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Spain urges action in Poland case against jailed reporter

Spain's foreign minister on Wednesday demanded that Poland bring its case against a Spanish reporter who was arrested exactly two years ago on charges of spying for Russia to court.

Published: 28 February 2024 15:59 CET

Spain urges action in Poland case against jailed reporter

Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs José Manuel Albares has demanded that Poland release González. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP)

Pablo González, a freelancer working for Spain’s online news site Público and La Sexta television, was arrested by Polish intelligence agents near the Ukraine border on February 28, 2022, just four days after Russia’s invasion.

“I want there to be a public trial in a courtroom as soon as possible and that is what I have repeatedly asked” Warsaw to do, José Manuel Albares told the Spanish parliament.

“I will continue to demand a courtroom trial as soon as possible” so that “once and for all, they can present any evidence that might exist” against him, said Albares.

Now 42, Gánzalez was arrested in the border town of Przemysl, with Poland’s ABW internal security agency accused him of being “an agent for the GRU”, Russia’s military intelligence service.

Born in Moscow, he moved to Spain at the age of nine with his mother after his parents divorced.

At the time, he had a passport under the name Pavel Aleksevich Rubtsov, featuring his father’s name, but on obtaining Spanish nationality, he took a Spanish name using his mother’s surname: Pablo González Yague.

“Pablo González, two years in isolation and incommunicado and now they are penalising us for giving him — through legal channels — press cuttings about his case,” wrote his lawyer Gonzalo Boye on X.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also demanded the journalist’s release in a statement published on X.

“In a European Union country, it is highly unusual to keep a journalist in detention for two years without a trial and on secret charges,” it said, calling on the Polish judicial authorities to “substantiate the evidence against him”.

It called for his release as he awaits his trial, which must be organised “as soon as possible”.

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Spain's plan to limit temporary accommodation rejected

If passed, the new law would have meant that anyone who wanted to temporarily rent a property would have to explain why and provide a valid reason.

For example, students or researchers would have to show the research contract or course booking to show it would only last a few months.

It would have also meant that if more than six months passed or more than two consecutive contracts issued, it will have automatically become a long-term habitual residence instead.

On Tuesday September 17th, the proposal was ultimately rejected in the Spanish Congress, voted against by Spain’s three main right-wing parties – Catalan nationalists Junts, Spain’s main opposition party the PP and far-right Vox.

The aim in part was to try and rectify the controversial Housing Law, which came into effect in 2023.

In most people’s eyes, the legislation has failed as landlords have found several loopholes to get around the restrictions, prices have continued to increase and the stock of rental properties is even more diminished.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

As a result of the fear of heightened regulation for landlords, many have left the traditional market and turned to tourist rentals or temporary accommodation instead, which are far more lucrative.

This has had the opposite effect, increasing rental prices instead of stabilising or decreasing them.

READ MORE: Why landlords in Spain leave their flats empty rather than rent long-term

Seasonal contracts and room rentals allow landlords to raise prices every six or nine months and they not subject to the price limitations of the housing law.

The idea of this new law was to try and set the maximum duration of a temporary rental contracts at six months in order to avoid this, but it could have potentially also caused problems for many who need this type accommodation such as students, digital nomads, those living here on a short term basis etc.

During the debate, Sumar’s spokesperson, Íñigo Errejón, defended the law saying that it is a “solvent”, “fair” and “precise” proposal, which will help “correct an abuse” and “close the gap through which “Landlords can use to avoid the LAU (Urban Leasing Law) and rent regulation”.

Far-left party Podemos blamed the ruling PSOE for having left this “hole” in the housing law, but also agreed that the restrictions on temporary accommodation were needed to try and rectify this.

READ ALSO: Has Spain’s Housing Law completely failed to control rents?

Junts (Catalonia’s main pro-independence party) and the PNV, the Basque nationalist party, were firmly against it. They agreed that the problem must be solved and that “accessible decent housing was needed”, but raised the situation of students, interns, residents or workers who need housing for flexible periods.

Junts party member Marta Madrenas warned of the harmful effects that this limitation on temporary rentals can have for university cities such as Girona.

Vox and the PP meanwhile argued that they don’t want to help cover up the mistakes made by the left with regards to the Housing Law.

Vox deputy Ignacio Hoces stated that the increase in seasonal rentals has occurred due to the “failure” of the Housing Law, since this has caused rental prices to “skyrocketed” by 13 percent and the supply to be reduced by 15 percent.

Temporary accommodation, referred to as alquiler temporal or alquiler de temporada in Spanish, is considered to be anything that’s longer than a month but shorter than a year, middle ground between short-term and long-term rentals. It is also referred to as monthly accommodation or seasonal accommodation.

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