spain, and attempted murders increased by 20%” Had the safest country we’ve ever called home (this is a low bar when the U.S. is one of the other ones) suddenly gotten…peligroso?
The evidence. El Español, which published the article (and which we generally find credible), reported that murders in Spain had hit 348 in 2024, the highest in 11 years. That’s up from 298 in 2020, the year when the world went mad and the U.S. saw a massive 30% increase in murders over the year before.
Worrying trend. Comparing the first quarter of 2025 with the same period in 2024, El Español wrote: “While the number of murders has decreased slightly during this period, from 95 to 84, the trend in recent years has been alarming and sustained.” 😱 So what’s going on?
Let’s look at the tape. As El Español noted, the number of murders in Spain has indeed increased every year since 2021. But… if you look further back, the numbers aren’t so dire.
2010 high. In fact, in 2010 (the earliest date available from the Interior stats portal) there were 401 murders in Spain, a number that sank below 350 by 2013 -and stayed there.
Not to mention, like, the world. Spain has about 0.7 murders per-100,000 people. Which sounds low until you compare that to other countries (and cities)—and then it seems crazy low.
How low? As in the U.S. rate is about 5.8 per 100,00, Haiti is at 41 and even Mexico is at 25. Or look at it this way: The number of murders in all of Spain is pretty comparable with those in Philadelphia—a city of 1.5m. Spain’s population? 48m.
Which reminds us of an interview we had with former Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena, where we asked her how many murders there’d been in Madrid in the last year. “About 20”, she said. “But we have to do better”. 🙏
5. 🤑 World’s 2nd richest man spotted in world’s best city
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Was that, was that, was that…? Spanish pijo night-out social media was a-fire 🔥with talk (that turned out to be true) that Amazon founder boy and Dr Evil lookalike Jeff Bezos chose Madrid to celebrate his stag do before his upcoming Venice wedding with inflated helicopter pilot Lauren Sánchez (no relation to Pedro).
It all began last Wednesday night. When Bezos—or a man who looks like Bezos, has a security squad, and paid people to come up to him for autographs and photos—was spotted having dinner with a large group at very very well known resto (here, we don’t say eatery) Ten Con Ten.
Next stop? Later Jeffie was seen (see video above) — sporting the same black T — at the nightspot Blondie, which claims on its website that it’s “exclusive” so it’s probably not. There, he did the VIP section thing with “his friends and some women” according to ABC.
And later? After trading in his black T for a creme golf shirt, Bezos was spotted in Gunilla, another Madrid nightclub that advertises its hours as midnight to 6 a.m. There, according to an ¡Hola! source, they were “very polite and fun group; you could tell they were having a great time from the start.” They consumed the usual for private room groups: a bottle of vodka and another of tequila.
Meanwhile… Sánchez was apparently rocking her own hen party in Paris with Katy Perry, Eva Longoria and Kim Kardashian (one of the “two most prestigious Kardashians” sayeth Marina Hyde).
Discount option. As ABC reports, British papers say Sánchez's party may have cost €600k. And Jeff's? Considerably cheaper.
🔔 Wait! Check out our Instagram account
In a new episode of #OutsideTheBubble we meet James Blick from Spain Revealed, a New Zealand native who’s been living in Spain for fourteen years and who helps you experience this country like a local.
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 and come hang with us!