Francisco Franco

Spanish voters go to the polls in a general election Sunday that could make Spain the latest European Union member to swing to the right.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election after his Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and its far-left partner, Unidas Podemos, took a beating in local and regional elections in May. Sánchez has been premier since 2018.

Spanish authorities will remove Francisco Franco's remains from a state mausoleum on Oct. 24, seeking to exorcise the ghost of a dictator whose legacy still divides the country more than four decades after his death.

Leka Zogu was the only son of the late Zog I, the only monarch to reign in Albania. The Albanian monarchy had an unusually short history. The founder of the royal house, Zog, was a wealthy landowner and politician who, after Albania's independence in 1913, first became prime minister and then president before proclaiming himself king in 1928.

The family of Francisco Franco will take possession of his remains after they are exhumed, one of his grandchildren was reported as saying on Aug. 25.

MADRID (Reuters) - Socialist Pedro Sanchez took over as Spain's prime minister on Friday, after outgoing leader Mariano Rajoy lost a parliamentary confidence vote triggered by a long-running corruption trial involving members of his center-right party.

Spain is to start suspending Catalonia's autonomy from Saturday, as the region's leader threatens to declare independence.

The government said ministers would meet to activate Article 155 of the constitution, allowing it to take over running of the region.

Catalonia's leader said the region's parliament would vote on independence if Spain continued "repression".

Bulgaria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched proceedings to remove Spanish football legend Hristo Stoichkov from his post of Honorary Consul of Bulgaria to Spain's  Catalan and Aragon regions, it announced on Tuesday.

Catalonia will move on Monday to declare independence from Spain following Oct. 1’s banned referendum as the European Union nation nears a rupture that threatens the foundations of its young democracy.

Spain's Deputy PM Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría has vowed to sue Bulgaria's football legend Hristo Stoichkov, former striker of FC Barcelona, for defamation following his statements that her grandfather, her father, and even her underaged son, are followers of Francisco Franco, a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975.

The European Commission remained silent on Tuesday (26 September) when confronted with the news that Spanish authorities had shut down websites that provide information about this weekend’s Catalan independence referendum. A vote that Spain still maintains is illegal.