
Left-wing coalitions formally took power in four out of five of Spain's biggest cities on Sunday, marking a major political change in municipal politics a month after voters registered their anger at austerity and corruption in local elections.

Spain's King Felipe VI has removed the title of duchess from his sister Cristina ahead of a trial in which she stands accused of tax fraud charges, in a new move designed to distance the royal family from the case.

One of the founder members of Podemos, the one-year-old leftist party that has up-ended Spanish politics, has resigned in a surprise move that questions its strategy just as opinion polls show it may have peaked.

There was both good and bad news for France in this week’s annual report on the outlook of the wine industry by the International Organization of Wine and Vine (OIV).

Spain's Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, MAGRAM, Isabel Garcia Tejerina, announced that 421 million Euros will be allocated to the Multiannual Aquaculture Strategic Plan 2014/2020. The plan outlines how aquaculture will be conducted in coming years in the framework of the new EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

Voters in Spain's Valencia region, a bastion of conservatism for two decades, are likely to desert Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's party in droves in May's regional election, a poll published on Sunday found, in a taste of nationwide politics to come.

The former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Spaniard Rodrigo Rato, has been detained by police in Madrid. Rato, who has also been Economy Minister during Spanish President José María Aznar’s administration, is accused of money laundering and fraud.

If tripartite talks were restarted between Gibraltar, Spain and UK and agreements reached, as they were under the ‘Cordoba’ experience, these would almost certainly need to take the form of treaties so that Spain can be relied on to stick to them. Nevertheless 2015 is year of elections in UK, Spain and Gibraltar.

Gibraltar Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Joseph Garcia highlighted the long and historic relationship between Gibraltar and the United States during a series of meetings in Washington. In a busy schedule Dr Garcia held meetings at the offices of both Democratic and Republican members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

Hundreds turned out in the western German town of Haltern am See to mourn 16 students and two teachers lost in Tuesday’s Germanwings crash in the French Alps. The Airbus A320 crashed en route to Dusseldorf from Barcelona, likely killing all 150 on board, in what would be the worst air accident on French soil in three decades. Spain declared three days of national mourning.