A roundup of the latest news on Monday

Spanish PM hails Lula win as ‘global progressive comeback’

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday celebrated his leftist Brazilian ally Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s re-election victory as launching a “progressive comeback”, as he trails in polls before Spain’s November vote.

“A great victory for Lula! What has happened in Brazil will happen in Spain. The global progressive comeback has just begun,” Sánchez posted on X, after Lula’s recovery from a first-round loss halted a string of right-wing gains in Latin America.

¡Gran victoria de @LulaOficial! Lo que ha pasado en Brasil, pasará en España. La remontada del progresismo global acaba de comenzar.

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) October 26, 2026

Supermarket prices rise 54 percent more than wages since 2021

New data shows that food prices in Spain have risen by 31.8 percent since December 2021, well above the increase in the cost of living as a whole, at around 18 percent. 

The soaring rise also outstripped wage growth. Gross compensation per employee as measured by the European Central Bank (ECB) has risen by 20.7 percent in Spain over the same period.

In other words, food prices rose by 11.1 percentage more than wages – 54 percent more.

Spain demands two holiday rental platforms remove 8,318 listings

Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda has urged two rental platforms offering holiday accommodation to remove 8,318 adverts marketed as holiday rentals for breaching the Urban Tenancies Act, which was recently amended.

According to a statement from the Ministry, the Directorate-General for Consumer Affairs has deemed these adverts to be unlawful because they are advertised on these platforms as holiday rentals, despite the fact that they are allowing bookings for periods of less than 31 days – the minimum term established by law for this type of contract.

House prices have risen almost four times as much as wages since 2013

Returning to inflation, new figures also show that rising house prices in Spain are also offsetting wage rises and holding back economic activity. 

This is the main conclusion of the report published on Friday by Comisiones Obreras union, which showed that, since 2013, wages in Spain by their calculations have risen by around 30 percent but the cost of home ownership has soared by 108 percent — in other words, house prices have risen 3.6 times faster than wages in that period.

In regions such as Madrid, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia, the gap is even wider. Madrid saw the greatest imbalance between the rise in house prices and wages, with property rising 4.2 times faster than pay.

Real Madrid beat Barcelona in La Liga Clásico

Kylian Mbappe struck twice to earn Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid a 2-1 Clásico victory over La Liga leaders Barcelona on Sunday at Camp Nou, cutting the gap to three points.

French superstar Mbappé opened the scoring before the interval and then slotted home late on to inflict Barca’s first domestic defeat of the campaign after Raphinha had equalised for the champions.

Real Madrid remain third, behind Atletico Madrid and Hansi Flick’s Barca, who had won their first nine games before a chastening week.

The Catalans suffered a second straight defeat after losing on Tuesday against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

Mourinho was delighted with his team’s display in his first Clasico back at the helm of Madrid.

“My team had an extraordinary game, very organised, good concentration, with courage to play out from the back against a team that presses you a lot,” Mourinho told reporters.

“We had chances for the second goal… obviously Barca had a strong reaction but we were calm and organised and at 1-1 we never lost our tranquility.”

Barça had won six of the seven previous Clásicos since Flick arrived but were surprisingly subdued against Mourinho’s side.

With additional reporting from AFP.