🇪🇸Week of October 26

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the Partido Popular, said 69 people died in the Urda train crash because the government did not renew an obsolete safety system. He called it "cowardly and immoral" to blame the Atocha control operator who gave the wrong orders, and said political responsibility should be settled at the 29 November elections.123

Feijóo demanded the resignations of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Transport Minister Óscar Puente, saying: "If they do not resign, we will remove them at the polls." He met railway technicians to discuss rail safety and promised to prioritise maintenance over new high-speed construction.423

Attributed claim: Público reported that Feijóo accused Puente of "blaming" an Atocha operator, and that social media users resurfaced what Feijóo had said about the driver in the Angrois crash. The right-leaning outlets ABC and La Razón led on Feijóo's charge that the government caused the Urda deaths by failing to renew the safety system.532

Basque police withdrew their deployment during two key hours of the disturbances in Bilbao, ABC reported, as El Mundo asked why the Ertzaintza has been overwhelmed again by four failures in 12 months at the hands of a new abertzale generation. El Mundo described hooded abertzales in uniform seeking a confrontation with police in Bilbao and trying to provoke injuries among residents, in what it called an ambush by the slogan 'Gora ETA' in the heart of Deusto, with neighbours used as human shields and with free-use garages.123

A resident attacked by the hooded group in Bilbao said: "They gave me thirty kicks to the head." Two members of the B7 gang from Santutxu were among those detained, El Correo reported.45

Attributed claim: The party of GKS said it had nothing to do with the incidents in Bilbao, El Diario Vasco reported, as it found itself at the centre of attention. OkDiario, a right-leaning outlet, instead blamed a young PSOE figure in the Basque Country for encouraging the street violence that set Bilbao alight.67

A man was shot dead inside his room at the Joan XXIII hospital in Tarragona. He had been admitted after being wounded in a shooting in Salou on 16 October, and El País reports he had been under police guard until last Monday.12

The killing is being investigated as a homicide by firearm, and the victim was shot in the room where he was being treated. The hospital attack follows the earlier Salou shooting in which the same man was hit.341

The case is under investigation, with no arrests or suspects named in the accounts. The victim's police protection had ended days before the hospital attack.32

Madrid's city government has approved the redevelopment of Real Madrid's Valdebebas training complex using an economic report that miscalculated the municipal benefit. The report, prepared by consultancy Savills, put the annual gain at 98.6 million euros when the real figure is 1.46 million, El País reported. The error lay in a multiplier in the study, according to elDiario.es.12

The city council acknowledged a "material error" in the redevelopment of the Ciudad Deportiva del Real Madrid. Officials said they had detected the mistake but did not explain how it would be corrected. The operation covers 448,000 square metres earmarked for hotels and a private hospital, elDiario.es reported.32

The Partido Popular said the error in the Valdebebas report does not affect Real Madrid's position in the redevelopment. The party described the mistake as an "errata", or typo.4

elDiario.es reported that Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida justified the redevelopment with inflated municipal benefits in a report his office commissioned directly, and that the operation covers 448,000 square metres for hotels or a private hospital. Cadena SER put the gap between projected and real revenue in its headline as "from 98 million to just 1".25

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez promised to reform the Constitution so that pensions are revalued in line with the consumer price index, and to protect that revaluation at constitutional level. He made the commitment at a rally in Asturias.123

Attributed claim: OkDiario, a right-leaning outlet, reported the promise as coming after the government failed to deliver the constitutional guarantee for four years, framing the announcement as a broken commitment being repaired. The centre and centre-left outlets reported the pledge as a new commitment without that charge.412

Francisco Martín, the central government's delegate in Madrid, resigned after being left off the PSOE's candidate list for the 29 November general election. El Confidencial described him as Pedro Sánchez's delegate against regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso who was left without a list. El Mundo reported that he quit after the Puerta del Sol encampment and his exclusion from the lists.123

Martín said the party had put obstacles in his way. "They have put sticks in our wheels," he said, according to El Mundo's account of the resignation.2

Attributed claim: Vozpópuli reported that the Madrid PSOE had already vetoed Martín in its lists for backing Enma López, the candidate it calls the 'díscola'. The outlet presented that veto, rather than the Sol camp, as the real reason for the resignation.4

El Mundo cast the departure as the unexpected resignation of Sánchez's "battering ram" in Madrid against Ayuso and mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida, punished with no place on the 29 November list. El Debate carried live reaction from Madrid's parties to the resignation.56

The PP and Vox have agreed to stand down from each other's way in the Senate ahead of the 29 November general election. Under the deal, the PP will not field candidates in Girona, Tarragona and Gipuzkoa, while Vox withdraws in six other provinces. Vox leader Santiago Abascal will also run a single candidate in 14 places.12345

Where Vox does not stand, it will place candidates described as "independents" on PP lists. El País reports that the far right will include its candidates as "independents" on PP lists in the provinces where it is not running. El Mundo says the pact also covers Abascal designating an "independent" candidate to be included on PP lists wherever Vox withdraws.23

El Confidencial describes the arrangement between Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Abascal as a historic agreement for the Senate. The PP gives up its Senate candidacies in three provinces and Vox in six, the outlet reports.4

On the left, talks to pool votes for the Congress on 29 November have cooled. PSOE and Frente Amplio have slowed their agreement to optimise the vote in the lower house, according to The Objective.6

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, returned to Venezuela after 10 months away, announcing her arrival with the words "I am here. With you." Thousands of people took to the streets to receive her, with crowds demanding elections.123

El País reported that those greeting Machado said she "is coming to press the accelerator," while ABC described her return as taking place among a multitude demanding elections. El Mundo framed the return as Machado coming back to lead Venezuela's transition.234

US President Donald Trump said he knew nothing about Machado's return to Venezuela and that he hoped she would be safe.5

A bus went down a 20-metre embankment in the Montseny massif near Barcelona, injuring 83 people, seven of them seriously. The accident happened in Fogars de Montclús, where emergency services mounted a response operation.123

La Vanguardia put the injury count at eighty, seven of them serious, in the same fall at the Montseny. The other accounts give 83 injured.41

Attributed claim: MARCA described the incident as a collision between a bus and a car, reporting 83 people treated, 25 seriously hurt and 8 taken to hospital. That account of a collision and of the 25 serious and 8 hospitalised differs from the reports of a bus falling down a ravine with seven seriously injured.51