03.43 - Spain Today News 7 October 2026

🇪🇸 Spain Today News — Daily Summary (7 October 2026)1. Amnesty Upheld: Puigdemont Can Return to SpainThe Constitutional Court ruled by seven votes to five that the amnesty law covers the embezzlement convictions of the leaders of the Catalan independence bid. Hours later, Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena lifted the national arrest warrants against Carles Puigdemont and two former ministers. Speaking from Waterloo after almost nine years abroad, Puigdemont called it a defeat for those who blocked the law but said it "solves nothing" and gave no return date. Pedro Sánchez welcomed the ruling but ruled out meeting him during the election period, while PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called the amnesty "another deception".2. Housing Decrees Approved Again with New MeasuresThe Council of Ministers re-approved its housing decrees on Tuesday with additions. Limits on vulture funds buying homes below 70% of their appraised value are extended to 2030, and €10 billion will fund interest-free ICO loans of €50,000 to cover the deposit on a first home. The package adds €400 million for social housing providers, and when evictions of vulnerable families are halted, the state will cover rent and legal costs for landlords. With parliament dissolved, the decrees need the 69-member Standing Committee (Diputación Permanente), where the government bloc holds 35 seats to 34; Sánchez admitted the second decree, on indefinite lease extensions, is unlikely to pass.3. Spain's Economy and Europe Ahead of the 29 November VoteSpain heads to the polls with GDP growth of 2.8% in 2025 and unemployment at 2.3 million, but inflation has climbed to 5% and the government ends the legislature without approving a budget. It has spent more than €12 billion on three aid packages linked to the Middle East conflict. The vote opens a European electoral cycle, with France, Greece, Poland and Italy voting in 2027; a PP-Vox government would make Spain the fourth European country with a conservative and far-right coalition. Madrid's leader Isabel Díaz Ayuso urged voters not to vote by post, while Sánchez defended postal voting as a system with full guarantees.4. Felipe VI in Finland: "The Border Is One"On the first royal visit to Finland since 1989, King Felipe VI told a state dinner in Helsinki that "the border is one and the same for all European citizens" and that threats, wherever they come from, concern every state. President Alexander Stubb referred directly to Ceuta, saying security on Europe's southern border is as important as in the Arctic; Finland shares more than 1,300 km of border with Russia. At home, a National Court judge requested the list of calls Ceuta's president Juan Jesús Vivas made to Sánchez or his chief of staff between 27 and 30 July, before the mass entry of migrants. Vivas testified he called ten times; the government says there were nine calls, all answered.