Shorouk Express
Vast majority of Spaniards support idea of EU army, Spanish oncologists denounce pressure from insurers to not prescribe expensive cancer treatment and more news from Spain on Tuesday March 18th.
Vast majority of Spaniards support idea of EU army
New polling has revealed that 75 percent of Spaniards believe the current geopolitical context makes it necessary for the EU to increase its own defence capacity and rearm.
Two out of three were found to support the creation of a common European army to face geostrategic challenges in the coming years.
Over half of Spaniards polled (57.8 percent) did not believe that the EU currently has sufficient defence capacity to face possible aggression from other countries, according to latest data from Spain’s Centre for Sociological Research (CIS).
Spanish oncologists denounce pressure from insurers to not prescribe expensive medicines
Spanish oncologists are complaining about pressure from medical insurance companies not to prescribe expensive medicines and treatment in order to save on costs.
In a report by right-wing Spanish newspaper ABC, the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) claims that it is already analysing this “extremely important problem” for private healthcare patients, while the Ministry of Health has lamented “how the interference of a for-profit entity ends up harming individuals.”
According to the reports, intermediaries hired by some insurance companies are pressuring oncologists working for these private companies not to prescribe high-priced cancer treatments to patients.
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Civil rights protections in Spain found to be worsening
A report has found that civil rights in Spain are regressing, with particular focus on the failure to reform the judicial system, something the report describes as maintaining “structures inherited from its dictatorship.”
Liberties, an NGO that reports annually on the state of human rights protection in European democracies, stated that although Spain was not singled out as causing what it calls “dismantling democracy”, it is one of those registering a decline in the protection of civil rights more widely.
The report also highlighted that corruption scandals in Spain are “common” and often “concentrated in the main political parties and the highest institutions of the state, as evidenced by the exile of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I.”
READ ALSO: IN DEPTH – How bad is corruption in Spain in 2025?
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Spain court rejects father’s bid to stop daughter’s euthanasia
A Spanish court has rejected an appeal by a father who tried to stop his young paraplegic daughter’s euthanasia in an unprecedented legal battle.
The 24-year-old woman was due to undergo the procedure in August last year after the euthanasia board in the northeastern Catalonia region supported her request.
The process was suspended at the last minute after her father filed a legal objection with the backing of conservative campaign group Abogados Cristianos (“Christian Lawyers”).
The father argued that his daughter suffered from mental disorders that “could affect her ability to make a free and conscious decision” as required by law.
He also said there were indications his daughter had changed her mind and that her ailment did not entail “unbearable physical or psychological suffering”.
But in a ruling dated Friday and made public on Monday, a Barcelona court said the woman met the conditions for euthanasia, which was legalised in the European country in 2021.
“All the professionals who have intervened in the process agree that… she suffers a serious, chronic and disabling illness, without any contradictory tests having been performed,” the judge wrote.
The woman’s ability to decide on this “most personal” of rights was “proven”, meaning the father cannot challenge it, the judge added in her ruling.
Her case was the first in Spain to reach a court for a judge to decide since the 2021 euthanasia law was passed.
