Court dismisses sex abuse complaint against Spain’s first PM, Spanish property sales hit highest level in 18 years and more news on Monday February 23rd.
Spanish property sales hit highest level in 18 years
Spanish property sales in 2025 touched levels not seen since pre-bubble high some 18 years ago, data shows.
In 2025, a total of 714,237 homes were sold in Spain, 11.5 percent more than the previous year and the highest figure since 2007, when more than 775,000 transactions were completed.
According to data published by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), last year the price of housing closed with a year-on-year increase of 13.1 percent, reaching €2,230 m/2 — the highest on record.
Spanish FM advocates for creation of common European army
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has defended the creation of a European army to meet “security needs” and has argued the concept is not contradictory to that of NATO. “There is no contradiction between a European army and NATO. A strong European pillar of NATO strengthens the EU, just as a strong US army benefits the EU,” Albares said in an interview with El Periódico.
Albares also pointed out that the idea of a European army “was present at the beginning of the European project.”
“Konrad Adenauer, in a famous speech, said that nothing will make the European project stronger than a common army,” he recalled, after which he recalled that “the Defence Commissioner has proposed a rapid reaction force of 100,000 men.”
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Court dismisses sex abuse complaint against Spain’s first PM
A Madrid court has shelved a sexual assault complaint against former Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, Spain’s first democratically elected prime minister following Franco’s dictatorship.
Madrid’s Court No. 14 dismissed proceedings opened following a complaint against Suárez for alleged sexual abuse, after confirming that the accused had died and that the alleged events, which date back to the 1980s, are now time-barred, which would prevent criminal liability from being sought from individuals who are still alive.
The ruling to dismiss the case, to which state broadcaster RTVE has had access, refers to “events that took place between March 1983 and August 1984 and which constitute the crime of sexual abuse and sexual assault” and places ‘the first incident’ when the complainant was 17 years old and, therefore, a minor, as stated in the complaint filed last December.
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Spanish court rejects father’s bid to stop daughter’s euthanasia
Spain’s Constitutional Court has rejected the appeal of a father against his paraplegic daughter’s euthanasia bid, setting up a final decision at European level for the unprecedented legal saga.
Spain is one of few countries to legalise euthanasia following a 2021 law that comes with strict requirements.
It stipulates that anyone of sound mind who is suffering from a “serious and incurable illness” or a “chronic and disabling” condition can request assistance to die.
The woman, in her 20s, was due to undergo the procedure in August 2024 after the euthanasia board in the northeastern Catalonia region supported her request.
But the process was suspended at the last minute after her father filed a legal objection backed by the conservative campaign group Abogados Cristianos (“Christian Lawyers”), with a court applying precautionary measures halting the euthanasia.
The father said his daughter suffered from mental disorders that “could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision” as required by law.
He also said there were indications she had changed her mind and that her ailment did not entail “unbearable physical or psychological suffering”.
The Constitutional Court announced it had unanimously rejected the father’s appeal against rulings by the Supreme Court and lower legal bodies to halt the euthanasia.
The father had appealed citing “the violation of the right to effective legal oversight” and the right to life, but the Constitutional Court said there was a “clear absence of any violation of a fundamental right”.
Abogados Cristianos said it would take the case to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, insisting that “fundamental rights are being violated, especially the right to life and effective legal oversight”.
The woman, who became paraplegic after throwing herself from the fifth floor of a building in a 2022 suicide attempt, asked a court in April 2024 to allow her to exercise her right to die.
Her case was the first to reach a Spanish court for a judge’s consideration since the 2021 euthanasia law was passed.
With additional reporting by AFP.
