There is no common theme on the Sunday front pages today

El País leads with an advance of the considerations in the Constitutional Court over the new Catalan Statute. The paper headlines that the ruling will name Spain as the only nation, and says that the judges are trying to reach an agreement to avoid changing the pre-amble to the document where Cataluña is referred to as a nation.

The Spanish papers catch up today, having not gone to press on New Year’s Day

January

Spain officially enters recession after a fall in the GDP for two consecutive quarters

January was the month when Barajas Airport was closed by bad weather for the first time in its history, when heavy snowfall on the 9th of the month brought traffic chaos and long delays to the Spanish capital. The airport was closed for more than 5 hours by the snow falling in central and north eastern Spain, with hundreds of passengers having to spend the night in Barajas and thousands affected by the long delays. The Civil Guard had to be brought in to persuade passengers on three grounded aircraft to disembark when they refused to leave the planes.

The Prime Minister’s look back on 2009 leads most of the papers in Spain today

Jaume Matas is to be questioned as a suspect by the instructing judge in March

The former Partido Popular President of the Baleares government, Jaume Matas, is due to appear in court on 23rd March next year as a suspect in the ongoing investigation into construction of the Palma Arena Velodrome on Mallorca, and it’s now been revealed what charges he will face when he is questioned by the judge. El Mundo gives the list this Wednesday of his nine alleged crimes: perversion of the course of justice, embezzlement, misappropriation, falsifying documents, influence peddling, money laundering, bribery, and fiscal and electoral crimes.

El Zorro was the ringleader of a prison riot in the 1990s where 8 staff were held hostage and an inmate was brutally killed

The ringleader of a mass riot at the Fontcalent prison in Alicante in the 1990s, which ended with one inmate being killed, has been transferred out of the province after four years in more or less total isolation. Antonio Cortés Escobedo is considered one of the most dangerous prisoners in Spanish jails, and will spend the rest of his sentence behind bars in Cádiz, at the prison in Puerto de Santa María.

Spain has raised its terror alert level to two on a four-point scale, as it prepares to assume the six-month presidency of the EU on Friday.

Earlier, Spain’s interior minister warned that the Basque separatist group Eta might attempt a kidnapping to get publicity for its cause.

“There is a probable risk of an attack,” Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said on Monday.

Eta has waged a 41-year campaign for an independent Basque homeland.

Alberto Vilalta suffered gunshot wounds when he and his colleagues were taken a month ago

The Foreign Ministry has confirmed in a statement that one of the three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania, and now believed to be held in Mali, was wounded when the group was snatched at the end of November and is receiving treatment for his injuries. Barcelona-Acciò Solidaria, the aid group the three were travelling with when they were taken while travelling in a humanitarian convoy on 29th November, names him as Alberto Vilalta, and says he was shot a number of times in the leg.

The ETA threat and the latest on the kidnapped aid workers lead the papers in Spain today

The warning of a possible ETA attack leads the front pages today

The warning from the Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, that ETA are planning ‘a spectacular attack’, gets him on most of the front pages today.
El Mundo has a large photo and says the warning given was very concrete, with a kidnapping likely. The theory is that any such attack when Spain takes over the Presidency of the EU would obtain greater coverage.
El País headlines that ETA is planning to kidnap a ‘relevant person’. The paper says the Minister has said ETA wants to recover lost notoriety.
ABC also has a front page photo of Rubalcaba with his Basque counterpart.

Spanish police have intercepted a two-tonne shipment of cocaine, smuggled into the country from Colombia.

The drugs, which Spanish media reports say were worth 70m euros (£62.8m), were hidden beneath a consignment of thousands of cut flowers.

They were discovered by police in an operation code-named “Flower Power” at Foronda airport, in the Basque Country.

Spain’s interior ministry has released pictures showing how the drugs were packed into the base of wooden pallets.

Greater coordination has been put in place between the security forces

The Spanish Minister for the Interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, has given a warning that intelligence indicates that Basque terrorist group ETA are planning ‘a spectacular attack to attract attention’.
It’s thought the attack could come to mark Spain taking over the EU Presidency for the six months from January 1 and one of the possibilities being considered is that ETA will try and kidnap a prominent person.

Iran, aviation security, and the Catholic family lead the papers in Spain today

The latest on the Air Comet and the 14 year jail sentence handed down against María José Carrascosa.

The Spanish front pages all have photos of happy people drinking cava in the streets as winners of the Gordo lottery which this year gave millions to the lucky few in Madrid

El País has the number 78,294 written large and says that Madrid robbed millions as the city won both first and second prizes.

His body was found floating in the sea off La Cala del Moral on Monday

A body found floating in the sea off La Cala del Moral, Rincón de la Victoria, on Monday has been identified as a man who was reported missing in Almería province earlier this month. Antonio Miguel Sánchez, aged 48, disappeared from Vera on 6th December.

The effects of the weather on Monday are reflected on the front pages in Spain today

A large blaze has engulfed a building at the depot of drinks giant Guinness in Dublin.

Flames and plumes of black smoke could be seen across the city as firefighters battled the fire.

A spokesperson for Guinness makers Diageo said the fire was in “an infrequently used” building at Victoria Quay.

The area around the building has been evacuated and no-one has been injured. (Via Original Source)

Four women are amongst an additional 25 people suspected in the case

National Police swoops across the country have arrested 60 people in 28 provinces in an extensive operation against possession and distribution of child pornography online. A further 25 people are being questioned as suspects, including four women.

More than 200 officers were involved in the 80 property searches which took place as part of the police operation, leading to the seizure of 180 hard discs, 28 computers and close to 1,500 CDs and DVDs containing pornographic images.

2.32 billion Euro will be shared out in the draw this Tuesday

There are just hours to go before the boys and girls from the San Ildefonso school in Madrid start to sing out, as they do on 22nd December every year, the winning numbers in the year’s most anticipated lottery in Spain, El Gordo de Navidad, the Christmas lottery which is known as ‘The Fat One’.