🥊 This Week in Spain: Sánchez Goes After Musk

Also: The first dumb scandal of the year and a lavish royal birthday party.

Jan 09, 2025

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | January 9, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #84

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Trump’s wingman makes a Spanish cameo

PM Sánchez attacks Elon Musk for ‘stirring up hatred’

Christmas vacation is done and dusted so that must mean it’s time for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to attack Pillsbury Tech Bro Elon Musk for spending his bizarrely ample free time on X/Twitter/whatever attacking the center-left leaders of Germany and the U.K. (but not Spain!) and suggesting that voting for Europe’s far-right upstart parties is the only way to save the continent. Wait, really?

Yup! And TL; DR Musk bad. Sánchez used the opening of his series of events celebrating 50 Years of Dead Franco (more on that in a second) to slam the Trump houseguest’s extreme online logorrhea (look it up). Musk heads an "international far-right movement,” he said; Musk "stirs up hatred,” he said; Musk “openly calls for support of the heirs of Nazism in Germany,” he said. (Musk had urged support in upcoming elections for Germany’s AfD, which may or not be “Nazism’s heirs” but is definitely extreme.)
But why now? "Autocratic regimes are advancing halfway around the world," Sanchez added, warning "the fascism we thought we had left behind is now the third political force in Europe" in reference to far-right parties like the AfD, France’s National Rally…and Spain’s Vox.

Fear of a Vox Planet. Besides the broadly obvious (that Musk says some dumb political shit), Sánchez has domestic reasons to keep people focused on Musk’s bizarro online ramblings. Namely, that the glue he used to piece together the coalition that got him reelected last year was the fear that if the center-right PP came to power, it would do with the votes of (and thereby be beholden to) hard-right Vox, which would force all Spanish women to perform housework while their men attended obligatory bullfights dressed in (also obligatory) Spanish flag pajamas.

Fading power. The power of this fear has however been fading as Sánchez’s government has grown increasingly unpopular, scandal-plagued and paralyzed (see: the amnesty law for Catalan separatists and not much else passed last year). And that has led Sánchez to roll out fear boosters, like this year’s perhaps premature Franco's 50th Deathiversary celebration of “Spain in Liberty” (many argue Spain didn’t return to liberty with Franco’s death in 1975 but with elections and the new constitution in 1977/8).
Booster. You can think of Sánchez’s hit on Musk as one (arguably justified) booster. In that sense, Musk’s attacks on Germany’s Olaf Scholz and the U.K.’s Keir Starmer were a gift to Sánchez. The only thing better would have been if Musk attacked Sánchez directly and called for a vote for Vox. Hey Elon, there’s still time…

The latest Instituto 40dB poll. SOURCE: *El País*

Sánchez’s headaches continue in 2025. Take a gander at a set of new polls and it’s even more obvious why Sánchez is pushing the fear of the far right. A new survey by Instituto 40dB for El País found that support for Sánchez’s PSOE socialists had dropped 2.2 points since the 2023 election, to 29.5%, and its hard-left allies Sumar had lost more than half their support, dropping to 5.1%, while the center-right PP held its own (at 33%) while Vox rose (to 13.8% of votes). Another produced by Sociométrico for El Español found that the PP and Vox would get to an easy majority (with 188 of 350 MPs). Another by Sigma Dos for El Mundo had similar results.

What is remarkable about the polls is how broadly they show not a surge in the PP or Vox or a drop in the PSOE, but a complete collapse of Sumar after the Iñigo Errejón debacle and the party’s descent into near-irrelevance. Sumar, we barely knew ya!

And it gets worse. The good news for Sánchez? No one else in his family has been indicted or investigated in 2025! The bad news? Even when he should get good news, it’s not so good.

Email leaks. Wednesday saw Madrid regional governor Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s chief of staff Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (aka MAR) testify about his role in the leak of an email in the tax fraud case of Ayuso’s boyfriend. This should have been good for Sánchez because it wasn’t about whether Sánchez’s attorney general, Álvaro García Ortiz, broke confidentiality laws by leaking emails in the case, for which he is being investigated, but instead about Madrid’s PP government.
But instead, of MAR’s actions being the center of the news—he admitted sending out another email to journos, but only after it had been published, and pushing a (maybe untrue) theory as fact when it was really just his opinion—the news in the papers was more about García Ortiz having a subordinate send him the leaked email in question to his private Gmail address—the day before they were leaked.

Man, 2025 is starting off tough for Pedro.

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1.🐄 Controversy, Lalachús and a Holy Card

The first dumb controversy of the year started literally as we were all celebrating the new year and trying not to choke on those 12 damn grapes, but here we are.

Every New Year’s Eve all major networks in Spain broadcast a live countdown to midnight from Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and other locations around the country. The show usually features a couple of TV personalities who host, make jokes and help people know when it is they need to eat those 12 damn grapes.

David Broncano on TVE. This year, state-owned TVE decided to go with late-night host David Broncano and actress/comedian Laura Yustres (aka Lalachús, a regular contributor to Broncano’s show) because they have a lot of chemistry on screen. Consider them Spain’s own Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper.
In the end, they killed it. Their show was an absolute success with 5.6 million viewers tuning in, making it the top NYE live countdown special.

But there was a small (and by small we mean big) controversy around the show.

Lucky charms. A few minutes before midnight, Broncano and Lalachús (both first-timers hosting the special) decided to show their lucky charms for the night.
He showed his red socks, and she showed a holy card of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, except that Jesus’ head had been replaced with a cartoon heifer, known in Spain for being the iconic logo (and mascot) of the hit TV game show Grand Prix. She picked it because, she explained, “we all grew up watching this show” and because it “brought families together”.
Not everyone happy. The backlash was immediate. The conservative organizations Hazte Oir (“Make yourself heard”) and Christian Lawyers announced that they were taking legal action against her, Broncano and the president of TVE over “possible hate crime and offense against religious sentiments”. The Spanish Episcopal Conference supported the claim, saying it was “a mockery” of religion. 😱
The unhappy folks are appealing to Article 525 of the Penal Code, which deals with offenses against religious sentiments and blasphemy (this is not a high probability bet: most such cases have gone nowhere).

The story has dominated the airwaves ever since.

Far-right Vox called it “a grave offense” in Parliament.
Justice Minister Félix Bolaños supported Lalachús and said on Twitter/X that the government would “promote the reform of the offense of religious insults.”
The left-ish (or at least pro-PSOE) El País dismissed the whole thing as “ultracatholic entities seeking visibility on social media and in the press.”
Other internautas pointed out that we’ve been seeing holy cards featuring Lionel Messi, Isabel Díaz Ayuso or Taylor Swift, yet no one seemed to be offended.
Socialite/TV panelist Carmen Lomana asked: “How long will they take advantage of the patience of Christians?” and added that Lalachús et al would “never dare do it with the Muslim religion” (this talking point was all over social media).

It came full circle this week when, on the eve of the Epiphany, the guy who wears the heifer mascot suit on Gran Prix decided to pose for a photo while holding a phone showing a picture of Lalachús holding the controversial holy card. So very meta.

At least now we know where the mascot stands.

2. 🤬 Sánchez ministers squabble over 37.5-hour workweek

Everybody knows the best way to get attention (especially when you’re being ignored) is to make a really big fuss. And that’s what Labor Minister (and Second Deputy Prime Minister) Yolanda Díaz is doing. Desperate to pass a law pushed by her Sumar party, the junior partner in PM Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE government, she’s attacking…the PSOE Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo (we love that his name in English is Carl Body). Which is not going to win her friend points with Pedro.

You’re slow-walking it, Carl Body. Specifically, Díaz is claiming that Cuerpo has declined to pass on the proposal for the law to the Comisión Delegada del Gobierno para Asuntos Económicos (CDGAE), a government body that examines economic laws and decrees before they are sent to the cabinet for approval. Basically, he's slow-walking it because he doesn’t want to pass it.
What she said. Díaz trashed Cuerpo on Telecinco, where she said Cuerpo was “vetoing” the bill and lying when he said he wanted to pass the law: “I find this very serious because it is a commitment of the Government of Spain.” She also called Cuerpo a “bad person”! 😨
What he said. Cuerpo, for his part, said that nothing of the kind was happening. “We are not blocking anything at all,” he said.”What we are doing is giving absolute priority to this project… And we are doing so by ensuring that it goes through all the necessary procedures as quickly as possible and also that it goes through quickly and with all the necessary guarantees.”

So what does all that mean? Basically, Díaz is eager to notch a win for her increasingly irrelevant and unpopular Sumar party (see their vote collapse in the top story of this newsletter). But it won’t be easy. Why? Because she managed to extract the promise of a 37.5-hour workweek law in coalition negotiations with the PSOE, but the PSOE never really wanted to do it. Literally, in Díaz’s words: “The PSOE didn’t want to reduce the work week.”

Huh? The PSOE knows that a shortened workweek will make Spain even less productive and competitive in business. And what’s worse, the Sumar law was agreed to by the Labor Ministry and union reps, but not by the business lobby.

What’s next? Díaz’s anger at the delay (“I didn’t think the PSOE would act like this,” she said) will likely push the PSOE to bring it to a vote at some point. But it looks like it will lose in parliament anyway, as there are enough parties against it—even PSOE allies—to kill it. That would notch another embarrassing parliamentary loss for Sánchez (like November’s Impuestazo votes), which is something he’d like to avoid.

TL;DR Don’t expect a shortened work week anytime soon. Sorry!

3.🎂 King Emeritus JC 1’s birthday party in Abu Dhabi

King Emeritus Juan Carlos I (aka JC1) may not be everyone’s favorite royal here in Spain because of his past, ahem, sexual indiscretions, peccadilloes and tax irregularities. Still, he certainly has good friends in the UAE.

That’s why JC1 celebrated his 87th birthday in Abu Dhabi this past weekend. Why Abu Dhabi? Oh, he decamped for the UAE capital back in 2020 after months of controversy over investigations into his finances. He said it was “due to the public repercussions generated by certain events from his ‘past life’.” But let’s focus on the positive (for him).

The party was pretty lavish, with an elaborate drone and fireworks show. (Oh, and don’t worry, this was paid by local friends of the King, not the Spanish taxpayers, so shush.)
The choreographed drones displayed the Spanish flag, the Royal Crown and even a portrait of Juan Carlos with, the media said, beloved Queen Mother Sophia (except it turned out to be Emirati sheikh).

But but but… Unfortunately, the drones in the sky misspelled out the words “Happy Birthday” and “Thank you, Your Majesty” in Spanish (“Feliz cumpleaño” and “Gracia, su majastad”. Seriously guys, these words are not that hard).

The King Emeritus was joined by his daughters (aka the Infantas) Elena and Cristina, several grandchildren and close friends. If you are asking why King Felipe VI (aka his son) wasn’t there, it’s because ~~he would rather stay in Spain so people don’t associate him with the suspicions of financial misconduct surrounding his father~~ he was busy. He Facetimed, though!

This year marks 50 years since JC1’s proclamation as King of Spain, just two days after Franco’s death. It’s unlikely he will be joining any of the government’s many ceremonies commemorating the return of democracy, although according to local media, he really misses Spain and wants to move back here.

We don’t blame him.

4. ⚽️ FC Barca almost didn’t pull this rabbit out of the hat

Football’s big story is that Barça will be allowed to play Dani Olmo, a player the Catalan club bought over the summer for €55mn+performance bonuses. The news inspired an awkward round of roly-poly man hugs and bird-flipping among Barcelona execs. But why on god’s green earth is it news that a club will be allowed to play a player it owns? Because…Barça. Or rather, because Barça finances.

The recent drama began during the last days of 2024. FC Barcelona had only registered Olmo through Dec. 31, 2024, and it turned out that the club didn’t have enough room under the Spanish league’s salary cap to extend his registration through the end of the season.
Courts and La Liga and RFEF say no. Barcelona begged and wheedled. But the courts said no. And La Liga said no. And the RFEF football federation? No. It turned out that there were rules about this that were meant to apply to everybody. No salary cap room at the Dec. 31 deadline? No registration.
But wait, we found some cash! That’s when Barça announced that it had sold the rights to the VIP boxes in its as-yet unfinished new Camp Nou to investors from the Middle East for between €100m and €120m. That was only estimated to be half the value the team would have gotten had they not been sold in a fire sale, but hey, this was an emergency. The problem? The first payment of $28m wouldn’t arrive until Jan. 3, which is, like, not before the end of 2024. But check’s in the mail so all’s cool, right? Well, the league and federation said deadlines are deadlines, so…’no’.

Before we get to how this turns out, let’s go back to how we got here. When team president Joan Laporta arrived in 2021, he took over a team with €1.2m in debt after years of overspending. Almost immediately, he lost Barça all-time star Lionel Messi because… Barcça couldn’t register his new contract.

You call them selling the family jewels, we call them ‘levers’. That’s when Laporta devised his tactic of palancas (levers)—that is, selling future assets to buy and register players today. Barça sold 25% of their LaLiga TV rights to Sixth Street for 25 years for about €525m. Then they offloaded 49% of Barça Studios to Socios.com and Orpheus Media for a cool €200m. And then, because why stop there, the team then resold 29.5% of Barça Studios to a company called Libero, for €120m (that money never arrived, though, which caused problems).
But it was never enough. The players Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Koundé and Vitor Roque cost Barça nearly €200m. The palancas got the first two registered, but the team needed to provide a bank guarantee for Koundé. Why couldn’t they use all the money they raised? When a club exceeds its salary cap, it must adhere to La Liga’s 3:1 rule, which says that for every €3 generated through player sales, cost-cutting, or other income (like palancas), the club can only reinvest €1 in new player signings or raises.
Injury time. Barça then used another workaround—a league rule that allows 80% of an injured player's salary to be reassigned—to register Vitor Roque. That workaround is how Barça got Olmo on the field too: an injury to Andreas Christensen allowed the team to register him in the third week of the current season (and no, we’re not suggesting Barça had a guy go whack Andreas’s leg to open a roster spot…but that’s an idea, amirite?).

Now we’re back to the present. So how did Barça get Olmo registered this time? It appealed its case to the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD)—which is part of the executive branch of Pedro Sánchez’s government—and received a temporary restraining order saying that denying the players registration would hurt the club, the players, the league, and the national team (where Olmo plays). And while the decision is temporary, these cases take up to 3 months to resolve so it’s basically for most of this season.

Everybody’s happy, right? Well, Olmo is, and the team sure is. But others? Not so much. "It's mind-blowing. We're experiencing situations like this that are grotesque," said Athletic team President Jon Uriarte. And the PP blamed Sánchez because everything is political, with spox Borja Semper saying, “It is preferential treatment for a club and it adulterates the competition” and that he doubts this “amnesty” would have been offered to a smaller club.

TL;DR Barça really needs to get its 💩 together, but keeping Olmo out for half a season would have taken Spanish rules obsession to an extreme.

5. 🏰 Madrid castle returns to its rightful owner

You may have heard of the Castillo Nuevo de los Mendoza, a fantastic castle built in 1475 in the town of Manzanares El Real that is not only an example of Spain’s late Gothic architecture, but it’s also the second most visited monument in all of the Madrid autonomous community.

If you haven’t heard of it and want to visit it, however, you’re now in tough luck because it just closed its doors to the public, after Duchess Almudena de Arteaga y Alcázar reclaimed ownership of the building.

Now, before you start asking if we’re going back to the Middle Ages (which we totally are but for different reasons), this has nothing to do with serfdom and fiefdom. Turns out that the 60-year lease agreement between the Community of Madrid and the Ducal House of Infantado has expired and the property is back to its rightful owners.
Yet, this is not the reason why the castle has closed its doors. Even though the new owners apparently want to leave it open, the property lacks the necessary permit to welcome visitors.

Why? It seems that the site’s land is “classified as ‘rustic’, which prevents permits for public access under current regulations”.

The site, declared a Cultural Heritage Asset, was managed for six decades by the Community of Madrid, which invested €1m in restoration, maintenance and public accessibility (which sounds like nothing).
And this is where it gets tricky: castle management was operating without any sort of formal license (welcome to Spain!), which, according to El Diario, is “an oversight that complicates the transition” (understatement, that). The news site says that the Community of Madrid and the town hall have proposed modifying municipal regulations to address the issue, but this process could take up to a year.

In the meantime, everyone is upset about this, especially local residents who used the castle’s popularity to sell magnets and stuff. The town’s mayor, Alicia Gallego, said it’s “very important to reopen the castle ASAP”.

Other options. The Arteaga family will use the downtime to restore parts of the castle. You, however, will have to check out other similar sites until this one opens. May we recommend the impressive Butrón Castle in the Basque Country? It used to belong to the ancestors of one of the writers of this newsletter until they tragically lost it, forcing their descendants to be inevitably poor newsletter writers.

Sad face.

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