More bad weather across Spain this week, Catalonia’s commuter trains still not fully functional, Spanish police recover stolen statue of golf great Ballesteros and more news on Monday February 2nd.
Spanish police recover stolen statue of golf great Ballesteros
Spanish police said Friday they had recovered pieces of a life-sized statue of golf great Severiano Ballesteros stolen by a suspect who likely wanted to sell it as scrap metal.
Ballesteros, who died at 54 of brain cancer in 2011, won five major championships between 1979 and 1988.
The statue, depicting Ballesteros winning the British Open in 1984, was installed in a park in his village of Pedrena in northern Spain in 2017.
Spanish police said the dismembered statue had been located in the northern city of Santander.
“The suspected perpetrator, a man with a history of copper thefts, has been detained,” they said.
Spanish media said the statue, which was stolen earlier this month, weighed about 100 kilograms (220 pounds).
Sold as scrap metal, it could have fetched roughly 4,000 euros ($4,770), according to scrap prices listed on a local website.
Spanish economy grew 2.8 percent in 2025
Spain’s economy grew 2.8 percent last year, fuelled by strong consumer demand, rising exports and a robust tourism sector, according to a preliminary estimate Friday by the national statistics institute (INE).
While down from a 3.5 percent GDP increase in 2024 and just below the government’s forecast for growth of 2.9 percent, Spanish growth was more than twice the average expected in the entire eurozone.
“Right now, Spain is helping power Europe’s growth,” Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said in an interview with Spanish public television after the figure was announced.
Spain, the European Union’s fourth-largest economy, has outperformed its peers since 2021, supported by low energy costs, domestic consumption and a rebound in tourism since the end of the Covid pandemic.
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Catalonia’s commuter trains still not fully functional
Catalonia’s Rodalies commuter rail service will not return to normal this Monday. There will still be buses to cover a dozen sections of track that remain out of service, while Spanish rail infrastructure manager Adif works on 31 points of the network to carry out emergency repairs.
Although the Catalan government had planned for the service to be restored to pre-January 20th levels following the Gelida (Barcelona) train accident two weeks ago, Renfe reported on Sunday that there will still be 11 sections of Rodalies and regional lines with alternative road service.
More bad weather across Spain this week
The first week of February will be rainy across almost the entire country, with significant snowfall and precipitation in many areas.
After a somewhat more stable weekend in many parts of Spain, the first days of February will be marked by “the arrival of several Atlantic storms,” according to Spain’s national weather agency Aemet.
Aemet expects another rainy week across almost the entire Iberian Peninsula, with “heavy snowfall in the mountains, strong gusts of wind, and rough seas.”
With additional reporting by AFP.
