⚖️ Sánchez's brother is convicted
Plus: Gibraltar and Spain get it on, and the Joker's bull run.
Madrid | Issue #155
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Oh, brother
🚔 PM Sánchez's brother just made history (for all the wrong reasons)
Just in time for the summer holidays. Spain has never had a prime minister’s brother sentenced by a court before, but hey, there’s a first time for everything. David Sánchez — musician, opera buff, and yes, the little brother of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — has been banned from holding public office for nine years after being found guilty of “administrative misconduct” related to his hiring in 2017 at the Badajoz Provincial Council for a, um, job that required no work but did come with a paycheck.
Not just him. Ten (10!) other defendants got the same sentence, while Miguel Ángel Gallardo, the former head of the council and former leader of Extremadura’s Socialist Party, got hit hardest — 18 years for two counts of malfeasance.
But, but. but. The court ruled out influence peddling, the original core accusation (and one that comes with prison), saying it wasn’t proven. But the nepotism? Apparently yes.
Is “administrative misconduct” a big deal? Well, it’s certainly another headache for PM Sánchez, that’s for sure. This is the fourth member of his inner circle to be convicted of something in under a year — after his attorney general Álvaro García Ortiz, former minister José Luis Ábalos, and former socialist party bigwig Santos Cerdán — and it comes while his wife, Begoña Gómez, waits to hear if she’ll face trial, and former PM and ally José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is in the midst of a corruption scandal. It’s just not a good look.
How it started. Back in 2016-2017, Badajoz’s council (then run by Sánchez ally Gallardo) created a brand-new high-level post — coordinator of the province’s music conservatories. David Sánchez got it.
The charge. The court has found that the job was designed with the sole purpose of giving it to the brother of the now-PM (who was just a PSOE grandee then), with an administrative file built afterward to dress the decision in legalese.
Evidence. Emails uncovered by the Civil Guard’s anti-corruption unit (UCO) referred to him internally as “el hermanísimo” (the “supreme brother”). In 2022, the job got renamed “Head of the Performing Arts Office,” which the court says was really just a tailor-made adjustment so he could keep pursuing his opera career without showing up to an office.
Not a great look. David Sánchez took the stand at trial and, by most accounts, didn’t do himself any favors. As we all saw in those cringe-inducing videos, his statement barely shed any light on how he actually landed the job. Oh, and at one point, he struggled to explain what his daily responsibilities were.
No defense. Since he refused to say much during the trial, the prosecutors’ star witnesses, two UCO officers who’d spent months poring over intercepted emails, went largely unchallenged.
Official response. Fury, basically. The PSOE’s line, echoed by ministers and regional leaders, is that this is a “hunt” against the PM via his family. Transport Minister and Sánchez pit bull Óscar Puente called it an attempt to “topple a government that can’t be beaten at the ballot box” (though it has been very eager to avoid the ballot box, but that's another story…).
The right’s reaction. PP boss Alberto Núñez Feijóo, unsurprisingly, is enjoying this one. He called it a “historic” day for Spain’s rule of law, tweeting that “nobody is above the law, whatever family they belong to.”
Who has “mafia” on their bingo card? Far-right Vox’s Santiago Abascal, never one for subtlety, called the whole government “a mafia.”
About that “lawfare” thing. Legally, David Sánchez wasn’t found guilty of trading on his brother’s influence. The court explicitly said that the charge wasn’t proven and stressed that nepotism, while ethically rotten, wasn’t automatically a crime unless it fits a specific criminal statute.
That distinction makes the verdict look goofy to Sánchez supporters. And it’s a card the government is playing. The “lawfare” narrative — the idea that judges and prosecutors are being used as a political weapon against a government — is a belief genuinely held by many PSOE voters and officials.
But, but, but… David Sánchez’s lawyer says “there’s no reason” to think lawfare had anything to do with the verdict and warns that his client will appeal.
Politically, it won’t change much. It barely matters whether the charge was influence peddling or malfeasance. Sánchez will keep marching ahead with his sights set on postponing elections until the last minute possible (that's mid-2027).
More news below. 👇👇
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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties
1. 🛃 Gibraltar and Spain are one again! (Fine, we’re exaggerating)
Back together after all these years! One hundred and seventeen years after it was built by the English, 57 years after it was weaponized by Franco to blockade Gibraltar, and 44 years after it was reopened in part by Prime Minister Felipe González, the verja — the border fence — of Gibraltar is coming down.
Why? At its root, this is a Brexit fix: Gibraltar voted 96% to stay in the EU in 2016, then found itself stranded outside Schengen when some geniuses in the U.K. decided to leave anyway.
The treaty. Tuesday in Brussels, EU commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and U.K. Secretary of State Stephen Doughty signed a 1,117-page agreement defining Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relationship with Spain, with Spain’s foreign minister José Manuel Albares and Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabián Picardo watching on. It entered provisional force at midnight.
What changes. The 15,000 Spanish workers who commute into Gibraltar daily no longer have to queue for passport checks at the land border. But Gibraltar still says it’s a self-governing territory, and Spain still wants it back, Albares and Picardo confirmed.
But, but, but… Gibraltar is now, practically speaking, inside the EU’s Schengen zone. Passport controls have moved to the airport, where Spain’s Policía Nacional will run EU entry/exit checks mirroring the St Pancras model, where French police check Eurostar passengers on British soil.
No more tax dodging? Gibraltar is also shedding its tax haven status after 35 years: a new VAT starts at 15% and rises to 17% over three years. Making it almost, kind of, a little bit part of Europe.
Boots, yes or no. Picardo had spent years insisting Spanish police on Gibraltarian soil — “boots on the ground” — would never happen. The solution: a joint facility at the airport, straddling the border.
You say shack, I say policía on The Rock. Picardo calls it the Schengen shack. “The boots will be contained within that,” he said. The mayor of the Spanish town of La Línea was more philosophical. “Everyone has to give a little. And obviously, if you’re going to enter Schengen via a land border with Spain — who is going to check you?” he asked the FT. “The Lithuanian police?”
What’s next? Provisional is the key word. The treaty needs formal ratification by the EU and the U.K. to become permanent. Picardo has said Gibraltarians will also have the right to vote in a referendum on whether to terminate the agreement in the future. History, as they say, is long.
2. 🔥 Why was the fire in Almería so deadly?
The sudden, deadly fire in Almería that claimed 13 victims riveted the eyes of the world, from the U.S. and Britain to France, Australia, and beyond. And as Andalucía dug out from the destruction and identified the victims, a giant question hung over the tragedy: How did such a relatively small fire become so deadly, so quickly?
What happened. Shortly after 4:30 p.m. on July 9, a fire broke out near Los Gallardos, apparently from a downed electrical wire — though the power companies say the wires weren’t live. In less than two hours, the fire had traveled nearly 10 miles.
Victims. By Sunday, when it was finally stabilized, 13 people were dead: four British, three Belgian, one French, one Spanish, and three still unidentified — most of them foreign retirees in isolated hillside homes around Bédar, a village of 973 residents, more than half of them foreign.
A small fire. The fire burned between 3,200 and 7,000 hectares — a fraction of the dozen-plus Spanish fires exceeding 20,000 hectares since 1968. So what caused such a tragedy?
The weather. An El País analysis shows a rare triple combination — 38°C, 12% humidity, wind gusts above 40 km/h — matched only twice in all Julys recorded since 2015. Spain’s minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, said the fire advanced at 100 meters per minute: “We have never seen such ferocity here.”
No warning. Andalusian authorities did not activate the national mobile alert system, saying different areas needed different instructions and it couldn’t target scattered communities precisely enough. Many foreign residents — isolated, some with limited Spanish — turned to Facebook groups instead. Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt, the son of Stanislas, a Belgian victim, was blunt: “The people who died did not disobey any order because no order was given.” (Andaluz authorities say some residents ignored evacuation instructions.)
The trap. Seven victims followed what seemed like an escape route from El Curato — actually a dead-end track a beekeeper used to tend his hives. They were found at four in the morning. Two survived with serious injuries.
The deeper problem. Bédar’s hillsides are full of isolated homes — many built by British immigrants over decades, some legally, some less so, in areas with no mandatory evacuation plans. Locals also say they’ve been blocked or fined for clearing brush. One neighbor’s goats, grazing the hillsides all year, apparently contained the fire where the authorities didn’t, or wouldn’t.
In Bédar. The town has opened an emergency office to help survivors with paperwork and claims. Hunters and volunteers are laying food and water across the scorched hillsides for surviving wildlife — tortoises, which cannot outrun fire, are being collected. Three bodies remain unidentified. “About the fire,” the village pharmacist said, “there is only one thing to talk about: those who are gone.”
3. 🇫🇷 Former PM Rajoy apologizes to no one, fools!
Former PM Mariano Rajoy (2011 to 2018) has a talent for opening his mouth and stuffing his foot in it. For example, last week, days before Spain played France in the World Cup semifinal, he managed to offend an entire country with half a sentence, outdoing himself once again.
Mouth, meet foot. In his regular column for El Debate, Rajoy praised France’s squad as playing at “a very high level”, but added “sin franceses.” Without French people.
An explanation for the hard of thinking: he meant the French national team doesn’t really count as French. Is it because, uhm, many of the players don’t look like they belong to the Gallic Roman Empire? 🤔 Unclear. Actually, clear. To us (and, honestly, many others), there was only one way to read it: skin color and family history define who is French.
Fun fact. 23 of the team's 26 players were born in France. The other three are naturalized French citizens. So, what's up? Hmmm. Many are of African ancestry. Maybe that was it? Again: 🤔
Whoopsie. Once the column was published, it caught fire on both sides of the Pyrenees. Turns out such, ahem, “controversial” logic is the same as the far-right Front National used back in 1998.
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s far-right party back then dismissed France’s World Cup-winning squad (Zidane, Thuram, Desailly, Vieira) as not representing the “real” France because too many players were Black or descended from immigrants from former French colonies. Faux pas!
How things have changed. This time, everyone in France — yes, including the far right — was furious. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that “France doesn’t have a skin color,” adding that any claim otherwise is “stupidity, racism, or both.” Sacré bleu!
Spain enters the group chat. PM Pedro Sánchez didn’t hold back from taking an easy layup on the guy he tossed out of office, posting that Spain “belongs to whoever loves it and works for it, not to whoever embarrasses it with xenophobic statements.”
Easy shots. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares demanded PP leader Feijóo publicly disown Rajoy. Transport Minister Óscar Puente (aka Sánchez's social media troll) called Rajoy a “post-Francoist idiot” (because when in doubt, say "Franco").
Relax, guy! The PP, not being good at easy things, instead ran defense. Spokesperson Borja Sémper insisted the comment was “sarcastic.” Now, that argument raises an obvious question: sarcastic about what, exactly? The PP never actually explained what the joke was supposed to be; they just kept repeating that it was one. Haha? 🤔
What Rajoy said next. After Spain beat France to reach the final, Rajoy wrote a follow-up column — praising France’s team, praising Spain’s team, and notably not apologizing for anything.
Look over there. Instead, he accused the Spanish government of manufacturing outrage to “distract attention” from things that actually matter to Spaniards, complaining that officials had preferred to “snitch to a foreign minister” (⁉️).
We’re not sure Rajoy knows how the internet works. Actually, we're sure he doesn't.
4. 💩 TV meltdown ends with journalist saying she’d ‘rather eat sh*t’
What is happening? Spanish TV had an awkward moment last weekend that nobody saw coming — with a panelist breaking down in tears, quoting Gabriel García Márquez, and walking off set mid-broadcast.
What happened. During Saturday night’s Malas Lenguas, journalist Marta Gómez Montero told host Jesús Cintora she wouldn’t answer his question, said she felt humiliated, started crying, and then delivered the quote of the week.
Woah. Invoking the ending of García Márquez’s No One Writes to the Colonel, where a starving woman asks her husband what they’ll eat and he answers “shit”, she told Cintora she’d rather eat shit than be humiliated by him again. Then she got up and left the studio, live, mid-show. Epic 🎤-drop.
What is Malas Lenguas, anyway? It’s Cintora’s political talk show on La 2 (TVE’s second public channel), built around a panel of journalists and commentators hashing out the day’s news — usually all talking at the same time, Spanish tertulia style.
Awkward. On the Saturday night edition (which has been climbing the primetime ratings), Cintora asks uncomfortable questions meant to generate friction.
Montero snaps. The topic was Feijóo’s recent comments on labor absenteeism (which we covered last week). Montero, who leans conservative, was defending a softer reading of his remarks, insisting he’d only targeted fraudulent sick leave, not sick workers generally.
When Cintora pushed the panel on Feijóo’s harder line about Spain being a “subsidized country,” Montero seemed visibly tense. Then the dam broke, with Montero giving an exhausted admission that she’d tolerated this “to pay the bills” and “for her kids” and couldn’t anymore.
Cintora’s response could have been better. “What’s wrong with you, Marta? She’s decided to leave — she’ll know why,” he told the camera before moving on to the next panelist as if nothing had happened.
Cintora later interrupted the broadcast again as social media reaction exploded, insisting he’d only gestured for Montero to wait her turn and that he didn’t understand what had triggered the reaction — while still inviting her back “with affection.”
We’re sowwy. RTVE president José Pablo López stepped in the next day, posting his own public apology and support for Montero, calling her an excellent professional and person.
Me too. Cintora also posted a public apology on X, calling Montero “a good journalist and colleague” and saying the show’s doors remained open to her.
Opposition chimes in. PP spokesperson Ester Muñoz accused the show of “constant on-air humiliation and mistreatment, paid for with our money,” framing it as punishment for Montero not following a pro-Sánchez line.
Montero returns. On Monday night, she was back, saying, “We’re human, and there are days you have an impulse.” She added she was reassured by López’s and Cintora’s reactions.
The two shook hands on camera, and the show moved on to its regular news lineup. As far as we know, no one had to eat anything they didn’t want to.
5. 🐂 New movie idea: Joker: Folie à…Bulls?
Fine, we admit it. We tune in every morning to the TV broadcast of the running of the bulls during San Fermín, which is either a beautiful expression of Pamplona culture or a frat party with animals. Usually there’s one doofus who makes it clear he doesn’t know what he’s doing by wearing, like, a ninja costume or by slapping a bull in the head. But this year, that doofus was even doofier. He was…the Joker?
Wait, what? If you watched the encierros, you couldn’t help but catch sight of a guy with green hair, white face paint, a sinister red smile, and metal teeth. Full-on Joker, Joaquin Phoenix-style. But with the traditional white clothes and red pañuelo, natch.
The Joker’s name is Lacey Mrzena. He’s a social media influencer from Chicago — some version of @straightdroplace on the socials — and he came to Pamplona to run with the bulls dressed as the comic-book supervillain. Which is something he does at a lot of other iconic events and locations (Mardi Gras, mariachis of Garibaldi, etc).
Dedicated prankster. Mrzena tried to run every single encierro at this year’s San Fermines. (There are eight, for non-obsessives.) He also ran the vaquillas afterward, where a young cow knocked him to the ground on day four, to sustained crowd applause.
Not everyone was amused. Thing is, the San Fermines have rules, and Lacey didn’t follow them. On day five, he filmed himself next to a bull’s horns (filming is a big no-no because it’s, um, dangerous as shit for you and everyone else), got fined up to €6,000 and banned from the next run, ruining his goal of eight. Then, on day seven, he climbed onto a balcony on the Plaza Consistorial and was pulled down by the police.
Lynch mob (not quite). After the final encierro, local runners confronted him in the street — “You’re a stupid boy. This is serious” — and police stepped in and detained him before the crowd turned. While being led away, he pretended he was handcuffed, fell to the street, and started shouting “I can’t breathe” à la George Floyd (in very poor taste, in our opinion).
Lacey’s defense? He was not filming, he said, and was being discriminated against. “Fake news” made him a target, he added. He titled one post “Prison Break 2026” and claimed his costume was justified by “religious and cultural reasons.” (We love Joaquin Phoenix too, but we’re pretty sure that’s not a religion.)
The dress-up was fine, guy. The encierro ordinance runs eight pages. It bans phones, backpacks, and inappropriate footwear. So he did break the phone rule. But it says nothing about dressing as the Joker.
Here he is, just having his fun:
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