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đš Like all good Spaniards, this newsletter â our Thursday news and politics one â will take a break in August. (Our Friday events guide will continue publishing!) See you in SeptemberâŠand enjoy đ!
Scorched earth politics
đ„ Spain's worst wildfire on record appears to be under control at last. Don't get used to saying that.
Bad times. For nearly a week, large parts of central Spain looked like something out of a movie apocalypse, with hillsides burned, villages and towns evacuated, highways closed, and smoke from the flames visible from Madrid.
The scene was an inferno. At its peak, the government declared a Level 3 national emergencyâthe first time Spain has ever done so for wildfiresâand tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes.
The good news is that the situation seems to be finally improving. The massive fire affecting Madrid and neighboring Ăvila had been technically stabilized as of last night, authorities said, allowing thousands of residents to begin returning home.
But âstabilizedâ doesnât mean over. Firefighters remain on alert, several areas are still evacuated, and officials warn that another heat wave could easily reignite hotspots in the coming days. (Yesterday Prime Minister Pedro SĂĄnchez said things were âfavorableâ, although he asked people to be âcautiousâ.)
The big one. The fire that devastated Madrid and Ăvila has already gone down as the largest wildfire in modern Spanish history, burning more than 50,000 hectares.
One culprit. Investigators believe the disaster in Ăvila began with a spark from an excavator carrying out illegal work to open a road near Burgohondo (Ăvila) during a period when heavy machinery was banned due to the extreme fire risk.
The eight-ton machine struck rock with a hydraulic hammer, the Guardia Civil said, creating the spark that ignited dry vegetation. The fire then exploded across forests already primed by weeks of scorching temperatures, low humidity, and strong winds.
A heartbreaking tragedy. The human cost has been huge. Around 63,000 people were evacuated at the height of the crisis, making it one of Spainâs largest peacetime evacuations in recent memory.
Home again. Roughly 24,000 have now been allowed to return home, while another 10,000 people in Madrid remain displaced or confined. Authorities say at least 100 primary residences have been destroyed, with the damage to second homes still being assessed.
Happy news. Despite the scale of the disaster, no deaths have been reported, although several firefighters and emergency personnel suffered injuries during the operation.
The fires stretched far beyond Madrid. According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), more than 206,000 hectares have burned across Spain this yearâwell above the averageâand the country has recorded 376 fires, more than double the norm.
Spain didnât fight the fires alone. Through the European Unionâs Civil Protection Mechanism, Greece, Italy, and TĂŒrkiye sent firefighting aircraft, while Portugal deployed more than 130 firefighters and dozens of emergency vehicles to help contain the flames.
Enter politics. The disaster briefly produced an unusual display of cooperation. PM SĂĄnchez praised the âinstitutional loyaltyâ shown between different levels of government and renewed his call for a national pact to prepare Spain for a future of more frequent climate disasters.
Madrid presi Isabel DĂaz Ayuso (of the center-right PP) announced 58 recovery measures, including psychological support, hotel accommodation for displaced residents, aid for damaged homes, veterinary care, and assistance for elderly and dependent people.
But, no. The PP, however, rejected SĂĄnchezâs proposal for a pact, accusing the government of weakening Spainâs firefighting capabilities, while simultaneously urging Brussels to develop a stronger EU-wide wildfire prevention strategy.
Scientists have warned for years that longer heat waves, prolonged droughts, and abandoned rural land are creating the perfect conditions for larger, faster-moving wildfires. This yearâs figures already suggest that warning is already reality.
More news below. đđ
đïž Episode 4 of The Bubble Podcast is out!
On our latest episode, we discuss what it really means to belong in Spain today and explore one of the country's biggest identity debatesâfrom immigration and Spain's record-breaking migrant regularization to the controversial Ley de Nietosâalongside Sweden's ambassador to Spain and writer Elizabeth Duval.
Subscribe and listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube!
đŹ Five things to discuss at dinner parties
1. đ€Š Zapatero gave his first interview and cleared up nothing
Every political junkie in Spain was glued to TVE last Thursday. Former PM JosĂ© Luis RodrĂguez Zapatero was there, on Mañaneros, giving his first interview since an Audiencia Nacional (National Court) investigating judge charged him with leading a network of illicit influence peddling. Bring out the đż, because it was a doozie.
The situation. Judge Calama of the Audiencia Nacional has Zapatero under investigation for allegedly running an influence-peddling scheme around the government bailout of airline Plus Ultra, plus money laundering, tax fraud, smuggling, and organized crime.
The fly in the ointment. Two days before the interview, his associate Julio MartĂnez â the administrator of consulting firm AnĂĄlisis Relevante, the alleged hub of the operation â told the judge that Zapatero was âthe one who set the pace,â i.e., el capo.
What Zapatero said. He mostly repeated what heâd already told the court in June. He again said he spoke about Plus Ultra to nobody in the government or the body that bailed it out (SEPI). He was just a consultant who created reports, he said. And that Dubai offshore company supposedly set up to hide his income? âAn absolute inventionâ. Finally, did he use his daughters as fronts? Good god no, that would be âincredible.â
Maybe I talked to someone. He did admit calling a Santander executive to arrange a meeting for Plus Ultraâs directors â but insists thatâs just âfacilitating a contact,â not peddling influence. YeahhhhâŠ.
And what he didnât. Zapatero didnât address that testimony of his buddy Julito MartĂnez, whoâd told the judge that Zapatero ran the show. âI am not going to get into the defense strategy of any defendant,â he said. hmmmâŠ
Where those jewels came from. When asked about the 80 or so pieces of jewelry found in his office safe â valued at âŹ1.32m âŒïžâ he said they were âa courtesy gift from many years ago.â From who? âIâm not going to say the country.â Why undeclared to the taxman? âThere was no patrimonial intentâ (what?). Did he know they were worth over a million? âWe couldnât even imagine that,â he said (his people previously estimated them at âŹ30-50,000). He also said the jewelry gave him âa severe allergic reaction,â which we donât understandâŠbut find intriguing.
Rules are for fools. And on the good governance code he signed as PM, which explicitly prohibits gifts of this value? âInterpretable.â
And this was on a friendly channel. El Español noted that after 20 minutes of hard questions, Mañaneros host Javier Ruiz declared Plus Ultra, the daughters, and the jewels all âdoneâ â when none were resolved â and spent the rest letting Zapatero play the victim over his leaked agendas and invaded privacy. Ruiz ended with: âPresident, how are you doing?â AwwwâŠ
The reviews? Not positive.
Friends. The PSOE closed ranks behind their colleague publicly but privately felt let down: âWe didnât really understand the utility of the interview,â one source told El Mundo. Later, PM SĂĄnchez got colder: âIâm not his spokesman,â he replied when asked this week about the case.
Enemies. The opposition PP called his explanations âa joke,â while Madrid mayor Almeida described the interview as a âbath and massage session.â đ€Ł Ouch.
Whatâs next? Zapatero still owes an explanation to Judge Calama about the jewels â he dodged those questions at his June testimony too.
2. đ Catalonia could take a hard (separatist) right turn
You thought Spainâs national government had drama with the far right? Take a look at Catalonia. There, a new poll shows that if elections were held now, far right parties could take up almost a third of seats in the regional parliament â with a new separatist party being the breakout star.
The latest poll shows a big win for Aliança Catalana. The hard right separatist party led by Silvia Orriols (anti-immigrant, anti-Spain, pro-independence) would win 25-28 seats in the 135-seat parliament â up from a mere two seats now â and become the second-largest party, according to a poll taken by GESOP for El PeriĂłdico, a center-left newspaper.
And theyâre not the only tighty-far-righties on the ballot. Add in the 11-13 seats expected for the hard-right Vox (anti-immigrant, pro-Spain, pro-bullfighting), and the extrema derecha would have almost a third of the Catalan parliament.
Why Aliança is surging. The party started as a protest vehicle for pro-independence voters disillusioned by Junts and ERC, the longtime separatist parties that led the failed 2017 independence push.
Party evolution. Itâs since pivoted hard toward immigration and public safety â and is now pulling voters from across the spectrum: Junts (its biggest source, at 24.5% of their 2024 voters), Vox (13%), PSC (9.2%), ERC (7.9%) and PP (7.7%). It even leads among 18-29-year-olds and among people who didnât vote in 2024 (which sounds a lot like Voxâs demographic). Their own voter loyalty is 94% â which pollsters say is unprecedented.
Whoâs hurting most? The right-leaning separatists of Junts are the trainwreck of the poll. Their seat total drops from 35 to 15-18. Even the ruling center-left PSC isnât immune â dropping from 42 to 34-37 seats as nearly 1 in 10 of its voters switch to Orriols.
The other parties had excuses. The PSC said extremism should be fought with better public policies (theyâre already doing that, they say). ERC said Aliançaâs rise can be beaten by giving voters âhopeâŠand a futureâ (true, but can you?). The PP reminded voters that if they want âseny i ordreâ â common sense and order â they know where to look. And Junts? They declined to comment because, letâs be honest, itâs ugly.
Good news for centrists (kinda?). Catalonia doesnât need new regional elections until May 2028. But Orriols will get a chance to show Aliança Catalanaâs power in May 2027, when Spain holds municipal elections throughout the land. She is already targeting hundreds of local councils â many currently held by Junts.
3. đïž The world can't decide whether Torres and Llorente are dating or not (they are not)
Sigh. We just won the World Cup, but somehow one of the biggest stories of the week wasnât Ferran Torresâ sports talentâit was his hug in Ibiza.
Torres â our current hero after scoring Spainâs winning goal against Argentina â is taking some days off in Ibiza with his buddy and teammate Marcos Llorente.
Torres is very handsy and kissy-kissy with his friends, if we go by what we always see on TV, so it wasnât that strange to see him hugging and kissing Llorente on the neck. You know, like two friends would while enjoying the greatest summer of their lives.
Gay? Social media and some media outlets naturally had other ideas. Within hours, X, TikTok, and Instagram were flooded with claims that Torres was secretlyâor not so secretlyâgay. AI-generated images began circulating, old photos with teammate Pedri were taken out of context to suggest a hidden romance, and the internet did what it does best: confidently invent a new reality (no, we wonât link to any of it).
Nope, not gay. Not that we care, but Marcos Llorente has been married for years and has a daughter. Ferran Torres was in a long-term relationship with a woman until recently and has since been linked by Spanish gossip magazines to what feels like half of Spainâs influencer population. So⊠donât get your hopes up.
This reaction says far more about us than it does about either player. For years weâve argued that men should be allowed to express affection without being trapped by outdated ideas of masculinity.
As we were saying. Spain striker Borja Iglesias responded that rumors after the photos âarenât just about homophobia; they are about a society that still punishes any gesture that falls outside the script of traditional masculinity.â
And again. Writer Boris Izaguirre defended the images as a perfectly normal display of affection, pointing out that warmth between men has long been part of Mediterranean culture and shouldnât be treated as something scandalous.
But wait, thereâs more. Remember when last week Ferran wore a red âMake Spain Great Againâ cap during the World Cup celebrations? The hatâan obvious play on Donald Trumpâs famous MAGA sloganâmade a lot of people wonder whether he was making fun of Trump or supporting his movement.
Support, obvi. The White House declared on X that âeveryone wants to join the movement,â while Trump himself reposted Torresâ video multiple times, calling him âa great playerâ and describing the cap as âa nice tribute.â
Torres has not explained what he meant by it, so⊠weâre waiting.
4. đ· Yo-Yo is looking for a job â and Mr. Handsome might have found her one
Remember Yolanda DĂaz? We had sorta forgotten her, since she resigned her role as the boss of the fading leftish Sumar party and became a pato cojo. But Yo-Yo needs a gig for when she leaves government â sheâs had a glow-up since entering national politics, but still needs a paycheck, ya dig? Well, good news: Sheâs found a lead.
The news. PM SĂĄnchez â aka Mr. Handsome â has nominated DĂaz to lead the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UNâs labor body. If elected, sheâd be the first woman and first Spaniard to run it.
Whatâs the ILO? Founded in 1919 and based in Geneva, itâs the UNâs only tripartite agency â governments, employers, and unions each hold a vote. The labor standards it sets become legally binding when countries ratify them; Spain has ratified 141, more than anyone.
The bad news. The ILO is in financial crisis. The U.S. owes it âŹ280 million â 70% of all unpaid dues â while the Orange Menaceâs influence is reportedly creeping into ILO policy. How? Spanish unions say LGBTQ+ rights and the right to strike are increasingly hard to defend inside the organization.
Her chances? Complicated. Of the 56 votes, unions (14) are on board. Employer groups (14) â globally, not just in Spain â almost certainly wonât be, given her record of heavy interventions in the labor market. She also needs a majority of government votes (28), and while Europe, Brazil, and China look promising, the African bloc will probably back the incumbent, Togolese Gilbert Houngbo, who wants a second term. Also, Spain is simultaneously running Agriculture Minister Luis Planas for the FAO top job â and countries rarely win two UN top jobs at once.
The English problem. The ILO conducts much of its business in English. A 2023 clip shows DĂaz needing a translator for a reporterâs English question. Not a dealbreaker, but notâŠgreat.
What people are saying. SĂĄnchez calls it âan honorâ and unions are enthusiastic. But Pablo Iglesias, her former lefty ally (remember him?), is predictably less of a fan. DĂaz is getting the nomination to a well-paying job far from political pressure âfor services renderedâ to SĂĄnchezâs government, he says. He also snipes that, with the ILO director salary of $239,200 a year, sheâd be âthe best-paid CCOO [union] member in history.â The PP, for its part, says itâs payback for keeping quiet on government scandals. đ€·
Whatâs next? Candidacies close Aug. 14 and the ILO council votes Nov. 16. If she wins, she could stay on as minister until October 2027, though itâs unlikely this government will be around that long.
5. đż A 5th century church! A 15 million year-old turtle! Spain keeps digging up fascinating old stuff
You know weâre big fans of Spanish archeological finds here at The Bubble. A Roman ship off the coast of Mallorca? Nos encanta. Julius Caesarâs elephant (maybe) under a CĂłrdoba hospital? Grande. âExotically rareâ ancient Greek, Iberian and Roman coins in a storage locker in Baena? Gen-i-al. Well, we got a double dose of finds this week, so you can only imagine how giddy we are.
The latest. Researchers have just published a long-awaited study on a 5th-century church in Murcia that kept functioning under Muslim rule until the 9th century. And construction workers in Madrid stumbled across the shell of a giant tortoise from 15 million years ago.
Thatâs an OLD church. Excavations at Cerro de la Virgen, a hilltop in Calasparra (Murcia) thatâs home to the first paleochristian church documented in the region, began in 2021 and continued through 2024 and 2025.
Kinda gruesome, no? The newly published study documents a single-nave church built around 410â440 A.D., architecturally similar to Visigothic churches in Asturias and early churches in Syria. Inside: a 6th-century double tomb with a young woman and a fetus whose DNA points to âa common maternal lineageâ â i.e. mother and child (we hesitate to imagine the sad story here).
Less gruesome. Also found were coins from several Roman emperors and an AbderramĂĄn III dirham, bronze Andalusian weights inscribed al-Êżadl li-llÄh (âjustice is of Godâ), and balance scales. Sounds like they might have also been running a corner store.
The church straddles several chapters of Spanish history. The church survived the Muslim conquest of 711 and kept going for nearly two more centuries, thanks to the Pact of Teodomiro (713), which let Christians in southeast Spain practice their faith in exchange for taxes (i.e. god for money). The weights and scales suggest the church also served as a tax-collection point (fine, not a take-out beer joint).
The researchersâ conclusion. âThe hill was a Christian community subjected to the taxes of the Islamic State and forced to integrate into the regional fiscal and commercial circuits.â The find chips away at the traditional picture of a sharp break between Visigoth and Muslim Spain â reality, it seems, was more complex.
Thatâs a REALLY OLD turtle. Workers building a training center for Madridâs emergency services in the Latina district found the shell of a Titanochelon bolivari â a giant land tortoise that roamed the Iberian Peninsula during the Miocene, more than 15 million years ago. Madridâs deputy mayor Inma Sanz called it âabsolutely amazingâ (true, if obvious). The shell is now at the Museo ArqueolĂłgico Regional in AlcalĂĄ de Henares for study and conservation. Madrid has history with digging up old giants â another city project unearthed a mammoth đŠŁ!
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These terrifying wildfires are the most extensive recorded in Spain since the EU data began. The same goes for France.