EU clears way for possible Puigdemont amnesty and return, Spain fines Elon Musk’s X platform millions, and more news from Spain on Friday.
EU clears the way for Puigdemont amnesty and possible return
The EU’s Advocate General Dean Spielmann argued on Thursday that Spain’s controversial amnesty law for Catalan separatists is applicable to both embezzlement and terrorism offences of which members of the CDR – Comités de Defensa de la República, an organising group of separatist bodies implicated in the botched independence bid – have been accused.
This would include Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan president who has been living in exile in Brussels after the illegally called referendum in 2017. The ruling could pave the way for Puigdemont’s return to Spain.
In its conclusions published on Thursday, the Advocate General argued that the expenses of the 2017 Catalan independence process did not affect the EU’s financial interests, which would open the way for Puigdemont’s amnesty.
The Advocate General stated that the law “appears to have been passed in a real context of political and social reconciliation and does not constitute a self-amnesty” and does not “include serious human rights violations”, the former of which has been a major criticism of the amnesty bill.
X fined €5 million in Spain over cryptocurrency ads
Spain’s securities regulator said Thursday it has fined social media platform X €5 million for failing to comply with rules governing advertising of financial products, including cryptocurrencies.
In an official bulletin, the CNMV said the $5.8-million fine was imposed for “a very serious ongoing violation”.
The regulator had launched an investigation in November 2023 after detecting advertisements on X promoted by an unauthorised financial company, Quantum AI, which was marketing cryptocurrencies.
The postings violated a regulation introduced in March 2023 requiring websites, media outlets, and social networks to better control advertising of financial products, the CNMV said.
Under the rules, online platforms in Spain are legally required to verify that advertisers are not on lists of illegal companies and that they are authorised to offer financial services, Rodrigo Buenaventura, the CNMV president at the time, said in November 2023 when announcing the probe.
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Spain police smash ring smuggling migrant minors to France
Spanish police have dismantled a criminal network that trafficked migrant minors from the Canary Islands to France, arresting 11 people, authorities said Thursday.
The investigation began after 14 minors went missing from youth care centres on the islands of Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, Spain’s National Police said in a statement.
In May 2025, officers stopped a Mauritanian man at Lanzarote airport as he attempted to board a flight to Madrid with what appeared to be three minors.
Police arrested the man and one of the alleged minors, who was actually of legal age, after discovering the minors were under the ward of a youth care centre on the island.
An investigation then uncovered a “well-organised network” with logistics in Morocco, contacts in the Ivory Coast for falsified documents, and facilities in Spain to temporarily house minors before they were taken to France.
Two homes in Lanzarote were searched, and authorities seized documents, electronic devices and cash. Nine suspects were arrested in total in Lanzarote, and one each in Madrid and Gran Canaria.
They face charges including document forgery, child abduction, involvement in a criminal organisation and child pornography.
Police are still searching for the missing minors.
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Spain returns to third place in the OECD for life expectancy
Spain has regained third place in global life expectancy rankings – with a score of 84 years in 2023 – behind only Switzerland and Japan. This follows a slight slump it suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic which caused the country to fall to eighth place.
This is according to the report “Health at a Glance” report published on Thursday, which notes that the average life expectancy across OECD member countries was 81.1 in 2023.
The mortality rate for the Spanish population as a whole of 181 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023 is clearly below the 191 of the OECD average, but while that of women with 130 was among the lowest (151 on average), that of men with 250 exceeds the average of the organisation (245).
With additional reporting from Conor Faulkner.
