Spain’s golden visa residency scheme ends, record February tourism numbers, schools close as hurricane-force winds put Canaries on red alert and more news from Spain on Thursday April 3rd.
Record February tourism numbers in Spain
Spain welcomed 5.4 million foreign visitors in February 2025, an unprecedented figure for the second month of the year, when most major destinations are still in low season.
According to data published Wednesday by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), the increase in the number of travellers was accompanied by a similar increase in spending.
Foreign tourists spent €7.26 billion in Spain in February, 7.6 percent more than in 2024.
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Spain’s golden visa residency scheme ends
From today April 3rd 2025, non-EU nationals will no longer be able to buy property in Spain worth at least €500,000 as a means of achieving Spanish residency through the golden visa scheme.
We’ve covered the golden visa’s cancellation in detail ever since Pedro Sánchez first announced his government’s intentions to scrap the scheme a year ago as a means of allegedly addressing Spain’s housing crisis.
READ MORE: 10 key golden visa stats as Spain axes residency scheme for foreigners
Schools close as hurricane-force winds put Canaries on red alert
Storm Nuria hit the Atlantic archipelago on Wednesday night, spurring authorities to close schools on Thursday in Tenerife, La Palma and La Gomera due to the very strong winds of up to 130km per hour that are forecast.
Eight Spanish regions are also on yellow alert on Thursday for rain, rough seas and strong winds: Navarre, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, and Madrid.
Spain’s exiled king to sue former Cantabrian president
Spain’s disgraced former king Juan Carlos I is planning a lawsuit against the longstanding ex-leader of the northern region of Cantabria, Miguel Angel Revilla, for alleged insults and slander in a book he wrote.
In truth, the emeritus monarch, in self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi following numerous financial scandals, has summoned Revilla to a conciliation meeting for him to take back his words and pay €50,000 in compensation or if not face a lawsuit.
In reaction to the news, the outspoken Cantabrian president argued that the emeritus king is a “fiscally stateless person of the country of which he was the head of state”, and yet he “is immune, he cannot be criticised by anyone.”
“All of you here could be sued by the king; you have said harsher things than I have,” he told the journalists.
