đ King to Mexico: "We're sorry" (Kind of)
Also: Torrente for President, and is the new rent-control system working?
Madrid | Issue #140
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đČđœ King Felipe VI almost says sorry for that conquest thing
Surprise! King Felipe VI (aka F6) raised a few eyebrows this week after casually acknowledging that there was âa lot of abuseâ and âethical controversyâ during the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
Audible gasp. He made the comments in passing during a low-key visit to an exhibition on pre-Hispanic cultures at Madridâs National Archaeological Museum, alongside Mexicoâs ambassador, an appearance that wasnât even on his official agenda but carried very clear political weight.
That's reasonable. On paper, it sounded like a fairly balanced, almost academic reflection. As in, yes, there were abuses, but historic acts should be judged âin their proper context, not with modern moral lenses, but with an objective and rigorous analysis.â In practice, it worked like a diplomatic flare sent over Mexico.
Tough times. Relations between Spain and Mexico have been tense for a few years, ever since former Mexican president AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador (AMLO) formally asked the King in 2019 to apologize for the conquest (and, not surprisingly, got radio silence in return). Things escalated when current president Claudia Sheinbaum didnât invite F6 to her inauguration. âčïž
King knew what he was doing. By publicly acknowledging âabuseâ this week, the King is inching closer to the kind of recognition Mexican leaders have been demanding, without actually issuing an apology. Like, âWe're sorry that you're upset.â
Why now? Some believe this isnât just about revising history, itâs actually about saving the Iberoamerican Summit taking place in Madrid later this year, which is supposed to bring together leaders from across LatAm and Spain â and there was a risk that Sheinbaum might skip it. (Ah, now we understand.)
Better than nothing. Sheinbaum, commented that she ârecognizes and valuesâ the Kingâs gesture, and added that, âIt wasnât everything we would have liked, but the truth is that itâs a gesture of rapprochement.â So, coming to the Summit, Claudia?
In the loop. Spain's PSOE-led government said it âfully endorsedâ the Kingâs remarks and that it was aware of what he was going to say.
But not everybody was so happy. In case you donât know the Leyenda Negra (âBlack Legendâ), itâs the idea that Spainâs imperial history has been unfairly portrayed as cruel and oppressive. So for many in Spain, criticism of the conquest isnât just about history â itâs accepting a centuries-old misrepresentation of the country. (Many of those same people are not fans of PM Pedro SĂĄnchez, you will be shocked to hear.)
Absurd time shift. The leader of the PP, Alberto NĂșñez FeijĂło, talked up his pride in the Spanish legacy in the Americas. Plus, like, timeline? âTo examine events that occurred in the 15th century in the 21st century is absurd,â he said.
No, you. Madridâs regional presi and troll artist Isabel DĂaz Ayuso let it all hang out, suggesting Sheinbaum might look closer to home: âAbuses are what were committed against the native population by the Aztecs and Mayans, who used sacrifices as part of their rituals.â
Far-right Vox got even puffier with Spain pride. Its parliamentary spokeswoman argued that the Spanish Crown carried out âthe greatest evangelizing and civilizing work in history.â No apologies here!
This will probably blow over quickly, and there's a good chance that Mexico's president will attend Spain's summit. But the big winner of this whole kerfuffle is probably the King: after his non-apology apology, Sheinbaum invited F6 to attend this summer's World Cup in Mexico.
Considering how hard it is to get those tickets, we suspect that might have been F6's angle all along. đ€
More news below. đđ
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đŹ Five things to discuss at dinner parties
1.đłïž Castilla y LeĂłn votes, the PP wins, little changes
Oh, look. More elections. Castilla y LeĂłn voted this weekend and, spoiler alert, nothing really changed, but also everything did. The PP (currently in power there) won the election with 33 seats, improving its result but still far from the 42 needed for a majority, which means regional president Alfonso FernĂĄndez Mañueco is back where he started â needing Vox to govern.
This is beginning to become the PPâs theme song. This also happened to them in the last three regional elections â Extremadura, AragĂłn, and now Castilla y LeĂłn.
Booby prizes. The PSOE came second with 30 seats (gaining two in a small recovery after recent defeats), while Vox got 14, gaining just one seat and failing to break the symbolic barrier of 20% of the vote. Regional parties held their ground (ish), and the farther left basically
dieddisappeared from the map.
Half full, half empty. Sure, the PP is still dependent on Vox despite their victory. But Voxâs growth was smaller than expected. In fact, the PP almost doubled Vox in votes, effectively clamping down on the far-right party in a region where they expected to surge.
Mañueco wasted no time reading the room. Heâs already calling for a âfour-year parliamentary agreementâ with Vox, but with a twist: heâd prefer they support him without joining the government.
Meanwhile, the PSOE has made it clear it wonât play along. Candidate Carlos MartĂnez flat-out rejected facilitating Mañuecoâs investiture, essentially hoping for a repeat election rather than helping the PP govern.
Itâs bleak for the left. The right dominates in Castilla y LeĂłn and has been in power since 1987. Governing from the left would require something close to a political miracle.
Next stop. The next big regional elections are in AndalucĂa in three months, although they may bring elections forward to May 31 to avoid the Popeâs visit in June hijacking the campaign. Get ready, that one is going to be a shitshow fun.
2. đïž Is the new rent-control system working, 2 years in?
On March 16, 2024, Catalonia instituted the first rent controls under a new law allowing regions to cap prices in âstressed areas,â passed by the PSOE-led government after years of fast price increases (rents in Catalonia had risen 60% in a decade). So now we ask, with two years of data, did they actually work?
Caveat emptor. Like with everything in Spain, whether you think they worked tracks closely with whether you like the party that passed them. But hey, thatâs why weâre here!
Top line: prices cooled. In Cataloniaâs âstressed zones,â rents rose just 0.8% over 18 months, well below inflation (3.1%), while unregulated areas saw a 5.7% increase.
In Barcelona, prices actually fell 3.3%. As urban researcher Jaime Palomera says, the caps âbroke the previous trendâ of runaway increases and helped stabilize prices. In Navarra, prices fell 8.8% between the second and fourth quarter of 2025. Even critics concede some downward movement.
But, but, but⊠Donât pop the cava yet.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics. Prices spiked right before the caps came in (landlords raised their prices while they could), making the subsequent âdropâ look bigger than it really was. Adjust for that, and a study from the Instituto Juan de Mariana (a libertarian-leaning think tank) says the decline is basically a rounding error.
What you get has shrunk. Average apartment sizes are down (in Barcelona, from 75mÂČ to 71mÂČ), while the price per square meter has stayed high or even hit records. In other words, youâre paying more for less space. Which is cozy!
And then thereâs the supply (or lack thereof). Across regulated cities, rental listings have dropped sharply â about 26% in Pamplona, 21% in A Coruña, and 15% in Barcelona, according to Idealista data. In some places, registered rental contracts have fallen by as much as 50%.
So where did those rental apartments go? đ Well, they escaped. Seasonal rentals (which do not have price caps) have exploded â in Barcelona, they jumped from about 7% of contracts to over 23% in two years.
Others have been sold off, with institutional landlords fleeing the âstressedâ markets.
Our take? Rent caps are a sugar fix. They feel great at first â prices stop rising, politicians take a bow â but they donât solve the underlying problem.
Spain is short some 800,000 homes (and growing). If renting stops being profitable, fewer homes get built or offered for rent. Which means even less supply in the places that need it most.
And allies of the governing coalition are talking about new limits. âWe see that the supply is decreasing, but prices are not falling,â says Montserrat Junyent, who runs the real estate agentsâ lobby of Catalonia. âAnd all that is being adopted are new regulations that exacerbate the housing problem.â
So yes, prices stabilized (ish). But at the cost of fewer homes, more loopholes, and a market thatâs increasingly weird. Short term? Weâre all a bit screwed. Long term? Maybe we can build our way out. Maybe.
And if you already own a place? Smile. Quietly. And for the love of God, donât brag about it. Angry Gen Zers stuck at home forevs may show up with pitchforks.
3.đŹ Spain has a new âpresidentâ (and itâs Torrente)
The Spanish box office has a new (and deeply horrible) president, and his name is Torrente. After more than a decade away, Torrente presidente (âTorrente for Presidentâ), the sixth installment of Santiago Seguraâs legendary saga about the worst person imaginable, hit cinemas this weekend and absolutely blew up the box office, pulling in around âŹ7m in just a few days.
That makes it the fourth biggest opening in Spanish film history, and, because this is Spain, three of the top four are Torrente movies. At this point, Segura is competing with his own past self.
Wait, who? For the uninitiated (shame on you), Torrente is one of the most iconic and controversial characters in Spanish pop culture.
Think of a deeply corrupt, outdated, ex-police officer who embodies every bad stereotype imaginable. Like, sexist, racist, homophobic, islamophobic, lazy, loud, and proudly wrong about everything. In other words, the ultimate âcuñao.â
The more you know. A cuñao (a mispronunciation of brother-in-law) is Spainâs version of the crazy, racist uncle. He is that guy at the bar who talks bullfighting, soccer, and sevillanas, and has an opinion on absolutely everything that he delivers loudly, confidently, and usually incorrectly over a chupito.
A pretty topical movie. In Torrente presidente, the titular character joins a fictional ultra-nationalist far-right party called Nox (subtle, we know) and climbs his way into power, exposing corruption, incompetence, and hypocrisy along the way.
The film makes fun of everyone (left, right, and center) and clearly has fun skewering populism, media spectacle, and the general circus that politics has become. The uncomfortable part? A lot of the jokes feel a little too close to reality, which is exactly why they land.
Itâs filled with cameos from real-life political figures and guest appearances such as former PM Mariano Rajoy (weâre not kidding), Alec Baldwin, and Kevin Spacey (again, weâre not kidding).
Numbers as ridiculous as the premise. The film has already passed 1 million viewers in record time, is dominating more than 70% of the total box office, and has become the highest-grossing Spanish film of 2026 in a single weekend.
4.đł Itâs Spanish culture shaming week!
Maybe it was war stress? Or Oscar nerves? Whatever the cause, itâs been a cranky week in Spanish culture. Let us count the waysâŠ
Weâre going to start on the fĂștbol pitch. Because if you donât think fĂștbol is culture here, you donât know Spain.
Spain v Argentina. The continental champions were supposed to play a Finalissima on March 27 for âBest in the Worldâ bragging rights. Great. In Doha. Less great (the war and all.)
They needed a new location. So they negotiated. And then on Sunday, the European soccer federation, the UEFA, announced that the game was off.
What? The UEFA blamed Argentina â loudly â laying out all the offers they made that were rejected, and how a last minute change by the Argentine federation made the cancellation inevitable.
The conspiracies went wild. ClarĂn suggested that the Argentine coach, Luis Scaloni, didnât want to play and risk a loss that could break the teamâs confidence ahead of the World Cup. Or maybe it was because Argentine federation boss Claudio Tapia, who is facing a fraud investigation with links to Spain, was afraid of being arrested in Europe? đ€
And then thereâs poor Rosalia. Rosi probably thought she was doing her fans a solid when she sat for a chat with Argentine writer Mariana Enriquez for Spotify Presents.
Rosi said some things. While discussing Pablo Picasso, RosalĂa said that while she might not have liked Pablo had she met him, âIâve never had a problem with differentiating between the artist and the work,â and that, unless sheâd had a real experience with him, âWho am I to judge?â
The interwebs attack. The social media commentariat was not amused and noted that biographers had documented Picassoâs psychological violence and emotional manipulation, and two of the painterâs partners later committed suicide.
Modern self-flagellation. A chastened RosalĂa
set herself on fire on stagerecorded a contrite TikTok in which she apologized to her fans and said they were right that she should have known more about Picasso, and please donât cancel her.
Finally, Yolanda DĂaz. Youâd think the retiring leader of a party of small and decreasing importance could be ignored on a nice work trip on the governmentâs dime. But youâd be wrong.
Gallegos of the world unite. DĂaz grabbed a commercial flight to Los Angeles for the Oscar ceremony Sunday, apparently at the invitation of a fellow gallego, Ăliver Laxe, who directed the Spanish film SirÄt that was nominated for best international picture (and lost).
But that ticket! Spanish media dug up that her business class ticket and that of her assistant each cost âŹ7,700, and they stayed at a hotel where rooms cost about âŹ500. So, you know, scandal.
Fashion press piles on. Trade journal Fashion United noted that DĂaz attended the Oscars in a dress from PurificaciĂłn GarcĂa, whose stores in Galicia are being picketed by striking members of the union that makes the clothing. Which maybe is a bad look for a leftish Labor Minister.
Feeling superior yet? Good. Next story.
5.đ° Spain just lost a piece of a medieval castle
Boom. The surreal moments in the footage above look as if they belong in a disaster movie rather than in a sleepy town in Castilla-La Mancha. What happened? On Saturday, the Albarrana tower, part of the Escalona castle, in the province of Toledo, suddenly collapsed.
Thank god for social media. Tourists standing nearby captured the whole thing on video as the tower collapsed in a very dramatic cloud of dust. The good news is that no one was injured, though a few unlucky cars parked nearby ended up taking some stone souvenirs home.
Sad face. The Castillo de Escalona is not just another crumbling ruin in rural Spain; itâs one of the most historically significant fortifications in the Toledo region.
Old⊠Parts of the complex date back to the 11th century, when the original tower was built during the Islamic period, while later expansions in the 15th century turned it into the imposing medieval stronghold locals know today.
And new again! The castle remained closed for decades and was largely neglected until 2024, when the town council bought the site and began reopening it to visitors, allowing people back inside for the first time in more than 50 years.
The culprit. According to local authorities and heritage experts, the collapse was caused by water damage. Spain has experienced intense storms recently, and the rainfall appears to have seeped into the towerâs interior walls.
Oh, the irony. The collapsed tower was slated for restoration, but the works hadnât started yet. One small piece of good news in this architectural tragedy is that the original 11th-century core of the tower remains standing, which means part of the structure may still be preserved.
Not an isolated incident. Spain has one of the largest concentrations of castles in the world, with more than 10,000 fortifications scattered across the country.
In theory, theyâve been safe since 1949, when Franco issued a decree to protect them. In practice, this often meant little more than good intentions.
Historians of Spainâs fortifications are blunt about the situation. Miguel Sobrino, author of Castillos y murallas, describes the overall condition of many castles as âcalamitous, catastrophic.â
Many were destroyed during the Napoleonic wars in the 1800s, and later, in the 20th century, others were literally sold off stone by stone, before modern heritage protections existed.
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