Carnival comes to Spain
In the week leading up to Lent, cities and towns all over Spain will be celebrating carnival (or carnaval in Spanish), which this year is held from February 27th to March 4th.
Each place celebrates slightly differently, from drag queens in Gran Canaria or jokes and singing in Cádiz carnival to slightly freaky masks in Galicia, Spaniards all over the country will be dressing up and organising big parades.
READ ALSO: The ultimate guide to Spain's craziest carnivals
Tax deadlines for the self-employed
There are several dates that the self-employed or autónomos have to keep in mind in February. These include:
Until February 20th:
Modelo 349 which is a declaration of intra-community operations.
Until February 28th:
Model 347 which is annual declaration of operations with third parties for 2024
Modelo 036, which is Corporate Tax
Modelo 303 for VAT self-assessment
Modelo 322 and 353 for groups of entities
Modelo 369 for importations
Modelo 380 for operations assimilated to imports
Pensions increase
After a government bill which included pension increases was voted down in the Spanish Congress in January, many feared pensioners would go the whole year without an increase to their monthly income. The fall of so-called Omnibus bill meant pensioners were set to see an increase of 2.8 percent in their income for the month of January, as expected, but for it to stop in February and go back to the same amount as in 2024, until a new bill can be agreed upon.
READ ALSO: Spain's transport discounts and pension hikes voted down in Congress
However, following some political wrangling, Pedro Sánchez's Socialist (PSOE) government managed to come to an agreement with Catalan separatist party Junts per Catalunya and the Omnibus bill, albeit in a reduced form, has passed and pensions will now increase as originally proposed.
Transport discounts extended
Similarly, the government had also announced last month that discounted travel tickets would be extended for another six months until June 2025, but because this was included in the Omnibus law, tickets were set to return to normal price. Following the government agreement, the extended transport discounts were included in the scaled back Omnibus law.
However, several regional governments had already announced that they will temporarily maintain transport discounts in certain areas including Madrid, Andalusia, Barcelona, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Zaragoza and Tenerife. Each place has also decided to extend the discounts for different amounts of time and with different conditions. For example, Valencia will continue with the scheme until June 30th, while La Rioja will only keep discounts for young people, pensioners and those with disabilities and Barcelona will maintain a 20 percent discount on certain multi journey tickets.
Protest against housing crisis called in Madrid
Just four months after taking to the streets to demand more affordable housing, residents of Madrid will protest again on February 9th. Habitat24, which brings together more than 30 organisations for the right to housing, has called for a new demonstration to call out public administrations for not putting an end to real estate speculation that drives out thousands of people from their homes.
Last October more than 150,000 people took to the streets of Madrid according to the organisation and 22,000 according to the police. The intention is to surpass these figures this time.
New public transport prices in Barcelona
The Catalan capital's Transport Authority (ATM) has announced new transport rates as of February 10th for the city of Barcelona.
There will no longer be a 30 percent government discount on the T-usual, the T-jove, but the 20 discount provided by the ATM itself remains unchanged. The rest of the tickets remain exactly the same as now as they did not have any discounts applied. This again is due to the repeal of the Omnibus law as mentioned above which extended transport discounts across the country.
Another protest in Valencia calling for regional leader to resign
More than 200 organisations in Valencia have called upon residents to participate in a new demonstration on February 1st to demand the resignation of the president of the regional government, Carlos Mazón.
Mazón is being blamed for the improper handling of the situation during the floods in October in which not enough warning was given ahead of time and over 220 people lost their lives.
There will also be protests on January 29th, the three month anniversary of the floods, in towns including Alicante, Alcoi and Burjassot, among others. There have already been several previous protests calling for the leader to resign, but he has so far refused.
READ MORE: Why Valencia's president is being blamed for Spain's flood devastation
Alicante tram workers to strike
The Alicante trams workers have organised a partial walk out from Monday, January 27th until Thursday, January 31st, followed by a full strike next month. This stoppage is expected to continue throughout February. Tram lines will offer minimal services during the early morning hours only.
Valencia’s huge beach clean-up
Valencia City Hall has announced that its beaches which were left filled with debris after the tragic floods in October, will be fully cleaned up by the end of February. They are aiming to get this done just in time of Las Fallas in March.
It has said that the average amount to be removed is an average of 500 tons per day and that around 60,000 tons has to be cleaned in total. Between 40 and 50 trucks are needed per day, at a cost of €800,000, which it will get the central government to pay.
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