💥 This Week in Spain: Amnesty Drama

Also: The F1 is back in Madrid and Spanish kids love polyamory, it seems.

Jan 25, 2024

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | January 25, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #41

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🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: Right when we thought we were up for a nice and relaxing time in politics, there comes the amnesty bill again to complicate our lives and resume the all-too-familiar political bickering. And what the hell does “good terrorism” even mean? All of this and more in this week’s edition of your fave newsletter. Enjoy.

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Amnesty stuff

🤷‍♂️ Are Catalan separatists terrorists? It depends

Bet you never expected to argue about the meaning of ‘terrorism’. Oh well! That’s what on the menu this week.

So is this purely an epistemological exercise? No, not really. Or at all.

Did I say ‘never’? I meant ‘no prob.’ After claiming it would do no such thing, the (increasingly flexible) PSOE agreed to ‘tweak’ the amnesty bill this week to further protect Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont and others accused of the most serious crimes during the secessionist push leading up to and following the unconstitutional 1-O (2017) referendum on Catalonia leaving Spain.

You say ‘terrorism’, I say ‘mild disturbance’: The change that raised the most eyebrows was one that establishes that people accused of terrorism will be exonerated as long as they didn’t have “direct intention” to cause “serious violations of human rights.”
Um, doesn’t that cover a lot of things? (Just asking for a friend.) Like, “I had no intention of seriously violating human rights. I just wanted to blow up that building.” More seriously, though, intention is a fuzzy concept. Did people collecting bomb-making materials have the intention to seriously violate human rights, or were they just rubes planning to make some victim-less noise? More importantly, how would we know?
Fits the playbook: This change runs in parallel to earlier PSOE-led changes in the malversación (embezzlement) law, which drew a line between taking public money for personal gain—like buying a Mercedes (bad)—and taking it for other reasons—like the cause of splitting up Spain (not so bad).

But is it really terrorism? While creating Terrorism Zero Zero to go with Terrorism Normal does make the eyes roll, it raises an important question: Should Puigdemont et al. have been charged with terrorism in the first place?

Central charge: The terrorism at the center of the controversy is an investigation by separatist bête noire Judge Manuel García Castellón, who considered Puigdemont and ERC leader Marta Rovira as possible committers of terrorism for their roles coordinating Tsunami Democràtic, a platform that, among other things, invaded Barcelona’s airport and shut it down in 2019.
What does the law say: EU law says that terrorist aims are described as any of the following: * seriously intimidating a population; * unduly compelling a government or an international organisation to perform or abstain from performing any act; * seriously destabilising or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organisation.
Seriously, we’re not sure. They didn’t kill anyone. But “seriously intimidate a population”? Maybe?

……which gets us to those judges. The change to the law implicitly questions the skills and impartiality of Spain’s judges to correctly determine what terrorism is and who should be charged with it.

PSOE silent. This questioning of judges has gotten the PSOE of PM Pedro Sánchez in hot water recently. Ecology Minister Teresa Ribera got a drubbing by the jurists’ association (the Consejo General del Poder Judicial, or CGPJ) for not respecting the separation of powers by saying Judge García Castellón (him again) “tilts” his decisions “always in the same direction” and that he publishes them “at opportune moments, with important political implication.” So PSOE has been keeping its head down this week.
Not so its allies. The PSOE’s allies on the far left and in nationalist and separatist parties felt no need to do so, however. They said García Castellón was “close to the PP” and “trivializes terrorism in the extreme” and only wants to “end this government”—and it wasn’t him alone. Many judges were, “authentic inquisitors who use the criminal law of the enemy.” Needless to say, this isn’t turning many judges into Sánchez gov fanboys (and girls).

What’s the PSOE have to say? Justice minister Félix Bolaños addressed this controversy on Wednesday morning outside the Supreme Court, before attending the swearing-in ceremony of Attorney General Álvaro García Ortiz.

"Let's get serious… does anyone really believe that the independence process is comparable to the terrorism that Spain endured for decades?” he asked, referring to killings by Basque separatist terrorist group ETA. “What we all understand as terrorism… is outside the scope of the amnesty.”
Really, this isn’t about getting into power, but about calming the waters: Bolaños repeated the PSOE talking point that the overall goal is to “normalize the political, social, and institutional situation in Catalonia." (Not entirely convincing to, really, anybody.)

The drama has caused a rift in the PSOE, as Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page expressed his dislike for the recent changes and the whole “good terrorism and bad terrorism” debate.

Friendly fire: García-Page said that the amnesty deal’s latest amendment is “on the outskirts of the Constitution”.
Quick response: The PSOE structure replied, with Minister of Transport/Sánchez attack dog Óscar Puente saying that he believed “that the one who has been on the outskirts of the PSOE for quite some time now is Mr. García-Page”.
Hot mic moment: On Wednesday, Page was caught on a hot mic criticizing his PSOE buddies—to three PP regional presidents no less (Juan Manuel Moreno from Andalucía, Carlos Mazón from Valencia and Fernando López-Miras from Murcia), saying he felt his party was about to “extradite” him. Moreno responded that if they messed with Page, the PP would jump in to defend him. Strange days!

And then there’s Vox (there’s always Vox). As you can imagine, the far-righties are not happy about this whole thing. Not happy at all.

Vox European Parliament rep Hermann Tertsch—not a man known for subtlety—caused a stir on Wednesday when he tweeted that he hoped “no one shot Bolaños in the face like they did to Vidal-Quadras and then ask him whether it was good or bad terrorism.” (Vox founder Vidal-Quadras was in fact shot in the face in a terroristic assassination attempt last year, so that happened, but the tweet itself, with its disingenuous “hope” for Bolaños’s safety? Fully face-palm 🤦.)

Never waste an opportunity: The PSOE was quick to turn Tertsch’s dumb tweet into a talking point against… PP boss Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, whose party is in coalition governments with Vox in several regions. Party reps told Cadena SER that the PP’s continued partnership with Vox “reflects the path that Núñez Feijóo has taken”.

So we’re basically back to pre-23J election campaign slogans. Which is nice. For somebody. Though perhaps not for us.

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1. 👭 Big week for Las Montero !

Does your last name include ‘Montero’? Were you a minister in PM Sánchez’s last government? If the answer to both those questions is ‘yes’, you had a big week!

Montero y Montero is admittedly a cheap literary device to catch your interest (or a mediocre law firm), but it’s what we got! It’s also true: the Montero (non)-sisters—María Jesús and Irene—have been front and center in Spain’s political news.

María Jesús Montero in “Baldgate”: María Jesús—Spain’s finance minister and (since December) first deputy prime minister—launched herself into a ~~massive political controversy~~ largely meaningless tempest in a teapot at the PSOE party congress in A Coruña.

But which guy with glasses? Montero dismissively referred to Galicia-born Miguel Tellado, the PP’s new congressional spokesman as, “the guy y’all [from Galicia] sent to Madrid, the one with the glasses,” and then paused to nod to the fact that Galicia-born PP president Alberto Nuñez Feijóo also wears glasses: “Well, they both have glasses…"
Ha, ha you’re bald! That’s when Montero added, to helpfully distinguish between the two glass-wearing Galicians, "The one with less hair, Miguel Tellado.” Not childish at all!

Never let a bad joke go unpunished: Tellado and the PP were of course unwilling to let this ~~terrible soul-searing slur~~ stupid quip go without making a little political hay out of it.

Tellado took to Twitter (or X, whatevs): “To refer to me, Pedro Sánchez's number two emphasizes that I am bald and wear glasses. What would happen if it occurred to me to describe a PSOE deputy by her physical appearance? By her hairstyle, her clothing..." (Eds. note: This is probably not a bad point. Imagine if Tellado referred to Nadia Calviño as La bajita or something).
But Tellado couldn’t stop there… He suggested that Montero’s lack of seriousness showed she “wasn’t up to the job” (debatable, but, okay, you’re having a moment, go for it). And he also wrote, "Sanchismo is this. They have no limits" (Eds note: Oh, come off it man, she didn’t kill your dog.)

Non-apology apology: Montero came back a few days later to apologize. Sorta. Like, it was not meant to cause harm or even annoyance. So sorry if it did, and some people “have very thin skin” (Translation: Sorry that you’re such a baby.)

Tellado then accepted her apology. So now we can move on. Thank God.

But that’s not the only Montero! Happily (for us), deposed Equality Minister Irene Montero was back in the news. Or, rather, people in her party (it was called Podemos, and it was a thing!) put her back in the news. Because we had all forgotten about her.

Ambassador Montero? Apparently that was an idea, at least according to Podemos boss Ione Belarra.
“Something pretty…” At a Podemos party meeting in the Madrid barrio of Lavapiés (so many party congresses!), Belarra said she was going to reveal one of Montero’s secrets—something she had not consulted Montero about because Irene would have said “no”.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts… Belarra said, “It would have been very easy for Irene to have what they call a political solution. They offered me a political solution for Irene, something nice, an embassy. A way out that would get her out of Spain and stop her from causing problems. When they proposed it to me, I started crying, because she made me very angry.”

Spicy! 🌶️ Belarra didn’t say who it was, but media points to Labor Minister and Sumar boss Yolanda Diaz—the mortal frenemy of Podemos who helped Pedro Sánchez force Montero out of government with a smile. Seems she offered Montero the embassy—in Chile!—to get her out of Spain and out of her hair. Like, 10,695 km. out of her well-feathered hair. (Notice how we mentioned her appearance like the other Montero?) 🤡.

2. 💰 For Paul Married, there is life after Spanish politics

The last time we heard from Pablo Casado (yes, the Paul Married of the headline), he’d been run out of his job leading the PP, tail between legs, after being apparently caught in a smear campaign against Madrid regional governor Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Since then, well, Ayuso’s become a PP political superstar and Paul Married has…become a Jeopardy answer (category: Forgotten Pauls). Until now, that is.

Far from electoral fray. Casado is launching a…venture capital fund, alongside (among others) Ricardo Gómez-Acebo Botín—who’s the nephew of Banco Santander boss Ana Botín, as if you needed reminding that the political and financial worlds were intertwined in Spain.
The God Above: Named Hyperion Funds (after the Titan child, meaning “he that walks on high" or simply "the god above" because…humility) aims to raise €150m to invest in aerospace, cybersecurity, AI and defense (to this end, two other partners in the fund come from the defense world). The fund will be managed by Singular Bank, a private bank with €13bn under management.

Defense and AI—that’s a Pablo thing? Not exactly. Though not knowing a subject isn’t the kind of thing to stop him, as will know anyone who watched him during his political years trying to gladhand farmers.

But…knowing important people. Casado is meant to provide expertise in “geostrategy and international relations”, which is a way of saying he knows people and knows his way around European institutions. Fair enough.
Other experts: The Botín cousin is meant to know finance, and the two defense industry partners know…defense. The advisory board includes political and business bigwigs (from NATO to Saab), as well as Spain-based Argentine entrepreneur Martín Varsavsky.

Still, a little weird? Honestly, not really. AI is huge, providing security against cyberattacks is huge and defense…is gonna be huge in Europe as the continent notches a “record increase” in defense spending because Russia and Ukraine and maybe no more help from a Trump-led U.S.

Funny money: The anchor investor in the fund is the family office Nortia, which belongs to the mad rich Manuel Lao, a billionaire who founded Spain’s largest casino company—Cirsa.

Not a peep: Casado has not spoken to the media about the the fund. Like, not at all. Suggesting that he’s learned to keep his head down and lips shut after the Ayuso drubbing, And this is important: he’s gonna get some money 🤑!

3. 🚨 Triple homicide shocks the country

The small town of Morata de Tajuña (pop. 8,000) is reeling from the murder of three siblings after a romance scam gone awfully, tragically wrong.

The bodies of siblings Amelia, Ángeles and Pepe Gutierrez Ayuso, aged 68 to 72, were found last week partially burned, stacked on top of each other and showing signs of violence in their home in Morata de Tajuña, some 40 km from Madrid.
The investigation quickly centered on the supposed boyfriend of one of them, an American military officer named “Edward” stationed in Afghanistan, who had been asking them for money for quite some time (leading them to the point of bankruptcy).
Virtual love affair: Seven years ago Amelia and Ángeles met two “handsome members of the U.S. military” on Facebook. They were—apparently—rich, and both sisters started long-distance relationships with them.
Then the problems started. “Edward” informed the sisters that his military friend had passed away and left them an inheritance of €7m. Edward—let’s call him “the scammer” at this point—said he needed money to sort out the paperwork to unlock the money and send it to them. And Amelia, who was still “dating” him, kept sending him money as he asked for increasingly large amounts.

The entire town suspected they were being scammed (or so it seems) but they wouldn’t hear it. El Mundo explains that “as soon as they collected their pensions”, they would send them to the scammer.

“They asked for money from acquaintances, promising to return double the amount borrowed”. They apparently event went to the village priest for help. So not only did they lose their own. money—they also lost that of their friends.
Friends believe the scammer got between €300,000 and €400,000 in total.
This is when they went to Dilawar Hussain, a Pakistani citizen who ran a nearby internet cafe that they frequently visited to send the money to the scammer. Local people say that they convinced Hussain to lend them some €30,000 euros, promising him to double that amount once they collected the “inheritance”. 😱
The sisters offered Hussain a room in their home for free when the money didn’t come. But, after feeling the money slip away, the man left the house and became more aggressive and started asking for the €60,000 he was “owed.”

Hussain even attacked Amelia with a hammer, which landed him in jail last year. While the sisters didn’t want to press charges, he was still sentenced to a few months in prison and was told to stay away from them.
After he was released in September, Hussain tried contacting them again for his money (unsuccessfully). In December, he again showed up at their home—but this time he killed all three siblings.
A few days later, he turned himself in and admitted to killing Amelia, Ángeles and Pepe (who had mental disabilities). According to local authorities, he said the victims had “ruined him” and he “couldn’t afford to buy food”.

Hussain is now in jail without bail, as the judge of the case believes he’s a flight risk.

One last thing: The photos that the scammer used for years were those of retired United States Army officer Wesley Clark. A simple reverse search of the image on Google Photos could have helped them realize they were being scammed.

4. 🏁 Madrid is hosting F1 races again (starting in 2026)

Racing fans, rejoice! After 45 years, Formula One is returning to Madrid, starting in 2026, after the city signed a 10-year deal to host the Spanish Grand Prix on a hybrid track near IFEMA.

Lots of 💶: Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Formula One President Stefano Domenicali, and Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida estimated that the GP will generate some €450m annually and create more than 10,000 direct jobs. 😳
Barcelona has the current contract to host the event, which ends in two years. So at first glance Madrid seems to have snatched it from Catalonia. But Domenicali assured that the race in Catalonia could remain on the calendar, meaning that Spain could hold two races. Awww….
Seriously… Because this may seem to be the latest salvo in the Madrid vs. Barcelona war, Domenicali reiterated that “for the avoidance of doubt… the fact that we are in Madrid is not excluding the fact we could stay in Barcelona for the future”.
Not Spain’s first ~~rodeo~~ race: Spain’s first GP was held in 1913 and Madrid last hosted it in 1981. Then it was held in Jerez (Andalucia) from 1986 to 1990 and since then in Barcelona (plus a brief stint in Valencia, but more on that below).

Alright, but what’s the circuit like?

For those of you who are into this sort of thing, the F1 says that it will stretch 5.474 km and include 20 turns. It is also “designed to deliver a qualifying lap time of approximately 1 minute and 32 seconds”.
The track will be located by the IFEMA convention center—conveniently five minutes from the Barajas airport—and will include a 1.5 km stretch of public roads and “F1′s first indoor paddock”.
And… the project “will be organized by IFEMA, the leading fair operator in Spain, and will not involve public financing”.

Sounds great, right? Well, apparently not so fast.

Opposition leaders and media came out to criticize it immediately, and seemed especially skeptical of the whole “not involve public financing” part.
Skepticism not unreasonable: When Valencia hosted five Formula 1 Grand Prix races between 2008 and 2012, then-regional president Francisco Camps (PP) also claimed the GP would come at “zero cost” to public funds—but the Valencian government ended up paying over €230m (on TV rights, event organization, etc). This is why we can’t have nice things.

Petty politics? If you’re wondering if the whole thing got snarkily political, the answer is: of course it did!

Madrid boss Ayuso was asked on a radio interview whether she would invite PM Pedro Sánchez to the Madrid GP, to which she responded: "I will like to invite the authorities who are in office at that time… I hope it's not him..” Oooh, snap!

5. Gen Zers in Spain are really into polyamory, apparently

Kids these days, right?

Youth unemployment in Spain may be the highest in all of Europe but it appears that young people in this country are also number one at something else: polyamory. Or at least so says this article on El País (which—shocker—has been tops of the newspaper’s “most read” section for some time).

Really? Before you start shaking your head and judging how 20-year-olds choose to live their life, we suggest you take this with a (yuge!) grain of salt. As in, this revelation comes from infidelity dating site Ashley Madison, which you may remember because it was hacked in 2015 and it was revealed that many of the women that men were talking to were actually bots (there’s even a show on Disney+ about it. Check it out!).
But we digress. Turns out that according to a study conducted by the dating app in collaboration with data analytics firm YouGov, Gen Zers in Spain are the most supportive of polyamory and open relationships in all of Europe. 🥰
3 of 5: The study, titled “Decoding Generation Z: A Global Report on Non-Monogamies, Sex and Privacy”, says that 60% of Spaniards aged 18 to 29 support being in non-monogamous relationships (18,000 people participated in the study).

A trend? Another recent study—by Spain’s very official CIS (Center for Sociological Research—said that 4 out of 10 Spaniards are in favor of open relationships. Look at us, so progressive!

So, are their rules? Experts—or at least people El País refers to as experts, say every couple—or three-person triad or “throuple”, in which each support the others in their unique ways—makes its own rules, but the most common are:

No relationships with acquaintances (don’t wanna mess up a friendship).
Avoid sexual encounters with people who live in the same house (like, sex with roommates ≠ great idea).
Maintain full trust with your partner so you can share absolutely everything you’ve done.

Free love is back! At least in Spain.

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