Pedro Sánchez’s lone stance against Trump may look risky but the truth is he is a sound strategist at home and abroad. Few other centre-left leaders have shown his instinct for seizing political moments in recent decades.
My opinion piece in The Guardian today:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Yesterday, I was on @sobremesapod.bsky.social, hosted by the wonderful @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social, to talk about why Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez seems to be loved everywhere but in his own country.
(Link in the thread, which includes other related links.)
Great episode despite the lurch to the anti-Coddle side by my former friend @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social
This is a very good and nuanced discussion on Pedro Sanchez in the foreign policy context, hype vs reality.
Why has Pedro Sánchez been willing to reject US-Israeli aggression against Iran?
@becquer.bsky.social & @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social
discuss the domestic factors informing his foreign policy & Sánchez's vision for Spain and the EU's place in the new world order: open.spotify.com/episode/7lRT...
Why has Pedro Sánchez been willing to reject US-Israeli aggression against Iran?
@becquer.bsky.social & @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social
discuss the domestic factors informing his foreign policy & Sánchez's vision for Spain and the EU's place in the new world order: open.spotify.com/episode/7lRT...
Spanish deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz has confirmed she will not lead the far-left bloc at the next election.
An impressive labour minister with a clear positive record in office but one who was also a poor party leader and struggled to lead the Spanish left.
She seemed to capture the...1/5
As I listened (please listen too), it dawned on me that the best lens to view the project that facilitated Trump though, is not the Nazis, but Francoism.
The decades long social change programme (protecting women!!) is as important to focus on as the corruption.
1/2
For the latest episode of @sobremesapod.bsky.social, I talked to historian Helen Graham – author of The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction.
We talk about her research on the vast carceral and surveillance state built and maintained under the 40 year Francoist dictatorship in Spain.
NEW EPISODE!
Francoist Prison Worlds
Helen Graham on the totalitarian prison system under the Franco dictatorship
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/episode/4qYz...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...
Good to hear!
NEW EPISODE!
Francoist Prison Worlds
Helen Graham on the totalitarian prison system under the Franco dictatorship
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/episode/4qYz...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...
NEW EPISODE!
Helen Graham on Francoist Prison Worlds
Graham analyses the system of control and surveillance that reached beyond prison walls into families, communities, and everyday life, shaping how millions of people experienced the 40 year dictatorship.
open.spotify.com/episode/4qYz...
NEW EPISODE!
Helen Graham on Francoist Prison Worlds
Graham analyses the system of control and surveillance that reached beyond prison walls into families, communities, and everyday life, shaping how millions of people experienced the 40 year dictatorship.
open.spotify.com/episode/4qYz...
I am in the Irish Independent today looking at at how Spanish police files place a Dublin fintech company at the heart of a sprawling drugs money-laundering investigation spanning Europe, the US and the Middle East. An operation implicating a cousin of Spain's King www.independent.ie/business/iri...
Wow! Given the current political climate, & ever more radical anti-migrant discourses, this seems particularly impressive:
The Spanish government & left-wing Podemos have announced an immediate executive decree that will enable up to 700,000 undocumented migrants to gain legal residency status
OUT NOW!!!
Our 'Spanish Politics 2025: A Year in Review' with Joe Haslam
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/episode/1Ozu...
Apple:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2...
OUT NOW!!!
Our 'Spanish Politics 2025: A Year in Review' with Joe Haslam
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/episode/1Ozu...
Apple:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2...
#ICYMI New from me:
Balancing the smooth running of local government with a bold reform agenda, as Zohran Mamdani need to do in New York, isn’t easy. Spain’s recent experiments with left local governance offer some lessons on how (and how not) to do it
jacobin.com/2025/12/spai...
Dear God. All too familiar.
Balancing the smooth running of local government with a bold reform agenda, as Zohran Mamdani will have to do in New York, isn’t easy.
Spain’s recent experiments with left local governance offer some lessons on how (and how not) to do it.
Spain's agriculture model should not be seen as some antiqued part of the Spanish economy but rather in its employment of digital surveillance techniques & with the growing financialization of the countryside, it is at the cutting edge of European farming.
New Episode!!
Fields of Exploitation: Corporate Farming in Spain
Spain is the EU’s largest fruit and veg producer, with exports topping €18b in 2024. Yet those whose work sustains this lucrative sector face widespread underpayment and labour rights violations.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...
As we discuss, this model should not be seen as some antiqued part of the Spanish economy but rather in its employment of digital surveillance techniques & with the growing financialization of the agricultural sector, Spain is at the cutting edge of European farming. open.spotify.com/episode/73SY...
New Episode!!
Fields of Exploitation: Corporate Farming in Spain
Spain is the EU’s largest fruit and veg producer, with exports topping €18b in 2024. Yet those whose work sustains this lucrative sector face widespread underpayment and labour rights violations.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...
...It Was What It Was w/ @draper-rob.bsky.social, @jonawils.bsky.social & @rorysmith.bsky.social; and @sobremesapod.bsky.social w/ @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social & Alejandro Quiroga.
