Spain

PETER BARRON on the joys of renovating a crumbling barn in rural Extremadura... during the pandemic... while more than a thousand miles away

In his latest diary from Extremadura, PETER BARRON describes the village next door which first lured him to Spain

Dotted along the north west coast of Africa, the residue of Spanish empire – two sizeable cities – lies at the heart of a summer of high tension Monte Hacho, the hill that rises above the Spanish city of Ceuta on the North African coast, is often cited as one of the Pillars of Hercules […]

Lili Alvarez was not only one of the greatest tennis players of her era but also a tireless campaigner for equality... not to mention champion car racer and skier

The weirdest stories in Europe: The pub waiter who says he's a Spanish royal, and a corpse rides for six hours on a Swiss tram

New columnist PETER BARRON is a former Newsnight editor turned tech executive, who has been renovating a barn near Fuentes de León in remote southern Extremadura. From there, he will be writing a regular diary on Spanish life, cuisine and culture A couple of years ago, we turned up for Corpus Christi wearing shorts. It was a […]

Prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s government will pardon the nine jailed leaders of Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence bid.  During a speech in Barcelona’s opera house attended by around 300 members of Catalan civil society, he said “I am convinced that getting these nine people out of prison is a clear message of concord.” Twelve separatist leaders […]

Problems are mounting for thousands of Britons in Spain and the rest of Europe who chose not to apply for residency after Brexit It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain… and also in the parts of Europe where UK ex-pats (because people are only called ‘migrants’ when they don’t […]

Nothing will better define this European club football season than Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid upsetting Real and Barcelona to win La Liga When we come to analyse the European club season that ended with Chelsea’s deserved victory in the Champions League final, nothing will better define the fight against adversity – the empty stadiums, the pandemic, […]

Luis Ocaña was a lion of a cyclist, yet his was a life seemingly cursed by fate They say that in sport, as in life, you make your own luck. One man who might disagree with that statement, and with some vehemence, is Luis Ocaña. Despite being one of the greatest cyclists Europe ever produced, […]

An anti-lockdown politician has young crowds chanting her name in the streets and the ruling Socialists on the run As midnight struck on Saturday hundreds of young people headed for the Puerta de Sol in downtown Madrid to celebrate the lifting of Spain’s state of emergency. They danced congas and partied like it was New […]

How Seve Ballesteros hauled golf from its safe, gin-soaked, cliquey complacency into a thrillingly glamorous spectacle There aren’t many golfers who have played a shot so brilliant, so miraculous even, that a commemorative plaque is installed on the spot, but then there haven’t been many golfers like Seve Ballesteros. Even at his best it would have been […]

Britons living in Spain are being turned away from Covid vaccine centres after not having the correct post-Brexit medical documentation, it has been claimed. British newspapers report that local authorities are turning away those without valid European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) or Global Health Insurance Cards (GHIC) and that do not have private health insurance. That is despite […]

The tiny football club of Eibar has defied gravity by staying in the top flight for six years. But its luck looks like finally running out. Never mind the ongoing travails of FC Barcelona, another, sadder, story of downfall in Spanish football is being played out, as the end of the La Liga season nears. […]

A Porsche 911 convertible which the footballer was caught driving through a red light at 111mph just after buying fetched a huge price at auction A Porsche 911 convertible which Diego Maradona was famously caught driving through a red light at 180km/h (111mph) just 30 minutes after buying has sold for €483,000 (£414,000) at auction in Paris. […]

Barcelona pioneered a fusion of finance and football. Others are now playing the same game while the Catalan club itself is embroiled in a crisis. The jailing, even for one night, of the former president of Futbol Club Barcelona is not the first, and will not be the last, time it has happened in this club’s […]

STEVE ANGLESEY brings you some of the recent stories you might have missed from the continent. A man who used a blow-dryer to thaw a frozen water pipe set his home in southwest Germany on fire, causing 300,000 euro (£262,000) worth of damage. Police in Kämpfelbach-Ersingen said they believed the dryer had been left unattended […]

A Spanish MEP is lobbying for the European Union to include the flag of Europe on coronavirus vaccines which are produced in the EU 27 countires. Domènec Ruiz Devesa is campaigning for the blue and gold star logo to feature on the vaccine boxes and delivery vans where the jabs have been produced to promote […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY reports on the quest for the remains of a writer likened to the Bard, and the posthumous activities of other great authors. Imagine if William Shakespeare’s remains were no longer in his grave inside Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. Imagine if they’d been lost, possibly in an act of desecration during a traumatic […]

The government is “working closely” with Spanish authorities to resolve issues over post-Brexit residency documentation after British nationals were prevented from boarding flights back to Spain. Travellers at Heathrow airport were left “distressed” after being told by airlines that they did not have the correct proof of residency. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) […]

Could Catalonia go it alone, and could Spain afford to let it? MIREIA JOFRE-BONET and ALBERT BANAL-ESTANOL analyse the economic consequences of Catalan independence The prospect of Catalonia seceding from Spain has never looked closer. Following a messy referendum vote on the matter (which the Spanish government refused to recognise but sent police in to […]

It might seem quixotic, at a time when Spain looks like it is falling apart, but could the country’s future lie in a union with neighbour Portugal? DAVID BARKER investigates ‘Iberism’ As events in Catalonia continue to expose Spain’s core fragility and the Iberian peninsula’s vulnerability to splintering into several smaller states, it is a […]

The Catalonian crisis has put Europe, as well as Spain, in jeopardy, says PAUL KNOTT. The EU has been getting itself back on track recently after a series of crises. That comeback could be derailed again by the dramatic events in Catalonia. The Spanish government’s attempt to block the referendum on Catalan independence by force […]

Spain is facing an existential threat, says JASON WALSH, with the country’s fragile compromise – which has held since the end of Franco’s dictatorship – now in tatters. For those watching on television, or following in newspapers or online, there seemed to be only one flag being flown across Catalonia last weekend as the state […]

As tensions rise ahead of Catalonia’s disputed independence referendum, only one thing is clear – the two sides are moving further apart than ever. ANDREW DOWLING reports An old refrain often used about Spain is that in the country ‘everything is politicised’. This became apparent following the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils in mid-August […]

Fans of the cult Spanish series I Know Who You Are have been left in frustration. As they await the climax, LARA WILLIAMS explores what is behind the show’s success I Know Who You Are, or Sé Quién Eres, is a taut Spanish crime thriller which has gained a cult following since its recent appearance […]

Robert Elms lived in Barcelona in the 1980s as it emerged from Franco’s long shadow. Here, in a love letter to the Catalan capital in the wake of Europe’s latest terrorist atrocity, he tells the story of a unique city. For me Barcelona is the greatest European city of them all. It isn’t the greatest […]