👾 This Week in Spain: The Far-Right Wuz Here

Also: Fun times at the Goyas, a scandal in female soccer and minimum wage controversy.

By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | February 13, 2025 | Madrid | Issue #89

🎉 Welcome to The Tapa, an English-language, weekly newsletter about all things Spain!

🥜 This Week in a Nutshell: The Patriots, a far-right sovereigntist political group, held a convention in Madrid and crowned Donald Trump as their spiritual leader (while criticizing PM Sánchez and the EU). Weeeeee…

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Make Europe Great Again

The far-right meets in Madrid to attack the EU and applaud Trump: ‘He’s not an emperor but a brother in arms’

Look at that AI-generated Trump and tell us he doesn’t look like Alec Baldwin playing Trump.

Far-right leaders from all over the continent were converging in Madrid while you were out and about this weekend, raring to host the first Patriots.eu summit, an event that sought to show the world that the time has come to find alternative leadership in Brussels, especially now that Donald Trump is in power.

• Wait. Who? Before you ask, Patriots.eu and the Eurogroup Patriots for Europe (PfE) are not exactly the same. The first is a political group that brings together far-right leaders from across Europe and was responsible for launching the other, which refers to the group within the European Parliament. Got it?

• The PfE is a right/far-right sovereigntist group that is now the third-largest group in the European Parliament; the 14 countries now represented by the party received 19m votes in last year’s EuroParl elections and have 86 out of 720 seats.

• MEGA. These tighty-righty leaders met Saturday at Madrid’s Marriot Auditorium Hotel, in a summit hosted by Vox leader Santiago Abascal (who is Patriots.eu’s president) and attended by over 2,000 people. Their slogan? Wait for it… “Make Europe Great Again”. Please clap.

• Key figures in the movement such as Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, and Italian Deputy PM Matteo Salvini offered fiery speeches criticizing the usual bogeymen like immigration, gender politics and organizations like the WHO or the UN. Because scary. In a nutshell, they usually oppose globalism, European federalism, and progressive “woke” ideology. Also, a lot of them seem really into horses (see Abascal, Orbán, Salvini…), for some reason.

The goal of the summit was to show that they believe it’s time for a “new normal” in Brussels and across the EU (and by normal, we mean Trumpian or something like it). You know how it goes: The EU is “stuck in the past”. Progressivism is out, a Christian Europe is in. And those new-fangled EU plastic bottle caps? Terrible.

So many words! We won’t even try to be exhaustive about what these fellas (and Le Pen) said, because we’d all die of hunger before we got to the end. But we’ll leave you a few pearls.

• The luxuriously coiffed Geert Wilders (Netherlands) thanked Spain for kicking Muslims out of Europe with its “reconquest” that culminated in the 15th century.

• Orbán said “the replacement of Europe’s population [with Africans and Asians] is not a conspiracy theory. It is pure practice” and “George Soros is the past and Elon Musk the future.”

• Abascal celebrated Trump’s return to the White House in his closing speech: “We are not looking for a savior in a foreign nation, much less an emperor,” he said, calling Trump a “comrade-in-arms in the battle for good and freedom.”

• The organization issued a joint statement accusing the “Brussels elite” of trying to “transform the EU into a mega-state focused on social engineering, with disastrous consequences”—which include, they say, illegal immigration, crime and “climate fanaticism”. Because scary. Again.

• At least some comedy! A video speech from Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in which she pilloried “leftists” was interrupted by a topless activist from the feminist group Femen chanting, “Not one step back against fascism.” So there’s that.

Taking the temperature. Spain’s two largest newspapers El País (center-left) and El Mundo (center-right) ran unimpressed editorials critical of the summit. El País highlighted the group’s “racist, xenophobic and supremacist” elements and its “appeasing instinct” toward Putin, while El Mundo criticized Abascal’s decision to turn the event into a celebration of Trump and Orbán, who share principles that “undermine the foundations of our democracies”. See? Spain’s left and right can agree on something!

Ye old internal contradictions. Whether you agree or not with the PfE’s political stance, it’s hard not to miss its contradictions and more than occasional lack of basis in reality.

• Like hating on the EU, but not wanting to leave it because, well, being in it made their countries prosperous.

• Like being anti-globalism but not wanting to stop trade between their countries because it would destroy their economies.

• Or Abascal telling PM Sánchez in Parliament that if the White House decides to hit Spain with tariffs, it will be because “Trump doesn’t like him”. When in reality Trump probably doesn’t even know Sánchez’s name and maybe thinks that Spain is a Latin American BRICs country?

• And like loving Trump while ignoring the fact that he plans to expel over 300,000 Venezuelans who fled Nicholás Maduro’s “socialist” dictatorship.

But hey, what do we know? Maybe not making sense is the new thing.

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties this week

1.💸 Spain to minimum wagers: Here’s a raise…now give it back

The PSOE keeps hiking the minimum wage for an annual popularity boost. But Tuesday’s wage raise announcement? Backfire. Instead of applause, they got sarcasm (from their own coalition no less), a hiss from their spokeswoman, and the opposition gleefully rubbing its hands. Exciting times.

• The raise: The government announced at a post-cabinet meeting press conference Tuesday that Spain's minimum wage would jump €50 to €1,184 (14 payments per year. Still sucks, although it’s better than nothing). But then—plot twist—the press asked Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz why the lowest tax bracket wasn’t raised too, as usual, to keep minimum wage earners tax-free. And oh boy, was she not happy.

• Sarcasm alert. Díaz, leader of Sumar (squishy far-left), made it clear her party wasn’t consulted—and that she had learned about it from the press. “I can’t reveal cabinet discussions, but as this debate did not exist…” Oh, snap! Then—cherry on cake 🍒—she went further: if a bill was proposed in parliament to fix the tax bracket problem, Sumar would back it—against PSOE. Double snap!

• Happy Pilar not happy. That’s when the PSOE government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría (her name is literally Pilar Happiness) hissed under her breath “It’s not like that.” Yes. In front of the media.

Who pays? About 20% of minimum wage earners—mostly singles without kids—will owe around €300 a year out of their €700 annual raise, per RTVE. “The taxman will take half the increase,” said PP leader Feijóo, showing he kinda knows math.

• Great run, weird move. The minimum wage has risen 61% under PM Sánchez since 2018, when it was €736 per payment. Which we totally applaud. 👏 But why make these workers start paying taxes now? The PSOE insists that paying taxes “teaches” people their role in society. And that the minimum wage has risen way faster than inflation. Both true, but…

• We need money. The PSOE failed in its attempts to tax big energy companies, and it needs cash to comply with EU agreements. The thing is, if it raises the income floor, it loses money from all taxpayers, not just minimum wage workers—costing them €1.5bn in 2025. And they want to spend that, thank you very much.

Cats and dogs sleeping together. Everyone, from far-left Bildu to far-right Vox, wants to raise the tax floor—and the PP and Podemos have already registered bills. The PSOE looks very alone (and primed for another parliamentary loss). So alone that on Wednesday Treasury Minister María Jesús Montero, who apparently made the PSOE call, skipped parliament because she was “sick”.🤢

• Curious note #1. Spain’s tax brackets haven’t changed since the PP lowered rates in 2015. Meaning inflation keeps nudging people into higher taxes without them actually getting richer.

• I know nothing! The government summary of the press conference makes no mention of Díaz’s fightback. It just says she praised the wage hike. 🤔

2. 🤡 Ryanair CEO vs. Spain: Fines, clowns, and cheap seats

Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair CEO known for unconventional press conferences and for getting pied in the face, is fuming over a €107m fine Spain levied on his airline for allegedly overcharging passengers on cabin baggage.

• Spain’s Ministry of Consumption slapped low-cost airlines (Ryanair, EasyJet, Norwegian, Vueling, Volotea) with nearly €179m in fines for “abusive practices” last November. O’Leary calls that “completely illegal”, arguing EU law lets airlines set their own prices. He’s banking on the European Commission or courts to overturn it.

• But what really grinds his gears? That would be Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy, whom he labeled a “communist” and a “crazy clown” (to clarify: not an actual communist as far as we call tell, just a former far-left Podemos guy now in Sumar).

• Send Bring in the clowns. O’Leary’s Tuesday press conference featured a life-size cardboard cutout of Bustinduy dressed as a clown, accessorized with an apron reading “Yo ♥️ sube precios”, which literally translates to “I love raises prices”—because it’s 2025 and people still don’t know how to use Google Translate.

• Not stopping there. Ryanair Spain is now using the image in ads, launching a sale of 179,000 seats (get it?) for €19.99 with the tagline: “Avoid the circus, book before a clown raises prices.” Classy.

Bustinduy? Unfazed. He shrugged off the stunt, saying he was “not offended” and won’t engage in “the eccentricities of a foreign millionaire.” What does offend him? Ryanair’s treatment of Spanish consumers—who, by the way, file more complaints against Ryanair than any airline except Vueling.

But O’Leary’s gripes go beyond the fine. He’s also at war with Aena (Spain’s airport operator), blaming its fees for driving traffic away from regional airports.

• Ryanair is cutting 800,000 seats on seven regional Spanish routes (as we covered two issues ago), citing “excessive” Aena fees. Aena fired back, calling Ryanair’s tactics “notorious, dishonest, aggressive, and threatening”.

• O’Leary wants a 50% fee cut from Aena, pointing to Italy, where Ryanair convinced the government to scrap a tax, cutting ticket fees by €8. In Spain? Fees rose by €3.

What’s next? Despite surpassing 60m passengers in Spain, Ryanair is shifting focus to big hubs (Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, Alicante, Canary Islands) while scaling back regional flights (Santiago, Zaragoza, Vigo, Santander). Routes to Jerez and Valladolid? Gone.

• Planning a trip there this summer? Better rethink your plans. Or just take the AVE.

2. 🕵️ If Spain’s not transparent maybe it’s translucent?

SOURCE: El Español

Spain’s economy and labor market are killin’ it (trust us, a 10.6% unemployment rate in Spain is great), but as far as corruption goes? Not much good news there. Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index came out Tuesday and let’s just call Spain’s grade…bad.

The numbers, please. Spain’s overall grade for 2024 was 56 out of 100, four points less than in 2023 🤦, putting it in 46th place out of 180 countries. That’s behind Rwanda, Botswana and Saudi Arabia (⁉️). And it’s Spain’s lowest grade since…1996.

• What about in Europe? The story is more or less the same. Spain fell from 14th to 16th place among the EU’s 27 members, as Lithuania and Slovenia passed it. It’s on equal terms with the Czech Republic (or Czechia) and Cyprus.

So what’s going on? The simple answer is that there are tons of problems.

• Sánchez fam. The investigations into PM Sánchez’s brother, wife and Attorney General can’t help, even though there have been no trials or convictions—remember, this is a corruption perceptions index.

• Sánchez gov. Transparency took note of the lack of forward motion on national anti-corruption bodies (you can blame Sánchez whose government has been in power for seven years).

• Torpid justice. Transparency also makes obvious complaints including the years it took to renew the national judiciary council or the sloth-like speed with which corruption trials proceed in Spain.

Plenty to go around. Thankfully, the PP and Vox have made their own contributions to the problem 👏. So generous.

• Naughty list. Transparency International highlights (lowlights?) elimination or weakening of regional anti-fraud bodies—like those in the Balearic Islands and Valencia, which the PP and Vox took a hammer to after they came to power in 2023.

Bad Spain! Get better.

3. ⚽ The first-ever gender-equal crotch grab?

As the saying goes, we’ll know sports have achieved gender equality when female footballers grab their opponent’s crotch to annoy them just like the men do—okay, no one says that. But that’s allegedly what happened Sunday.

Barça vs. Espanyol. In Sunday’s Catalan derby between big dog Barça and cross-town little sister Espanyol, Barça’s Mapi León appeared to grab Espanyol’s Daniela Caracas down there while jockeying for position. León allegedly followed up with: “¿Tienes picha?”—“Do you have a dick?”

• Espanyol: Not amused. The club called the act “unacceptable” and said Caracas was too shocked to react immediately but later grasped its “seriousness.…but chose not to react angrily to avoid a disciplinary sanction and harm to the team.” They’ve pledged support for any legal action she wants to take.

• León: No freaking way. In a statement, León denied everything. She says that after Caracas bumped her, she touched Caracas’s leg, and simply asked, “¿Qué te pasa?” (“What’s up with you?”). No crotch grab, no crude question. And she said she reserved the right to sue anyone who “defames” her.

To spice it up 🌶️. Espanyol’s women’s football director Dolors Ribalta suggested a double standard: "If it were an Espanyol player, everyone would have killed us.”

And what happens now? Not much—yet. Caracas hasn’t spoken publicly or asked Espanyol to file charges. It’s not clear if the football federation will investigate or not. Likely outcome? Considering the head of the Liga F (female football league) is trying to calm the waters, it might just…go away.

• Speaking of equality… Back in 1991, Real Madrid’s Michel definitely grabbed Valladolid’s Valderrama’s junk multiple times. The best part? It later became an ad campaign—for testicular cancer awareness.

5.🏆 Goya Awards: Richard Gere calls Trump a ‘thug’ and Melody can’t stop singing her Eurovision song

The 39th edition of the Goya Awards (Spain’s Oscars) took place in Granada on Saturday and it was an evening to remember, with numerous movie stars, A-list celebrities, and PM Pedro Sánchez in attendance. Oh, and a big surprise.

• For the first time in its 39-year history, the ceremony saw the first ex aequo prize for Best Picture. Don’t worry, we had no idea with it meant either but turns out it means that two movies share the award. (This would have been a great way to solve the whole La La Land / Moonlight fuck up at the Oscars seven years ago, btw.)

So who won? Two movies you should definitely see.

• The 47: a film inspired by the true story of Manolo Vital, a bus driver who hijacked a bus and drove it to Torre Baró, the neighborhood where he lived, where there was no public transport during Barcelona’s 1970s boom.

• Undercover: a movie based on the real-life story of Aranzazu Berradre Marín, the pseudonym for the only police officer in Spanish history to infiltrate the terrorist organization ETA.

One of the highlights of the night was the International Goya (sort of a lifetime achievement award), which this year was awarded to Richard Gere. Happily, he’d recently moved to Madrid with his wife so they didn’t have to fly someone from Hollywood this time.

• Charming as ever. Gere took the stage for more than seven minutes to thank the Academy (obvs) and warn about the “foolish tribalism” that he says is taking over not only the U.S. but also the world.

• Tough talk. He also had tough words for Donald Trump, who he called “a thug and a bully”, adding that the U.S. is “in a very dark place”. (Gere also has a long career as a humanitarian so his words didn’t really come as a surprise).

The ceremony had some hilarious moments too, especially on the red carpet.

• Pop singer Melody (who 10 days ago won the Benidorm Fest contest and will be representing Spain at Eurovision in May) decided to sing her hit song Esa Diva every time she was being interviewed.

• OUCH! She was… loud (not her fault, she has a powerful voice). But her singing kept distracting other celebrities and government officials who were being interviewed (with some asking on camera: “When will Melody stop singing?”).

The Goyas may take place in Madrid next year, as Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida says he’s in talks with the Film Academy to bring it back for its 40th edition.

• The first Goyas ceremony took place in Madrid in 1987. It was held here over 30 times, until in 2018 it was decided that it would rotate among cities such as Málaga, Seville, Valladolid and Granada. Dust off your tuxedo, just in case.

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