Pedro Sánchez is preparing a package of immediate-impact measures for approval before the November 29 election: a minimum wage (SMI) rise, pension revaluation, and housing decrees. The housing decrees were relaunched via the Diputación Permanente after Junts rejected them. The SMI increase will come two months earlier than expected.
Testimonies from migrants describe forced and deceptive returns from Ceuta to Morocco after the dismantling of the El Trampolín camp, contradicting government accounts that returns were voluntary. Minister Ángel Víctor Torres put the number of migrant returns at 11.026, including 513 expulsions. A 19-year-old man interviewed by El Mundo said he was returned against his will.
The Supreme Court is accelerating a decision on its precautionary suspension of the Ley de Nietos, which halted voting for people naturalized through that route. The early election call for November 29 created urgency. The court will decide what to do with the suspension, determining whether those citizens can vote.
Unions CCOO and UGT will file a general strike call next week for November 11 to demand better wages and access to decent housing. General secretaries Pepe Álvarez and Unai Sordo will give details on Tuesday, October 13. Employers' association CEOE argues the strike is illegal because it does not stem from a labour dispute.
Economist Gonzalo Bernardos warns that protests and new rental legislation could scare off owners of one, two, or three rental properties. He predicts landlords will not renew tenants' contracts when they can and will sell the properties instead. The warning follows the BOE publication of the first of two housing-crisis decrees.
The 2027 pension increase is expected after the November 29 election, leaving timing uncertain, though contributory pensions are legally indexed to inflation. Social Security official Alfonso Muñoz estimates the revaluation at around 3,5%, based on average IPC rates from December 2025 to November 2026. The outgoing government could approve it through a real decreto-ley.
Rubén Sanmartín, 36, from Binéfar, will receive the Piolet d'Or on October 24 in Oisans, in the French Alps. He shares the award with Catalans Marc Toralles and Bru Busom, the first Spanish rope team to win the highest international recognition in alpinism.
Spain's economy led EU growth and set employment records during the last legislature, with GDP up 15% since 2018 and unemployment at its lowest since the bubble burst. But the housing shortage and high rents remain major unresolved issues, and inflation has not fully disappeared. The Banco de España raised its 2027 GDP forecast to 2,2%.
Government housing policy contradicts earlier written positions by economy ministers Carlos Cuerpo and Nadia Calviño. Cuerpo's 2014 paper argued that rent control appears to have a significantly destabilizing impact on the market and to increase price volatility. His work is cited in the European Commission's 2025 report against controls.
Under new packaged-drinks rules aligned with EU environmental law, bars, restaurants, and supermarkets will charge a refundable deposit of about 10 céntimos on bottles and cans. Spain follows countries such as Portugal, Germany, and Denmark. The deposit is refunded when the container is returned, as part of the SDDR system to boost recycling.
Inheriting a flat from deceased parents triggers the Impuesto de Sucesiones (inheritance tax), and real estate expert Jaime Secoes says there are two paths. One path results in Hacienda taking 30.000 euros, he says. The second, he claims, is one that Hacienda does not want heirs to know about.
Spain's medicines agency Aemps has issued a health alert and withdrawn the supplement El Toro from sale after detecting sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, which was not declared on the label. The product was marketed as natural. Aemps says the amount is sufficient to have an effect on the body.
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