Today in Spain: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday
Competition for homes in Spain gets even stiffer, corpse of Spanish saint put on display for first time in a century, warmer weather starting on Friday and more news from Spain on Tuesday May 13th.
Saint Teresa's corpse on display for first time in 111 years
The corpse of Saint Teresa of Jesus, who died some 440 years ago in 1582, has been put on display to the public for the first time since 1914.
Her exhumed body is being visited by Catholic worshippers at a basilica in Alba de Tormes in Salamanca province (western Spain) Spain in August, with archaeologists surprised by the overall good preservation of her corpse.
Born in Ávila in 1515, Teresa was a prominent Spanish mystic, a key Counter Reformation figure and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was canonised forty years after her death and is a key figure among Catholic believers in Spain.
READ ALSO: How devoutly Catholic are Spaniards nowadays?
Competition for homes in Spain gets even stiffer
In the first quarter of 2025, rental listings published on the country's main property website Idealista received an average of 35 contacts before being taken down, a figure 20 percent higher than that recorded in the same period in 2024.
“A quarter ago, we were already warning about the rental emergency and that competition levels were rising at a very dangerous rate," said Francisco Iñareta, spokesperson for Idealista.
"It's worrying that, far from taking measures to alleviate this situation and reintroduce tens of thousands of families into the rental market, the government remains determined to maintain these harmful policies that have led us to the current situation.
Iñareta was referring to Spain's amended Housing Law and how it's had the adverse effect of convincing landlords to take their properties off the market, reducing rental stock considerably.
READ MORE: Why landlords in Spain leave their flats empty rather than rent long-term
Spain has another plan to block spam calls
Spain's Consumer Affairs Ministry wants to try a different approach to prevent the population from receiving unsolicited cold calls after previous legislation to address the issue failed dismally.
This time it will be the phone companies themselves that will be required to block unauthorised sales calls, instead of there just being the threat of a hefty fine to dissuade companies from making the calls.
In practice, this would involve requiring companies to identify their business calls with a specific numeric code, and phone companies such as Movistar, Vodafone or Orange would them have to to block all calls from companies that do not use said code.
READ MORE: Why Spain's law to ban spam calls has failed
Sunny weather to arrive on Friday after yet more rain
Spain's national weather agency Aemet has announced that there will be a considerable rise in temperatures and more sun starting on Friday May 16th, but not before yet more rain and storms affect much of the country for the following three days.
On Tuesday, Andalusia, Aragón, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Murcia, Navarre, the Basque Country, La Rioja and the Valencia region will be on yellow alert for rainfall and storms.
The weather is also forecast to be changeable for much of the country on Wednesday and Thursday.
READ ALSO: Why is it so rainy in Spain this year?
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