Spain – Surging Ahead!

Spain recently won the World Cup, but the celebrations revealed something far more striking than football. A foreign journalist in Madrid recalls people belting out, ‘I’m Spanish, Spanish, Spanish!’ For him, the singing captured the mood of the country itself – energetic, confident and increasingly intent on looking forwards.

He argues this wasn’t another outbreak of Spanish pride. Nationalism, flags and patriotic feeling are hardly new. What felt different was pride in change – Spain increasingly defined not by its recent political past, or even its complicated history, but by momentum. The country, he suggests, is surging ahead.

And there’s no shortage of political drama. Next month, Pedro Sánchez, Europe’s longest-serving and arguably most prominent left-wing leader, faces a general election. If re-elected, tensions between Sánchez and Donald Trump – and between Spain and the United States – could remain part of the backdrop.

Spain’s also been unusually willing to court Chinese manufacturing conglomerates, while its route to legal status for potentially hundreds of thousands of undocumented individuals could have consequences beyond immigration – socially and geopolitically.

That’s perhaps the real story. Spain’s not merely changing: it’s willing to try things other countries may hesitate to touch. For a foreign correspondent, that makes it infinitely more interesting to watch – and report.

And this Spanish momentum shows no sign of stopping…

Thanks for messages to my website below. Thrilled you also enjoy my novels — invited for inclusion in the prestigious Book Riot’s 2026 Read Harder Challenge!

Nora Johnson’s 15 critically acclaimed psychological suspense crime thrillers, including the latest ‘The Girl in Red’ (www.nora-johnson.net), all available online at Amazon etc. Profits to Cudeca cancer charity.