Holiday homes in Spain

According to a report presented to the media here yesterday by Grupo Lar, Spain is the preferred choice of 66 percent of Britons who decide to buy a holiday home abroad. The reasons given for their preferrence are the Spanish climate (42 percent), personal or cultural reasons (30 percent) and the standard of living in Spain (15 percent). Surprisingly, less than one percent buy property in Spain purely as an investment made by a quick re-sale.

In Spain there are 3.3 million second homes and demand for holiday homes has risen on average 3 percent per year over the past decade. According to the Bank of Spain figures quoted by Lars however, the demand of foreign residents has risen much more sharply, including a rise of 147 percent in just four years. In 2003 foreign investment in Spanish real estate totalled 7,179 euros compared to 2,908 million euros in 1999.

Malaga (Costa del Sol) is the most popular choice among non-resident home-owners in Spain (45 percent) followed by the Valencian Region (Costa Blanca and Costa Azahar), the Canary Islands, the rest of Andalucia, Catalunya, Murcia (La Manga and Costa Calida) and the Balearic Islands. A recent study carried out by IESE estimated that that by 2008 foreign demand for holiday homes will have exceeded domestic demand in Spain. The great majority of non-resident property buyers are first British and second German and this trend is expected to continue.

Related links:
Buying property in Spain
Buying land in Spain
Houses for sale Costa del Sol, Spain
News about Spanish property market

ETA suspects arrested in San Sebastian, Spain

Spanish police have arrested three ETA suspects this morning in a flat in San Sebastian in the latest of a series of arrests which have taken place over the past few days. The three suspects were armed and according to sources quoted by Cadena Ser, preparing to launch a terrorist attack in the Basque Country.

Yesterday police arrested two Basques who tried to escape from one of the police road controls set up in the Basque region over the Easter period. They had dozens of ETA "zutabes" (bulletins printed by the terrorist group to instruct collaborators) in their car and are suspected of collaborating with ETA.

And on Tuesday Jose Segurola Querejeta, suspected of being one of the new leaders of the terrorist group, was arrested in France together with Miren Itxaso Saldúa. According to the Spanish Interior Minister José Antonio Alonso, at the time of their arrest the Basques were found with guns, false documents and car number plates and materials to make explosives similar to the bombs used by ETA in its latest terrorist attacks.

Security has been increased during holy week in Spain in an attempt to avoid any repetition of ETA attacks on tourist destinations during the holiday period. Spanish police have set up road checkpoints on all major roads to and from the Basque country and on access roads to Spain's major tourist resorts.

Driving in Spain

As part of its ongoing campaign to reduce the number of car accidents especially during holiday periods, Spain's traffic authorities have introduced a new fleet of what they called "camouflaged cars" to monitor driving along Spain's busiest motorways during Semana Santa (Easter).

132 mostly French (according to Cadena Ser) cars will patrol the roads equipped with a system to make any possible offenders pull off the road. Drivers who are found breaking Spanish driving laws may find themselves following a car which suddenly displays blue rotating lights or a flashing message on its back window. These cars will guide the offending driver off the road. Police will then take appropriate action, according to the offence.

The new camoflaged cars do not carry a radar system so they will not pursue drivers who are speeding (another fleet of 124 police cars already do that all over Spain and especially, we have found, on the strip of A7 motorway crossing Castilla La Mancha).

The new fleet will be looking for offences such as not wearing seat belts, drivers talking on their mobile phone, overtaking without indicating etc.

People who are not familiar with Spain's driving laws should remember that failing to carry in your car a replacement set of light bulbs, two warning triangles, visibility vests (enough for all the passangers in the car) and a spare pair of glasses if you need them for driving are all finable offences.

Spanish traffic authorities estimate 15 million cars will take to the road this week, and hope that these new "spy" cars will help to disuade drivers from taking unecessary risks and so reduce the number of car accidents usually registered in Spain during holiday periods.

Driving laws in Spain

Petrol prices rise in Spain

Today marks the beginning of Holy Week in Spain, and as every year holiday-makers will flock to the tourist areas to enjoy the first warm days of Spring. But this year people driving to their holiday destination may find themselves exceeding their budget due to the price of petrol here, especially if they drive a gasoil car.

Although Spanish prices are still not as high as in many other European countries, petrol prices are starting to become more and more of an issue here. It costs nearly 6 euros more to fill a 40-litre gasoil tank than it did in Easter last year.

This month oil prices have reached an all-time high in Spain and gasoil now costs 86.4 cents per litre. In April last year a litre cost 76.6 cents. Meanwhile non-leaded petrol 95 costs 90.3 cents and unleaded super 97 costs 98.2 cents.

The alternative to driving is of course to take advantage of some of the special offers launched by airlines running inland flights. Spanair launched another 9 euros per flight campaign this weekend and some of Iberia's special offers start from as low as 15 euros. Infact it has never been as cheap to fly within Spain as it is this year.

Rail travel is another possibility. Spanish long-distance trains are usually comfy and good value for money. First class travel on RENFE and AVE trains is much cheaper in Spain than in Britain, and passangers are served meals and drinks depending on the time of the journey,

Useful links for people planning on spending their Easter holidays in Spain:

Holidays in Spain
Spanish paradors
Hotels in Madrid
Air travel to Spain
Rail travel in Spain

Major tourist development planned for Gibraltar

According to the leading article published in this morning's edition of Spanish newspaper La Razon under the headline "Gibraltar, from tax haven to real estate business", the governing authorities in Gibraltar aim to convert the rock into a major tourist destination.

The paper claims that British architect Norman Foster has designed a macro marina project with 500 berths for yachts and cruisers of all sizes, hotels, leisure complexes with cinemas, a museum and a shopping center, and 15 buildings including 4 high-rise apartment blocks the largest of which has 26 floors.

La Razon (one of Spain's right-wing papers, never known to mince its words) writes "Peter Caruana (Chief Minister in Gibraltar) intends to leave a pharaonic proyect as his legacy to the colony so that he will be remembered by future generations".

According to the paper which claims to have seen the plans of the project, the size of the complex is 308,000 sq. metres and its cost is 2,500 million euros.

If the story is true, there will be much protest in Spain where political and business leaders are fiercely critical of the the fiscal status of Gibraltar where the VAT tax is still not applied. Such are the tax advantages of having a business in Gibraltar that there are more offshore companies registered on the rock than inhabitants.

Meanwhile, tourism is a key sector of the Spanish economy, especially in southern Spain, and Gibraltar is located right in the middle of the Costa del Sol, one of Spain's most popular tourist destinations. The marina project in Gibraltar will be seen as unfair competition by the Spanish tourism industry and is bound to become yet another divisive issue be be included in the agenda of future meetings planned between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar.

Related entries
The future of Gibraltar
British nuclear submarine in Gibraltar
Gibraltans vote in European elections

Spanish government orders removal of General Franco statue

In the early hours of this morning the last statue of Franco which had stood in the Plaza San Juan in the administrative center of Madrid was quietly removed and transported to an unknown location for storage.

Spain's Employment Minister confirmed that his Ministry had given the order for the statue to be removed, reflecting what he called "a reasonable decision in a democratic state".



The statue was of Franco sitting on a horse had stood outside the incredibly ugly new ministries buildings since 1959. It was seven and a half metres high and workmen took two hours to dislodge it during the night.

Spanish national police were on hand to avoid any violent incidents, but in the end very few people turned up to witness the last statue of the Spanish dictator disapper into a lorry and be driven away.

Spanish police investigation of Paedophilia on the Internet

Spain's civil guard have today arrested 19 people from several towns in Spain as part of an international operation led by Spanish police against an international ring of paedophiles distributing child pornography over the Internet. Over 500 arrests are expected during the next few hours in 12 countries in Europe and Latin America.

Spanish police started investigating the case in January of this year after somebody in Pontevedra, Galicia, reported the existence of an Internet chat site offering access to agressive and pornographic photos of young children. Police started monitoring the site to try and discover who was publishing the material.

After just 15 days they had identified more than 900 conexion points from all over the world. Since then, and with the help of Eurojust and IbeRed, police have seized over 20.000 pieces of paedophile material including videos, photos and MP3 files.

The Spanish civil guard organised meetings with judges and police from the countries involved in the case, and today police are simultaneously searching homes in Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Holand, Chile, Argentina, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Uruguay. In Spain people have been arrested in Madrid, Alicante, Valencia, Salamanca, Zamora, Burgos, Vizcaya, Lleida, Barcelona, Asturias, Tenerife, Mallorca y Pontevedra.

The Spanish Interior Minister, José Antonio Alonso confirmed the operation to reporters this morning and said that paedophilia was a disgrace that was intolerable in any democratic society.

Spanish government to set up property renting agency

According to figures published by the Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud) last year, 64 percent of people aged between 18 and 34 in Spain still live with their parents because they can not afford to buy a house and because property available for long-term rent is both scarce and relatively expensive. In an attempt to make more rented accommodation available, the Spanish government proposes to set up an agency to encourage property owners to rent out empty flats and to persuade young people to see renting a property as an economically viable alternative to buying a house.

Details of this new government agency have been released today. It will be called the State Renting Company (La Sociedad Publica de Alquiler) and will rent out privately-owned property on behalf of the property owners. The idea is for owners of empty homes (usually people who have bought property as a medium or long-term investment) to use the company as a kind of renting agency, handing over the right to rent to the agency, and to receive a monthly rent from the agency for a given period, say five years.

This means that owners will not have to look for and interview tenants or chase after any unpaid rent. And they may even be able to claim the five years rent in one lump sum, which is bound to attract lots of people who would otherwise be reluctant to rent out their second or third properties, but seems a bit excessive. Until the Agency finds tenants, the monthly rent paid to owners will be public money. The policy may prove very attractive to non-resident owners of Spanish property who often find it very difficult to rent out property they buy in Spain to long-term tenants, and even more difficult to keep up with monthly rent payments.

The government aims to create a pool of 25,500 properties to rent in Spain over the next four years, and to offer them at a lower monthly rent than the current average so that more young people and low-income families can afford to take this option.

Related links
News on the property market in Spain
Buying a house in Spain
Mortgages in Spain for non-residents

G5 Interior Ministers anti-terrorism summit in Granada

The interior ministers of Spain, France, Britain, Germany and Italy meet in Granada today for a two day summit to discuss how to collaborate more in their response to terrorism. The ministers are expected to sign a joint declaration tomorrow against terrorism in which they will draw a clear line between fundamentalist terrorism and Islam.

This is the sixth time the G5 ministers have met to discuss ways of strengthening security by exchanging information on suspects, simplifying extradition procedures and allowing access to each other's data bases on terrorism and organised crime.

According to Spanish sources, one of the lessons learned from the investigations into the 11-S and 11-M terrorist attacks was the need to coordinate the monitoring of movements of suspected terrorists who up until then had been able to move with relative ease around Europe as they planned the attacks. The interior ministers will explore ways of preventing this from happening again and disuss how to give Europol more power so that it can play a more effective role in monitoring terrorism and crime in Europe.

Police uncover massive money laundering network in Spain

Spanish police are investigating the discovery of a massive money-laundering operation in southern Spain. Yesterday the Interior Ministry announced that 41 people had been arrested and that more than 250 million euros of illegal money had been laundered in Marbella and Alicante in what is the biggest police operation against money laundering in Spanish history.

300 Spanish police have participated in this investigation which began two years ago and has since uncovered a network of people from Spain, Morrocco, France, Finland, Russian and Ukrania who are accused of laundering black money from different sources, including the Russian oil company Yukos. According to reports in the Spanish media, millions of euros were taken from Yukos, transferred to a Dutch company and re-invested in a Spanish branch of the same company.

Police have searched 18 homes and 251 different real estate promotions along the Costa del Sol, including luxury mansions and complexes. Police have seized van-loads full of documents, hard discs, 42 luxury cars (Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes....), two private planes and a yacht.

Operation “white whale” (as Spanish police have called it) began in 2003 and its misión was to investigate links between a lawyers firm in Marbella and groups of international organized crime. According to reports in Cadena Ser, the firm was used to launder massive sums of illegal money from criminal sources such as international trade of drugs, arms, prostitution, kidnapping, blackmail, and tax evasion. One of the fiscal judges investigating the case said today that “the worse was still to come” and some put the sum of laundered money at 600 million euros.

Spain commemorates the victims of the 11-M terrorist attacks

Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings and Spain prepares for various events organised amidst the usual tension and disagreement which have become characteristic of political debate in Spain regarding Europe's biggest ever terrorist attack.

One of the tragedies of the Madrid attacks and the aftermath has been the deterioration of reason, respect and relations in Spanish politics. Far from the united front presented by political forces in the aftermath of the 11-s terrorist attacks in the USA, the Madrid train bombings have divided Spanish parties seemingly to the point of no return.

One year on, the Popular Party is still unwilling to admit that its first hypothesis (i.e. that terrorist group ETA was to blame for the attacks) had little basis in the first instance, and lost more and more ground as investigations progressed. Members of the former PP government continue to blame their electoral defeat on the terrorist attacks rather than examine their own errors in the aftermath of the bombs (incidentally, a report in the Spanish press this morning says that Spanish police now suspect that the Islamic terrorists set the date of the train bombings in October 2003 according to new evidence found, long before the Spanish general election date was set. If confirmed this will overturn the thesis that the attacks were intended to influence the election result).

This week the Popular Party refused to sign the outcome of the parliamentary commission set up to investigate events leading up to, during and after the terrorist attacks. The commission's aim was to make proposals on how to avoid a similar attack in the future and how to learn lessons from this one.

The Popular Party alleges that since (in the opinion of its members) the identity of the person who personally led the attacks in Madrid has still not been discovered, then the commission should not have concluded its investigation. All the other political parties allege that the commission's role was not to lead a legal investigation which is being carried out by Spanish judiciary and police, but to draw from the evidence gathered during the commission and to offer proposals accordingly. The Commission was given a time limit which had already been extended, it was being used as a political platform from which to air grievances and throw accusations at political opponents, and it concluded its investigations after the appearance of ex-president Jose Maria Aznar, the appearance of Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero before the 11-M Investigation Commission and the lesson taught to us all by Pilar Manjon, president of the Associations of 11-M Victims' Families.

Today the Spanish Congress will pass a motion to condemn the terrorist attacks and remember the victims. The original plan was to hold a special session of congress tomorrow and pay homage to the victims, but the victims' families asked for a much more low-key commemoration. The President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, will also read out a text in today's European parliamentary session.

Tomorrow all of the bells of Madrid's 650 churches will ring at the exact time at which the train bombs exploded, ruining hundreds of lives last year. The Association of Victims' Families has protested at the initiative, saying they would much rather live the moment in the privacy of their homes in silence, and that their suffering will be made worse by the ringing of the bells.

Related links:
Spain's worst day in years
Spain the day after
ETA denies involvement in Madrid bombing
Aznar accused of manipulated Spanish public opinion
Spain accused of "easing up" on the War against Terror

Women in Spain

Today is International Women's Day, and if anyone had any doubt just how much the situation of women in Spain has changed over the past fifty years, an e-mail sent to the euroresidentes mailbox this morning serves to illustrate the complete transformation of the role of women in Spanish society.

The email contains a collection of some short extracts taken from publications of Seccion Feminina, the organization under Franco that was in charge of the indoctrination and formation of the new Spanish woman. And they have to be read to be believed.

"Throughout her life, the mission of women is to serve. When God made the first man, he thought "It is not good for man to be lonely". And he made woman to help and accompany man, and to serve as a mother. God's first idea was "man". He thought of woman afterwards, as a necesary complement, as something useful" (Public and Social Studies, Secondary Education, 1962)

"When you get married, your name will become your first name, your first surname, then "de" (of) and then your husband's surname. Like this: Carmen Garcia de Marin. This is a pleasant formula, as we do not lose our personality, but we become Carmen Garcia who belongs to Mr Marin, that is Carmen Garcia of Marín" (syllabus of the course Domestic Economy for secondary school and teachers training level, 1968).

"The life of all women, however much they may pretend otherwise, is no more than an eternal search to find someone to whom they can submit themselves" (1944).

"When he arrives home from work, have a delicious meal ready for him...Take off his shoes. Speak in a low, relaxed and pleasant tone. Get ready - touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair. Make yourself look a little more interesting for him. He may need a bit of cheer after his hard days work, and your job is to give it to him. Looking after his needs will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.

Minimise all noise. When he arrives, turn off the noise of the washing machine or vaccum cleaner. Greet him with a warm smile and show him that you want to please him. Listen to him, let him speak first - remember that his topics of conversation are more important than yours. Never complain if he arrives late, or if he goes out to dine or enjoy himself without you. Try rather to understand his world of tension and stress and his real needs... Remember he is the master of your house.

Encourage him to enjoy his hobbies and support him without being too insistant. If you have a hobby, don't bore him by talking about it because womens' interests are trivial compared with the interests of men. ...

At bedtime prepare the bed as quickly as possible. Although feminine hygiene is of maximum importance, your husband should not be expected to have to wait to use the bathroom. Remember you should look perfect at bed time. If you have to put face cream or hair-rollers on, wait until he is asleep as both can alarm a man last thing at night. As far as intimate relations are concerned, you must remember your marriage obligations. If he needs to sleep, let him. Do not intrude his privacy or stimulate him. If your husband initiates the act, then you should agree to it humbly, always bearing in mind that his satisfaction is more important than that of a woman. When the peak arrives, a small noise from you will be enough to express any enjoyment you may have felt. If your husband asks you to participate in unusual sexual practises, be obedient and do not complain" (Domestic Economy for secondary school and teachers training level, 1958).

Today Spain has more women ministers than any other European government, and one of the firmest and most repeated commitments of Spanish President Rodriguez Zapatero is to extend further womens rights in terms of working conditions, pay, positive descrimination, protection from domestic violence etc. Much progress still has to be made, but the extent to which the role of women in Spain has progressed over the last 30 years is a tribute to Spanish democracy (and a great relief to all of us women living here). Feliz dia de la Mujer!

Related:
Womens rights and domestic violence in Spain
Exploitation of Spanish grandmothers
Smoking among Spanish women on the rise

Low mortgage interest rates in Spain boost housing market

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has just published a study on Europe's housing markets, and concludes that housing prices in Spain, France and Ireland continued to rise by double figures during 2004 and that there is little evidence to suggest that markets could crash in 2005.

The executive summary of the RIC paper says of Spain, France and Ireland, "Each year for the past three or four years pundits have predicted that the following year would herald a market slowdown in the booming residential markets of Europe. Yet, the UK apart, the slowdowns have failed to materialse. Low interest rates, instead, have continued to feed beliefs that capital gains can still be made out of housing and, to an extend, they have become self-reinforcing"

The table below, taken from the RICS Executive Summary, shows the rise in housing prices in European countries in 2003 (grey) and 2004 (red).


Unlike in the UK, low interest rates in Spain have helped to maintain the rise in housing demand, boosted by a steady increase in mortgage loans. Real mortgage interest rates in Spain were negative last year, averaging just 3.49 percent in Autumn 2004, and rates are presently 4 points lower than mortgage rates in the UK. which is one reason why more and more British buyers are choosing to take out a mortgage with a Spanish bank.

The RICS European Housing Review 2005 was put together by Michael Ball, professor of Urban and Property Economics at the Department of Real Estate and Planning at the Business School at Reading University. The full report can be downloaded free from here.

Related:
Latest news and figures on the property market in Spain
Mortgages for non-resident house-buyers in Spain
Spanish banks
Mortgages in Spain

Domestic use of new technology in Spain

Spanish households are amongst the most reluctant in Europe to incorporate new technologies into their daily lives according to the latest report published by Red.es, a state-owned company whose role is to encourage and monitor the use of technology in Spain. According to the results of this report, 45 percent of Spanish homes are resistant to introducing the latest technology into their domestic life.

The report studies the use in Spanish homes of the four main communication technology services: Internet, mobile phones, landline phones and digital or satellite television.

According to the results, 23 percent of Spanish households are on the fringe of the digital age and have "emotional barrier" to new technologies. They only have on average 1.3 services in their homes and they reject services such as Internet because they believe that the advantages do not outweigh the difficulties and risks involved in installing systems and learning how to use them. These families tend to live in small towns or villages at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale and most of them do not have children living with them. A further 22 percent of Spanish families have telephone services but tend to reject paying for Internet access, or pay for the most basic conexion via modem.

Just over 16 percent of Spanish households have a positive view of information technology, but tend to relate the benefits of Internet to work rather than to domestic life. These families tend to come from the upper-middle classes and have children. The majority of them (70 percent) have a PC computer at home with broad band Internet.

According to the report, only 5 percent of the population shows real enthusiasm towards integrating communication technologies into their home, with an average of 3.7 of the 4 services studied. Almost all of these families (98 percent) have a computer at home and over half have cable television. Many of these homes also use other hi-tech devices such as DVD players, scanners, webcams, digital camaras etc.

Related:
Spanish Telefonica Internet Services
E-commerce in Spain

New fines in Spain for illegal smoking

Spain's days as smokers' paradise are coming to an end. The Spanish government plans to introduce a system of fines as part of new anti-smoking laws it hopes to push through Congress over the next few weeks. The proposed legislation includes fines for people found smoking in areas where it is forbidden, and for under-age smokers (of whom there are plenty in Spain) whose parents or guardians will be obliged to pay the fine on their behalf.

Spain's Health Minister, Elena Salgado, who makes no secret of the fact that she is a committed anti-smoking campaigner, announced plans to introduce tougher anti-smoking laws in Spain last November, and the draft legislation was approved by the members of President Rodriguez Zapatero's cabinet last week.

According to sources consulted by El Pais and ABC, the fines go from as much anything between 10,001 and a million euros for most serious offences related to illegal smoking, between 10,000 and 600 euros for serious offences, and 600 euros or less for the minor smoking-related offences.

Smoking will be a finable offence in the workplace, in all public buildings (ministries, social security offices, job centres, town halls.....), in all public transport, in hospitals, clinics, schools and in universities.

Related:
Rise in number of Spanish women smokers in Spain
Smoking to be banned on Spanish trains
Drugs in Spain

Spain's football coach fined for racist comments

Yesterday the Competition Committee of the Spanish Football Federation decided to fine Luis Aragones, trainer of Spain's national football team, 3000 euros for the racist comments he made about Tierry Henry in the lead up to the last match between Spain and England.

The fine will be considered by many to be a long overdue and surprisingly small recognition of the offensive and damaging nature of the Spanish trainer's original comments which were recorded by Spanish television and broadcast around the world. Aragonés referred to Henry, the Arsenal team mate of Spanish footballer Reyes as "that black shit". After the comments were aired on television, not only did Aragones refuse to apologise, saying that his remarks were intended to motivate Reyes and not to offend anyone, but he also referred to Reyes as a "gyspy".

Days later, in a press conference preceding the Spain-England match, Aragones became irritated at questions posed by English reporters referring to the incident, and said "I know who is racist. I remember the colonies. There are some who have run after them like wolves after prey," referring to Britain's past.

The Spanish Football Federation has always been very reluctant to punish Aragones for the "Caso Henry" as it is known here, and in the end they were forced to take action by the Anti-Violence Commission, so the lenient nature of the fine (3000 euros represents a day's salary for Aragones) is hardly a surprise to people here.

It is however a big blow for the various groups that are emerging in Spain and at last starting to speak out against the growing racism on Spanish football terraces. Their cause and their voice would have been greatly helped had the Spanish Federation treated the behaviour of Luis Aragones with the severity many believe it deserved.

Weather in Spain gets worse

The weather in Spain continues to be headline news here as conditions get progressively worse and are not expected to get any better until Thursday.

Spanish television and radio have reported the inevitable horror stories resulting from the freezing weather, including the experience of one poor man driving from northern Spain to Jaen (Andalucia) last night. This morning he told Spanish radio Cadena Ser how he telephoned the emergency number available to drivers three times on the way only to be told by traffic authorities that he could continue his journey because the roads on his route were clear. But as he drove along the A-44 road linking Jaen and Granada late yesterday evening he found the roads blocked by wind and snow and hundreds of people trapped in their vehicles unable to go on because of the snow. Since then until 6.30 this morning when he rang Spanish radio to station, Jorge had advanced just 1 kilometer in nine hours. Understandably he didn't sound very happy.

Meanwhile, 14 regions are on red alert because of the weather, and in some areas temperatures are expected to reach minus 20 degrees. Gale-force winds and snow storms have caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights (in Barcelona 140 flights were cancelled yesterday), and passengers are advised to consult airports before setting off. Traffic authorities have issued another warning today advising travellers to postpone any journeys until conditions improve.

Related links:
Weather in Spain