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Madrid

⌚️ Spain's First Scandal of the Season

Plus: Kids just won't leave home, a cow + corpse mystery in Asturias, and does every Spanish politician have a loved one on trial?

Madrid | Issue #118

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New season, new scandal

⛔️ Spain’s sexual abuser trackers fall down on the job

Spain’s prized system of electronic abuser bracelets — meant to protect women from violent ex-partners and sexual aggressors — isn’t looking so miraculous. A cascade of failures has revealed that the devices may not be as foolproof as the government claims, raising questions about whether thousands of women were really as safe as promised.

  • The cracks appear. The scandal broke last week when the Attorney General’s office flagged what it politely called a “minor technical glitch” in its annual report. In reality, it was closer to an eight-month blackout: between late 2023 and March 2024, courts lost access to historic location data showing whether aggressors had violated restraining orders.

The problem emerged during the switch in the management of Cometa, the central bracelet monitoring service, from Telefónica (subcontracted to Securitas) to a new joint venture between Vodafone and Securitas. In the handover, past records became inaccessible. That meant judges couldn’t check if abusers had breached their court-ordered limits, which was a nightmare for prosecutors, who were forced to shelve cases, suspend proceedings, or even watch aggressors walk (at least temporarily).

  • Poor design. Even before the migration, the Ministry of Equality had warned that the transition plan was “poorly designed, lacking resources, and inadequately detailed.” Afterward, judges discovered the data hole. For the AG’s office, the risk was obvious: a “potential lack of protection” for victims and a serious blow to the justice system. And the glitches didn’t stop there…

How they’re supposed to work. These bracelets, in use since 2009, are worn by men under restraining orders, either after conviction or while awaiting trial. The aggressor gets a device strapped to his ankle or wrist; the victim receives a special smartphone. If he comes within the forbidden perimeter — usually 500 meters — she’s alerted by sound, vibration, and a flashing screen, while Cometa is alerted too.

  • In theory, it’s a double safeguard: real-time protection plus a digital paper trail. The GPS logs become crucial evidence in court, proving when and where violations occurred. Judges can then impose harsher penalties, from fines to prison terms of six months to three years under Spain’s Penal Code.

More than 4,500 men currently wear the bracelets, and more than 21,000 women have been protected by them over 15 years. The government’s proudest talking point? Not one woman has been murdered while carrying the protective device.

What’s actually happening. Vodafone and the Equality Ministry have both admitted the new bracelets don’t even meet the government’s contract requirements. At a December 2024 meeting, officials conceded the devices weren’t waterproof (despite specifications), raising questions about how “tamper-proof” they really are.

  • Coverage gaps. Coverage is patchy in rural areas. Distance readings can fail in small towns. And Cometa struggles with the volume of alerts, forcing technicians to sift through false positives before deciding whether to escalate. In short, the firewall against abuse is full of holes.

He said/she said. The Ministry of Equality insists the crisis has been exaggerated. Minister Ana Redondo claims the blackout lasted only a few months, that the bracelets “worked at all times,” and that no woman was left unprotected or abuser freed. She argues that the only glitch was in retrieving past data — an issue Vodafone resolved by December 2024.

  • But prosecutors aren’t so sure. Their report notes cases suspended and evidence lost. And Vodafone itself hasn’t denied the specifications problems.

Enter the politics. Sensing blood, the center-right PP pounced. In Parliament on Tuesday, party leaders accused the government of abandoning vulnerable women and covering up a catastrophic failure. They demanded Redondo’s resignation.

  • You are a bad minister! By Wednesday afternoon, the opposition had the votes. Parliament formally censured the minister, 170–162, with 16 abstentions from Catalan separatists in ERC and Junts— two of PSOE’s supposed allies. For Sánchez’s fragile coalition, it was another reminder that it often can’t count on its “friends.”

  • Oh, Redondo didn’t leave her job, silly. No one ever resigns in Spain. The vote was just symbolic.

Why it matters. For victims, the bracelets were supposed to be a guarantee. For the government, they were a flagship policy. And now both are under question.

  • No blood, no foul? Spain’s government likes to say no woman has died in the program. That may still be true. But “alive” isn’t the same as “safe,” ya dig?

More news below. 👇👇

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💬 Five things to discuss at dinner parties

1. 🥊 Everyone in politics is going on trial

Party time! The partner of Madrid’s regional presi, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is heading to trial. A judge ruled Monday that Alberto González Amador will face charges of tax fraud, falsifying documents, accounting crimes, and belonging to a criminal organization. 😱

  • Recap. In 2023 Amador was accused of tax fraud and document forgery. Hacienda, Spain’s tax authority, says he defrauded over €350,000 in 2020–21 by using 15 fake invoices to cut his tax bill. Facing prison, Amador tried to cut a plea deal.

  • “Shell companies” is never a positive term. Amador, who worked as a middleman on medical gear sales during the pandemic, allegedly set up shell companies to generate fake expenses to lower his reported profits.

  • Heap long time! Prosecutors are seeking nearly four years in prison and fines, while parties Más Madrid and the PSOE, which filed parallel accusations against Amador, want up to five.

Ayuso Strikes Back. After a day of silence, Madrid’s dramatic leader came out swinging. She accused PM Sánchez’s government of timing the case to bury bad news about his own family (read below).

  • Seems suspicious. “Whenever there’s bad news about Sánchez’s circle, something similar suddenly appears on my side, like a mirror image,” Ayuso said, claiming the government “controls the headlines” to ensure her partner’s case gets top billing.

But wait, there’s more! As if one high-profile case wasn’t enough, Ayuso’s comments came just hours after it was confirmed that Sánchez’s brother, David Sánchez, would also stand trial for alleged influence peddling and corruption in Badajoz—accused of using his relationship with Mr. Handsome Sánchez to land a tailor-made government job.

And, and, and… Judge Juan Carlos Peinado also chose this week to send PM Sánchez’s wife to trial on charges of embezzlement. He has summoned Begoña Gómez to his court on Saturday so prosecutors can lay out details of the indictment. Peinado has had Gómez under investigation for nearly a year and a half and is following two lines of investigation:

  • You know who I am, right? One accuses her of using her status (again, her relationship with Mr. Handsome) to engage in influence peddling, misappropriation of funds, and other fun things in connection with her dealings with business leaders and Madrid’s Complutense University while running a master’s program at the school.

  • Who are you working for? The other asks whether public funds were embezzled through the hiring of an adviser at the presidential palace, who allegedly worked on Gómez’s private matters while on the state payroll.

Telenovela season. For now, all of these scandals are running in parallel—like competing soap operas—with Spain’s ruling party and opposition wielding them ahead of a tense political season and perhaps early elections. While the Sánchez family’s cases are politically toxic, the penalties facing González Amador are much more serious. 🚨

  • A sign that González Amador’s case might not be going so well? In true soap-opera fashion, Ayuso low-key distanced herself from her leading man, claiming she didn’t even know him when the alleged fraud took place.

2.💥 Sánchez’s migration deal with Junts goes down in flames

And now it’s dead. Pedro Sánchez’s carefully awkward network of allies fell apart spectacularly on Tuesday when Parliament rejected a bill that would have handed Catalonia control over immigration policy in the region, a key concession meant to keep the support of separatist party Junts (led by outlaw leader Carles Puigdemont).

  • The deal was the product of months of tense negotiations. Junts had demanded the transfer of migration powers in exchange for dropping a parliamentary move that could have forced Sánchez into a confidence vote earlier this year.

  • Saving us from them. Junts argued that controlling its borders (How?

Police checkpoints on the roads from Valencia?) was needed to stem the “current overflow” of immigrants into Catalonia, which was putting the “survival of our identity” in doubt because of the impact it was having on the Catalan language (as in, the immigrants don’t speak it).

Instead, it collapsed in full public view. Far-left Podemos came out swinging, voting no and blasting the proposal as “openly racist,” arguing that it framed immigration through the lens of crime and repeat offenses.

  • With friends like these… Then came the shock inside left-of-center Sumar, Sánchez’s junior coalition partner: Compromís, a party within Sumar, announced it would also vote no, saying it wasn’t just a technical transfer of powers but a cultural war being fought on the far-right’s terms.

  • The little ones you’ve never heard of. Even Izquierda Unida and Chunta Aragonesista (❓) openly wavered, hinting at abstentions or no votes.

An odd coalition. Along with the predictable no votes from the PP and far-right Vox (which accuses Junts and the PSOE of trying to “dismantle Spain”), these defections were enough to sink the bill before it even reached full debate.

  • For Junts, it was more than a legislative failure; it was a political humiliation. Puigdemont had hoped to deliver a major win for Catalonia and outflank rivals like the more moderate ERC and his hard-right, anti-immigration separatist competitor Aliança Catalana, which is gaining ground.

Now, instead of celebrating, Junts is seething. Party leaders blamed Sánchez for failing to keep his allies in line, accusing him of doing too little to secure the votes.

  • The fallout could be far-reaching. Puigdemont has been threatening to pull Junts’ support for weeks, and this defeat gives him another reason to walk away. Without Junts, Sánchez would struggle to pass even the most basic legislation, perhaps pushing Spain into early elections. 🥳

3. 🏡 Spanish kids stay at home in hope of inheriting a house

Let’s start with the glass-half-full bit. The good news? Spanish youth are leaving home about five months earlier than they did in 2023. The bad news? The average age of emancipation is 30 (down from 30.4 in 2023). That makes Spain the fifth “worst” country in the EU (in the sense that you want the youths to get on and start their life). But hell, we leap-frogged Italy, so at least we’re no longer fourth worst. Right?

  • Not a pretty picture. Eurostat’s new report on youth emancipation, released Tuesday, paints a grim picture. Spanish youth leave home almost four years after the EU average (26.2), and more than six years later than countries like France, Germany, and the Netherlands. That impacts everything from building wealth to starting a family and, well, just growing up.

Housing, we’re looking at you. Our headline for this story is cheeky, but it hides a bigger (and bitter) point: Considering Spain’s sky-high and rising housing costs, combined with its low salaries, many Spaniards are more likely to inherit a home than buy one.

  • The kids are not alright. According to an August report from the Youth Council of Spain (the Consejo de la Juventud de España, a kind of super-lobby for youth organizations), only 15.2% of youth (16-29) are emancipated in Spain, a record low for the period studied since 2006. Why? “The main barrier remains access to decent housing.”

  • 92.3%…really!? The average rent of €1,080 would eat up 92.3% of an average young person’s salary if they wanted to live alone. And buying? The average price of €197,210 is equivalent to 14 years of youth salary, while making the down payment on that (€59,163) would require four full years’ worth. And that sucks.

We’ve gone on about this. We’ve published deep dives into why Spain’s house price boom isn’t a bubble that will pop soon and prices back to earth, and how the high prices are pushing Spaniards to city outskirts—and smaller cities.

  • No damn houses. Spain’s accumulated housing deficit—what needs to be built to satisfy demand—had risen 100,000 units, to 700,000, in 2025, Central Bank Governor José Luis Escrivá told an economists’ conference Monday.

  • The solution is sorta obvious. Spain really needs to build. Lots. Market rate units. Affordable units. And gobs more public housing. PM Sánchez noted back in January (quoting OECD numbers, it seems) that only 2.5% of Spanish housing stock is public, compared to 14% in France and 34% in the Netherlands.

And notice something there? In those countries, the youths leave home lots sooner.

4. ⚽ Real Madrid player to go on trial over sex tape of underage girl

Sexual misdeeds involving fútbol players are, unfortunately, a dime a dozen in the modern world. Just pick a team like, say, Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo’s alleged 2009 rape of a woman in Las Vegas spawned years of coverage (as well as a $375,000 settlement for the woman). And Karim Benzema was found guilty of complicity in an attempt to blackmail a fellow French national team member with a sex tape.

  • Now it’s 22-year-old Raúl Asencio, a rising star, who’s set to face trial in the Canary Islands for spreading a sex tape involving two girls—one underage.

  • Here’s the twist. No one’s accused of rape or assault. Asencio wasn’t even there for the sex. The charges are about distributing child pornography and invasion of privacy.

What happened? Back in 2023, the four defendants met two girls at a beach club in the Canary Islands. Asencio stayed by the pool while the other three went to a cabana with the two girls, where they had consensual sex. All good, right? Well, one girl was 16. That’s a problem. And here’s another one: The three filmed the sex, allegedly without the permission of the girls, and then passed the videos around after the girls begged them to delete them.

  • How Asencio got roped in. Days later, after the other three had shared the videos in WhatsApp, Asencio asked for one that he could share with a friend, which he allegedly did, despite knowing that the video had been filmed without consent.

  • This is where the problems start. Spain’s penal code section dedicated to violations of privacy specifically says that those who “with knowledge of its illicit origin and without having taken part in its discovery” share intimate information shall be punished with imprisonment of one to three years and a fine, and adds that if it concerns a minor or reveals the person’s sex life, they will also be charged. Asencio has been charged with two counts under this statute.

One victim dropped her complaint after Asencio sent a letter admitting his ‘error’ and paid a settlement. The younger girl is still pursuing her own case against him. For their part, state prosecutors want 2½ years in jail for Asencio; the others face up to 4½ years and a fine. Asencio paid a bail of €15,000 while the other three paid €20,000. The trial date is TBA.

  • Interesting factoid. A lawyer friend of The Bubble says that in theory a journalist asking to see the video for proof could, in theory, also be charged.

5. 🐄 A cow, a calf, and a corpse; the Asturias railroad mystery

Even in Spain’s quietest corners, life can pack a punch. Take Fontaciera, a sleepy hamlet of 140 souls near Gijón, Asturias. Not much happens there… until last week, when it suddenly turned into the set of a Coen brothers movie. 😱

  • It began at dawn. A passenger train on the Gijón–Laviana line barreled through the valley and hit a pregnant cow named Verrugas. She died instantly, along with one of the two calves she was carrying. But physics had one last twist: the second calf was launched from the womb and somehow survived. Neighbors watched, stunned, as the newborn trembled on the tracks.

  • The conductor managed to keep the train upright. 🚃 The nine passengers were shaken, but none were injured, though traffic ground to a halt. Police and firefighters swarmed the scene to deal with the derailment and the unexpected birth.

That’s when Act Two began. While inspecting the surrounding area, officers stumbled across a body. A mummified human body, to be exact. Tucked away in an abandoned building just meters from the crash. Forensic teams later estimated it had been there for three or four months. They found no signs of foul play and judged he was likely a homeless man who’d stepped off the train at the nearby Pinzales station and never made it out.

  • Suddenly, Fontaciera wasn’t just talking about a miracle calf. It was talking about a corpse in the brambles. And wondering what else might be hiding along the tracks.

  • Local papers could barely keep up. First the derailment, then the cow, then the calf, then the corpse. (For extra measure, another unrelated body turned up in the nearby town of Nuevo Roces the very next day, this one inside a parked car. Asturias really outdid itself.)

Investigators are still working to identify the man, but for now, there’s no mystery about the calf. Farmer Ramón scooped her up, took her back to the barn, and watched in disbelief as she stood on wobbly legs within hours. A healthy xata (calf, in Asturian), born two weeks early, delivered not by midwife but by commuter train.

  • He didn’t have to think twice about the name. In tiny Fontaciera, where a cow can stop a train and a corpse can wait quietly in the weeds for months, some things still feel inevitable.

  • She’s called Milagros.

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