The next 12 months of politics in Spain are going to be very fascinating and very confusing. A lot of political power is up for grabs for the first time since the pandemic: 8,000 town councils, 12 out of 19 regional administrations, 350 MPs, 265 Senate seats and the national government through to 2027.
Offical election campaigns last two weeks but in 2023 we live in a very polarised media environment that demands politicians constantly vomit opinions on Twitter and news programmes, pounding away at the attention and emotions of some 37 million Spanish voters with their talking points.
Complex and contentious global trends like the rise of MAGA radical-right politics will mix with existing national problems like Catalan separatism and emerging new ones like “empty Spain”, the abandoned rural areas.
We don’t know which topics will become most important during the year, or which major events will interrupt plans unexpectedly, and everyone will struggle to work out what is really going on, where the political hurricanes are blowing the country, and what ordinary voters really care about.
Somewhere in there are the truth and a changing reality.
Most of the politicians would prefer that readers and voters and journalists just swallow their spin and propaganda instead of thinking independently, looking critically at situations, or asking impertinent questions.
Tribal dynamics that offer tempting identity-based shortcuts through those overwhelming amounts of information work in politicians’ favour.
To fight against all that, you as a reader can now do something new, this century compared to times past. Your individual monthly or yearly contribution directly to a journalist adds up with all of the others and produces genuine independence: a writer beholden only to his readers.
I don’t want your vote, I don’t belong to any political parties and I don’t want to sell you any other products. Just independent reporting and analysis so you can better understand how Spain is changing in a confusing world.
Sometimes we will disagree on an issue, sometimes my comments will clash with your views, and sometimes they will align with a position expressed by a politician somewhere, but it’s just me writing for you, my readers.
The question after 25 years in Spain and 10 years doing this very in-depth reporting is what can I best do in 2023 to pierce through all of that complexity, confusion and propaganda. How can I best channel all of that knowledge and experience into this newsletter on Substack for you?
We will continue, of course, with the columns several times a week on the latest issues, on how the national whole is evolving and what the headlines about Spain mean. But then we need to go deeper and closer, as I like to do, with video reports and photos from around the country.
To spend time with Spain.
So you can see and hear how the country is changing beyond the big cities and big headlines. So Spaniards can tell you what they really care about in their own words, not in politicians’ propaganda. And so we can record bits of that first draft of history for future reference and generations.
I will take care of the reporting bits. All you need to do is read and subscribe:
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This journalism in 2023: Spain's election year