More American gas than ever

Pedro Sánchez in Baghdad and Istanbul. José Manuel Albares in Washington. The Spanish government is busy abroad, while struggling domestically. Next Tuesday, there will be a language exam at the European Union's General Affairs Council, where the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician is scheduled to be put to a vote. Few countries want to offend with a veto, but the issue of national minorities is now a very sensitive issue in Eastern Europe. We saw it last Sunday in Romania. The Hungarian national minority turned the second round of the presidential elections around, giving victory to the pro-European candidate, Nicusor Dan . The Popular Party has been trying for months to prevent this vote, which, if favorable, could strengthen the government's fragile parliamentary majority. The PP and national minorities. That is the question.

Albares arrived on Friday for his first meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Marco Rubio with a calling card that has been little discussed these days. Spain has been purchasing significantly more liquefied natural gas from the United States since Donald Trump took office. Imports of Russian liquefied gas have decreased significantly. In the last four months, purchases of US LNG have quadrupled to 44% of the total, surpassing Algeria (30%), the main supplier since Pere Duran Farell created an energy bridge between the Sahara Desert and the port of Barcelona in 1969.

Gas is not purchased by the government. Not now, nor a year ago. Gas is not imported by the state, since Spain lacks a public hydrocarbon company, an instrument that Italy (Eni) has retained. The French state holds a golden share in Total, and the Portuguese government oversees Galp. Gas in Spain is purchased by private companies in the sector, and the details of their contracts are not even known to Enagás, a company dedicated exclusively to managing the reception and transmission network, with a 15% state stake.

The invisible hand of the market has decided to buy more gas from the United States, perfectly aligned with the Trump administration's demands to accelerate the export machinery. Buy more gas from us! This demand the European Commission has accepted in its tariff negotiation platform, an issue currently at a critical stage. LNG purchases from Russia have fallen to 13%. They reached over 21% last year. (Russian gas was not embargoed during the war in Ukraine, but oil was.)

US LNG imports up, Russian liquefied gas purchases down

Spain is currently consuming more gas as a result of the devastating blackout on April 28th. The regulated electricity tariff could rise by four euros as a result. While the events are being clarified, Red Eléctrica has increased the share of combined-cycle gas plants in electricity generation to strengthen the system's stability. More turbines and a lower share of renewables are being deployed, while a phenomenal political, ideological, and media battle is taking place on four fronts: the investigation into what happened, the definition of the optimal weight of renewables in the model, the continuation or rejection of nuclear energy, and the lack of connections to the European market through France.

Donald Trump has intervened. In his latest presidential order to boost nuclear energy, he alludes to the blackout in Spain and Portugal. The British conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph , citing anonymous European sources, has reported that the blackout was the result of an experiment by the Spanish government to maximize renewable energy production and silence pro-nuclear views, a version being spread sotto voce by some Spanish electricity companies. The blackout could be the death knell for the left in Spain, says the newspaper, which was the unofficial mouthpiece of the British Conservative Party. The Spanish blackout is an international issue.

France has taken badly the Congress's rejection of the new friendship treaty with Spain

More electricity connections with France. It's not easy to demand them with the new friendship treaty between Spain and France sitting in a trash can in the Congress of Deputies. Last week, the agreement signed two years ago in Barcelona was supposed to be ratified, but the PP sided with Vox, while Junts and Podemos abstained. The right believes that one of the points of the agreement—the possible participation of French ministers in regular meetings of the Spanish Council of Ministers, and vice versa—reduces Spanish national sovereignty. Always the Question.

A year of joint diplomatic work has been thrown into the trash. This is unprecedented news that the Madrid press has barely covered, as if they were embarrassed. French diplomacy remains silent, but it has taken it badly. They don't understand why the government brought the treaty to Congress without prior guarantees. "In Paris, they have taken note of the PP's attitude," comment sources with extensive knowledge of French politics.

Domestic and foreign policy are more intertwined than ever as the engines of the Spanish crisis return to full speed.